The Terrifying Reality of the Nightly Hell Trials
An Interview with Venerable Chang Ren
Recorded at the Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre
This is a record of an interview with Venerable Chang Ren, who sought deliverance at the Hsiang Kuang Buddhist Centre in Australia. He now resides in the . This account reflects upon the nature of and the unseen trials of the spirit. Recorded by the chief writer, Shi Fa, on September 16, 2017.
Venerable Chang Ren speaks:
"Even a single point of light is something to be cherished; this is the manifestation of the Buddha-heart's .
The Illusion of Understanding
How many people truly delve into the profound depths of the sutras and teachings? Being able to recite, memorise, or lecture on them is merely scratching the surface. Are you perhaps like a gilded ornament—beautiful on the outside, but rotten within? Do you have the courage to face that reality? If you become unhappy or angry when these truths are spoken, and you find yourself full of excuses, then you are beyond saving. You are not ascending; you are descending, falling straight down without looking back. A file on you is being prepared in the underworld every single day. Do you know which hall you are destined for? Which execution ground awaits you?
You are not a sage; why would you think you are exempt from the path to the underworld? Furthermore, consider how much heavy we have accumulated throughout our many lives. Is it unreasonable that we must go to the underworld to be judged? If you dare to commit the act, you must dare to face the consequences. This is a reality. I observe this from the void, and while I have seen so much that I am no longer surprised, I must describe it to you so you might understand. If you have any awareness at all, you should feel a sense of shame, for you cannot possibly be absent from this process. You are certainly there. I have seen you; how could you not have gone?
The Flowing Sand of Souls
What I see is all sentient beings pouring into the hells like flowing sand. The density is so great that individual human forms appear as mere grains of sand—there are simply too many. People enter at midnight and return to their bodies at dawn. But listen closely: not everyone who leaves at midnight returns at dawn. I have heard that some are detained in the hells and can no longer return to their bodies. Others are seized by their along the way. The underworld is much like the world of the living; there is little order. Just as there are rampant thugs in the human world, there are certainly such beings in the underworld. Being kidnapped is quite common, and you may not even realise it. Are you even sure if you are still 'you'?
A human being has three hun souls and seven po souls. Perhaps only one soul or one po goes to the hells, and sometimes the impact is not immediately obvious. But when one po after another gradually departs, it is a different story. You cannot guarantee that your body is still under your own control, and you certainly cannot guarantee that you are still a 'living person.' In this world, I see too many 'living dead'—walking corpses wandering the streets. They display an unmistakable ghostly aura, yet the people around them cannot see it, and the individuals themselves are not aware enough to realise it. This is why the underworld is currently so rampant, causing such turmoil in the human world.
The Window of the Soul
If you do not reclaim your autonomy, the human condition is truly miserable. It is pitiful to be kept in the dark. When you open your eyes each day, for whom are you living? Many people have already been replaced. The continued survival of the physical body no longer proves that the person is still alive. Even if their answers seem normal and flawless, you must look into their eyes. The eyes are truly the windows of the soul. If you are wise enough, you can see the messages of the soul. But the eyes are also terrifying transmission channels. Unless you are there to save that person, if you rashly read their information while your own skills are insufficient, you are very likely to be captured by them. Then you, too, will be in trouble. Who will be able to save you then? It is not that I am discouraging you from helping others, but if you fall into danger yourself, it is like a person who cannot swim jumping into the water to save someone else. You fail to save them, and instead, you both perish. The principle is the same: you must cultivate your skills first. Otherwise, intervening in the forces of the underworld is not an easy task.
The Ignorance of the Suffering
Many humans who understand the truth no longer cling to this world. Only those who do not know the severity of the situation remain deeply attached to desire, living as ignorant beings in the sea of karma, crying out for help in the night. These scenes are terrifying to witness. Everything that happens at night seems to have never occurred by the time the day breaks. Everyone is completely unaware of what they are currently experiencing. When people notice mysterious bruises on their bodies, they often do not know how they were injured. No one makes the direct connection: 'I went to the hells to be punished last night!'
'How could I possibly go to hell?' I am sure everyone says this. Then I would like to ask: 'Who is it that goes to hell?' If you say that only those with great evil and heavy karma need to go, that is not incorrect. But I would like to ask again: 'Is it the living who go, or the dead?' Most people are clever and intuitively think, 'The dead go!' You are wrong. In fact, the living go too, and the number of people who go is quite significant. It is a terrifying reality, but one that people are not necessarily aware of. Many people forget everything about these nightly events by morning. Perhaps that is a form of compassion, allowing you to continue living your life, but it also deprives you of the opportunity to change your ways immediately. So, is it good or bad? There is no absolute answer. Now that you know a little, if you can change, then you are truly savable.
The Path of True Repentance
I am some of your memories to let you see the true situation. I hope you can understand that humans must not be attached or greedy. The lifespan of a body is limited. When the time comes, everyone should seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Otherwise, in this chaotic cycle of rebirth, with such terrifying laws of karma and cause and effect, how can you be in control? Often, past lives—and even other past lives—come looking for you. How will you repay them? The only way is to 'let go.' What is called 'letting go' is not choosing to let go without knowing the truth or refusing to face it; that is not in accordance with the . It should be about facing the past with , understanding it, and then letting it go—never thinking of it again, never creating such karma again. This is true change, true repentance, and true letting go. But most people cannot do this, so they are mostly in the process of suffering retribution.
