202 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
202 lines
10 KiB
Plaintext
Hell
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World Scripture
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HELL
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The following passages describe the lower realms of hell. Some say that hell
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is but a state of mind, yet as anyone knows who has experienced the pangs of
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intense loneliness, remorse, shame, guilt, or loss, such states of mind can be
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excruciatingly vivid. Furthermore, it is said that in the spiritual world it
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will not be possible to avoid such feelings, as is usually done while in the
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body, through such devices as forgetting, rationalization, or losing oneself in
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sense-pleasures or drink. There is no respite from unpleasant feelings, which
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remain to torture the unfortunate soul continually. To describe such pain,
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which is beyond comprehension, scriptures use concrete images: burning fire,
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boiling water, bitter cold, being crushed, hacked and dismembered, trampled,
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burned, and eaten alive.
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As for the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, as for murderers,
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fornicators, sorcerers, idolators, and all liars, their lot shall be in the
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lake that burns with fire and sulphur, which is the second death.
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1. Christianity. Bible, Revelation 21.8
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There is a stream of fire from which emerge poisonous flames.
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There is none else there except the self.
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The waves of the ocean of fire are aflame
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And the sinners are burning in them.
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2. Sikhism. Adi Granth, Maru Solahe, M.1, p. 1026
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Hell is before him, and he is made to drink a festering water, which he sips
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but can hardly swallow. Death comes to him from every side, yet he cannot
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die--before him is a harsh doom.
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3. Islam. Qur'an 14.15-16
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Maru Solahe, M.1: Cf. Madaghishloka, p. 347. Qur'an 14.15-16: Cf. Qur'an
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11:106-07, p. 517; 14:42-52, p. 1100; 39:68-75, p. 348; 69:13-17, pp. 1098f.
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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Hell will lurk in ambush
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to receive home the arrogant,
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who will linger there for ages.
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They will taste nothing cool in it nor any drink
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except hot bathwater and slops,
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a fitting compensation
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since they have never expected any reckoning
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and have wittingly rejected Our signs.
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Everything We have calculated in writing.
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"So taste! Yet We shall only increase torment for you!"
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4. Islam. Qur'an 78.21-30
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After their lifetime's end
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They will enter the Avici hell,
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For a complete kalpa;
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Reborn at each kalpa's end,
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They thus go on revolving
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Unto innumerable kalpas;
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When they come out of hell,
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They will degrade into animals,
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Such as dogs or jackals,
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With lean-cheeked forms,
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Blue-black with scabs and sores,
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The sport of men;
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Moreover by men
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Hated and scorned,
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Ever suffering hunger and thirst,
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Bones and flesh withered up.
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Alive, beaten with thorns,
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Dead, with shards and stones;
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By cutting themselves off from the Buddha seed,
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They receive such recompense.
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5. Buddhism. Lotus Sutra 3
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He went from there to the east. There men were dismembering one another,
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cutting off each of their limbs, saying, "This to you, this to me!" He said:
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"O horrible! Men are here dismembering one another, cutting off each of their
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limbs!" They replied, "In this way they have treated us in the other world,
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and in the same way we now treat them in return." He asked, "Is there no
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expiation for this?" "Yes, there is." "What is it?" "Your father knows it."
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6. Hinduism. Satapatha Brahmana 11.6.3
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Qur'an 78.21-30: See previous note. Lotus Sutra 3: Avici hell is the most
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severe of the Buddhist hells. In this passage, 'such people' means those who
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treat the Lotus Sutra with disrespect or who maltreat its followers. They will
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suffer the inevitable effect caused by accumulating such bad karma. Satapatha
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Brahmana 11.6.3: In this passage the sage Bhrigu is given a tour of hell.
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Later, his father Varuna explains the expiation for these sins through offering
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the fire sacrifice, the agnihotra.
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Some of the sinful are cut with saws, like firewood, and others, thrown flat on
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the ground, are chopped into pieces with axes. Some, their bodies half buried
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in a pit, are pierced in the head with arrows. Others, fixed in the middle of
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a press, are squeezed like sugarcane. Some are surrounded close with blazing
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charcoal, enwrapped with torches, and smelted like a lump of ore. Some are
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plunged into heated butter, and others into heated oil, and like a cake thrown
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into the frying pan they are turned about. Some are thrown in the path of huge
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maddened elephants, and some with hands and feet bound are placed head
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downwards. Some are thrown into wells; some are hurled from heights; others,
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plunged into pits full of worms, are eaten away by them....
