地藏菩薩本願經 觀眾生業緣品

The one who asks in this chapter is the Buddha’s mother. What she asks about is requital, and Kṣitigarbha’s first sentence in answer does not fall on requital at all.

The Worlds First, and Only Then the Hells

He says: in a thousand myriad worlds, and on to the lands, some have hells and some have no hells; some have women and some have no women; some have the Buddha’s Dharma and some have no Buddha’s Dharma. And he gathers it up at the end in one line: it is not the hells alone; the requital of guilt too is not of one grade.

The question was about this one place; the answer was that not every place is like this.

So the mother narrows her question: I pray only to hear of the requital of guilt in Jambudvīpa, and of the evil destinies it calls forth. That word only is a step she gives up of her own accord.

Five Kinds of Guilt

Five passages follow, and the closing line of every one of them is the same: through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out.

First in the order stands being unfilial toward father and mother; next, drawing blood from the Buddha’s body and slandering the Three Jewels. The remaining three passages speak of one and the same thing — the Permanent Property, which is what the saṃgha of the ten directions holds in common: encroaching on it, breaking it up and using it, stealing it. And the last passage lets not even one thing go: any who take one single thing that is not given.

Killing father and mother, and carrying off a single object, stand side by side on the same list. The sūtra gives no reason for setting them side by side; it only writes the five passages in one and the same sentence-form.

One Person Fills It, and Many People Fill It

What the mother asks next is not about the suffering but about the name: why is it named the Uninterrupted Hell?

The answer gives the city first: the city is of solid iron and ten thousand li in height; upon the walls the fires gather in heaps, and there is little in the way of empty gap. Then it gives the bed: when one person undergoes his guilt there, he sees his own body lying stretched out and filling the whole bed; and when a thousand myriad people undergo their guilt, each of them likewise sees his own body filling the bed.

One person lies down and the bed is exactly full; a thousand myriad lie down, and what each of them sees is still his own single body filling the bed.

For this the sūtra gives eight characters only: what the manifold karma calls forth — such is the requital obtained. It does not say why it is so; it says only where it comes from.

The World Is Destroyed, and the Karma Moves House

When this world is destroyed, they are lodged in another world; when that other world is destroyed in its turn, they are shifted and lodged in another quarter; and when that other quarter is destroyed, they are passed on and lodged from one to the next. And after this world is formed again, they come back once more.

That worlds are destroyed is granted on all sides. What this passage says is that the world is destroyed and the karma is still there, and the karma changes its place and goes on being undergone.

Five Kinds of Uninterruptedness

Only at the end does he answer that name head-on: there are five matters that karma calls forth, and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

Day and night they undergo their guilt, and there is no time at which it is severed — no seam in time.

One person also fills it, and many people also fill it — no seam between body and body.

A long string of implements of guilt, and the torments follow one upon another — no seam between suffering and suffering.

Without asking whether man or woman, whether Qiang, Hu, Yi, or Di, whether old or young, noble or base, whether nāga or spirit, god or ghost — no seam between one who undergoes and another.

Ten thousand deaths and ten thousand births, and though one seek to stay the space of a single thought one cannot — no seam between dying and being born.

Five items, and five times over: and therefore it is called Uninterrupted. There is only one name, and five reasons are given for it.

She Joined Her Palms and Withdrew

Having finished, the sūtra admits for itself that the passage has been abridged: if one were to speak at length of the names of the implements of guilt and of the manifold matters of suffering, then in the space of a whole kalpa one would seek to tell it and not come to the end.

And then the last line: when Lady Māyā had heard this, she joined her palms in sorrow and care, bowed her head to the ground, and withdrew.

She does not ask again, and she does not praise. The two chapters before this wrote how many people one bodhisattva had delivered and into how many bodies he had divided himself; this chapter writes for the first time the place where those people are. And when the writing is done, the last gesture the sūtra leaves is a mother joining her palms and withdrawing from her seat.

Śikṣānanda’s translation, made under the Tang, of the chapter “Contemplating the Karmic Conditions of Beings” in The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Taishō T13n0412, the third chapter of Fascicle One, from the title of the chapter down to “when Lady Māyā had heard this, she joined her palms in sorrow and care, bowed her head to the ground, and withdrew.” The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔1 · The title of the chapter〕（0779c14）Contemplating the Karmic Conditions of Beings, Chapter Three.

〔2 · The holy mother opens the questioning〕（0779c15）At that time the Buddha’s mother, Lady Māyā (in Sanskrit Mahāmāyā, rendered of old as Great Art, and rendered also as Great Illusion), reverently joined her palms and asked Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: “Holy One (in Sanskrit ārya, rendered ‘holy one’; the sense is that there is nothing in affairs he does not penetrate)! The beings of Jambudvīpa make karma each differently, and as for the requital they undergo — how does that matter stand?”

〔3 · The realms are not alike, and the requital of guilt is not of one grade〕（0779c17）Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva answered: “In a thousand myriad worlds, and on to a thousand myriad lands, some have hells and some have no hells; some have women and some have no women; some have the Buddha’s Dharma and some have no Buddha’s Dharma; and so too, on to śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, it is likewise unfixed whether they are there or not. It is not the hells alone: the requital of guilt too is not of one grade.”

〔4 · She asks again for the requital of guilt in Jambudvīpa〕（0779c20）Lady Māyā said to the bodhisattva a second time: “I pray only to hear of the requital of guilt in Jambudvīpa, and of the evil destinies it calls forth.”

〔5 · He consents, and first says that he will speak coarsely〕（0779c21）Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva answered: “Holy mother! I pray only that you will hear and receive it; I shall speak of it coarsely.” The Buddha’s mother said: “I pray that the Holy One will speak.”

〔6 · Setting out in sum the names of the requital of guilt〕（0779c23）At that time Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to the holy mother: “The requital of guilt in southern Jambudvīpa — its names are these:

〔7 · Guilt one · unfilial toward father and mother〕（0779c24）“If there be beings unfilial toward father and mother, or who go so far as to kill them, they shall fall into the Avīci Hell (the name means Uninterrupted), and through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out.

