Eight hot hells
eight hot hells
八熱地獄 ( Jpn hachinetsu-jigoku )
Also, eight great hells or eight major hells. The realms of suffering said to lie beneath the ground of Jambudvipa. According to The Dharma Analysis Treasury, the eighth and lowest hell, the Avichi hell, or the hell of incessant suffering, is located twenty thousand yojanas beneath the ground, and above it are the seven other hot hells. The Great Commentary on the Abhidharma presents several differing views on the subject, one of which describes the hell of incessant suffering as being forty thousand yojanas beneath the ground. Descriptions of the size of the eight hot hells also differ. One says that the length and breadth of each hell measure ten thousand yojanas, except for the lowest, the hell of incessant suffering, which is twenty thousand yojanas both in length and breadth. Another view holds that each of the seven hells above the Avichi hell is only five thousand yojanas in length and breadth.In general, each of these eight major hells is said to have sixteen sub-sidiary hells.
These 128 subsidiary hells plus the eight major hells are called the 136 hells. In order of increasing depth or increasing suffering, the major hells are:
(1) the hell of repeated rebirth for torture, where inhabitants injure and kill one another, but are brought back to life again and again only to undergo the same torment;
(2) the hell of black cords, where offenders are cut and sawed apart according to markings made by heated black iron cords;
(3) the hell of crushing, where large numbers of evildoers are crushed between two moving mountain ranges;
(4) the hell of wailing, whose inhabitants are thrown into boiling water and continuously utter anguished cries from the pain;
(5) the hell of great wailing, whose inhabitants utter cries of greater anguish from greater pain;
(6) the hell of burning heat, where evildoers are burned in flames;
(7) the hell of great burning heat, where evildoers are burned in hotter, more raging flames; and
(8) the hell of incessant suffering, also known as the Avichi hell, whose inhabitants constantly suffer without respite.
It is said that those who commit any of the five cardinal sins or slander the correct teaching undergo torment in this hell.
