The Buddhist Concept of Heaven and Hell
天堂與地獄
The wise man makes his own heaven while the foolish man creates his own hell here and hereafter.
智者締造了自己的天堂，愚者今世和來世都囿困于自己所創造的地獄。
The Buddhist concept of heaven and hell is entirely different from that in other religions. Buddhists do not accept that these places are eternal. It is unreasonable to condemn a man to eternal hell for his human weakness but quite reasonable to give him every chance to develop himself. From the Buddhist point of view, those who go to hell can work themselves upward by making use of the merit that they had acquired previously. There are no locks on the gates of hell. Hell is a temporary place and there is no reason for those beings to suffer there forever.
佛教的天堂與地獄觀，不同于其他宗教。佛教不認爲有永恒的天堂和地獄存在。因人類的弱點而宣判他永墮地獄是一件不可理解的事，如果給人類機會去糾正自己的缺點，那倒可以理解。佛教認爲，即使人類墮入地獄，只要他在今世或過去世曾經有過善行和功德，他一樣能夠解脫。地獄的大門並非沒有鑰匙，地獄只是暫時性的地方，人類沒有理由要永遠在地獄中受苦。
The Buddha”s Teaching shows us that there are heavens and hells not only beyond this world, but in this very world itself. Thus the Buddhist conception of heaven and hell is very reasonable. For instance, the Buddha once said, ”When the average ignorant person makes an assertion to the effect that there is a Hell (patala) under the ocean he is making a statement which is false and without basis. The word ”Hell” is a term for painful sensations. ”The idea of one particular ready-made place or a place created by god as heaven and hell is not acceptable to the Buddhist concept.
佛陀提示我們，天堂和地獄不在人世間之外，就在這個世界裏。佛陀這種天堂和地獄的觀念是非常合理的。佛陀在一次開示會說過：「有一個平常和無智慧的人，曾經斷言：『地獄就是在海洋的深處。』這種說法是錯誤和沒有根據的。地獄只是一個代名詞，它的意義是指身體痛苦的感受。佛教不接受，「神」創造天堂和地獄，以及天堂和地獄存在于某一特定地方的觀念。
The fire of hell in this world is hotter than that of the hell in the world-beyond. There is no fire equal to anger, lust or greed and ignorance. According to the Buddha, we are burning from eleven kinds of physical pain and mental agony: lust, hatred, illusion sickness, decay, death, worry, lamentation, pain(physical and mental), melancholy and grief. People can burn the entire world with some of these fires of mental discord. From a Buddhist point of view, the easiest way to define hell and heaven is that where ever there is more suffering, either in this world or any other plane, that place is a hell to those who suffer. And where there is more pleasure or happiness, either in this world or any other worldly existence, that place is a heaven to those who enjoy their worldly life in that particular place. However, as the human realm is a mixture of both pain and happiness, human beings experience both pain and happiness and will be able to realize the real nature of life. But in many other planes of existence inhabitants have less chance for this realization. In certain places there is more suffering than pleasure while in some other places there is more pleasure than suffering.
這個世界的地獄之火，比他方世界還要熾熱，沒有一種火，比貪、嗔、癡叁毒燃燒的火更熾熱。佛陀說，人類被十一種火焰所燃燒，它們是：貪、嗔、癡、病、老、死、憂、哀、苦、郁、悲。人類會因爲這些情欲中的任何一種火的燃燒而毀滅整個世界。以佛教的觀點，很輕易的就能分辨天堂與地獄，任何地方只要有快樂，不管是這世界或他方世界，都是天堂。然而人類的苦與樂相互交錯，人類必須經驗到苦與樂，才會了解生命的本質，他方世界的衆生很少有機會理解這個道理。某些地方擁有更多的快樂，而某些地方卻更痛苦。
Buddhists believe that after death rebirth can take place in any one of a number of possible existences. This future existence is conditioned by the last thought-moment a person experiences at the point of death. This last thought which determines the next existence results from the past actions of a man either in this life or before that. Hence, if the predominant thought reflects meritorious action, then he will find his future existence in a happy state. But that state is temporary and when it is exhausted a new life must begin all over again, determined by another dominating ”kammic” energy. This repetitious process goes on endlessly unless one arrives at ”Right View” and makes a firm re…
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