Origins of Hell

I can't claim to have any great historical knowledge on this subject, but I remember being quite surprised to find out that the concept of hell existed in versions of Hinduism and Buddhism, during the period when I was on my spiritual search, before I became a Christian. There are many hells in these religions, apparently designed to punish particular types of sins in this world, and they are all temporary, a sort of purgatory idea really I suppose, and they also have a paradise for the good. Illustrations of ferocious ugly demon "gods" in these religions also abound.Also I think it interesting that when the Bible is translated, there is apparently usually always a concept in the target language that can be used to translate "hell" although there may be only a partial or vague correspondence in meaning. "Hell" is the English word that was used, "Inferna" is the Latin word that was used, "Hades" in the Greek, etc. This suggests that the idea of a place of the dead has always been a common idea among peoples, and in some cases a place where bad deeds are punished as well. I don't know what the pre-Christian meaning of the English "Hell" was. Suppose that would be an interesting bit of info.

Hinduism: Just a moment...Buddhism: {edit: added bolds}Page not found | SF State Faculty SitesAs for the concept of purgatory, it was a simple description based on the fact that the hells are temporary -- you pay your time there and then are reborn somewhere else. Different from the Christian concept of an eternal place of torment.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I think perhaps you should read my post more carefully as you are attributing things to it I don't see there."Bad deeds" is equivalent to "sin" for purposes of this discussion, in which I made it clear the equivalences between cultures are not exact."Paradise" is a lesser heaven. Such a place or state is clearly described in the post. There is also the Paradise of "Pure Land Buddhism." I have collected some Buddhist demon images off Google images but do not know how to post them. Perhaps I could email them to you and you could post them?I have run across MANY such illustrations in my reading, but haven't found many online yet.I believe I said "some versions" of Buddhism and Hinduism have hells and heavens, as I am well aware that Zen for instance doesn't -- or at least doesn't regard them as locations.Hindu multiple hells are discussed on the same site I quoted: Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.

I have collected the images but don't know how to post them. The links may not work because some of the images were on big pages of images and you won't know which one I targeted. Buddhist demon image--Actually that seems to be a painting of hell that I didn't mean to include. But it is a Buddhist production and it appears to have elements reminiscent of Hieronymous Bosch's paintings of Hell. Buddhist demon god imageBook ad, Oracles and Demons of Tibetbuddhist demon god clip artBuddhist imageHindu female demondakhini or Hindu female demondakhini in San Francisco Krishna templeThe ferocious goddess KaliSome Japanese Buddhist imagesEdited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : adding new links so as not to have to add a new postEdited by Faith, : No reason given.

I think that is a fair assessment. I did think that maybe it had come up enough by now not to be all that new, and didn't want to clutter up the thread with it since it isn't straight to what the OP wanted. But I hope by now it's been amply documented.

The Pure Land example was an ADDITION to the earlier reference to the heavens that were given in the first supporting post. "Heaven" of the sort that occurs on the wheel of life does just fine as a synonym for "paradise." It's not the heaven of God but a place of rather human type pleasures. To that I added the mention of Pure Land paradise.What is your problem with the word "sin" -- it's a good old English word for misdeeds of all sorts, and predates Christianity.I HAVE supported the claim of multiple hells. The one-hell reference in Hinduism you keep making so much of Message 7 is within a reference that goes on to discuss multiple hells, which I quote in answer to your complaint in a following post Message 9. {Edit= I went back and bolded the plural "hells."} The fact of a hell at all was my focus there. By now you should have that plus the multiple hells well enough documented.You are making up this supposed contradiction between the many demon gods of the religions and the statement that a god of high virtue rules Hindu hell. All I said was that these religions recognize many demon gods, I didn't specify their activities.I was unable to find illustrations of the calibre I remember seeing, many pictures of snarling ferocious gods with strings of skulls around them. I would expect you to be familiar with such pictures yourself. But for some reason I haven't found the best representatives. Although I think I found enough for my purposes.Also you got the quote wrong somehow: It should be "Unlike in other religions, the hell of Hindu religion is NOT ruled by an evil persona, BUT by Yama, a god of highest virtue."It turns out I said "versions" not "some versions" in my very first post Message 3. Same meaning.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.Edited by Faith, : No reason given.