〔8 · Guilt two · drawing the Buddha’s blood, slandering the Three Jewels〕（0779c25）“If there be beings who draw blood from the Buddha’s body, who slander the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha, the Three Jewels, and who do not revere the honored scriptures, they too shall fall into the Avīci Hell, and through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out.

〔9 · Guilt three · encroaching on the Permanent Property, defiling monks and nuns〕（0779c28）“If there be beings who encroach upon and damage the Permanent Property (in Sanskrit saṃghika — that is, what the saṃgha of the ten directions holds in common), who defile bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs, or who within a monastery (in Sanskrit saṃghārāma, rendered ‘the assembly’s garden’ — that is, the dwelling of the saṃgha) give free rein to lust, or who kill or do harm — people of this sort shall fall into the Avīci Hell, and through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out.

〔10 · Guilt four · falsely acting the śramaṇa, breaking up and using the Permanent Property〕（0780a01）“If there be beings who falsely act the śramaṇa (the general designation for one who has left the household) while in mind they are no śramaṇa, who break up and use the Permanent Property, who cheat and deceive the white-robed laity, who go against the precepts and the discipline, and who do evil in every kind of way — people of this sort shall fall into the Avīci Hell, and through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out.

〔11 · Guilt five · stealing the goods of the Permanent Property〕（0780a04）“If there be beings who steal the goods and property of the Permanent Property, its grain and rice, its food and drink, its clothing, and on to any who take one single thing that is not given, they shall fall into the Avīci Hell, and through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out.”

〔12 · The conclusion · the fivefold Avīci Hell〕（0780a06）Kṣitigarbha said: “Holy mother! If there be beings who commit guilt such as this, they shall fall into the fivefold Avīci Hell, and though they seek that the suffering stop for a while, they shall not get so much as the space of a single thought.”

〔13 · She asks again about the name Uninterrupted〕（0780a08）Lady Māyā said to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva a second time: “Why is it named the Uninterrupted Hell?”

〔14 · The sum of all the hells〕（0780a09）Kṣitigarbha said: “Holy mother! All the hells there are lie within the Great Iron Ring Mountains (in Sanskrit cakra, rendered Wheel Mountain; the ring of the name has the sense of a wheel). Of these the great hells are eighteen in number; next there are five hundred, and their names are each distinct; next again there are a thousand and a hundred, and their names too are each distinct.

〔15 · The measure of the walled city of the Avīci〕（0780a12）“As for the Avīci hell, the walled city of that hell is more than eighty thousand li about; the city is of solid iron and ten thousand li in height; upon the walls the fires gather in heaps, and there is little in the way of empty gap. Within that walled city the several hells stand joined one to another, and their names are each distinct.

〔16 · One hell alone · fire, and the iron snakes and dogs〕（0780a14）“There is one hell alone, and its name is Uninterrupted. That hell is eighteen thousand li about, and the wall of the hell is a thousand li high, and it is all made of iron; the fire above pierces down below, and the fire below pierces up above. Iron snakes and iron dogs spew fire and chase one another, running east and west upon the wall of the hell.

〔17 · The bed within the hell〕（0780a17）“Within the hell there is a bed, and it stretches to the full ten thousand li. When one person undergoes his guilt there, he sees his own body lying stretched out and filling the whole bed; and when a thousand myriad people undergo their guilt, each of them likewise sees his own body filling the bed.

〔18 · What the manifold karma calls forth〕（0780a19）“What the manifold karma calls forth: such is the requital obtained.

〔19 · Yakṣas and evil ghosts〕（0780a20）“Further, those guilty ones undergo every kind of suffering to the full. There are a thousand hundred yakṣas, and evil ghosts besides, the teeth of their mouths like sword-blades, their eyes like the flash of lightning, and their hands moreover with claws of bronze, dragging and hauling the guilty ones. And there are yakṣas who take up great iron halberds (a weapon: the single-branched is called a dagger-axe, the double-branched a halberd) and strike the bodies of the guilty ones, or strike them in the mouth and nose, or strike them in the belly and back, tossing them into the air and catching them again on the turn of the hand, or laying them upon the bed.

〔20 · Iron eagles and iron snakes, and the manifold sufferings〕（0780a24）“And there are iron eagles that peck and devour the eyes of the guilty ones. And there are iron snakes that coil about the necks of the guilty ones. Within their hundred limbs and joints long nails are driven throughout; the tongue is drawn out and plowed like a field; the bowels are pulled forth and hacked and chopped; molten copper is poured into the mouth; and heated iron is wound about the body.

〔21 · Ten thousand deaths and a thousand births · lodged on from place to place〕（0780a26）“Ten thousand deaths and a thousand births: such is what karma calls forth. At the least stirring, koṭis of kalpas are passed through, and they seek to come out with no term of coming out. When this world is destroyed, they are lodged in another world; when that other world is destroyed in its turn, they are shifted and lodged in another quarter; and when that other quarter is destroyed, they are passed on and lodged from one to the next in this way. After this world is formed again, they come back once more. Such is the matter of the requital of guilt in the Avīci.

〔22 · Five matters that karma calls forth〕（0780b01）“Further, there are five matters that karma calls forth, and therefore it is called Uninterrupted. What are the five?

〔23 · The first · no time at which it is interrupted or severed〕（0780b01）“First: day and night they undergo their guilt, on to the number of the kalpas, and there is no time at which it is interrupted or severed; and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

〔24 · The second · one person also fills it, many people also fill it〕（0780b02）“Second: one person also fills it, and many people also fill it; and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

〔25 · The third · the implements of suffering with no break〕（0780b03）“Third: the implements of guilt — forks and cudgels; eagles, snakes, wolves, and dogs; pestle and mill, saw and chisel; chopper and hatchet and cauldron of boiling water; iron nets and iron ropes; iron asses and iron horses; the head bound about with raw hide; heated iron poured over the body; iron pellets swallowed down when hungry; iron liquor drunk when thirsty. From the year through to the end of the kalpa, to the number of nayutas (nayuta, the name of a very great number), the torments follow one upon another with no break at all; and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

〔26 · The fourth · without asking of what kind〕（0780b07）“Fourth: without asking whether man or woman; without asking whether Qiang, Hu, Yi, or Di (the peoples of the far regions of the four quarters); without asking whether old or young, noble or base; and whether nāga or spirit, or god or ghost — what the deeds of guilt call forth is undergone by all alike; and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

〔27 · The fifth · ten thousand deaths and ten thousand births〕（0780b09）“Fifth: if one falls into this hell, then from the moment of first entering, on to a hundred thousand kalpas, within one day and one night there are ten thousand deaths and ten thousand births; and though one seek to stay a while, the space of a single thought, one cannot. Only when the karma is exhausted may one come to be born again. Because it runs on unbroken in this way, therefore it is called Uninterrupted.”

