Cattāri Brahmavihārā

Don’t ask me why but I have been doing a lot of thinking about the subject of Hell recently. Actually, it all started with my interest in NDEs and how te experiences map onto Buddhist cosmology as found in the suttas and commentary. I have, for many years now, been fascinated with the subject of ghosts, rebirth and all things which many would consider to be paranormal and I suppose much of it has to do with my preoccupation with death from a young age (don’t get me wrong, I wasn’t ever really a Goth kid I just mean have have always been preoccupied with my death and that of others).

But, I digress. To return to the topic at hand, perhaps due to my easy acceptance of the doctrine of rebirth and earth-bound spirits, I happen to be in the rather unfashionable position of actually believing that Hell is a literal place where one goes when one has continuously broken the precepts and otherwise acted unskillfully as a rule. Reading the suttas I have always gotten the impression that falling into Hell can happen rather easily but perhaps this is more indicative of my own penchant to dwell on the negative than anything else. Yet, as the excerpt taken from the Petavatthu below illustrates, even something as seemingly innocuous as our speech can land us in Hell for eons only to be reborn as pig-faced petas:

THE PIG-FACED GHOST

This story was told while the Master was dwelling at Kalandakanivāpa in the Bamboo Grove near Savatthi about a certain pig-faced ghost. Long ago, in the time of the teaching of the Lord Buddha Kassapa, there was a brother who was self-controlled in body, but uncontrolled in speech, and who used to revile and abuse the brethren. When he died, he was reborn in hell. During the time intervening between the appearance of another Buddha he continued to burn there, and being reborn from thence in the period of this Buddha’s appearance, through the ripening of his karma he came to life as a ghost at the foot of the Vulture Peak near Rājagaha, being tormented by hunger and thirst. His body was golden in colour, and his face like a pig’s face.

Now the elder Nārada dwelt on the Vulture Peak, and early in the morning, after attending to his bodily needs, took his bowl and robe and went to Rājagaha, wandering about for alms. On the way he saw the ghost, and, asking him what he had done 1 spoke this verse:

All golden does thy body seem,

In all directions does it shine;

But yet thy face is as a pig’s,

What former action hast thou done?

The ghost, thus asked by the elder what he had done, explained in a verse:

With body self-controlled was I,

Yet was I uncontrolled in speech;

Therefore in colour am I so

As thou beholdest, Nārada.

So the ghost, being asked by the elder, explained the matter, and gave the reason; and, exhorting the elder, spoke this verse:

This to thee, Nārada, I tell,

Thou hast thyself my fate beheld:

Commit no evil with thy mouth,

Become not thou a pig-faced ghost.

Then the elder Nārada went for alms, and, returning in the afternoon with his food, related the matter, while the Master sat in the midst of the fourfold assembly. The Master said, “Even before now I have seen this being.” And he declared the doctrine, explaining the manifold worthlessness and evil results due to misbehavior in speech, and the blessings resulting from right speech. And his teaching was beneficial to the assembly present.

So, what do we make of it? I happen to be more inclined to orthodoxy than iconoclasm so don’t look to me for revisionism. Rather, I think it speaks to our seemingly ageless refusal to see the truth and to believe that our words and deeds, even our most private thoughts, all have real results. I know many people from a wide variety of backgrounds have eschewed the very thought of Hell or at most they have psychologized  it and say things like Hell only exists in the mind of one who is angry, etc… But, why cherry-pick? If we believe all of the other teachings of the Lord Buddha why would we dismiss this one?

Okay, I can feel myself tensing up around this so I will beg your pardon and step down from my imaginary pulpit. I have to admit that, even in the face of  the gaping  maws of Hell there are many times when I find it hard to do the right thing. May we all have the wisdom to see cause and effect clearly to the faith that all of our actions will bear fruit.

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