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Having experienced in due order the torments below, he comes here again,
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purified.
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7. Hinduism. Garuda Purana 3.49-71
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Then the man of unwholesome deeds boils in water infested with worms. He
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cannot stay still--the boiling pots, round and smooth like bowls, have no
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surfaces which he can get hold of. Then he is in the jungle of sword blades,
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limbs mangled and hacked, the tongue hauled by hooks, the body beaten and
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slashed. Then he is in Vetarani, a watery state difficult to get through, with
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its two streams that cut like razors. The poor beings fall into it, living out
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their unwholesome deeds of the past. Gnawed by hungry jackals, ravens and
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black dogs, and speckled vultures and crows, the sufferers groan. Such a state
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is experienced by the man of unwholesome deeds. It is a state of absolute
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suffering. So a sensible person in this world is as energetic and mindful as
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he can be.
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8. Buddhism. Sutta Nipata 672-76
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There was a rich man, who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted
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sumptuously every day. And at his gate lay a poor man named Lazarus, full of
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sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table; moreover
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the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the
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angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried; and in
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Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes, and saw Abraham far off and
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Lazarus in his bosom. And he called out, "Father Abraham, have mercy upon me,
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and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue; for
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I am in anguish in this flame." But Abraham said, "Son, remember that you in
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your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner evil
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things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all
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this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who
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would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to
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us."
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And he said, "Then I beg you, father, to send him to my father's house, for I
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have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this
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place of torment." But Abraham said, "They have Moses and the prophets; let
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them hear them." And he said, "No, father Abraham; but if some one goes to
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them from the dead, they will repent." He said to him, "If they do not hear
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Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise
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from the dead."
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9. Christianity. Luke 16.19-31
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Garuda Purana 3.49-71: Vv. 49-54, 71. Regarding the last verse: the Eastern
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conception of hell in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism is analogous to the
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Christian concept of Purgatory. There is no eternal damnation; hell is a place
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to expiate evil karma with the end that the purified soul can again advance to
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a higher plane of existence. Cf. Markandeya Purana 13-15, p. 981. Sutta Nipata
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672-76: Cf. Tibetan Book of the Dead, p. 347; Guide to the Bodhisattva's Way of
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Life 4.28-35, p. 392.
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- - - - - - - - - - - -
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In the garden of the city of Sieu-Shui-Siuen, there once lived a man by the
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name of Fan Ki, who led a wicked life. He induced men to stir up quarrels and
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lawsuits with each other, to seize by violence what did not belong to them, and
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to dishonor other men's wives and daughters. When he could not succeed easily
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in carrying out his evil purposes, he made use of the most odious stratagems.
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One day he died suddenly, but came back to life twenty-four hours afterward and
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bade his wife gather together their relatives and neighbors. When all were
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assembled he told them that he had seen the king of the dark realm who said to
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him, "Here the dead receive punishment for their deeds of evil. The living know
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not the lot that is reserved for them. They must be thrown into a bed of coals
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whose heat is in proportion to the extent of their crimes and to the harm they
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have done their fellows."
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The assembled company listened to this report as to the words of a feverish
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patient; they were incredulous and refused to believe the story. But Fan Ki had
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filled the measure of crime, and Yama, the king of hell, had decided to make an
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example of him so as to frighten men from their evil ways. At Yama's command
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Fan Ki took a knife and mutilated himself, saying, "This is my punishment for
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inciting men to dissolute lives." He put out both his eyes, saying, "This is
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my punishment for having looked with anger at my parents, and at the wives and
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daughters of other men with lust in my heart." He cut off his right hand,
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saying, "This is my punishment for having killed a great number of animals."
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He cut open his body and plucked out his heart, saying, "This is my punishment
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for causing others to die under tortures." And last of all he cut out his
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tongue to punish himself for lying and slandering.
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The rumor of these occurrences spread afar, and people came from every
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direction to see the mangled body of the unhappy man. His wife and children
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were overcome with grief and shame, and closed the door to keep out the curious
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crowd. But Fan Ki, still living by the ordeal of Yama, said in inarticulate
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sounds, "I have but executed the commands of the king of hell, who wants my
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punishment to serve as a warning to others. What right have you to prevent
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them from seeing me?"
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For six days the wicked man rolled upon the ground in the most horrible
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agonies, and at the end of that time he died.
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10. Taoism. Treatise on Response and Retribution, Appended Tales
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