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do you have to believe in hell?
- Thread starter willy1590
- Start date
Buddhism doesn't have a hell in the Abrahamic sense. Some schools of Buddhism have "hellish realms", which are temporary, more like Purgatory, but I don't believe all hold this belief.
willy1590
Member
So you can be a buddhist,and not believe people will be tortured afterlife if their bad?
Absolutely. Buddhism is vast, like Hinduism. Many different schools, sects and beliefs. Karma is extremely intricate. One's punishment may be in the next life, not realizing it's punishment. No one can say.
willy1590
Member
Do you know what schools of Hinduism and Buddhism don't belive in torturous hell?,or sects?
Sha'irullah
رسول الآلهة
None
. Having met so many Buddhists and Hindus before I can easily tell you the concept of hell does not exist. Sanatana Dharma has Naraka but that is a later innovation.
I think most of Hinduism and Buddhism doesn't believe in it, though there are writings on it. As a Hindu-Buddhist-Daoist syncretist, I don't believe in it except as metaphor. This might help explain things. Hell in eastern religions, from Wikipedia. But again, I think it's metaphor.
DreadFish
Cosmic Vagabond
In the way that our actions influence our state of mind, actions causing pain give rise to states of mind filled with pain. It's considered a natural law, like physics, so the effect is equal to the cause and also impermanent.
Now, whether this means that one actually takes a birth in a realm that matches their state of mind after they die (like attracts like) or just each moment that our mind gives birth to a hellish state of mind is the real debate.
There was a teaching by Buddhadasa talking about taking birth according to one's karma. He explained it as, each moment we think "I am this" or that or "I feel ____", we are taking birth. In that moment we think "I" the ego is born into a certain state. If we think "I hate myself, this world is a terrible, painful place" because there are the conditions (karma) present for that state of mind to arise, then in this particular situation, we have taken the birth of a hellish being.
So, one way or the other, you dont have to believe in hell, whether literal or allegorical, it's not a requirement by any means. Yet, we can't deny that acting in certain ways can make us feel very terrible about ourselves and life.
Now, whether this means that one actually takes a birth in a realm that matches their state of mind after they die (like attracts like) or just each moment that our mind gives birth to a hellish state of mind is the real debate.
There was a teaching by Buddhadasa talking about taking birth according to one's karma. He explained it as, each moment we think "I am this" or that or "I feel ____", we are taking birth. In that moment we think "I" the ego is born into a certain state. If we think "I hate myself, this world is a terrible, painful place" because there are the conditions (karma) present for that state of mind to arise, then in this particular situation, we have taken the birth of a hellish being.
So, one way or the other, you dont have to believe in hell, whether literal or allegorical, it's not a requirement by any means. Yet, we can't deny that acting in certain ways can make us feel very terrible about ourselves and life.
DreadFish
Cosmic Vagabond
It's also important to remember that we are not being subject to something against our will by another being. We are, essentially, enlightened minds, unaware of it, and acting in that ignorance. Unaware of the way things are, we think things are this way and that way and get lost and confused in a maze of our own projections. Even if the projector is playing a terrible horror movie, it's still the projector and eventually the movie will be over, another one will play, all the while the projector doesn't realize that it isn't personally involved in the scenes that it projects.
willy1590
Member
I'm sure there are, but we'd have to comb through a huge corpus of writings. Most people who believe what they believe pick up the beliefs from what they're taught, or hear or read in passing. Let me ask in all sincerity... is there a particular reason for the deep interest in hell in the eastern religions? If it's for your own peace of mind if thinking about conversion, take our word for it. If it's to convince someone else, nothing you show them will convince them.
Secret Chief
Very strong language
Afterlife???!!!
Gjallarhorn
N'yog-Sothep
Not traditional Hell no. You do have to believe in karma which includes repercussions of unwholesome action though.
Secret Chief
Very strong language
Only bottom buddhists. Try a search engine.
It seems to me that most religions do not. It just happens that hell-belief sometimes leads to rather emphatic proselitism.
Gjallarhorn
N'yog-Sothep
That would be a question for general debates I would imagine.
Sea Monkey
Pickle Juicer!
As far as I know Buddhist's do not believe in a Fire torture Hell.
Nibbana has the connotation of a fire being extinguished or unbound. (in Taoism and Buddhism fire "clings" to its fuel.) There can be differing intensities of dukkha according ones state of mind and circumstances, but Buddhism's main teaching is the impermanence or ending of dukkha, and the unbinding of the fire.