〔28 · What cannot be told to the end〕（0780b12）Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to the holy mother: “The Avīci Hell, coarsely spoken of, is such as this. If one were to speak at length of the names of the implements of guilt in the hells and of the manifold matters of suffering, then in the space of a whole kalpa one would seek to tell it and not come to the end.”

〔29 · The holy mother bows and withdraws〕（0780b14）When Lady Māyā had heard this, she joined her palms in sorrow and care, bowed her head to the ground, and withdrew.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. Fascicle two of his outline and commentary opens with this very chapter, and at the head of it he sets up the frame of everything that follows the introductory section: from here on comes 「大章第二，明所化機」—“the second great chapter, making plain the capacities that are transformed.” 〔X21n0384 0680b09〕 — that is, who it is that is to be delivered. He draws the range narrowly: 「通論則六道，別明惟三塗，的指在地獄」—“Spoken of in general it is the six destinies; made plain in particular it is only the three evil paths; and pointed to precisely, it lies in the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0680b09〕 He then makes the three chapters into one set: 「初、示業緣差別；二、示業感差別；三、示業報差別」—“first, showing the differences of karmic conditions; second, showing the differences of karmic impulsions; third, showing the differences of karmic requital.” 〔X21n0384 0680b11〕, and judges the three passages 「如次對惑業苦三道，為所化之機也」—“to answer in order to the three paths of delusion, karma, and suffering, as the capacities to be transformed.” 〔X21n0384 0680b12〕 This chapter is the first passage, and what it speaks of is the condition of karma. What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

An Answer That Does Not Follow the Question

The one who asks has changed. In the two chapters before, it was Mañjuśrī and the World-Honored One who asked; in this chapter the one who opens her mouth is the Buddha’s mother. Her question is quite concrete: 「閻浮眾生，造業差別，所受報應，其事云何？」—“The beings of Jambudvīpa make karma each differently; and as for the requital they undergo — how does that matter stand?” 〔T13n0412 0779c16〕

Yet Kṣitigarbha’s first sentence in answer does not fall upon Jambudvīpa. He says that in a thousand myriad worlds and on to the lands, some have hells and some have no hells, some have women and some have no women, some have the Buddha’s Dharma and some have no Buddha’s Dharma, and that with śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas it is likewise unfixed whether they are there or not; and only at the end does he gather it up in one line: 「非但地獄，罪報一等。」—“It is not the hells alone: the requital of guilt too is not of one grade.” 〔T13n0412 0779c20〕

The reading handed down stops here and puts a question to itself: the exchange of host and guest ought to strike and answer as anvil and mallet do — 「夫主賓酬唱，如砧磓相扣」—“Now in the singing back and forth of host and guest, it is as anvil and mallet striking one upon the other.” 〔X21n0384 0680c08〕 — so how is it that the answer here does not match? The answer is that the question itself is too narrow — 「此因聖母問詞，意不相到」—“This is because in the holy mother’s wording of the question the sense does not reach so far.” 〔X21n0384 0680c08〕: the worlds are without bound, the lands are measureless, beings are inexhaustible, and the fruits of karma have no shore, while what is asked about is only the one continent of Jambudvīpa. And so he answers first with a thousand myriad worlds.

Within that passage the line about some having the Buddha’s Dharma and some having none is the easiest to slide past. Here the commentator of old cites a question and answer from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「何以貴有佛世界，賤無佛國」—“Why hold dear a world that has a buddha and hold cheap a land that has none?” 〔T25n1509 0285a09〕 The treatise answers without hedging: 「佛是莊嚴十方世界主」—“The Buddha is the lord who adorns the worlds of the ten directions.” 〔T25n1509 0285a10〕; 「若一切諸佛不出世者，則無三乘涅槃之道」—“If none of the buddhas came forth into the world, there would be no way of nirvāṇa by the three vehicles.” 〔T25n1509 0285a13〕

Asked about karmic requital, he answers first about worlds. Before setting his hand to the hells, the sūtra first puts the hells back into their place: the hells are not the ground color of every world; they are one place within a certain kind of world. The commentator of old brings the line down to actual cases — 「有地獄如娑婆等，無地獄如極樂等」—“Those that have hells are such as the Sahā world; those that have no hells are such as the Land of Utmost Bliss.” 〔X21n0384 0680c11〕 The Jambudvīpa the sūtra goes on to speak of is precisely the kind we are in.

The Mother Narrows the Question

The mother is not turned back by that sentence. She asks once more, and narrows the range herself: 「且願聞於閻浮罪報，所感惡趣。」—“I pray only to hear of the requital of guilt in Jambudvīpa, and of the evil destinies it calls forth.” 〔T13n0412 0779c21〕

Only then does Kṣitigarbha consent, and in the words of consent he first declares the form he will use: 「聖母！唯願聽受，我麁說之。」—“Holy mother! I pray only that you will hear and receive it; I shall speak of it coarsely.” 〔T13n0412 0779c22〕

Speaking coarsely is not a courtesy. The reading handed down gives two levels of reason: 「麤說有二」—“Coarse speaking has two senses.” 〔X21n0384 0681a11〕 — the first is 「獄名叢雜，苦事絲棼，若欲廣明，一劫不盡」—“The names of the hells are a thicket and their matters of suffering a tangle of silk; if one would make them plain at length, a kalpa would not exhaust them.” 〔X21n0384 0681a11〕; the second has to do with the register of speech: 「說空無相等名柔輭語，說地獄等名麤語」—“To speak of emptiness and signlessness and the like is called soft speech; to speak of the hells and the like is called coarse speech.” 〔X21n0384 0681a12〕

Both levels of reason are borne out at the end of this chapter. The closing passage of the sūtra says just this: if one were to speak at length of the names of the implements of guilt in the hells and of the manifold matters of suffering, then in the space of a whole kalpa one would seek to tell it and not come to the end. At the head he says he will speak coarsely; at the close he says a full telling cannot be finished. The whole stretch between is set between two statements he makes about himself.

