There are Two Kinds of Hell
In the Buddhadharma, “hell” (niraya) may be understood in two ways:
- The hell of the mind.
When the mind is consumed by intense anger, hatred, vengeance, shame, guilt, or apathy (especially through parasitic or malevolent intent to cause suffering to others), as well as grief, fear, craving, or arrogance, it fashions its own inferno. This inner hell manifests as mental chaos & torment leading to depression, psychosis, and other states of deep mental illness and suffering. Even without flames or demons, such mental states bind beings to anguish as surely as iron chains. - The hell of external realms.
Beyond the mind, the sūtras and śāstras describe hells as actual realms of existence, formed through collective karma. Just as the combined merit and vows of innumerable beings bring forth the Pure Lands of Amitābha and Bhaiṣajyaguru (Medicine Buddha), so too the collective weight of hatred, cruelty, and delusion gives rise to hell realms as tangible domains in the cosmos.
In the Devadūta Sutta (MN 130), the Buddha speaks of terrifying torments that befall beings who have committed grave deeds. In the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Sūtra, the Bodhisattva vows never to rest until the hells are emptied, showing that these realms are not merely metaphorical, but karmically sustained.
Prison of The Mind
Just as many beings are caught in the cycle of birth and death within the human realm, endlessly recycled by attachment and ignorance (of how to escape reincarnation), so too are others bound to the hell realms. Though no state is eternal in Buddhism, the duration of hell-rebirth can be unimaginably long, lasting until the karma of great harm has been purified, even slightly.
3 Steps From Hell
To reduce the probability of falling into such states, one must train, discipline, and refine the mind. The Dharma offers the path:
- Guard against attachment to the five skandhas (aggregates): form, feeling, perception, mental formations, and consciousness. See them as passing clouds — temporary patterns with no enduring tangible self. To cling to them is to mistake the shadow for the substance (solid).
- Cultivate non-attachment and non-abiding: train the mind to let go of grasping, whether at the “I” concept (status, entitlement, ego) or at external phenomena. When we are too attached, our clarity and direction becomes clouded and we cannot see things as they truly are. Just as a hand released from gripping finds ease, so too the heart finds freedom when it ceases to clutch at what cannot be held
- Develop non-dual awareness: see through the illusion of fixed opposites. In the Prajñāpāramitā, form and emptiness are revealed as inseparable. From the highest Mahāyāna view, saṃsāra and nirvāṇa are not two separate realms but different ways of perceiving the same reality. Even the contrasts of good and evil, light and dark dissolve when understood through dependent origination.
Whether through śamatha (calm abiding), vipaśyanā (insight), Pure Land recitation, or Vajrayāna practices, the essence is the same: free the mind from clinging, and no hell can take hold.
Reflection
Hell is not simply a punishment, but the ripening of causes. The Buddha’s teaching is direct: abandon unwholesome roots, cultivate wholesome roots, and turn the mind toward liberation. Whether one falls into the inner hell of anger or the outer hells of karma, the Dharma remains the medicine, and the path to freedom is always open.
Below is an excerpt from a book for your reflection — I welcome your thoughts on the above.
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Buddhism A to Z (205) – Hells
With each cry, a small dark room awaits in the hells. (FAS-VP 24)
The hells, filled with anxiety and suffering,
Have no doors, yet one bores right in.
Out of delusion, deeds are done.
The retribution is borne in due accord. (TD 52)
What are the so-called “hells”?
Who created them?
“The term “hell” is a translation of two Chinese characters that literally mean “underground prison.”
Just as there are government prisons to house offenders in the human realm, so too are there prisons in the underworld.
Those prisons, known as the hells, differ from those in the human realm in that a governmental authority does not prepare them in anticipation of criminals.
The hells have no concrete form; they only have names.
When you fall into the hells to undergo retribution, the hells will then manifest a physical form based on your offenses. Therefore, this kind of prison isn’t created by either humans or ghosts; it’s created from each person’s own karmic power. (SPV 141)