a story about hell....

There's a story about hell, that I heard when I was small... if I have not remembered wrongly, probably it's from the sunday school...
but then... later... I think... mm... I think, the story is actually originally a buddhism story...
however... it doesn't reall matter... cos, the teaching is important..

The story is telling about how it is in hell...
and I think that actually refers to the err... (I think only buddhist friend can tell me the answer)
err... as.. buddhist definition, hell has different stages...
one of the stage is for those who starved to death... I think, there're more meaning in the words "starved to death" but then, I'm not sure of the exact explanation
(well.. what I can think of, is, starved from food, starved from fame or power, starved from whatever one was craving for and one could get before one dies)

ok.. so, there's this stage for these type of souls..
and what happened is... if you enter that stage and see... you'll see a bunch of 'hungry ghosts' trying to eat, but cannot reach the food, and they can never eat the food... BECAUSE.. each of them is given a pair of very long chopsticks(or you call it forks, you can modify according to location ^_^;)
mm.. a very simple story..
while the teaching behind is..
if these hungry ghosts have stopped thinking only about themselves... and start to think of the others, they can use their chopstick to pick up the food, and feed the ghost who sits opposite them... right??
but then... ^__^ I like simple but meaningful story like this..

as... I was praying today.. and then, I started to wonder, how should one prays..
and actually I think I know... the most effective type of prayer, is when you pray for the others...

The ghosts mentioned above, will forever be starved from food, even though the food is in front of them..
that's why, they are in hell...