Five Kinds of Guilt, One Place They Come Down

What follows is five passages. Every one of them is written in exactly the same way: first the guilt committed is raised, then the place of falling. 「初舉所作罪當墮，下示所感報」—“First he raises the guilt committed and the falling that must follow; below he shows the requital called forth.” 〔X21n0384 0681a21〕 — and all five passages follow this pattern.

The closing line of the five passages is one and the same: through a thousand myriad koṭis of kalpas they shall seek to come out with no term of coming out. The line above it runs, in four of the passages, that they shall fall into the Avīci Hell; only the second passage has two characters more, that they shall also fall into the Avīci Hell. Apart from that, the five passages do not alter a single character.

First in the order stands unfiliality. The commentator of old says that the order is itself a judgment: 「首舉不孝父母，見罪之極大極重」—“That he raises unfiliality toward father and mother at the head shows that the guilt is of the utmost greatness and the utmost weight.” 〔X21n0384 0681a21〕, since father and mother are as heaven and earth. Here he cites the four kinds of kindness hard to requite spoken of in the Sūtra of the Mindfulness of the True Dharma: 「有四種恩甚為難報：一母、二父、三如來、四說法師」—“There are four kinds of kindness exceedingly hard to requite: first the mother, second the father, third the Tathāgata, fourth the master who teaches the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0681b03〕 — those who gave the body and those who transmit the Dharma stand side by side, and those who gave the body stand first.

The second passage is drawing blood from the Buddha’s body, slandering the Three Jewels, and not revering the honored scriptures. Taken together, the first and second passages answer exactly to those four kindnesses: father and mother first, the Tathāgata and the master who teaches the Dharma after.

Three Passages All Turn on One Thing

The third, fourth, and fifth passages look like three different matters: encroaching on the Permanent Property and defiling monks and nuns; falsely acting the śramaṇa and breaking up and using the Permanent Property; stealing the goods of the Permanent Property. The three unfold separately, and yet the center of all three is one and the same word.

The Permanent Property is what the saṃgha of the four quarters holds in common. The commentator of old first fixes the name: 「常住者，梵語僧祇。此云四方僧物」—“As for the Permanently Abiding: in Sanskrit saṃghika; here it means the property of the saṃgha of the four quarters.” 〔X21n0384 0681c17〕

Fixing the name is not enough. The commentator then divides it, following the Vinaya Digest, into four kinds: 「律鈔明四種常住」—“The Vinaya Digest makes plain four kinds of permanent property.” 〔X21n0384 0681c17〕 — the first is permanent-permanent, that is, the temple buildings, trees, fields and gardens, servants and beasts of the saṃgha, of which 「體局當處，不通餘界，但得受用，不通分賣」—“the substance is confined to that place and does not pass to other precincts; it may be used but may not be divided and sold.” 〔X21n0384 0681c18〕; the second is permanent of the ten directions, that is, the standing food offered to the saṃgha, whose substance is common to the ten directions while its place is only the house it stands in — 「此二名僧祇物」—“these two are named the property of the saṃgha.” 〔X21n0384 0681c19〕 The third is present-present, of which 「得施之物，唯施此處現前僧」—“what is received in gift is given only to the saṃgha present in this place.” 〔X21n0384 0681c20〕; the fourth is present of the ten directions, that is, the goods left by a monk who has died, as they belong before and after the formal act — 「此二名現前僧物」—“these two are named the property of the saṃgha present.” 〔X21n0384 0681c21〕

It is divided so finely because each kind belongs differently: some are confined in substance to their own place and belong to this one temple; some are common in substance to the ten directions and belong to the saṃgha everywhere. Once a thing belongs to the ten directions, whoever lays a hand on it is not facing one temple.

The three passages differ in the manner of laying hands on it: the third is encroaching and damaging; the fourth is being within the saṃgha and yet breaking it up and using it; the fifth is taking by stealth. The fifth lets not even the taking of one thing go — what the sūtra itself writes is: on to any who take one single thing that is not given.

Why should the taking of one thing stand beside killing father and mother and drawing blood from the Buddha’s body? Here the commentator raises a reckoning one might not have thought of: 「隨盜一物，即望十方凡聖；隨境無邊，還結無邊等罪」—“With each single thing stolen, one stands over against the ordinary and the holy of the ten directions; and as the objects are without bound, so the guilt contracted is likewise without bound.” 〔X21n0384 0682b22〕 What is stolen is limited, and what it stands over against is the ten directions; and since the object is boundless, the guilt contracted is boundless too.

