Naraka (Buddhism)
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- For non-Buddhist uses of the term Naraka, see Naraka.
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Naraka नरक (Sanskrit) or Niraya निरय (Pāli) (Ch: 那落迦 (variant 捺落迦) Nàlùojiā or 地獄 Dì Yù; Jp: Jigoku or 奈落 Naraku; Tib: དམྱལ་བ་ dmyal ba; Thai: นรก nárók; Malay neraka) is the name given to one of the worlds of greatest suffering in Buddhist cosmology.
Naraka is usually translated into English as "hell" or "purgatory". The Narakas of Buddhism are closely related to 地獄 Dì Yù, the hell of Chinese mythology. A Naraka differs from the hells of western religions in two respects. First, beings are not sent to Naraka as the result of a divine judgment and punishment; second, the length of a being's stay in a Naraka is not eternal, though it is usually very long.
Instead, a being is born into a Naraka as a direct result of his or her previous karma (actions of body, speech and mind), and resides there for a finite length of time until his karma has achieved its full result. After his karma is used up, he will be reborn in one of the higher worlds as the result of an earlier karma that had not yet ripened.
The mentality of a being in the hells corresponds to states of extreme fear and helpless anguish in humans.
Physically, Naraka is thought of as a series of cavernous layers which extend below Jambudvīpa (the ordinary human world) into the earth. There are several schemes for enumerating these Narakas and describing their torments. One of the more common is that of the Eight Cold Narakas and Eight Hot Narakas, which are described below.
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[edit] Cold Narakas
- Arbuda – the "blister" Naraka. This is a dark, frozen plain surrounded by icy mountains and continually swept by blizzards. Inhabitants of this world arise fully grown and abide life-long naked and alone, while the cold raises blisters upon their bodies. The length of life in this Naraka is said to be the time it would take to empty a barrel of sesame seed if one only took out a single seed every hundred years.
- Nirarbuda – the "burst blister" Naraka. This Naraka is even colder than the one above, and here the blisters burst open, leaving the beings' bodies covered with frozen blood and pus.
- Aṭaṭa – the Naraka of shivering. Here the beings shiver in the cold, making an aṭ-aṭ-aṭ sound with their mouths.
- Hahava – the Naraka of lamentation. Here the beings lament in the cold, going ha, ho in pain.
- Huhuva – the Naraka of chattering teeth. Here the beings shiver as their teeth chatter, making the sound hu, hu.
- Utpala – the "blue lotus" Naraka. Here the intense cold makes the skin turn blue like the color of an utpala waterlily.
- Padma – the "lotus" Naraka. In this Naraka the blizzard cracks open the frozen skin leaving one raw and bloody.
- Mahāpadma – the "great lotus" Naraka. Here the whole body cracks into pieces and the internal organs are exposed to the cold and they also crack.
Each lifetime in these Narakas is twenty times the length of the one before it.
[edit] Hot Narakas
- Sañjīva – the "reviving" Naraka. In this Naraka the ground is made out of hot iron heated by an immense fire. Beings in this Naraka appear fully grown, already in a state of fear and misery. As soon as the being begins to fear being harmed by others, their fellows appear and attack each other with iron claws. Or else, the attendants of Yama appear and attack the being with many fiery weapons. As soon as the being experiences an unconsciousness like death, they are suddenly restored to full health and the attacks begin again. Other tortures experienced in this Naraka are having melted metal drop on them, being sliced into pieces, and suffering from the heat of the iron ground. Life in this Naraka is 162*1010 years long. It is said to be 1000 yojanas beneath Jambudvīpa and 10,000 yojanas in each direction.
- Kālasūtra – the "black thread" Naraka. Here, in addition to the torments mentioned above, black lines are drawn upon the body, and Yama's servants cut the beings upon the lines with fiery saws and sharp axes. Life in this Naraka is 1296*1010 years long.
- Saṃghāta – the "crushing" Naraka. This Naraka is also upon a ground of hot iron, but is surrounded by huge masses of rock that smash together and crush the beings to a bloody jelly. When the rocks move apart again, life is restored to the being and the process starts again. Life in this Naraka is 10,368*1010 years long.
- Raurava – the "screaming" Naraka. Here beings run here and there looking for refuge from the burning ground. When they find an apparent shelter, they are locked inside it as it blazes around them, while they scream inside. Life in this Naraka is 82,944*1010 years long.
- Mahāraurava – the "great screaming" Naraka. Similar to the Raurava Naraka, but with greater pains. Life in this Naraka is 663,552*1010 years long.
- Tapana – the "heating" Naraka. Here Yama's servants impale the beings on a fiery spear until flames issue from their noses and mouths. Life in this Naraka is 5,308,416*1010 years long.
- Pratāpana – the "great heating" Naraka. The tortures here are similar to the Tapana Naraka, but the beings are pierced more bloodily with a trident. Life in this Naraka is 42,467,328*1010 years long. It is also said to last for the length of half an antarakalpa.
- Avīci – the "uninterrupted" Naraka. Beings are roasted in an immense blazing oven with terrible suffering. Life in this Naraka is 339,738,624*1010 years long. It is also said to last for the length of an antarakalpa.
These Narakas by no means exhaust the tale of possible sufferings. Some sources reckon five hundred or even hundreds of thousands of different Narakas. In Chinese Buddhist texts, the numbers and types of Narakas were elaborated in a variety of creative ways; see Di Yu for examples of this sort of treatment.
The sufferings of the dwellers in Naraka often resemble those of the Pretas, and the two types of being are easily confused. The simplest distinction is that beings in Naraka are confined to their subterranean world, while the Pretas are free to move about.
[edit] Narakas in Buddhist literature
Descriptions of the Narakas are a common subject in some forms of Buddhist commentarial and popular literature, as a caution against the fate that befalls evildoers and an encouragement to virtue.
The Mahāyāna Sūtra of Bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha (Dìzàng or Jizō) graphically describes the sufferings in Naraka and explains how ordinary people can transfer merit in order to relieve the sufferings of the beings there.
A traditional Chinese Buddhist story of Mulian (Maudgalyayana) explains how this disciple of the Buddha spiritually journeyed to Naraka to help his mother, who had been reborn there, obtain a better rebirth.
The Japanese monk Genshin began his Ōjōyōshu ("Essentials of Salvation") with a description of the suffering in Naraka. Tibetan Lamrim texts also included a similar description.
Chinese Buddhist texts considerably enlarged upon the description of Naraka (Dì Yù), detailing additional Narakas and their punishments, and expanding the role of Yama and his helpers, Ox-Head and Horse-Face. In these texts, Naraka became an integral part of the otherworldly bureaucracy which mirrored the Imperial Chinese administration.
[edit] See also
- Bon Festival
- Ghost Festival
- Hell Bank Notes
- Ksitigarbha
- Maudgalyayana
- Ox-Head and Horse-Face
- Ullambana Sutra
- Yama (Buddhism and Chinese mythology)
