Cattāri Brahmavihārā

I listened to this Dhamma talk last night and it really struck a deep chord of fear inside. I have faith in the teachings of Lord Buddha and take his descriptions of the apaya loka at face value so why have I not been living in accord with the truth?

Clearly, I have some concerns if a cord was struck but, in all honesty, how can we not? Who among us had not killed a being, told a white lie, taken some toothpaste without asking? And, I know that I have broken the third and fifth precepts in my past more than once. What if these things arise for me at the moment of death?

I asked a bhikkhu friend of mine if he wouldn’t mind writing a piece on the hell realms but he said he didn’t like being the fire and brimstone preacher monk. And I get it, but it does seem to me that there is a concerted cultural effort to deny rebirth and anything resembling a teaching that there are hell realms.

It’s scary to imagine for oneself and it is equally distressing to think that our loved ones may be headed there without ever suspecting that to be the case.

How to Avoid Rebirth in Hell

I remember that I once had the opportunity to ask Thanissaro Bhikkhu about this and brought up the Mahanama Sutta, specifically where the Lord Buddha says:

“Suppose a tree were leaning toward the east, slanting toward the east, inclining toward the east. When its root is cut, which way would it fall?”

“In whichever way it was leaning, slanting, and inclining, lord.”

“In the same way, Mahanama, a disciple of the noble ones, when endowed with four qualities, leans toward Unbinding, slants toward Unbinding, inclines toward Unbinding.”

https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn55/sn55.022.than.html

I pointed to this to infer that we devoted lay practitioners should be okay, provided we are inclined to the Dhamma but then he dropped a bomb: Mahanama was a stream enterer.

So, there’s no assurances unfortunately for those of us living in the real world but it is clear that the best we can do is to follow the precepts, practice generosity and meditate. Who knows what lies in store for us but whatever work we can do know will certainly put us in better stead.