Today, a creditor finds you to seek revenge. At the destined time, the creditor demands repayment, causing you pain and claiming the debt you once owed. When your lifespan ends, it is very likely that because you are attached to this karmic debt, you die and enter the ghost realm. Because you have not reached the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, you continue to reincarnate. You also begin to wait for the person who sought revenge from you. You, too, wait for the opportunity to take revenge. Once they are reborn and have a physical body, you take your revenge, 'an eye for an eye,' by possessing them. You may be aware of what you are doing at the moment, but because you cannot let go of this grudge, you are blinded by hatred. You want to do it, and you want to take revenge. In this cycle of karmic retribution, when will the beings in the sea of karma be willing to end it all? I was once a member of this sea of karma, but now I see clearly. It is too terrifying. Everyone should seek liberation. You must know that any Buddha-teaching that does not lead to liberation is not ultimate. How can one achieve success through human-world Buddhism? Why are you still obsessed with this body? This body must not be kept. Even if you train to be healthy, smooth, and flexible, you must let it go. Keep your thoughts on the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss—think of yourself and think of all the connected beings around you as all heading toward the West. You can never be certain when you might change again; one moment of carelessness and you could fall back into the endless cycle of rebirth. It is better not to do things that you cannot be sure of. Many practitioners have studied so much but cannot achieve success. It would be better to be simpler: just one Buddha-name and one thought of the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Do not want anything else.
The Cycle of Suffering
What is good about this world? It is filled with karma and retribution. If you are not liberated, you are simply immersed in this environment. Some children are born with obvious karma. It is not that these people are bad; everyone comes here carrying karma. It is just that their innate retribution makes it more apparent, and they have additional innate obstacles. They spend their whole lives enduring such incomplete retribution. Children born with disabilities are all cases where karmic creditors have arrived. This drama of 'you wait for me to take revenge, and I wait for you to take revenge' is reincarnation—the entanglement of life and death. No one is willing to soften their personality. Everyone's personality carries the karma of past lives. Behind everyone, there is a large group of people often waiting. It is too pitiful not to know how to awaken and seek life. Do you still want to continue taking revenge on each other, killing each other, and suffering in the cycle of life and death? It is very tiring.
In a person's life, how many opportunities are there to meet someone who dares to tell you the truth? It is not easy to meet such a person, and if you still do not listen, you are either ignorant or arrogant. If you do not know how to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss and still cling to the remaining life of your physical body, your karma is too heavy, which is why you are obstructed from encountering the Great Dharma. They want you to die; they do not want you to live. Is the situation not serious enough? Face it quickly.
The Only Way Out
People say, 'If karma is not heavy, one is not born in the Saha world; if love is not severed, one is not born in the Pure Land.' Do you not fit both descriptions? If you are connected by karmic affinity and can read this article, I hope you can understand that nothing in this world is something we can cling to. We come empty-handed and we go empty-handed. Everyone can speak of these truths, and you have heard them countless times, but few people truly achieve them. Why? Because they have not seen the true laws of karma and cause and effect clearly, which is why they do not know how to let go. In the end, they cannot escape the catastrophe of death. I have even seen many people who have already quietly begun to suffer retribution while still alive. Their bodies collapse, they become ill, weak, lose their focus, or become insane. There is not a single person who is not suffering retribution. They are dragged away to be beaten in the middle of the night, yet they know nothing when they wake up. Is that not too pitiful? Or they are surrounded by a multitude of karmic creditors, driving them to madness. Before they are led to their deaths, they are first made to go insane and commit sins that are hard to repay. I have seen many people meet such an end, but everyone is unaware that this is karmic retribution. Modern people demand evidence and civilization; they do not believe in these religious explanations. More and more such humans are appearing. To the public, this is mental illness. When there is aggressive behavior, they are forcibly isolated and sent to mental hospitals created by humans. Once time passes, these people not only cannot recover but become empty shells. The soul inside has become complex because the person themselves may have long been taken away to suffer retribution, and the spirits remaining in the body may have very complex causal conditions. It is like a tiny void. To put it plainly, this body is so terrifying; it cannot be mastered and is left to be manipulated. The only way is to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. Do not remain ignorant of these matters.
Everyone, through many lives, carries heavy karma. Life is like acting in a play; everyone has played every kind of role. The killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, and lying that everyone calls heinous crimes—you may have ignorantly committed them in some past life. The terror of reincarnation lies in the inability to be the master of oneself. What role will you play in this life? And what role will you play in the void in the next life? No one can truly know clearly. Most of it is still performed according to karmic retribution. These are truths that are not easy to understand or perceive. Since you are fortunate enough to know this now, you should grasp it and cherish it. A human body is hard to obtain, and the Buddha's teachings are hard to hear. You must grasp the opportunity to be the master of your own destiny. Life should not be spent in a daze; you must have awareness.
To have such an opportunity for everyone to hear and encounter all of this, you should be grateful. With only gratitude and no other thoughts or views, let us all work hard together. Once you know the Truth, you should practice it. Make the vow and work hard. Namo Amituofo."
Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre, Australia
Contact: Venerable Hailiang / Practitioner Cao
Phone: +61-456-793-638
Blog: http://purelandstone07.pixnet.net/blog
E-mail: pureland.stone@outlook.com
Address: 120 Gordon Smiths Road, Goombungee, QLD 4354, Australia
More from Master Chang Ren
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About the Author
Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre
Contributed to Pure Land Buddhism knowledge library