Voyages to Hell

translated by

Nguyen Khang & Bui H.Huu

CHAPTER 9

SECOND VISIT TO THE CITADEL OF PREMATURE DEATH

Buddha Tse Kong who manifested on the 19th of the second 8th month. Leap year of the dragon (1976)

Truth is expounded to guide common people
Toward self-cultivation and awareness
All religions must return to one God
Everyone will then learn Tao and practice Nam Mo.

Buddha Tse Kong:   The men in this world are rushing toward scientific studies. To them, metaphysics, spiritualism and religion are utopian speculations. Never have they harboured the thought that material things disintegrate and disappear, while the spirit alone is eternal lasting. Whether paradise and hell exist or not depends totally on the whims of our thoughts. Paradise is not far away. It suffices that we turn our heads to see it. As for hell, is it near? To improve ourselves religiously is to get away from it. What we saw in the Citadel of Premature Death was really disgusting. Well, Yang Ts’ien, how about a trip to hell? Raise your morals, son, quick to the dais. 

Yang Ts’ien:    I’m on the dais, Master. Let’s go... 

TK:     Arrived! 

YT:      Please, Sir, this place doesn’t look like the one we came to the other day. Why don’t we simply park our lotus dais outside the walls of the Citadel as we did? We can take only a few steps to be inside. 

TK:      After Buddha, the four phenomena of the void are materialization, stabilization, destruction and annihilation. Even the door of hell is subjected to annihilation by the phenomenon of the void. Therefore, coming in and going out is free, without any restrictions. The last time, we had lots of time so we landed our lotus outside the Citadel and walked in. Tonight, time is short, so we land right in the heart of hell. I hope this is a lesson for the men who know how to regenerate and follow the teachings of Tao. They will be freed from every material thing, and won’t be attached by the bonds of hell; they will be entirely free to come and go as I am now. 

YT:      Master, you’ve just taught me the Buddhist law of the Greater Vehicle. I piously recognize it. Here come the Mandarin-Governor and the General. 

TK:      Kneel down and greet them. 

YT:      My respects to His Excellency and to the General. The last time, you gave me precious teachings. I wish to express my profound gratitude. Tonight, I am coming to solicit more instructions from you. 

The Mandarin:     You honor me greatly, Venerable Buddha Tse Kong and Mr. Yang Ts’ien. I invite you to come into the Citadel of Premature Death to observe what is going on, and get more information for your book. 

YT:      Thank you very much, Excellency. Let’s go with them, Master. 

TK:      You go ahead with the Governor and the General. I have some affairs to settle. I will leave you for a little while. 

YT:      Master, if you leave me, who will take me home? 

TK:      Don’t worry. I’ll be back in due time. 

The General:      Just relax, Mr. Yang Ts’ien. Follow me, will you? 

YT:      In each of these two rooms separated by a partition, I see young people of both sexes packed together. They have dishevelled hair, and their looks are deplorable. Excellency, may I ask you the reason for their detention here? 

The Mandarin:      These young people, when in life, loved each other passionately. But something negative happened to them. They were deeply affected, they mourned their lost love. Then, yielding to a foolish resolution, they took poison to put an end to their lives. Upon their death, they were locked up in here. Humans should not allow themselves to be carried away by foolish passions that destroy their lucidity and their lives. If they sense they cannot live together as two birds flying wing against wing, why do they continue to hope that they can further their union like the branches of a single tree? 

YT:      In that far jail, I see many people with mutilated arms and legs, cracked heads, and their bodies covered with blood. Their wails, groans and cries are heart-breaking. Who are they, Excellency? 

The Mandarin:      They are the victims of traffic accidents in the world. Since they have not yet come to the age determined by their destinies, they rank in the category of premature death. Their souls, when arriving in hell, are temporarily detained here, until they attain the limit of their longevity. They will then be at the disposal of the Pontiff of hell who will apply the impartial laws of the two worlds to judge them according to their merits and their wrongs. 

YT:      What a strange conception of justice! A man is killed under wheel of a vehicle. That misfortune alone inspires a lot of pity. Now the victim is put in jail and prevented from entering heaven. I find such justice a bit inhuman. 

The Mandarin:      Young man! You see only one aspect of the matter. It’s not necessary that every person killed in a traffic accident come here. Those people who have attained their predestined age and are killed in an accident because of the karma of their previous life, don’t come here. Many people curse heaven and earth for the misfortunes that fall upon them unjustly. All of their lives they have tried to regenerate and accumulate virtue and good acts. With all these merits, they still have to die under the wheel of a vehicle! Could we say therefore that the celestial scheme is unfair? Look! Yen Hoei was an honest and virtuous man. He died very young. Take Sikya Muni, the founder of Buddhism who was wholly dedicated to his religious ideal. He has been the target of unceasing misery and misfortune caused by devils and demons. Who’s will is it? Who is incorrectly accused of having no clairvoyant eyes upon human affairs. Isn’t this the will of God the Supreme? Man’s physical body is a trifling thing. It is perishable. Only his spirit counts: That is immortal. 

YT:      If the principle of three successive lives is well-established to define good, evil and causality, how do you explain the cases of premature death? Isn’t there some contradiction that leads men to doubt the theory of cause and effect? Can you give me some explanation about that matter, Excellency? 

