(10) Do Buddhists Believe in Hells and Retribution? | Thich Nhat Hanh, 2014 06 21

The teaching of the Buddha can help many people.

Not only the people who have a high intellectual capacity,

and the people who do not have enough education.

So the teaching of the Buddha helps everyone.

So there is Buddhism, there is the kind of
Buddhism for the vast majority,

and then there is deep Buddhism for only a minority.

So these teachings may contradict each other
as far as the form is concerned.

And that is why it is said that in Buddhism
there are 84,000 Dharma doors,

many kinds of teaching and many kinds of practice.

And there are those who are afraid of punishment.

And if they know how to be afraid of retribution,

they will behave better,

because they are afraid of retribution.

And that is why to talk to them about hells,
all kinds of hells, hot and cold and so on,

that may help them.

This is a kind of threat.

If you behave like that,
you will suffer like this.

So in many temples we see drawings of hell,
and that's a kind of warning:

"If you don't practice the Five Precepts,
you will suffer like that."

You'll be boiled in hot oil or something like that.

If you lie then when you go to the hell, they
take your tongue and they cut your tongue.

And that helps many people also.

But that does not help other people.

That is popular Buddhism.

And we know that the vast majority believe
in rebirth,

in reincarnation,

but their belief is based on the wrong view of a self:

There is a self, there is a soul that is
distinct from the body,

and when the body is gone,

the soul always survives and seeks to penetrate
into another body and continue.

That is a kind of belief on rebirth and so on.

And that is the teaching of rebirth.

But it's not truly the deep teaching of the
Buddha,

because it is based on the wrong view of the self.

Any teaching that goes against the insight
of impermanence, no-self, and nirvana

cannot be described as the deepest teaching.

So whether you are thinking about cause and
effect, rebirth, retribution,

if your teaching and your practice do not reflect the insight
of impermanence, no-self, and nirvana,

that is not truly the teaching of the Buddha.

So there are many things that have come from
the teaching of the Vedas, of the Upanishads.

We know that before the Buddha, there was
already the belief in reincarnation and retribution.

It's not invented by the Buddha.

The teaching of retribution and reincarnation
had already existed before the coming of the Buddha.

But this teaching was based on the existence
of a self.

But the Buddha, although he teaches the continuation,
life after life,

but his teaching is based

on the insight of no-self, impermanence, and
finally nirvana, no-birth and no-death.

But that kind of belief, which is not purely
Buddhist, can also help.

And there are those who believe that the Pure
Land of Amita Buddha is not here, but in the

direction of the West, and you get there only
after you die.

But there are those of us who have a better…a
different view.

We know that the Pure Land, the true Pure
Land, is in the here and the now, it does

not have to be in the West or in the East.

When your mind is pure, and then the land
is pure also at the same time, which goes

more in the direction of Right View.

But the spirit of Buddhism is tolerance.

So there are those who cannot understand deep
Buddhism.

You have to allow them to embrace a form of
Buddhism that is more diluted, like the medicine

with some sugar in it, and it helps them.

So we are not criticizing them because their
teaching and their belief do not go perfectly

with the ultimate truth.

And because we have compassion and because
we have understanding, that is why compassion

is possible, and a real, a true Buddhist is
always tolerant, not fanatical.

And if you are skillful you can lead him or
her slowly so that they gradually abandon

their wrong view and get a better and better
view all the time.

And that may be applied to all of us.

In the beginning we have an idea about the
Three Jewels, Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

After ten years of practice, we have a better
view of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

And after fifty years we have a deeper understanding
of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.

So according to that, we should learn the
lesson of tolerance.

We should not think that our view is the best.

Because we are making progress, and we are
ready to abandon the present view in order

to get a better view.

And that is the practice of non-attachment
to view.

So in Buddhism if you have that insight you'll
be very tolerant and you'll accept other forms

of Buddhism.

You don't criticize.

Only you can help people to have a better
and better view and better practice.

And that is why there should not be conflict
and war between Buddhist schools of Buddhism.

And that has been a reality.

There are so many schools in Buddhism, but
they never organize a holy war in order to

fight each other.

And we should be able to keep that tradition,
tolerance.

And tolerance is we are not forced to be tolerant,
but because you have Right View that is why

your heart is open and you can tolerate those
who do not have the same kind of view as yours.

But you should try with loving speech and
deep listening in order to help him or her

to abandon her view that may still have fanaticism
or things like that in it.

And here we learn that the present moment
is not something that can exist independently

from the past and from the future.

You cannot cut and separate the past, present,
and future.

Because the three times, past, present, future,
they inter-are.

In one of them, you see the other two.

And that is why if you touch the present moment
deeply, you touch the past and you touch the

future.

And that is why the past is still available.

And the future is already available.

And that is the insight you get when you meditate
on the nature of interbeing of time.