The fourth passage has one further level. The sūtra says of the one who falsely acts the śramaṇa that in mind he is no śramaṇa — outwardly he is, inwardly he is not. The commentator of old divides the śramaṇa into four, following the Yogācārabhūmi: 「一、勝道沙門，二、說道沙門，三、活道沙門，四、壞道沙門」—“first, the śramaṇa of the surpassing path; second, the śramaṇa who speaks the path; third, the śramaṇa who lives by the path; fourth, the śramaṇa who ruins the path.” 〔T30n1579 0446c08〕, and 「諸行邪行者，名壞道沙門」—“those who practice wrong practices are named śramaṇas who ruin the path.” 〔T30n1579 0446c12〕 He judges that what this passage speaks of is the last of the four, and glosses the word “falsely” thus: 「外現修行之狀，內藏瑕穢之情，即污道也」—“Outwardly he displays the appearance of cultivation, and inwardly he harbors a flawed and filthy disposition: this is defiling the path.” 〔X21n0384 0682a22〕

The five passages told, the sūtra gathers them up in one sentence of its own: 「若有眾生，作如是罪，當墮五無間地獄，求暫停苦，一念不得。」—“If there be beings who commit guilt such as this, they shall fall into the fivefold Avīci Hell, and though they seek that the suffering stop for a while, they shall not get so much as the space of a single thought.” 〔T13n0412 0780a07〕

These Five Are Not the Five Usually Spoken Of

The three characters for the fivefold Avīci point to something else elsewhere in the canon. The Abhidharmakośa says it plainly: 「言無間業者，謂五無間業」—“Speaking of the deeds of immediate retribution: these are the five deeds of immediate retribution.” 〔T29n1558 0092b27〕, and the five are 「一者害母、二者害父、三者害阿羅漢、四者破和合僧、五者惡心出佛身血」—“first, killing one’s mother; second, killing one’s father; third, killing an arhat; fourth, breaking a harmonious saṃgha; fifth, with evil mind drawing blood from the Buddha’s body.” 〔T29n1558 0092b28〕; and what the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra lists has the same bones: 「有五無間大罪惡業。何等為五？」—“There are five great deeds of guilt and evil bringing immediate retribution. What are the five?” 〔T13n0411 0737a17〕 — deliberately killing one’s father, deliberately killing one’s mother, deliberately killing an arhat, breaking the śrāvaka saṃgha through inverted views, and with evil mind drawing blood from the Buddha’s body.

Set the two lists side by side and only two items overlap: killing father and mother, and drawing blood from the Buddha’s body. The other three passages of this sūtra — encroaching on the Permanent Property, breaking it up and using it, stealing it — are nowhere to be found on that list.

The commentator of old did not re-read the five passages of this sūtra as those five deeds. He judges this passage thus: 「上來五種業，總是十惡上品」—“The five kinds of karma above are, taken together, the highest grade of the ten evils.” 〔X21n0384 0682c10〕; and as for how the two lists are to be joined, he cites another text of the Daśacakra as a bridge: besides the five deeds of rebellion there are four further grave offenses, equal to the four rebellions in violating a root offense, the first of which is 「若人捨財與佛、法、僧，主掌此物而輒用之，是名為盜犯根本罪」—“If a man gives wealth to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṃgha, and one who has charge of that property uses it at his own will, this is named theft, a violation of a root offense.” 〔T13n0410 0694c06〕 To have charge of wealth given to the Three Jewels and to take and use it at will — this item falls exactly upon the fourth and fifth passages of this sūtra.

The two lists are set side by side here; the sūtra says what it says and the treatise what it says, and there is no need to force them into one. What the sūtra opens is five entrances; what the treatise counts is five kinds of deed. The entrances differ while the place arrived at is the same — and that much the sūtra says for itself.

And when the commentator of old has finished glossing these five kinds of guilt, he does not let the matter rest at the place of falling. Here he cites the Buddha’s own words as recorded in the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「我世世曾作小虫、惡人，漸漸集諸善本，得大智慧」—“Life after life I have been a small worm and an evil man, and gathering the roots of good little by little I gained great wisdom.” 〔T25n1509 0112c15〕; and now he has brought himself to buddhahood, his spiritual power measureless, highest and greatest — 「一切眾生亦可得爾，云何空受勤苦而墮小處」—“All beings too can come to this; why then undergo toil and hardship for nothing and fall into so small a place?” 〔T25n1509 0112c17〕

The Buddha says that he too was once a small worm, and once an evil man, and that it was gathered little by little. Since that road can be walked, all beings can walk it; and why undergo all this toil for nothing and come down in a place so small?

The passage of the five kinds of guilt closes upon that question. The sūtra counts five entrances; and when the entrances have been counted, what the reading handed down offers is not a threat but a “why bother.”

A City, a Wall, and a Bed

What the mother asks next is not about the suffering but about the name: 「云何名為無間地獄？」—“Why is it named the Uninterrupted Hell?” 〔T13n0412 0780a09〕

The answer begins from the outer ring: all the hells there are lie within the Great Iron Ring Mountains. The two characters rendered “all there are” look like a loose designation, yet the commentator of old reads them as a fixed number: 「然的指二十五有，因果不忘也」—“Yet what is pointed to precisely is the twenty-five existences, and that cause and effect are not forgotten.” 〔X21n0384 0683a02〕, and he sets out the verse for them: 「四洲四惡趣，六欲并梵天，四禪四空處，無想五那含」—“The four continents and the four evil destinies; the six desire heavens together with the Brahmā heaven; the four dhyānas and the four formless spheres; the No-Thought heaven and the five Non-Returner heavens.” 〔X21n0384 0683a04〕 The four great continents, the four evil destinies, the six desire heavens together with the Brahmā heaven, the four dhyānas, the four formless spheres, and with them the No-Thought heaven and the five Non-Returner heavens — from the lowest hell all the way up to the highest heaven, all twenty-five places of existence lie within this one ring.

The two characters for “not forgotten” are the bone of the line: 「所作善惡，皆有因果，經久不忘」—“Whatever good and evil is done has its cause and effect, and however long it lasts it is not forgotten.” 〔X21n0384 0683a03〕 That the twenty-five existences are ringed within the Iron Ring Mountains says not how large the hells are but that the account is not forgotten — up to the No-Thought heaven and the five Non-Returner heavens, they are reckoned in all the same.

Within this ring the great hells are eighteen; next there are five hundred whose names are each distinct; next again there are a thousand and a hundred whose names too are each distinct. Only then does the text come to that one city: more than eighty thousand li about, the city of solid iron and ten thousand li high, the fires gathering in heaps upon the walls with little in the way of empty gap; and within the city the several hells stand joined one to another, their names each distinct.

