In today's increasingly advanced life, convenience is constantly improving, but the hidden dangers brought by civilization are also surfacing one by one. Wars, pandemics, economic issues, and more reveal that humanity is sitting on a train heading to hell. Is the hell that humans have talked about since ancient times merely a comforting notion,

a benchmark that, when compared to daily life, doesn't seem so bad? Perhaps the reason why people in today's society no longer fear those ancient legends and depictions of hell is that when daily life itself becomes hell, hell no longer seems terrifying, because people are already living in it.

 

When the two artists first visited the Eighteen Levels of Hell at Madou Daitian Temple in Tainan, they found that tourists seemed completely unafraid of the hell inside. Instead, it had become a so-called "B-grade" attraction, far from the original intention of creating hell to warn people against doing evil. This made the two artists start to ponder: what kind of transformation has made hell no longer frightening?

 

Perhaps it is because modern daily life is already filled with suffering, with the endless labor and tasks being no different from the eternal torment described in hell. As a result, people's tolerance for the ancient concept of hell has increased. In other words, because modern daily life is akin to hell, and because of their obsessions, people fail to see the truth and cannot escape the cycle of reincarnation. It is like the opium during a slow execution, allowing people to live and even enjoy hell.

If heaven is the ideal life that people aspire to during their earthly existence, then hell is an imagined worse place that provides some comfort in the endless daily hell, making life seem not so bad by comparison. But perhaps there is no heaven or hell at all—only bodies trapped in the mortal world and souls waiting for liberation.