Voyages to Hell

translated by

Nguyen Khang & Bui H.Huu

CHAPTER 46

VISIT TO THE PRISON WITH CAULDRONS OF BOILING OIL

Buddha Tse Kong who manifested on January 23rd, 1978. Year of the Horse 

Tao is something inconceivable and undefined
Search for it and long for freedom of soul
Forsake melancholy and welcome the springtide
The moon’s imprint on rocks forms a symphony divine.

Buddha Tse Kong:    We are going to take the first trip of the year to hell. It’s favorable to start a job during the blossom-time of spring. Let’s be ready, Yang Ts’ien. 

Yang Ts’ien:    Venerable Master, I am ready. Shall we go? 

TK:      We’ve arrived. Let’s come down from the lotus dais. 

YT:      Which prison shall we visit? 

TK:      We’re going to visit the Prisons with Cauldrons of Boiling Oil. See the Mandarin-Governor who’s awaiting us? 

YT:      True. A group of people seem to reserve a warm welcome for us. Let’s go to the Governor and the Generals and pay them our respects. 

The Mandarin:     No civilities, please. We are delighted with your visit, Buddha Tse Kong and Mr. Yang Ts’ien. Our prison, called Cauldrons of Boiling Oil is dependent on the 7th Palace. By divine order, you have come to us with much pain and difficulty. You certainly acquire great merits. 

TK:      Your formal praise touches us deeply, Excellency. But you forget your own merit dealing all day long with the prisoners without a minute of leisure or rest. 

The Mandarin:    We endeavor to fulfill our responsibility in re-educating the sinful souls, which tires us enormously. If we chance to cooperate with you in teaching morality to humans through the help of your book, it will be a worthy merit to have taught mankind in the name of God. You are invited to come inside. 

YT:      We are at the door of the prison. Sentry guards stand on both sides. The entrances, without exits, have made me think that the terms of imprisonment must be indefinite. The interior of the prison is sparsely and poorly furnished. A gigantic boiler, resembling a big cauldron used in villages for cooking pigs or vegetables, is in the middle of the room. The guards are fueling a brisk fire under the boiler. The oil in it is boiling at a high temperature. It is exactly what people on earth used to say “Cauldron of Boiling Oil”. The guards are pushing the souls to the cauldron, and then they pierce their bodies with a spear before pitching them into the boiling oil. The sinners manage to utter a single scream before they sink to the bottom of the boiler. In a brief time, the sinners’ skin and flesh are completely destroyed. Only a white skeleton is seen in the impassible cauldron of boiling oil. May I ask what kind of a torment this is? What a category of crime is subject to it? 

The Mandarin:     This punishment of throwing the sinners into boiling oil is one of the gravest ones applied in the prison of the 7th Palace. In the terrestrial world, the living people used to think that the boiling oil punishment is only reserved for demons and malefactor-devils. At present, we inflict this punishment on the souls who were extremely wicked. As a result, all of the sinful souls sent here were extremely wicked and dishonest people in their lives. 

YT:      What could be most of their cases? 

The Mandarin:     In their lifetime, these souls had committed the sins of robbery, theft, assault and battery, murder, incest, corruption, poisoning. In a word, they did harm to the life of the others and betrayed the divine law. Upon their death, they had to experience the punishment of the prisons of other palaces before they came here for enduring this extremely severe and painful one.  

YT:      Apart from the above sinners, are there sinful souls of another category to undergo this torment? 

The Mandarin:    Yes, those who made use of sorcery to harm other people are also punished here. This is done to melt away their black magic. 

YT:      Can you have some souls come, who have not yet been thrown into the boiling oil cauldron so I can interview them? 

The Mandarin:    Of course I can. General, please bring some souls in. 

The General:    At your request. Here they are. Mr. Yang Ts’ien, you can ask them questions. 

YT:      My old woman, do you know why you are here? 

The soul:    I was a brothel keeper. During my lifetime I did nothing but lead girls into debauchery. My trade consisted in pandering girls to pleasure-seekers. I earned money with my commerce of skin and flesh. After my death, I was condemned to the prison with the lake of mire, excrements and urine, then to the eviscerating prison, and this prison. The King of Hell is really merciless. In my life, all I knew was to amass money and I had no belief whatever in the spiritual world. After I died, I realized that I could not escape the punishment of hell. 

