Question

 

How can we understand the terminologies "the gods" and "hell" quoted in this video if it is not the definition according to the Judeo-Christian understanding?

 

 

Answer

 

When you open a Japanese-French dictionary to the word "jigoku" (地獄), it is translated as "hell". As in Christianity, it is a place where one goes after death. There the similarities end, except that in both cases they are places of suffering. Because the notions of hell in Buddhism and Christianity are totally different concepts!

 

The different terms used in the Bible for Hell are Sheol, Hades, Gehenna, the lake of fire. Heaven is defined by the words paradise and Abraham's bosom,

 

Sheol appears in the Hebrew Scriptures and means "the place of the dead. Hades is a Greek term used in the New Testament and also means "the place of the dead". The Greek term gehenna, derived from the Hebrew hinnom, is also used in the New Testament for "hell.

 

In Christianity, what determines the fall into hell is the non-belief in God. The following categories can be found:

 

People who recognized the existence of God and believed in him before they died go to heaven.

 

People who did not believe in the existence of God before they died (they were not Christians), but who recognized the existence of God after they died, go to Hades.

 

Gehenna is reserved for those who not only did not believe in the existence of God during their lifetime, but also committed sins by doing things that went against God's will.

 

The biggest ideological difference between Buddhism and Christianity is that the idea of reincarnation is absent from Christianity.

 

Christianity, which exhibits a dualistic view of body and spirit, fundamentally believes that the soul of a deceased person is called directly to God.

 

The decision as to which world a person will go to after death is not reversible once it has been made (by God).

 

In other words, once God has decided that a person will go to heaven, he or she will not fall into hell, but of course the reverse is also true.

 

Once a person has been sentenced to hell, he or she will never be able to go to heaven, no matter how much he or she repents.

 

Again, it is clear that the Christian religion takes no account of the Law of Causality.

 

Buddhism, on the other hand, asserts that after death, human beings reincarnate in six worlds of suffering, called the six paths: hell, hungry spirits, animals, ashuras, humans and heaven.

 

Hell is one of these six paths and represents the most painful world.

 

It is considered to be the world where extremely evil people who have committed considerable sins in their lifetime go.

 

There are several definitions of hell in the Buddhist scriptures, however, the most common one is the eight great burning hells:

 

1. the hell of similar lives: there fall those who have committed the fault of taking life
2. the hell of the black ropes: there fall those who have committed the fault of taking life and stealing the property of others
3. the hell of the meeting of beings: there fall those who have committed murder, theft and lust
4. the hell of shouting and vociferations: those who have committed murder, theft, lust and abuse of alcoholic drinks fall into this hell
5. the hell of loud cries and vociferations: the damned, who have fallen into this hell, have committed murder, theft, lust, alcohol abuse and lying
6. The hell of burning and heat: Those who have committed murder, theft, lust, abuse of alcohol, lying and have had wrong views fall into this hell.
7. The hell of great burns and heat: The damned, who have fallen into this hell, have committed murder, theft, lust, abuse of alcoholic beverages, have had erroneous views and have violated a nun respecting the precept of purity
8. Hell without interval: Those who have committed the five crimes of rebellion (parricide, matricide, murder of a saint, shedding the blood of the Buddha's body, destruction of the harmony of the congregation) fall into this hell. Those who have committed the offense against the Dharma also fall into this category.

 

The sufferings undergone in these different hells are progressive and described in detail in the sutras. The duration of the stay is endless and also progressive. However, even the harshest, longest hell where the suffering knows no respite, has an end. The wicked Devadatta, Shakyamuni Buddha's own cousin, who languished in this hell without interval for committing three of the five cardinal faults (killing a saint, spilling the Buddha's blood, and destroying the harmony of the congregation), received his name of Buddha in the future from Shakyamuni in the Lotus Sutra.

 

As for the Christian paradise, it is a world where God resides and which is based on his law.

 

It is considered an eternal world where there is no sorrow or suffering.

 

It is also a world without night, because it is illuminated by the light emanating from God. In popular images, little children are seen petting lions. It must be that the lions believed in God while they were alive and became vegetarians. It is understandable here that Christianity, in its dualistic view of the world, considers night to be negative, since it is absent from paradise and, according to Genesis, the creation of light was one of the first works of God. Buddhism, which teaches the non-duality of things, has understood that the two are inseparable and equally important.

 

Moreover, the notion of heaven in Buddhism is more complex, even if the dominant color is pleasure. There are six heavens of the world of desires, six heavens of the world of matter and four heavens of the world of the mind

 

Heavens of desires (j. yokuten - 欲天): six heavens attached to the world of desires described in the 8th fascicle of the Kośa.

