The Meaning of the Hell of No Interval — Avici, the Five "No Intervals," and Its Sins

The phrase "the Hell of No Interval" is even heard in everyday speech as a metaphor for inescapable suffering. Originally, though, it names the lowest of the Eight Great Hells taught in Buddhism. This article gently explains its meaning, the origin of its name, and the sins said to lead there.

The meaning of the Hell of No Interval

The Hell of No Interval is the lowest of the Eight Great Hells, a place where suffering is said to continue without pause. "No interval" literally means "without gap" — it expresses suffering that has not a single moment of rest and never breaks off.

The Eight Great Hells grow lighter in sin toward the top and graver toward the bottom. At the very floor lies the Hell of No Interval, and no hell is said to be deeper than this.

The origin of "Avici"

The Hell of No Interval is also called "Avici Hell." "Avici" is a transliteration of the Sanskrit avīci, and rendering its meaning into Chinese characters yields "no interval." Avici and No Interval, then, are the transliteration and the translation of one and the same hell.

The set phrase "abikyokan" — a scene of writhing, wailing horror — likewise joins this Avici Hell with the Screaming Hell of the layer above.

The five "No Intervals" — why there is no gap

Why "no interval"? The scriptures do not stop at suffering that never breaks off; they describe several kinds of "no gap," usually set out as follows.

• No interval of time: the suffering is unceasing across time.
• No interval of torment: there is no rest in the torment one receives.
• No interval of arrival: at death one falls here at once, with no gap in between.
• No interval of life: through the long sentence, life does not end, so one cannot escape by dying.
• No interval of form: a single body fills the whole hell, and however many sinners there are, they fill it alike, with no space between.

Even the escape route of "die and be released" is sealed off — here lies the reason the Hell of No Interval has been the most feared of all.

The sins that lead there — the five grave offenses

The Hell of No Interval answers to the gravest sins among the Eight Great Hells. The best known are the "five grave offenses": killing one's father, killing one's mother, killing a saint (arhat), wounding a Buddha so as to draw blood, and breaking the harmony of the monastic community.

Each is an act that turns on those who gave and raised life, or on the noble beings who guide others — a betrayal that tears out gratitude by the roots. That such sins are placed at the very bottom reveals the core of this view of hell. Falling endlessly without reaching the floor, torment without a break — such descriptions convey the sheer force behind the word "no interval."

A phrase that lingers

"It's like the Hell of No Interval" — today the phrase is used for a plight with no escape that drags on and on. A word that originally named the lowest hell in Buddhism has taken root in daily life as a metaphor for the depth of suffering.

The sentence the scriptures describe

The dread of the Hell of No Interval lies not only in the fierceness of its torment but in its length. It is said that merely to fall into this hell takes two thousand years, and that the lifespan after arriving reaches "a middle kalpa," a span beyond counting in years.

Yet here too, something must not be overlooked. In Buddhism, even the Hell of No Interval is not taught to be an eternal prison. However unimaginable the length, once the appointed recompense is served out, one is said to be reborn someday into another world. "No interval," then, can be taken to mean not "no salvation" but a metaphor for a span of time as vast as the weight of the sin.

Yurusen's "No Interval"

In the app "Yurusen," one of its seven judgments is named the "Hell of No Interval." It expresses the feeling that you cannot forgive someone or forget what happened. Two higher tiers, Screaming Abyss and Ten Kings Descend, follow it.

Even so, it does not truly punish anyone. It gives a strong feeling with nowhere to go the name "No Interval" and quietly binds it into the ledger. Shrinking it to a manageable size that way is Yurusen's aim; you are under no obligation to force yourself to forgive. Fuyurushi, who rises when the resolve of "never forgiven" is full, is that feeling given shape.

The wraiths that appear at the end of judgment can be seen on the Wraith Codex page.