Avīci or Avici ( Sanskrit and Pali for "without waves"; zh, 無間地獄 or ; ja, 無間地獄 or ; my, အဝီစိငရဲ) is one of the hells ('' naraka'') in Hinduism and Buddhism. In Hinduism, it is one of the twenty-eight hells located in the kingdom of Yama, where individuals are reborn for bearing false witness and outright lying while transacting business or giving charity. In Buddhism, it is the lowest level of the Naraka or "hell" realm, with the most suffering, into which the dead who have committed grave misdeeds may be reborn. It is said to be a cube 20,000 '' yojanas'' (240,000 to 300,000 kilometers) on each side, buried deep underneath the divine (nonvisible) earth. ''Avīci'' is often translated into English as " interminable" or " incessant", referring to suffering without periods of respite, although it is believed to be ultimately impermanent.

Avīci-punishable offenses/transgressions

There are various evil acts which can lead one to being committed to the torments of . People reborn in have generally committed one or more of the Five

Anantarika-karma Ānantarya Karma (Sanskrit) or Ānantarika Kamma (Pāli) are the most serious offences in Buddhism that, at death, through the overwhelming karmic strength of any single one of them, bring immediate disaster. Both Buddhists and non-Buddhists mus ...

("Grave Offenses"): * Intentionally killing one's father. * Intentionally killing one's mother. * Killing an '' arhat'' (enlightened being). * Shedding the blood of a Buddha. * Creating a

schism A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...

within the '' sangha'' (the community of Buddhist monks, nuns, and laypeople who try to attain

enlightenment Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

Details about Avīci

Buddhism teaches that going to Naraka is temporary, allowing the offenders to work off the karma they garnered in life. is sometimes cited as lasting 3.39738624×10¹⁸ or 339,738,624×10¹⁰ years, about 3.4 quintillion years. The Lotus Sutra provides an example of humans who have to endure long-term suffering in . Some sutras state that rebirth in will be for innumerable '' kalpas'' (aeons). When the offending soul passes away after one ''kalpa'', it is reborn in the same place, suffering for another ''kalpa'', and on and on until it has exhausted its bad karma. For this reason, the hell is also known as the "nonstop way" (). Nichiren famously wrote that Buddhist monks who ignored the passages in the Lotus Sutra, which claimed superiority over other sutras, would fall into . Outside of Nichiren, it is extremely rare for a Buddhist monk to condemn anyone to , although the Lotus Sutra itself states of anyone who slanders it: "when his life comes to an end, he will enter the Avichi Hell." Some believe rebirth in (or any lower realm, for that matter) should be seen as a process of purification. If anyone correctly follows the teachings of Buddha, they will be able to attain enlightenment without going to any hell even if they have accumulated a vast amount of negative karma (excluding

). There are many stories of people who have accumulated negative karma but avoided all the levels of Naraka because they attained enlightenment before their karma ripened. If one has Anantarika-karma, he will not be able to attain enlightenment in this life because this negative karma will ripen immediately. Buddhism accepts the principle of ''

anattā In Buddhism, the term ''anattā'' (Pali: अनत्ता) or ''anātman'' (Sanskrit: अनात्मन्) refers to the doctrine of "non-self" – that no unchanging, permanent self or essence can be found in any phenomenon. While often ...

'', according to which there is no concept of self. Consequences are results of actions that are brought by in an impersonal manner described with the concept of karma. There is no supernatural being applying its own will to determine someone's fate: " ..beings are owners of kamma, heir to kamma, born of kamma, related through kamma, and have kamma as their arbitrator. ''Kamma'' is what creates distinctions among beings in terms of coarseness & refinement."Cula-kammavibhanga Sutta: The Shorter Analysis of Action
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avīci Locations in Buddhist mythology Buddhist cosmology Naraka