Reply to the Honorable Kōnichi Chapter1

“Avīchi” is a word from India. In China and Japan we call it “incessant suffering.” “Incessant” is expressed literally in the Chinese characters as “without respite.”

Among the 136 hells, 135 have moments of respite. Though it is hot for twenty-four hours, then again there will be a spell of cool. Though it is hard to bear, then again, there are moments when it lets up.

This hell of incessant suffering is so called because one is never free of great suffering, not even for a single instant of all the hours in the day. This hell is in the depths of the earth where we dwell, over twenty thousand yojanas down in the deepest place.

It is the way in the world as well that lighter things are found above while heavier things are found below. Water sits above the earth, water being lighter than earth. Fire burns above water, fire being lighter than water. Wind blows above fire, wind being lighter than fire. The sky spreads out above the wind, the sky being lighter than wind.

Human beings too are fashioned from these four elements. Evil persons [upon death] first lose wind and fire, but retain earth and water. Thus, their heaviness when they die is a sign that they will fall into hell.

Good people first lose earth and water, but retain wind and fire. Because the heavy elements have vanished and the light remain, their bodies are light when they die, and this is a sign that they will be reborn in the realm of human or heavenly beings.

The nature of hell is such that the heaviest beings are found in the hell of incessant suffering. The hell of incessant suffering is twenty thousand yojanas in length and twenty thousand yojanas in width. The circumference in the eight directions is eighty thousand yojanas.

The body of each of those who fall into that hell becomes immense, measuring eighty thousand yojanas around. And such a thing occurs to numerous dwellers in this hell.

The bodies of these dwellers are as soft as cotton, and the flames are as fierce as the scorching that occurs in huge winds, or as the flames of burning iron. A close examination reveals that the flames that shoot out from the bodies of hell-dwellers are thirteen in number. Two flames leap out from their legs and pierce their heads. Another two flames leap out from their heads and pierce their feet. Another two flames pierce their backs and shoot out from their chests. Another two p.963flames penetrate their chests and leap out of their backs. Another two flames penetrate their left sides and leap out of their right. Another two flames enter their right sides and flare out from their left. And one flame twists its way down from their heads as if it were clouds enwrapping a mountain.

The bodies of the offenders in this hell burn in the flames as if they were withered grass. Whether they run east, west, south, or north, there is no refuge.

But let me set aside for the time being the matter of the other sufferings. I have merely described the single suffering of the great flames. Had the Buddha preached in detail about the enormous sufferings of this great hell, we living beings would all surely have perished simply hearing it. For this reason, it seems that the Buddha refrained from going into further details.