The Mandarin:    Your heart was too inhuman to have compassion for your fellow-countrywomen. You practiced the trade of young girls and led them to perversion. Where then are your morals and human nature? If you aren’t thrown into the cauldron of boiling oil, the germs of your wickedness will never be eliminated. 

YT:      Now, my fellow, you look so young. Why are you here to bear such terrific punishment? On your chest, I see blood stains, and you keep pressing your hands on the wound while moaning with pain. You have tousled hair, and your voice reminds me of a malefactor’s. What have you done precisely? 

The soul:    At present, I repent deeply for not going to school and for associating with hooligans and gangsters. I lost all my money in gambling and failed to pay my debts. Finally, I practiced the skills of a robber and a murderous thieves. Unfortunately, I was caught by human law, and sentenced to death. Right now, I am still suffering from the wound caused by the shot of the firing squad, and the pain is excruciating. After my death, I was condemned to several prisons and finally transferred to the 7th Palace. The King of Palace ordered my detention in this prison with cauldrons of boiling oil. I am now living in constant dismay without a single minute of tranquility. I advise humans to behave honestly. We can never enjoy the things we steal from other people. Once we give way to dishonesty, all the education that we have received from our teachers and parents are wasted. How can we repay our respect to them? 

TK:      The government laws in a country are always correct. You chose yourself the way to death and to be killed by a bullet shot. If there remains a spark of conscience in you, then in the next reincarnation, don’t forget to regenerate yourself. 

YT:      And you, gentleman, why are you condemned here? 

The soul:    When alive, in a moment of drunkenness, I had killed two persons at a time. I was condemned to capital punishment. After my death, I was tortured in many prisons. Now, at the sight of the cauldron of boiling oil, I repent infinitely for the blunder I committed in a minute of distraction. 

The Mandarin:    Homicide demands the assassin’s life, the dictum is clear. To you, a man’s life is no better than an ant’s and now you are scared of this cauldron of boiling oil? If we don’t throw you into the cauldron, the blood of your murdered victims will never be washed off. 

YT:      Now I ask that elderly gentleman. Why are you here? 

The soul:    I was a student of sorcery, and was especially selected by my master to be taught the most secret lessons of black magic. I was then surnamed “master-sorcerer”. Ordinarily, I was paid by my clients to harm other people with my magic, for instance to charm them to insanity, to sow discord in their families, to break their nuptials. I didn’t refuse to perform any bad actions. I also made use of my black art to bewitch the girls and excite them to carnal pleasures. I was happy in my life. After my death I was condemned by the King of Hell. I did try to utilize my sorcery to fight against him, but the infernal guards were too numerous and succeeded to overcome me. Today, I’m going to be thrown into the cauldron of boiling oil, and all of my black magic will be nullified. It is misfortune for those who don’t use their occult science for the sake of helping others. They will be subject to great anguish in hell. 

The Mandarin:    You have betrayed the holy doctrine as well as heaven. By using your black magic to harm other people, you have become a bad person! The Kingdom of Hell admits dangerous sorcerers and reserves for them the chastisement of boiling-oil cauldron. Those who study sorcery must remember the words of their teachers and use their occult knowledge for the sake of helping others. If sowing good deeds, they will be admitted to the domain of genii and Immortals after their death. But, if they act contrarily, they will fall into the grip of phantoms and devils. 

YT:      May I ask you this question, Excellency? Once being thrown into the cauldron of boiling oil, the souls’ bodies are decomposed and become mere skeleton? Then, after being taken out and revived with resuscitative water, they recover their former human forms. What sensation do they experience, if they must endure the chastisement again? 

The Mandarin:    The fact of being thrown into the cauldron of boiling oil is extremely painful and the soul has the impression that his body is completely dissolved. This sensation is comparable to that of a man who is forcibly drowned in water. At first, he is asphyxiated, and then he feels disintegrated. As a rule, the black magicians will have their magic power abolished in the cauldron of boiling oil. 

TK:      It’s growing late. We must go back, now. 

YT:      My deep thanks to His Excellency and to the Generals. May I say goodbye to you? 

The Mandarin:    Generals, stand on ceremony to greet the guest. 

TK:      Up on the lotus dais. 

YT:      I am ready. 

TK:      We’re back to the temple. Yang Ts’ien, let your soul be reintegrated into 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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