The Six Realms

by Kalu Rinpoche

Qualitatively, each of the six mental afflictions engenders a certain type of birth: hatred leads to a hell realm, greed to a hungry ghost realm, stupidity to an animal realm, desirous attachment to the human condition, jealousy to the jealous god realm, and pride to the divine states.

Quantitatively, these different states result from the accumulation of karma. So, a lot of negative karma generates a hell realm; a little less negative karma, the hungry ghost realm; and less than that, an animal realm.

When generally positive karma is mixed with a few negative aspects, we are reborn in one of the three higher realms of existence, according to the respective strengths of these karmas.

THE HELL REALM

Mind in the grip of anger and hatred produces the karma of a life in hell. What suffers in that hellish state is the mind, our mind. Hellish appearances, beings who attack or kill us, the environment, and all the suffering that afflicts us in that realm are productions of our own mind conditioned by our karma.

In these infernal states, we are relentlessly tormented by inconceivable suffering: we are killed, and in some hell realms we experience being killed over and over; we are tortured by extreme heat or cold. And there is no freedom nor any possibility whatsoever to dedicate ourselves to spiritual practice.

THE HUNGRY GHOST REALM

If our mind falls prey to greed or covetousness, the karma that results is birth as a hungry ghost. In this state, we can never get what we want, nor can we enjoy food or drink, which we desperately crave as hungry ghosts. We are always lacking and wanting, yet completely unable to satisfy our desires, and we suffer from hunger, thirst, and constant intense frustrations. It is also a state produced by our own mind and, though a little less unfavourable than the hell realm, it is just as miserable.

THE ANIMAL REALM

The mind can also fall under the sway of blindness, mental dullness, and stupidity, which cause birth as an animal. There are a great many animal species: wild animals, domestic animals, and so on. All of them experience different forms of suffering, such as being eaten alive, struggling against one another, or being subservient and abused. All the suffering found in the animal realm is also the production of the mind and the manifestation of karma resulting from previous negative actions.

These three types of existence make up the lower-realm states. Among them, the most favourable is the animal state. But even in that state, it is very difficult to awaken love and compassion and impossible to practice Dharma. In all of these lower realms, there is no possibility of practising Dharma and attaining realisation; the mind is constantly disturbed by anger, hatred, desire, and so on. Moreover, lower realm beings tend to perform more negative actions, which create still more painful karma. In this way, they perpetuate the conditioning of lower-realm lifetimes, which, furthermore, last an extremely long time.

THE HUMAN REALM

The human condition is the first of the higher-realm existences. Humans are practically the only beings endowed with the necessary conditions for spiritual progress, as well as the faculties that allow the practice and understanding of Dharma. However, being human does not guarantee spiritual progress. The value of human life is variable, and only those who have obtained what we call the precious human existence can practice Dharma; they are as rare as stars in the daytime! Although it is a less painful condition than lower-realm existences, the human condition still has many types of suffering, the four main kinds being birth, illness, ageing, and death. Aside from these four great sources of suffering, humans suffer when separated from those they dearly love during their lifetimes or at death, or from having to deal with people whom they do not wish to deal with or who are hostile toward them. Humans suffer from losing their belongings, from not being able to keep what they've managed to acquire, and from not being able to get what they want.

THE JEALOUS GOD REALM

Karma that is very positive overall but mixed with jealousy causes birth in the jealous god realm. This is a happy state endowed with many powers and pleasures but, because of the force of jealousy, there are constant struggles and conflicts. Jealous gods oppose gods who are their superiors and quarrel among themselves.

THE DIVINE REALM

Positive karma combined with very little negative karma results in a rebirth in the divine states. There are different levels of divine existence. The first is the divine states of the desire realm, so-called because mind in those realms is still subject to desires and attachment. These gods have an extremely long life: In one of the first god realms, one day lasts the equivalent of a hundred human years, and they live five hundred of their years. At the next level of the divine realms, one hundred of our years equal one of their days, and they live a thousand years! In these generally happy realms, there is nevertheless some suffering, caused by occasional struggles with the gods of the jealous god realm.

Desire-realm existences span from the most miserable realms — the hell realms — up to these first god realms; all these states are under the control of desire.

Beyond the desire realm, there is the subtle-form realm, which includes a hierarchy of seventeen successive divine levels. Beings in these states have a subtle form and extremely large, luminous bodies; their minds know few passions, few thoughts; and they enjoy incredible happiness. The predominant passion is subtle pride — beings in these realms think they have attained something higher, and they live in a sort of self-satisfaction.

These states of the form realm correspond to four levels of meditative concentration, characterised by the progressive transcendence of investigation, analysis, joy, and bliss.

Finally, beyond even these four levels of concentration of the form realm, there can be birth in the formless realm. Formless-realm beings experience no harsh suffering and have virtually no passions; they remain only in a very subdue form. The impurity remaining in their minds is a kind of mental dullness that prevents the realisation of the ultimate nature of mind. In the formless realm, the mind has access to four successive states of consciousness: absorption of infinite space, absorption of infinite consciousness, absorption of nothingness, and absorption of neither discrimination nor nondiscrimination.

The gods of the formless realm have the feeling of having a body, but this body is imperceptible. They have only the fifth aggregate of individuality consciousness - still present as a subtle ignorance which gives them the feeling of existing in this formless body. This consciousness finally acts as a mother who gives birth again to the other aggregates. In this way, the gods of the formless realm return to the lower realms. In order to be free from samsara, consciousness itself must ultimately be transformed into primordial wisdom, the wisdom of enlightenment.

These eight states of the form and formless realms belong to a positive, undistracted mind; their successive stages are progressively free of attachment. All of these states of the six realms of samsara are transitory and conditioned: they are all part of the wheel of samsara. Even though the gods of the form and formless realms are spared the harsher forms of suffering, they still undergo death and transmigration. They don't have the power to remain in their divine condition, and they suffer having to be reborn in a lower realm.

If we find it difficult to accept the notion of these different realms, let us simply remember that everyone's experience is his or her reality. When we are dreaming, our dreams become our reality, and so it is for the six realms. For example, water can be experienced in very different ways: for hell beings, it causes torture; for hungry ghosts, it is desperately craved; for some animals, it is a medium necessary for life; for people, it is a drink; for jealous gods, it is a weapon; and for gods, it is sublime nectar. The depths of the ocean are the fish's natural habitat, but humans cannot live there. Birds fly in the sky, but this is impossible for the human body. People who are blind cannot go where they want, while those who have normal vision can move around freely. Everyone lives in his or her own world or realm without perceiving the others. 

So, samsara is made up of three realms: the desire realm, the form realm, and the formless realm. All the possibilities of conditioned existence are included in it.

Becoming aware that all beings suffer in this cycle of existence will inspire us to free ourselves from ignorance and the delusion we are steeped in as a result, and thereby to free ourselves from samsara, which is an ocean of suffering, and to strive to attain the supreme happiness of perfect Buddhahood.

In the past, we have taken countless births in cyclic existence. Today we are human beings: if we use this opportunity wisely, it can be the point of departure for our liberation.