The Six Realms
The six realms are divided into three lower and three upper realms. The lower realms are the hell, hungry ghost, and animal realms. The upper realms are the human, jealous god, and god realms. There are many different explanations of these realms, but I’m aware of none more clear and direct than Patrul Rinpoche’s in The Words of My Perfect Teacher, where each realm is described as a particular experience of suffering.
Are the Six Realms Psychological or Imaginary States?
Some people think of the six realms as psychological or imaginary states. And some even try to include all six realms within the human-realm experience. They think, for example, that the human experience of extreme hunger and thirst is the same as hungry ghost–realm suffering; or that our experiences of extreme violence, warfare, or pain are real hell-realm situations; or that any great comfort, joy, wealth, and luxury are actually god realms—all within our own world system. But we should not mistake these human experiences for the six realms themselves. Our experiences of extreme poverty, hunger, and thirst are human, not hungry ghost sufferings. A war-torn country or some other disastrous situation with violence, aggression, and negative tendencies toward extreme pain should not be mistaken for the hell realm. Experiences of extreme pain and suffering are part of this human realm.
Do Distinct Realms Actually Exist?
A popular topic these days is whether or not distinct realms actually exist. It’s really not useful or necessary to say anything more than simply that they do exist—just as this realm exists. We see it, we believe in it, we have our human-realm experiences. Similarly, most of us can understand the animal realm; we can see how these beings create their realm.
The other realms are just as easy to understand if we work through our understanding of cause and effect. From one moment of distracted grasping, karma is created that comes to fruition as a particular kind of experience—with all its emotions, perceptions, and formations—and a particular environment.
Each karma, or action, has a particular result for the individual who creates it. It also has an effect on the environment and the limitless relationships that person has with others. So your own accumulated karma affects you, the environment, and other sentient beings, and their accumulated karma affects them, the environment, and you.
In this way, anything—subtle or gross—can be created. Just as we’ve created this human experience, other sentient beings have created other situations. So, the six realms are a complete description of samsara, and our experience of the realms is the fruition of our karma.
Based on karmic fruition, we are now experiencing the human realm. When our bodies die, our mind consciousnesses will move on and mingle with the force of the karma we’re accumulating now. This will result in a particular kind of experience and environment or world system.
It may seem difficult at first to logically prove the presence of a hell realm, for example. We may feel we’d like to take a camera or camcorder into the hell realm and bring back a record of the experience. Questions arise about the kinds of karma that lead to the realms into which we’re born. We can work with these questions as we go along. The important thing to remember is that death will occur—and before it does, we should really pause and contemplate exactly what we’ve accumulated in terms of karma.
Source: Based on Khandro Rinpoche. This Precious Life: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on the Path to Enlightenment. Boulder, Colorado: Shambhala Publications, 2003.
(Khandro Rinpoche in This Precious Life)