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are likewise ten thousand yojanas. And here, the interior of Avīci Great Hell is one hundred yojanas in length and width. Its floor is iron, its roof is iron, and each wall is nine by nine yojanas. From the eastern wall, a flame arises, takes hold of the western wall, pierces through it, and goes a hundred yojanas beyond. In the other directions too, this is the method. Thus, in terms of the extent of the flames, length and width... Thus, it is three hundred yojanas plus eighteen yojanas long, and in circumference, nine hundred and fifty-four yojanas. All around, including its heights, it is ten thousand yojanas. Why is this hell known as 'Avīci'? 'Vīci' means interval, and there is no interval of fire-flames, or of beings, or of suffering. Therefore, it is known as 'Avīci'. Indeed, from its eastern wall, flames arise, and going a hundred yojanas, intertwining, they pierce through the wall and go a hundred yojanas beyond. The same method applies to the other directions. Thus, due to the ceaselessness of the flames, it is Avīci. Moreover, within its hundred-yojana space, beings are ceaseless, like sesame seeds pounded and filled into a tube. It cannot be said, 'In this place there is a being, in this place there is not.' There is no end to those walking, standing, sitting, and lying down, being cooked. Those walking do not hinder those standing, sitting, or lying down. Thus, due to the ceaselessness of beings, it is Avīci. At the body-door, six thoughts accompanied by equanimity arise, and one accompanied by suffering. Even so, just as when six drops of honey are placed on the tip of the tongue, and one drop of molten copper is placed, due to its overwhelming power, only that is perceived, the others become unnoticeable. Similarly, due to its overwhelming power, suffering alone is ceaseless there, the others are unnoticeable. Thus, due to the ceaselessness of suffering, it is called Avīci. And they say, 'This great Avīci hell is situated beneath Jambudīpa.' Jambudīpa, however, is ten thousand yojanas in length and in width. And there, a region of four thousand yojanas, due to the exhaustion of merit of the beings who enjoy it, is covered by water and known as 'ocean'. In three thousand yojanas, humans dwell. In three thousand yojanas, the Himalayas are situated, so it should be understood. In Aparagoyāna, seven thousand yojanas, and so on... It should be understood that the measure in length and breadth has been shown. There, Jambudīpa is shaped like a cart. It is endowed with ninety-six hundred thousand port cities, fifty-six gem palaces, ninety-nine hundred thousand doṇamukhas, and thrice sixty-three thousand cities. Indeed, in Jambudīpa, originally sixty-three thousand cities arose. Likewise a second time, likewise a third time. But when these are combined, they become one hundred thousand, and beyond that, eighty thousand and nine thousand. And "Doṇamukha" is said to be the principal house, the place of origin for a great city. Aparagoyāna is shaped like a mirror. Pubbavideha is shaped like a half-moon. Uttarakuru is shaped like a square seat. They say that "the faces of the people living in those respective places, and in their surrounding islands, are also of those respective shapes." Moreover, here, this special quality, achieved by the power of merit of the Uttarakurus, should be understood. Indeed, there, in various places, delightful trees, with branches and twigs thickly covered with leaves, resembling mansions, serve as dwellings for those people. Where they dwell happily, other well-grown trees also stand there, always with blossoming tops. Water reservoirs too, covered with blooming lotuses, white water lilies, and fragrant flowers, always remain supremely fragrant, diffusing scent all around. Their bodies too are free from faults like excessive height, endowed with good stature and proportion, unaffected by old age, free from defects like wrinkles and grey hair, and remain throughout their lifespan with undiminished speed, strength, and splendor of prowess. Living on the fruits without effort, there is no suffering for them in seeking food through farming, trade, and so on. Therefore, there is no possession of slaves, maidservants, or laborers, and so on. Nor are there any dangers there from cold, heat, gnats, mosquitoes, wind, sun, snakes, or scorpions, and so on. Just as here, in the last month of summer, at dawn, the season is temperate, even so, it is always temperate there. The seasons are good, and no harm or trouble arises for them. They eat rice that ripens without cultivation, without husks, without chaff, pure, fragrant, cooked with fire from smokeless embers. There, it is said, are stones called "Jotika stones." They place three such stones, and on them, they set a pot. Heat arises from the stones and cooks the food. There is no other soup or curry. The taste is just as the eaters desire. As they eat it, no disease like leprosy, boils, skin