 

1. Heaven of the Four Kings (j. shi-ō ten - 四王天)
   1. Bishamon (毘沙門) also called Tamon-ten (多聞天), Vaiśravana in Sanskrit. It protects the northern flank of Mount Sumeru and is inscribed at the upper left on the Gohonzon of Nichiren Daishōnin.
   2. Kōmoku (廣 目), Virūpākşa in Sanskrit. It protects the western flank of Mount Sumeru and is inscribed in the lower right on the Gohonzon of Nichiren Daishōnin.
   3. Zōjō (増上), Virūdhaka in Sanskrit. It protects the southern flank of Mount Sumeru and is inscribed at the lower left on the Gohonzon of Nichiren Daishōnin.
   4. Jikoku (持国): Dhrtarāstra in Sanskrit protects the eastern flank of Mount Sumeru and is inscribed in the upper right on the Gohonzon of Nichiren Daishōnin. The fairies of the four kings, as well as the moon, sun, and stars reside in this sky.
2. Heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods (j. sanjūsan ten - 三十三天): Trāyastrimśa in Sanskrit (j. tōriten - 忉利天). Located at the top of Mount Sumeru, the deity Indra (j. taishaku - 帝釈) lives there in a palace built on the plateau at its center. At the four corners of the plateau, there is a small mountain where eight gods live.
3. Yama Heaven (j. yama ten - 夜摩天): it is located 80,000 yojana (1 yojana = 160 km, 120 km or 64 km) above the previous heaven. The beings of this sky live 2000 years, knowing that one of their One day corresponds to 200 years of the life of a human being. Pleasure is their daily life, day and night.
4. Tuşita heaven (j. tosotsu ten -兜率天): Maitreya, a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment, preaches the Dharma in a shrine, outside of which celestial beings are satisfied in their quest for the five desires:
   1. Property, physical love, eating and drinking, fame and sleep.
   2. Objects of the senses: shapes, sounds, smells, flavors and touch, insofar as these external objects cause the rise of desire in the human being.
5. Heaven of pleasures by transformation (s. Nirmānarati, j. kerakuten - 化楽天): beings in this heaven, living in pleasure, transform themselves to vary pleasures.
6. Heaven of free enjoyment of others (s. paranirmiavaśavartin, j. takejiza
7. i ten - 他化自在天): beings in this supreme heaven of the world of desires cause obstacles to practitioners of Buddhism. It is the abode of the demon king (j. ma-ō -魔王), also called "demon king of the sixth heaven" (j. dairoku ten no ma-ō - 第六天魔王).

 

Heaven of matter (j. shiki ten - 色天): also called the "world of matter" (j. shiki kai - 色界) and located between the heaven of desires and the heaven of spirit, it is inhabited by sentient beings rid of all desire, surrounded only by pure and wonderful matter and feeding on light. This heaven is composed of four lands (j. shi chi - 四地):

 

1. First heaven of meditation (j. shozenten - 初禅天), where the god Brahmâ (j. bonten - 梵天) dwells and in which the inhabitants are devoid of the sensations of taste and smell.
2. Second heaven of meditation (j. nizenten - 二禅天), in which the inhabitants have only the faculty of mind and the sensation of joy, as well as freedom from sorrows and pleasures.
3. Third heaven of meditation (j. sanzenten -三禅天) in which the inhabitants have only the faculty of mind and feelings of pleasure, as well as freedom from pleasures and pains.
4. Fourth heaven of meditation (j. shizenten -四禅天) in which the inhabitants have only the faculty of thinking and the sensation of liberation from pleasures and sorrows.

 

Spirit heaven (j. mushiki ten - 無色天): located at the top of the heavenly world, it is solely spiritual. It is divided into four places:

 

1. Place of boundless space (j. kū muhen jo - 空無辺処), in which the inhabitants no longer have bodies and enjoy only infinite space.
2. Place of boundless consciousness (j. shiki muhenjo - 識無辺処), in which the inhabitants are aware only of the presence of consciousness
3. Place of non-existence (j. musho-u jo - 無所有処), in which the inhabitants are not attached to boundless space or their own consciousness.
4. Place of neither thinking nor not thinking (j. hisō hi-hisō jo - 非想非想処), in which the inhabitants are free from ordinary discriminating thoughts. In other words "not thinking" being already a thought, the thought of not thinking is itself denied.

While, according to Christianity, faith in God is sufficient for the soul to ascend to Paradise and the absence of faith condemns one to fall into hell, according to Buddhism, it is not necessary to practice anything in order to be reborn in the heavenly world. It is enough to practice the ten good deeds of avoiding murder, theft, fornication, lying, flattery, backbiting, duplicity, greed, anger, and wrong views, which are bad deeds that lead to falling into hell, regardless of one's faith in any religion.

 

In any case, despite the serene and joyful character of these heavens, we must not forget that they are part of the six paths and are therefore transitory and do not constitute the goal of Buddhist practice, which is the attainment of Buddhahood, a world that has nothing to do with it and which I have already described in a previous chapter.