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A question about "heaven" and "hell"
becomethesignal
Explorer
I'm just curious to know whether or not Buddhists believe in "heaven" and/or "hell" and to hear your ideas on these subjects. Your responses will be appreciated. Thank you
0
Comments
There are countless millions going through, and experiencing, their own personal 'hells' every day, across this globe, through the violent and aggressive intervention of others - from spouses to Governments....
Whilst mention is made of Hell realms in Buddhism, I personally feel (and this is my opinion) Hell and Heaven, as existential concepts, are what we make them.
And we make the former far too well, but fail to recognise that the latter is within our grasp....
Or, indeed, vice versa!
I have a friend who nearly died and had a near death experience where he found himself in hell. It scared him a lot.
ECM
Hell? It seems to be constructed by all cultures.
A Samurai returned from a bloody victory pondering the existence of heaven or hell after he would die. He saw a monk meditating outside the field and asked him, "Wise monk, tell me what is heaven and what is hell."
The monk examined the Samurai and replied, "You are coverd in blood, you are a murderer, and you stink of death, and you look like a criminal."
Startled, the Samurai was outraged and raised his sword to attack the monk. The monk looked and said, "That is hell."
The Samurai stopped and stared, and he understood. He dropped his sword and smiled. He even laughed and hugged the monk. The monk smiled and responded, "And that is heaven."
Different story. Same truth! No?
u live, u sin, u spend time paying for sins in hell,u go to heaven.. or something along those lines lol. never did fully agree with it, but its a question with a personal answer.
You can't really get a perfect answer from this question.. i like to just say
"with no answer, theres no question".. so why bother about heaven and hell and so forth..
i imagine that the samurai you were talking about Kob had to commit sepuku after for raising his sword against a monk lol
In Buddhist cosmology, there are heaven (sagga) realms and there hell (niraya) realms; however, rebirth into any of these realms is temporary. As for the nature of these realms, in Theravada, these realms are generally treated as literal, external realms of existence where rebirth is possible due to the ripening of wholesome or unwholesome kamma. In Mahayana, the experiences of these realms are generally seen as real experiences, although there is no external location that corresponds to these realms (i.e. they are mentally fabricated realities based upon wholesome or unwholesome kamma). All in all, my own belief is that rebirth into any of these realms is certainly a possiblity; although, I am also open to the possibility that these are merely methaphorical descriptions of various pleasant and unpleasant mental states. For more information, or just a quick reference, please see The Thirty-one Planes of Existence.
Jason
Palzang
Ja! Like dose people who really WANT others to go to Hell.
And that's bad enough, but then they go telling others that they're going to hell because of their BELIEFS.
I've mentioned to not a few people at work when they start talking about the afterlife, that as A Christian (which I am still, in part) I was not required to believe in Hell, that belief in Hell was not an Article of Faith that a Christian had to subscribe to.
Several of these moralists have quipped back at me, "Well, you'll believe in Hell when you get there!"
Now, that is a very rude thing to say and it makes me very angry that people can engage in such DESTRUCTIVE RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY and apparently have clean consciences. It is especially repugnant to me that these things are said around the sick and dying, where I work, and those people feel bad enough already. I could tell stories...
NOPE, as far as I'm concerned there's only ONE kind of afterlife to talk about at the old folks' home.
Also, what about "Muslim" extremists? Surely they believe in Hell. "Gosh," they must think about their targets, "these heathen are useless and going to Hell. Therefore, they don't deserve to live anyway." ——"What are a few bombs to such scum who are destined to go to Hell anyway? Why not kill and maim them now to hasten them on their merry ways?" —— "Why make Hell wait? HELL: Let's bring it on now! Let's have some excitement and do away with all this boring tolerance of others!" ——"Gosh, we could make the whole #*@$ world a living Hell..."
Conversely, anyone who values life, love, respect for others, and liberty, how much more should that dear person scorn the idea of an eternal imprisonment in misery for his or her fellow human beings? Such compassionate types don't wish people even to suffer greatly in this present transitory life, let alone forever, which would be infinitely worse (and therefore UNJUST, as it would be disproportionate out of all measure).
Surely building or pondering much on theories about Hell and eternal punishment would be out of character for a compassionate and decent Being, and completely out of order, unless those theories had to do with what our lot is wreaking on each other in the HERE AND NOW. (If we let it happen, that's where and what Hell is: Our worst fears realized.)
In Theistic systems, the very idea of a Creator-God making people in order that he can torture them eternally if they don't act in mechanically correct ways all the days of their lives is ludicrous to me. What father or mother among us would ask such an exacting price from his or her children? If God is Father, then he is Loving. If there is a God, he is not so much Just as he is loving and merciful.
I don't really know how to address the Buddhist and other Eastern concepts of Hell, since I don't know a lot about them. My swami never mentioned junk like that.
It is my sincere belief as a catholic Christian/Vedantist/Buddhist that "God's" property is always to have mercy. That has been taught to me since I was old enough to hold up my head. And it's in THE BOOK OF COMMON PRAYER.
Be Good and, in order to be truly good, have a little fun.
Nirvy
Palzang
----George Carlin
_/\_
Palzang
Immediately after we have (re-)read the Gospel of Thomas, Palzang-la.
May you always know happiness and the sources of happiness.
Palzang
The Angry God of the Old Testament is neither good nor ethically sound. Creating a Hell-World and wishing people to go to Hell are things that spring from Anger, not from love or compassion. People back in those days were not very advanced.
The Dalai Lama and other Buddhist teachers say that such "afflictive emotions" as anger are the very source of unethical conduct:
When we become angry, we stop being compassionate, loving, generous, forgiving, tolerant, and patient altogether... immediatley destroy[ing] our critical faculties..." (ETHICS FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM, p 95)
Therefore, Hell is a creation of the Angry Mind, wanting others to suffer for their actions.
As for Heaven, I get enough of that when I see a loved one I haven't seen for several months.
Although anger should have its limits and boundaries, it has its uses like any other emotion. Anger has as much validity as happiness or sadness. All of these emotions originate in the mind.
For instance, it was anger at injustice that brought an end to the Apartheid, slavery, and mandated segregation.
If some horrible offense is committed against a loved one (rape, abuse), you are supposed to be angry. If you find that you have been duped or cheated by someone, you are supposed to be angry.
Good things can come from anger.
:bowdown: :bowdown: :bowdown:
The hell you say...
In the NT, Jesus once taught in a manner that compared Hell to Gehanna (Hinnom in Hebrew), a place where refuse was disposed of in his time, but historically was the site of child sacrifice. I do agree that we create our own Hell, even if there is a dimension of spiritual torture. A book I read gives the question "How many Hells are there." The reply was "as many as the human mind can create."
Well, sort of. But the anger is an unnecessary emotion and does no good in and of itself. Granted, there is a wisdom aspect to it, as you point out, but what brought Apartheid, etc to an end was doing something about it intelligently. I don't think we're disagreeing a whole lot though.
_/\_