disease, consumption, cough, epilepsy, or old age arises for them. They give to those who arrive at that place; there is no stinginess in their hearts. Even Buddhas and Paccekabuddhas, who are mighty, go there and receive alms. And they are not hunchbacked, or dwarfs, or blind, or crippled, or lame, or paralyzed, or with deformed limbs, or with impaired senses. The women there are not too tall, not too short, not too thin, not too fat, not too dark, not too fair, but beautiful and charming in appearance. Indeed, they have long fingers, red nails, full breasts, slender waists, faces like the full moon, large eyes, soft bodies, shapely thighs, white teeth, deep navels, slender calves, long, dark, curly hair, broad hips, not too hairy, not hairless, charming, pleasant to touch in all seasons, gentle, and speak sweetly, adorned with various ornaments, they move about. They always appear to be about sixteen years old. The men appear to be about twenty-five years old. Sons do not lust after mothers and so on; this is the custom there. For only seven days, men and women there engage in sexual pleasure. After that, they go about as if free from passion, as they please. There, unlike here, there is no suffering rooted in conception, no suffering rooted in carrying the fetus, no suffering rooted in childbirth. Like golden images from a red casing, children emerge from the mother's womb unsoiled by phlegm and so on, with ease. This is the custom there. The mother, however, whether a son or a daughter or having given birth, they place them in the area where they roam, and unconcerned, go as they please. When they are lying there, whoever sees them, men or women, they bring their fingers close, and by the power of their kamma, milk flows from there, with which those children sustain themselves. Growing up in this way, in just a few days, having gained strength, the girls approach women, and the boys approach men. From the wish-fulfilling trees, clothes and ornaments are produced for them there. Indeed, clothes of various colors and patterns, soft, delicate, and pleasant to the touch, hang from the wish-fulfilling trees here and there. Golden ornaments, adorned with various colored gems, shining with networks of diverse rays, and decorated with many kinds of garlands, creeper-work, and wall-work, for the head, for the neck, for the waist, for the hands, for the feet, also hang from the wish-fulfilling trees. Likewise, musical instruments such as lutes, drums, tabors, cymbals, conches, flutes, and harps, and their accompaniments, also hang from there. And there are many fruit trees that bear fruits the size of jars, sweet-juiced, which, having eaten, those beings are not afflicted by hunger and thirst for even seven days. The rivers there, with very clear water, with good fords, delightful, without mud, with sandy bottoms, neither too cold nor too hot, covered with fragrant water flowers, flow, always exhaling fragrance; there are no thorny, rough bushes or creepers, they are only thornless, covered with flowers and fruits; sandalwood and nāga trees themselves exude sap. And those who wish to bathe, at the river ford, place their clothes and ornaments together, descend into the river, bathe, and having come out, each one takes the uppermost clothes and ornaments. It does not occur to them: "This is mine, this is another's." Therefore, there is no quarrel or dispute among them. And their sensual pleasure and play lasts for seven days; after that, they wander as if dispassionate. Where and they wish to sleep on trees, there a bed is found. When beings die, they do not weep, they do not grieve, but adorn and lay them down. Then, such birds come, and carry the dead to another island. Therefore, there is no cemetery or unclean place there. Nor do the dead from there reappear in hell, or the animal realm, or the realm of hungry ghosts. They say, "By the power of the Five Precepts, established by nature, they are reborn in the deva world." Their lifespan is always a thousand years. All this, like their Five Precepts, is to be understood as established by nature. "Between those" means between those world-systems. "Lokantarika hells" means the space, the void, between worlds, between world-elements, is the lokantara; those born there are lokantarika, hells. Indeed, between three world-systems, like the spaces between three cartwheels or plates placed close to each other, there is one lokantarika hell. It is eight thousand yojanas in size, always open, not covered by anything below or above. Just as there is no earth covering the water below, so the lokantarika hells are uncovered. Similarly, above, due to the absence of deva mansions as in the world-systems, they are uncovered, uncovered, and endowed with darkness capable of preventing the arising of eye-consciousness. There, eye-consciousness does not arise, due to the absence of light. Even the moon and sun, capable of illuminating the three continents with a single burst of light,