Having written this far, the sūtra draws its lens all at once down to a single one: 「獨有一獄，名曰無間。」—“There is one hell alone, and its name is Uninterrupted.” 〔T13n0412 0780a14〕 Eighteen thousand li about, the wall of the hell a thousand li high, the fire above piercing down below and the fire below piercing up above, iron snakes and iron dogs spewing fire and chasing one another upon the wall of the hell.

The reading handed down pauses once upon the word for iron: 「銕名黑金，性剛而冷，表惡人殘忍，性剛而心冷」—“Iron is named the black metal; its nature is hard and cold. It signifies that the evil man is cruel, his nature hard and his heart cold.” 〔X21n0384 0683b04〕 The whole city has only one substance — hard, and cold.

And then that bed. 「一人受罪，自見其身，遍臥滿床」—“When one person undergoes his guilt, he sees his own body lying stretched out and filling the whole bed.” 〔T13n0412 0780a18〕; and when a thousand myriad people undergo their guilt, each of them likewise sees his own body filling the bed. One person lies down and the bed is exactly full; a thousand myriad lie down, and what each of them sees is still his own single body filling the bed.

Number does not work here, and it runs exactly counter to our everyday reckoning. And the sūtra gathers it up in eight characters only: 「眾業所感，獲報如是。」—“What the manifold karma calls forth: such is the requital obtained.” 〔T13n0412 0780a19〕 It does not explain why it is so; it only points to where it comes from.

Those Who Carry Out the Punishment: Whose Making Are They?

The passage on the implements of suffering is written in the finest detail: yakṣas and evil ghosts, the teeth of their mouths like sword-blades, their eyes like the flash of lightning, their hands with claws of bronze; iron halberds striking the body, striking mouth and nose, striking belly and back, tossing into the air and catching on the turn; iron eagles pecking at the eyes, iron snakes coiling about the neck; long nails driven throughout the hundred limbs and joints, the tongue drawn out and plowed like a field, the bowels pulled forth and hacked and chopped, molten copper poured into the mouth, heated iron wound about the body. The closing line is 「萬死千生，業感如是。」—“Ten thousand deaths and a thousand births: such is what karma calls forth.” 〔T13n0412 0780a26〕

The instruments of punishment and those who wield them are written out to the full only in this passage. The thought that most readily arises on reading this far is: who are those yakṣas, after all? Is there another set of beings whose trade it is to beat people in the hells?

Here the commentator of old first cites a question and answer from a treatise, and what it asks is this very thing: 「諸地獄卒，為是有情數，為是非情數耶」—“Are the wardens of the hells counted among sentient beings, or are they counted among the non-sentient?” 〔X21n0384 0683c22〕 The answer falls in two halves: 「若以銕鎖繫縛初生地獄，往琰魔所者，是有情數」—“Those who bind with iron chains the newly born in the hells and take them to the place of Yama are counted among sentient beings.” 〔X21n0384 0683c23〕; 「若以種種苦具，於地獄中害有情者，非有情數」—“Those who with the several implements of suffering harm sentient beings within the hells are not counted among sentient beings.” 〔X21n0384 0683c24〕 The sort that escorts counts as sentient; the sort that is an implement of punishment does not.

The answer having fallen in two halves, the commentator at once cites a line that gathers both halves together: 「有情非情，並是共業所感，而為心變」—“Sentient and non-sentient alike are called forth by karma held in common, and are what the mind transforms into being.” 〔X21n0384 0684a01〕

The sentient half and the non-sentient half are alike called forth by karma held in common, and are manifested by the transformation of mind.

The city, the wall, the bed, the iron halberds, the iron eagles, the iron snakes, the long nails written of above, and with them those wardens of many hands and many eyes, read like an execution ground built ready beforehand on the outside, into which people are merely marched. And this line says: that whole execution ground, together with those who march them in and those who carry out the punishment, is called forth in common by the karma of beings. The commentator then joins it to the Śūraṅgama — 「此正楞嚴所謂觸報招引惡果」—“This is exactly what the Śūraṅgama calls the requital of contact drawing on evil fruits.” 〔X21n0384 0684a02〕, 「神識自見牛頭獄卒，馬頭羅剎，手執鎗矟，驅入無間也」—“the spirit-consciousness sees of itself ox-headed wardens and horse-headed rākṣasas, spears and lances in their hands, driving it into the Uninterrupted.” 〔X21n0384 0684a03〕 The two characters for seeing of itself carry the weight: it is not that someone comes to seize him; it is that the spirit-consciousness itself sees the one who comes to seize him.

That the mind manifests it does not amount to its not being there. What is manifested strikes just as painfully, and there are ten thousand deaths and a thousand births all the same. To say that it is manifested by mind is to say where it comes from; it is not to say that it does not count.

The later chapter on the names of the hells carries this further still — there it is said that in the hells there is no lord of the hells at all. The two chapters are to be read together: this chapter first writes out a whole execution ground and then, in the same passage, hands over where that ground comes from; and only in that chapter is the lord himself taken away as well.

When This World Is Destroyed, They Are Lodged in Another

The implements of suffering told to the end, the sūtra’s next sentence stops up the time as well: at the least stirring, koṭis of kalpas are passed through, and they seek to come out with no term of coming out.

The word for stirring the commentator of old did not read as passing through. What he glosses is this: 「動與靜對。心體本靜，人自動之」—“Stirring stands over against stillness. The substance of the mind is originally still, and man stirs it himself.” 〔X21n0384 0684c02〕, and he cites the Awakening of Faith as his ground: 「不知真如法一故動，動則有苦，果不離因故」—“Not knowing that the dharma of suchness is one, there is stirring; and where there is stirring there is suffering, since the fruit does not depart from the cause.” 〔X21n0384 0684c02〕; and he cites a dictionary for the form of the graph, 「力重為動」—“weight of force makes the graph for stirring.” 〔X21n0384 0684c04〕, and thereupon judges: 「凡夫業力甚深，故動成地獄億劫之壽」—“The karmic force of the ordinary man is exceedingly deep, and so his stirring makes a lifespan of koṭis of kalpas in the hells.” 〔X21n0384 0684c04〕

The substance of the mind is still to begin with, and it is man himself who sets it stirring. Once it stirs, delusion arises; delusion arising, karma is made; karma made, requital is undergone. The length of koṭis of kalpas is not a term of punishment laid on anyone from outside; it is that the force of that one stirring is too heavy.