The Mandarin:      The three successive lives usually alluded to only a short spell in the long march of time. Since scores of millennia, whose beginning was lost in time immemorial, man has passed through so many incarnations that the causes and effects of his former lives become uncountable. Buddha only referred to three existences in the principle of causality. They consist of the former life, the present life, and the future life. The karma does not merely result from the causes of one’s former life. It is the outcome of the whole causal process that has been developing from the yet hazy apparition of the spiritual soul until the time it is completely condened, then, until now. Men used to believe that their present fate inherits all the karmas of their previous life. With this conception, they fail to take into account the crede of faith. They should know that their conduct in the former life affects only seven tenths of their present destiny, while the other three tenths is influenced by their moral conduct in this life. This axiom is justified: “Destiny is hard to modify, but luck may deter its course”. 

YT:      Now, I begin to realize how things are. A great number of people believe that all of the things that happen to them are the consequence of the actions of their previous life. And some believe that everything is disposed for them by God, the Supreme Being. All such conceptions are negative and in contradiction with reality. Now, Excellency, from the cells of the jail opposite come poignant screams. What crimes have those detainees committed? 

The Mandarin:      They are the victims of assassination or of mutual slaughter. 

YT:      That’s really unthinkable! The assassin and the assassinated are under the impact of the law of retaliation and account settlement. How natural they should die! Why then are they sent to the Citadel of Premature Death after their death? 

The Mandarin:      Your argument is quite plausible. It is true that some people kill each other because they are governed by the law of retaliation and account settlement. But there is still another category of men who in this life refuse squarely to improve morally, or to acquire new virtues. They are the root of every quarrel and disorder that impairs the celestial cause. It is because of them that the motives for premature death are created. Humans in the world must be permeated with this truth. One couldn’t say: “I kill this fellow, because in his former life, he owed me some dept”. A proverb goes like this: “One should get rid of a vendetta rather than nurture it”. If someone owes you money but he cannot repay it, when you don’t force the payment, you will benefit infinite grace from God. If in the human world one doesn’t nurture in one’s heart a selfish craving but lives fraternally with all fellowmen, just as heaven and earth don’t protect any particular individual, hell will exist no longer. The theory of causality will fall into disuse. Man must understand that the mere fact of possessing a body to live in is already a blessing he obtains with difficulty from the All-Mighty. He has the duty to educate his heart and improve his conduct. If a man inconsiderately loves every flower (implying the fair sex), telling himself that a given flower owed him a debt of love in her former life, and that in this life he is entitled to claim his due, he commits a heavy error. He cannot act likewise by picking every flower he finds on his way. His actions are in no way justified by the principle of causality, nor are they included in the law of retaliation and account settlement. The cause created by his former life can only be justified when his encounter with the girl is sudden and spontaneous. On the contrary, the one who intentionally commits dishonest actions creates for himself a heavy karma with disastrous effect in his future life. 

The General:  Each of His Excellency’s sentences is a truth. Men should assimilate them and come out of their illusions. If they fail to grasp this truth, they will remain callous to the teachings of religion. They will argue that the persons with angelic and buddhistic essence are the only ones to attain enlightenment and reach nirvana. More erroneous are the idle remarks of those men who pretend to be exempt from any type of work, once they own a fortune worth tens of thousands of dollars. 

Buddha Tse Kong:      (back from a short absence, talking to Yang Ts’ien) I am back. The sayings of His Excellency the Governor and of the General are perfectly correct. They will eliminate all man’s errors. Think of the times when all men were Immortals and Buddhas. Later, they fell in this world here-below, became imbued with the dust of illusion which created passions in them, blinded them, and made them lose their genuine nature. That’s why they can’t return to their origin. Now that heaven proclaims the great doctrine of the Tao, this is an era when the principle of causality draws to an end, giving place to the convergence of Void. Thus enlightened by the grace of God, mankind should not fall back in error. Those who patiently convert to the Way will become immortals and buddhas; those who don’t will return as before to the six ways of transmigration. Immortals and buddhas are born from a man’s heart. Destiny is not determined by heaven, but by man himself. All this is confirmed by the spectacles we saw in the Citadel of Premature Death. Yang Ts’ien, be ready for the return. We thank you, Excellency and General, for the assistance you afforded us by giving explanations about the Citadel, and the necessity for combatting man’s erroneous beliefs. 

YT:      The way of the Tao is as deep as an ocean. Without the explanations of the Governor and of yours, Master, humans would not have an accurate idea of things. It is desirable that you give ample teachings on the Truth to instruct men, guide the devotees in the right direction, and help them make correct decisions about things concerning the Tao. Only under these conditions could men avoid erroneous thinking that makes them ignore the Truth even until their death. 

TK:      This is precisely my responsibility. Henceforth, every effort is exerted for the propagation of the Truth. The Temple of the Sages is assuming the task of accomplishing this work for men’s salvation and directing them to the right way, and thence, to sanctity. Now, we must be going. 

YT:      Yes, Master. I’m seated. Shall we go? 

TK:      Here we are. Get down from the lotus dais now and enter your body.

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CONTENTS

Forward
Introduction
Preface
Summary
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Celestial Edict
Postface

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