Cyclic Existence: The Five Aggregates And Six Realms

by Khensur Jampa Tegchok Rinpoche

We take refuge in the Three Jewels in order to be free from the duhkha of cyclic existence in general and unfortunate rebirths in particular. Cyclic existence involves taking on one set of mental and physical aggregates after another, continuously, without any fixed order. “Without any fixed order” means that there is no predetermined order of rebirth such that we will continuously have increasingly beer rebirths. In fact, we’ve been born into each realm countless times, with no fixed order and without choice. This circling is due to afflictions (destructive thoughts and emotions) and karma (physical, verbal, and mental actions). After living one life with its set of aggregates, we die and take another set of aggregates. The five aggregates are formed, feeling, discrimination, volitional factors, and consciousness. Together, they are the basis of a person. In the context of a person, the form aggregate is the physical body. The feeling aggregate consists of pleasant, unpleasant, and neutral feelings, and it accompanies all of our consciousnesses. The aggregate of discrimination identifies different features of an object and distinguishes one object from another, without mixing them up. The aggregate of consciousness refers to the six types of consciousness of a person, the five sense consciousnesses and the mental consciousness. The five sense consciousnesses correspond to the five types of sense objects and sense powers. One quality of mental consciousness is that it thinks. The aggregate of volitional factors includes everything not included in the other four: all the various mental factors — emotions, attitudes, views, and so forth — as well as qualities such as being impermanent and being produced depending upon causes and conditions.

Cyclic existence refers to the six types of sentient beings who are born under the control of afflictions and karma. They are also called migrating beings because they migrate from one realm to another as they take successive rebirths and samsaric beings because they circle under the power of afflictions and karma.

Of the six realms of existence that sentient beings are born into, the three unfortunate realms are those of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and of animals. Literally translated, the term we render as unfortunate realms is “bad-gone realms.” They are so-called for two reasons. First, we experience those rebirths as a result of having engaged in “bad” actions and heavy destructive karma. Second, those rebirths are “bad” in the sense that they are infused with pain and undesirable experiences. 

The unfortunate realm with the most intense suffering is the hell realm. In one type of hell realm, the beings suffer from extreme heat and fire, while in another they suffer from unbearable cold. The temporary and neighbouring hells also encompass their own particular miseries. In the hungry ghost realms, beings predominantly experience the suffering of hunger and thirst, unbearable cravings that are never sated. In the animal realm, the suffering is principally being preyed upon by other animals, used by human beings for work, and killed and eaten by either human beings or other animals.

The three fortunate realms are the realms of human beings, demigods, and gods. Beings of these realms are still in cyclic existence, and thus their situation remains unsatisfactory. But because they are temporarily experiencing the result of virtuous actions done in the past, they have much more happiness than those beings inhabiting the unfortunate realms. The term “gone-to-happiness” is used to describe them, because they have gone to an abode of happiness and because in that lifetime, it is easier to go from happiness to happiness, instead of from suffering to suffering as in the unfortunate realms.

The form and formless realms, into which beings are born as a result of having attained various levels of meditative adsorptions, are included in the fortunate realms.  In terms of the comparable number of beings in these realms, it is said that the greatest population by far exists in the hell realms, in comparison to which the population of the hungry ghost realm fades into insignificance. The population in the hungry ghost realm is huge compared with that of the animal realm. Similarly, when we compare the population of animals to the population in the fortunate realms of human beings and gods, the number of sentient beings in the fortunate realms is tiny in comparison.

In cyclic existence, we could be reborn in the human realm with human aggregates — that is, a human body and mind. After passing away from that rebirth and leaving the human aggregates, we could then be born in the animal realms with the aggregates of a bird, and after that life, we could be born in the hungry ghost realm or the celestial realm. We could say that we take one body after another in any of the six realms of samsaric rebirth. However, it is more accurate to say that we take one set of aggregates after another because in the formless realm there is no body, only mental aggregates are present. As long as we are under the influence of afflictions and karma, this process continues without interruption. 

In terms of having the opportunity to practice Dharma, the best rebirth by far is that of a human being, with its eighteen freedoms and fortunes, where we have all the internal and external conditions that enable us to learn and practice the Buddha’s teachings. Such a life is so amazing, the opportunity we have is indescribable.