The section before said that the execution ground is manifested by the mind; this section says that the stretch of time is stirred out of the mind. The city and the hells written of earlier are all outside; these two are inside.

The sentence after that stops up the place as well. The sūtra says that when this world is destroyed they are lodged in another world; when that other world is destroyed in its turn they are shifted and lodged in another quarter; and when that other quarter is destroyed they are passed on and lodged from one to the next; and after this world is formed again, they come back once more.

This sentence was read of old as a text resolving a doubt. Since the hells are beneath the continent of Jambudvīpa, and when the fire of the kalpa destroys as far as the first dhyāna the hells are destroyed first, where do the guilty go? The answer is that those whose karma of guilt is not yet fulfilled are lodged in another world and undergo it there; when that other world too is destroyed, they are shifted and lodged in another quarter; and when that other quarter too is destroyed, they are passed on as before. When this world is formed again, they come back to undergo suffering — and here the commentator adds one qualification: 「此據罪未畢者說」—“This is said with reference to those whose guilt is not yet finished.” 〔X21n0384 0684c18〕 And the Dīrgha Āgama takes another road: when the fire-disaster arises, those who die out of the other hells are all born among men and cultivate the second dhyāna; and of that road he says 「此據罪已畢者說」—“This is said with reference to those whose guilt is already finished.” 〔X21n0384 0684c20〕

That worlds are destroyed is granted on all sides. What the sūtra says here is that the world is destroyed while the karma is not yet finished, and the karma moves house along with it. What is pointed to is not the solidity of the hells but the solidity of karma.

One Name, Five Senses

The question was about the name, and only here does the answer come down upon the name head-on: 「又五事業感，故稱無間。何等為五？」—“Further, there are five matters that karma calls forth, and therefore it is called Uninterrupted. What are the five?” 〔T13n0412 0780b01〕

The five items are written as evenly as a set of squares: each states one matter first, and each closes with the same three characters — and therefore it is called Uninterrupted.

First: day and night they undergo their guilt, on to the number of the kalpas, and there is no time at which it is severed. The reading handed down gives this item a name: 「如是經無量劫，名時無間也」—“Passing measureless kalpas in this way is named uninterruptedness in time.” 〔X21n0384 0685a23〕 — no seam in time.

Second: one person also fills it, and many people also fill it. This is named form: 「各見身形，無間斷處，名形無間也」—“Each sees his own bodily form, and there is no place of interruption; this is named uninterruptedness in form.” 〔X21n0384 0685b09〕 — no seam between body and body.

Third: the implements of guilt, forks and cudgels and the long string that follows, and from the year through to the end of the kalpa the torments following one upon another. This is named suffering: 「略無絲毫樂間，名苦無間也」—“There is not the least hair’s breadth of pleasure between; this is named uninterruptedness in suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0685c23〕 — no seam between suffering and suffering.

Fourth: without asking whether man or woman, Qiang, Hu, Yi, or Di, old or young, noble or base, nāga or spirit or god or ghost — what the deeds of guilt call forth is undergone by all alike. This is named fruit: 「既果報不間，名果無間也」—“Since the fruit of requital is not interrupted, this is named uninterruptedness in fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0686a19〕 — no seam between one who undergoes and another.

Fifth: from the moment of first entering on to a hundred thousand kalpas, within one day and one night ten thousand deaths and ten thousand births, and though one seek to stay the space of a single thought one cannot. This is named life: 「既從初以至業盡，生死連綿，故名命無間也」—“Since from the beginning until the karma is exhausted birth and death run on unbroken, this is named uninterruptedness in life.” 〔X21n0384 0686b13〕 — no seam between dying and being born.

The five items taken together are five ways of having no seam: time, bodily form, the matter of suffering, the one who undergoes, and birth-and-death.

For that same name, the treatises take only one sense in their explanations. The Abhidharmakośa says: 「以於其中受苦無間，非如餘七大㮈落迦受苦非恒，故名無間」—“Because within it suffering is undergone without interruption, unlike the other seven great narakas where the undergoing of suffering is not constant, it is named Uninterrupted.” 〔T29n1558 0058b05〕 — the reason being that in the other seven great hells the suffering is not constant while here the suffering is constant; and the same work records another master’s account alongside it: 「有餘師說：阿鼻旨中無樂間苦故名無間」—“Some other masters say: because in the Avīci there is no pleasure to break the suffering, it is named Uninterrupted.” 〔T29n1558 0058b09〕 The Dīrgha Āgama takes yet another road: 「又其罪人彈指之頃，無不苦時，故名無間地獄」—“Further, for those guilty ones there is not the space of a finger-snap in which they are not suffering; and therefore it is named the Uninterrupted Hell.” 〔T01n0001 0125a23〕

One sense, two senses, and five senses stand together in the canon, each making its own account. This sūtra opens five doors; the treatise uses one only; the Dīrgha Āgama uses another. The three accounts stand side by side, and are not forced into one.

What Cannot Be Told to the End, and the One Who Withdrew

The five items told, the sūtra admits for itself that the passage has been abridged: the Avīci Hell, coarsely spoken of, is such as this — answering exactly to that sentence at the head, that he would speak of it coarsely. If one were to speak at length of the names of the implements of guilt and of the manifold matters of suffering, then in the space of a whole kalpa one would seek to tell it and not come to the end.

The reading handed down points out here why it cannot be finished: it is not that the implements of suffering are themselves many, but that the minds that made them are many — 「由諸罪人在生惡心徧布，晝夜相續，致墮地獄，循業發現」—“Because the guilty, while alive, spread their evil minds everywhere and continued them day and night, they came to fall into the hells, where things appear following upon karma.” 〔X21n0384 0686b17〕 What is told cannot be finished because what is made cannot be finished.

The last sentence writes of the one who listens: when Lady Māyā had heard this, she joined her palms in sorrow and care, bowed her head to the ground, and withdrew.

