Difference 1: Different functions.

Hell is the place where the soul suffers after death; And purgatory is the process of purgatory after death, it is to purify the sins and dirt on people, and it is an experience of purification in the process of reaching a perfect realm (heaven) after death.

Difference 2: the meaning of existence is different.

The meaning of the existence of hell is that people who insist on evil life deny the existence of hell; The significance of the existence of purgatory is that the Eastern Church denies the punishment and redemption of purgatory.

Extended data:

Buddhist hell:

Bali niraya (or naraka) can be divided into four categories: eight cold hell, eight hot hell, near hell and lonely hell.

Eight Cold Hell can be divided into: foaming hell, foaming hell, biting hell, Ah Ch 'ou coming out of hell, roaring hell, cracking like purple hell, cracking like red-violet hell and cracking like big red-violet hell.

1, Blister Hell: Although the pain of Blister Hell is the lightest in Eight Cold Hell, it is still miserable. The frozen ice is as hard as an iron blade and as sharp as a knife. There is no clothes to cover it, and there is no place to cover it. Among them, all beings are frozen like corpses, and the water in the body freezes and expands into terrible blisters all over the body, beyond recognition.

2, bubble hell: this hell is similar to the former, but worse. Among them, the body of all beings covered by blisters and sores is still blistered layer by layer, so that the sores are crushed. The whole body is like a huge wound with a red and white surface. The above two are described by the changes of the body of all beings.

3. Tight-toothed hell: So far, hell has been described as the change of the voice of all beings. Here, all beings twitch and curl up because of the cold, and their teeth make a sound of tight bite. The pain at this time is beyond words.

4. A-choo Hell: As the plot is more painful than before, all beings are forced by karma and can't help crying, and the crying in the whole hell is one after another.

5. Cry to hell: In the colder cold than before, all beings are forced to die by the drama and have no strength to scream. In despair and pain, they can only make intermittent, suffocating and moaning sounds.

6, crack like violet hell: so far it has been described as the whole body changes of all beings in hell. The bodies of the first five are tightly attached to the hard ice, and all beings in this prison are in harmony with the ice. In a colder environment, all beings are deformed and split into five petals and six petals, and the color is blue, so they are no longer human.

7. It's like a red-violet hell: all beings in this prison are the same as before, only more miserable. The petals split in the body of all living beings are deeper and bigger, so that the whole body is peeled off from the inside out. More visceral frozen meat exploded into dozens of petals, with green and red colors, and there was no difference between the trunk and the head and limbs.

8. It's like a big red-violet hell: the suffering of all beings in this prison is extreme. The peeled body has cracked hundreds of petals more and more, which looks like sores, like petals bursting, and the color is red and purple.