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buddhist hell

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
does anyone know what pure land buddhists think of it?

As I remember it from my time with the Jodo Shinshu, there isn't much of a doctrinary difference on this matter: Buddhist views of hell are that it is a place where our less fortunate brothers exist during life, and the place where we must strive to be in order to support them and each other.

Hell is suffering. And no one deserves suffering, therefore we must strive to empty it by entering it, understanding what sustains its existence, and learning to transcend it. But never by attempting to abandomn our own brothers and sisters that don't quite know the way out of that.

Incidentally, that fits perfectly with the Vow of Amida Buddha that is at the core of Pure Land Buddhism. All Buddhists should aim to look directly at hell and visit it to take its inhabitants' hands in fraternity. Amida Buddha pretty much did it to us.
 

idav

Being
Premium Member
If suffering is hell then samsara (earth) fits the description. Though physical suffering may remain while mental suffering can be extinguished(even in samsara) by achieving states of enlightenment.
 

dyanaprajna2011

Dharmapala
The scriptures speak of the "three evil realms" which are hell, hungry ghost, and animal. The human realm is the lowest of the three good realms, and it is the only one where one can reach nirvana. So while I agree that living in this realm can be like hell, I would also say that it can be like heaven. It's all what we do with it.
 

Twilight Hue

Twilight, not bright nor dark, good nor bad.
Actually heaven and hell as experienced will soon become more akin with heavell or hellvan and progressively to where the realms dissolve entirely giving light that those distingushments are really and actually not needed.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
Sure. It is a chinese-japanese variety of Buddhism that focuses on the practice of gratitude for the Vow of Amida Buddha.

Amit

Which is to say, it encourages its adherents to cultivate a mind of gratitude and optimism.

It also concentrates on about four specific Mahayana Sutras, and it is very popular not only in Japan, but also among the Japanese-Brazilian communities. In fact, it is quite possibly the first form of Buddhism to ever come to Brazil. To this day it is one of the most present in the demographic sense (I have frequented a Temple for a time, years ago) and one of the most inclusive and open for conversions.
 
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