She does not ask again, and she does not praise. The commentator of old takes these twelve characters apart and reads them in four: her sorrow is that the guilty undergo suffering without end; her care is 「己力救援未逮」—“that her own strength does not yet reach to rescuing them.” 〔X21n0384 0686b22〕; 「合掌表自心不散，頂禮謝地藏能宣」—“The joining of the palms shows that her own mind is not scattered; the bowing of the head thanks Kṣitigarbha for being able to proclaim it.” 〔X21n0384 0686b23〕

The ending we are used to reading in a sūtra is that the one who asked about the Dharma, having received the answer, rejoices and puts it into practice. The questioner of this chapter, having heard it out, withdraws. The two chapters before wrote how many people one bodhisattva had delivered and into how many bodies he had divided himself; this chapter writes for the first time the place where those people are, and when the writing is done, the last gesture the sūtra leaves is a mother joining her palms and withdrawing from her seat.

Transmission — A Qing Outline and Commentary, and the Two Daśacakra Recensions It Cites

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The fascicle to which this chapter belongs is signed at its head as compiled by Lingcheng, bhikṣu of Qinglian, of Kuang’an in Guyan 〔X21n0384 0680b08〕. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the judgment matching the three chapters to delusion, karma, and suffering; the self-posed question and answer on the answer that does not match the question; the two senses of coarse speaking; the pattern of the five passages, that the guilt committed and the falling that must follow are raised first; the five names of the fivefold uninterruptedness — time, form, suffering, fruit, and life; and the fourfold taking apart of the holy mother’s bowing and withdrawing.

His manner of glossing this chapter differs from his manner in the introductory section. There he mostly matched the sūtra text to the Tiantai methods of contemplation; here he turns instead to two other things — the dictionaries, and the records of response. In glossing the four characters for old and young, noble and base, he goes all the way down to the forms of the graphs: 「七十曰老」—“at seventy one is called old.” 〔X21n0384 0686a03〕, 「人生十年曰幼」—“ten years from a man’s birth is called young.” 〔X21n0384 0686a06〕; in glossing the iron halberd he measures it to the inch: 「戟，兵器也。單枝為戈，雙枝為戟」—“The halberd is a weapon. The single-branched is a dagger-axe; the double-branched is a halberd.” 〔X21n0384 0684a05〕; in glossing theft he divides it into two forms: 「灼然不與取名劫，潛盜不與取名盜」—“To take what is not given openly is called robbery; to take what is not given by stealth is called theft.” 〔X21n0384 0682b15〕 In the section on the iron eagles he cites the matter recorded in the Records of Retribution from the Unseen, of a man of Chengwu in Caozhou under the Tang who was fond of hunting and saw an eagle seize him — 「如冥報記，唐曹州城武人方山開」—“as in the Records of Retribution from the Unseen: Fang Shankai, a man of Chengwu in Caozhou under the Tang.” 〔X21n0384 0684a18〕; and in the section on killing brought on by lust he cites 「如唐洛州景德寺比丘尼任五娘」—“as with Ren Wuniang, a bhikṣuṇī of the Jingde monastery in Luozhou under the Tang.” 〔X21n0384 0682a08〕, who after death asked her younger sister to copy out scriptures and so left the hells. Into a book glossing the hells he has woven the notebooks of what people of the Tang saw and heard.

There is one further matter that becomes plain only in this chapter. He cites the Daśacakra Sūtra in three places in this chapter, and what he cites is not from one and the same recension. The passage cited in glossing the slandering of the Three Jewels — kṣatriya caṇḍāla kings and the rest who follow evil friends and harbor the conceit of cleverness, 「於三寶所無淳淨心」—“having no pure and simple mind toward the Three Jewels” 〔T13n0411 0740c26〕, on to 「挑壞無量眾生法眼」—“gouging out and ruining the Dharma-eye of measureless beings” 〔T13n0411 0741a10〕 and 「命終定生無間大獄」—“at the end of life they are certainly born in the great Avīci hell” 〔T13n0411 0741a20〕 — comes from the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra translated by Xuanzang; while the two passages glossing the deeds of rebellion and the property of the saṃgha of the four quarters have their wording from the Mahāvaipulya Sūtra of the Ten Wheels, of the Northern Liang and of lost translatorship: 「有五種逆罪為最極惡」—“There are five kinds of deed of rebellion that are the most extremely evil.” 〔T13n0410 0694b26〕, 「復有四種大罪，同於四逆犯根本罪」—“There are four further grave offenses, equal to the four rebellions in violating a root offense.” 〔T13n0410 0694c04〕 Under one and the same title, two translations each yield a passage. Whoever cites their words must return each to its own recension.

As for the fivefold uninterruptedness of this chapter, a later line of reckoning arose besides. The Chart of the Establishment of the Dharma Realm, recorded by Renchao of the Ming, first quotes in part this sūtra’s text on the walled city of the Avīci, and then sets out another set of five names: 「一、趣果無間，捨身即生彼故」—“first, uninterruptedness in going to the fruit, because on casting off the body one is born there at once.” 〔X57n0972 0450b02〕, 「二、苦無間，中無樂故」—“second, uninterruptedness in suffering, because there is no pleasure between.” 〔X57n0972 0450b03〕, 「三、時無間，定一劫故」—“third, uninterruptedness in time, because it is fixed at one kalpa.” 〔X57n0972 0450b03〕, 「四、命無間，中不絕故」—“fourth, uninterruptedness in life, because it is not cut off between.” 〔X57n0972 0450b04〕, 「五、形無間，此獄縱廣八萬由旬，一人亦滿，多人亦滿故」—“fifth, uninterruptedness in form, because this hell is eighty thousand yojanas across, and one person also fills it and many people also fill it.” 〔X57n0972 0450b04〕 The five matters are still those five matters, and yet the order and the naming differ between the two lines. The two lines are set side by side, each keeping what it had.

And the sūtra’s own five sentences of “therefore it is called Uninterrupted” are bound to no mirror at all. They stand ranged there, saying one and the same thing sentence by sentence — that there is no seam.