I wish to clarify for all readers: my visits to the hell realms and all truths that I witnessed occurred while my consciousness remained fully awake. I journeyed there relying upon the spiritual power of the Buddha, not in dreams, nor through spirit-writing divination practised by groups such as Tian-Dao or Yi-Guan-Dao. I myself am a Buddhist disciple who has taken refuge in the Three Jewels, follows a vegetarian diet consistently and observes the Five Precepts. I am known as Ayù. Every word recorded above is true. I dedicate the meritorious virtues of compiling this writing to all sentient beings, and wish that everyone can attain Buddhahood.
17 / Attending a Tribunal for the Second Time — Witnessing the Two Departments of Rewarding Goodness and Punishing Evil Recorded in Ancient Texts
Ayù has recently been touring the Hells of Sexual Misconduct. Among all hell realms, the Hells of Sexual Misconduct occupy the widest expanse of territory. This shows that sexual misconduct constitutes an extremely grave crisis plaguing the mortal world today. The Buddha of supreme wisdom foretold this issue in numerous sutras long ago, and thoroughly explained how to permanently eliminate this innate fundamental obsession that binds all beings. We ought to diligently study the Buddhist sutras to understand the origin of lustful disorder and the methods to resolve it. Countless sutras discuss matters concerning sexual misconduct; it is impossible to enumerate them all here, so only several examples are cited below.
The Buddha Speaks the Extinction of the Dharma Sutra states: “There is no morality. People indulge in sexual debauchery and chaos, with no proper distinction maintained between men and women. … As the kalpa draws near its end, days and months grow shorter, and human lifespans shrink. People’s hair turns white by the age of forty. Men surrender to lust, exhausting their vital essence and meeting an early death; some live to sixty. Male lifespans will be brief, while women enjoy longer lives — seventy or ninety years, and even up to a hundred.”
The Sutra of Forty-Two Chapters records these verses: “Desire arises within your intention, while your intention springs forth from your thinking and thoughts. When the mind of duality becomes still and tranquil, one abides in the state of neither form nor activity.”
The Shurangama Sutra delivers an even clearer teaching: “If sentient beings of the six realms throughout all worlds free their minds from lust, they will no longer be trapped within the continuity of birth and death. You cultivate samadhi with the fundamental aim of escaping worldly afflictions. Unless lustful thoughts are eliminated, liberation from mundane existence can never be attained. Even with great wisdom and samadhi manifesting before you, if lust remains unsevered, one will inevitably fall into the demonic path. …”
In the sutras, the Buddha earnestly exhorted all beings that licentiousness arises from inverted thoughts within one’s own mind. Intentions spring from one’s thinking and thoughts, and every being bears the seed that fuels the transmigration of birth and death. The Buddha instructed us to completely sever all lascivious impulses in both body and mind.
A Buddhist sutra states:
“I who have committed unwholesome karmic deeds am like a charred wooden pillar;
unadorned in this life, so too shall I be in the next.