The Buddhist Concept of Heaven and Hell
天堂与地狱
The wise man makes his own heaven while the foolish man creates his own hell here and hereafter.
智者缔造了自己的天堂，愚者今世和来世都囿困于自己所创造的地狱。
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.
佛教的天堂与地狱观，不同于其他宗教。佛教不认为有永恒的天堂和地狱存在。因人类的弱点而宣判他永堕地狱是一件不可理解的事，如果给人类机会去纠正自己的缺点，那倒可以理解。佛教认为，即使人类堕入地狱，只要他在今世或过去世曾经有过善行和功德，他一样能够解脱。地狱的大门并非没有钥匙，地狱只是暂时性的地方，人类没有理由要永远在地狱中受苦。
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.
佛陀提示我们，天堂和地狱不在人世间之外，就在这个世界里。佛陀这种天堂和地狱的观念是非常合理的。佛陀在一次开示会说过：「有一个平常和无智慧的人，曾经断言：『地狱就是在海洋的深处。』这种说法是错误和没有根据的。地狱只是一个代名词，它的意义是指身体痛苦的感受。佛教不接受，「神」创造天堂和地狱，以及天堂和地狱存在于某一特定地方的观念。
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.
这个世界的地狱之火，比他方世界还要炽热，没有一种火，比贪、嗔、痴三毒燃烧的火更炽热。佛陀说，人类被十一种火焰所燃烧，它们是：贪、嗔、痴、病、老、死、忧、哀、苦、郁、悲。人类会因为这些情欲中的任何一种火的燃烧而毁灭整个世界。以佛教的观点，很轻易的就能分辨天堂与地狱，任何地方只要有快乐，不管是这世界或他方世界，都是天堂。然而人类的苦与乐相互交错，人类必须经验到苦与乐，才会了解生命的本质，他方世界的众生很少有机会理解这个道理。某些地方拥有更多的快乐，而某些地方却更痛苦。
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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