A Trip Through The Six Buddhist Realms
The core teachings of Buddhism are summarized in the iconography of the “Wheel of Life,” or Bhavacakra. This classic image is reproduced throughout Asia, often appearing near the entrances of Buddhist temples. Because of its visual nature, the Bhavacakra was often used as an educational tool for instructing illiterate people about the basic tenets of Buddhism. In addition to being a valuable guide to Buddhist thought, it is also one of the most comprehensive pieces of psychological symbolism that I am aware of. This article is an exercise in exploring my own perspective on the psychological insight which the wheel provides.
The image itself is densely packed with multiple levels of meaning. In the center of the Bhavacakra is a large wheel representing Samsara, the cyclic existence in which all beings are endlessly being reborn according to their past karma. The outer ring of this circle contains twelve scenes, each depicting a different step in the process of becoming. In the very center of the wheel is a depiction of a pig, a snake, and a chicken, corresponding to greed, hatred, and delusion, the karmic fuel of samsara. The wheel itself is being held by a ferocious demon named Yama, the king of death. In the upper left is an image of the moon, and to his right is a Buddha pointing to the moon. The moon represents the state of nirvana which is possible for those who have escaped the cycle of rebirth, while the Buddha exists to point the way to this possibility.
The largest portion of the image is the middle ring of the wheel, which depicts the six realms of Buddhist cosmology. Each of these realms represent a unique world which a being may inhabit. On one level we can interpret these literally as corresponding to physical places in which the entire life of a being is carried out. If you are born as an elephant, then you are born into the animal realm and stay there until you die. If you are born as a God, then you live up in heaven for your entire lifetime. It is also possible (and much more fruitful, I believe) to interpret these as states of mind which we may pass through within the context of a single life, depending on our karma.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about this more psychological interpretation of the six realms. Rather than literal places, I would go as far as to propose that a single being in the course of a single life could find themselves traveling through all of the realms, perhaps even multiple times, all the while still technically living on earth as a human. I want to take you on a trip through those six realms to give a glimpse into what they feel like. We will start with the realm that most would consider the goal or grand reward of living: the Realm of the Gods.
God Realm
The God Realm is characterized by pleasure and contentment. Struggle is almost completely absent. Here all the burdens that come with being an embodied being are non-existent. You experience no pain and no hardship. All of your needs are taken care of, often before you even experience them as needs. Within our current society the ultra-wealthy might be considered the closest to this state. You can pay or otherwise compel others into doing nearly every task for you. You can have any experience you like at any time. Aside from the ultra-wealthy, who often have hidden struggles of their own, the God Realm might be even closer to the care-free or idyllic childhood that some are fortunate enough to experience. Indeed, so often people look back fondly on their youth as a kind of edenic state free of worry.
This realm might sound ideal, but it has downsides. The primary one being that it cannot last forever. After enough time passes with you getting every wish you could imagine fulfilled, you start to become bored. You start to crave the unexpected, or otherwise develop apathy towards experience. Although there is no hardship, there is also none of the spiritual benefits or personal growth that come with hardship. You start to lose touch with reality. You begin to strive for something more that will satisfy you in a way that your current state of wish-fulfillment does not. Perhaps you lose the innocence of childhood and enter into the world of adulthood. In one way or another, you eventually fall out of the God Realm into the Demigod Realm.
Demigod Realm
In the Demigod Realm, beings are well-off, but never well-off enough. Although there is little overt pain or hardship, there is dissatisfaction. This realm is characterized by a constant struggle to enter (back) into the God Realm. You are always right at the gates of heaven, but despite all of your efforts, you never seem to be able to make it inside. In fact, the great irony of the Demigod Realm is that the more you struggle to make it into the God Realm, the more you firmly plant yourself among all the other Demigods. Just one more raise, just one more vacation home, just one more love affair, one more late night out with friends. But it is never enough. Within our capitalist society, the best most can hope for, the “American Dream” is to end up in the Demigod Realm.
After enough time in the Demigod Realm, you slowly become ever more consumed by the struggle to the point that the pleasure you seek no longer satisfies. You are no longer able to appreciate the freedom from pain, or the plentiful food, water, shelter, and friends you are surrounded with. Your safe place in society starts to be put at risk as the seeking takes a greater and greater priority. You eventually fall into the Realm of the Hungry Ghost.
Hungry Ghost Realm
In the Hungry Ghost Realm, the satisfaction of pleasure is no longer even within reach. The struggle to go from good to great has degenerated into the struggle to feel good at all. Everything you try to do to bring yourself closer to the happiness you once knew now only has the opposite effect. Every delicious piece of food you try to eat only turns to burnt ash in your mouth. Sustenance and stability are impossible. It is in this realm that beings trapped by addictions of all kinds find themselves. Just one more bottle of beer, one more line of coke, one more game of poker, one more pornographic video. Not only is one never enough, but an infinite number of such experiences will never be enough.
Your ability to interact with others in society is completely disrupted. Soon you lose your job, lose your spouse, lose your home. In the vain pursuit of any pleasure at all, you forfeit the ground upon which your ability to stave off pain and suffering is based. You find that you can no longer afford food or shelter. The pursuit of your cravings preclude any capacity to build a stable ground of being for yourself. Finally, you find yourself falling out of the Hungry Ghost Realm and into the Hell Realm.
Hell Realm
In the Hell Realm the pursuit of pleasure is no longer possible. People of both western and eastern cultures are all familiar with this realm in one way or another. In the west it is traditionally characterized by “fire and brimstone.” But the Hell Realm can also be freezing cold, something Dante was well aware of. For the Buddhists it can also be painfully sharp or agonizingly heavy. Indeed, there are as many ways to suffer intensely as there are ways to feel pleasure. And the Hell Realm contains them all. In this realm you cannot even think of pursuing desires because your entire existence consists of pain and suffering. The best you can hope for is a moment of respite.
The inhabitants of the Hell Realm are homeless, refugees, victims of violent assaults or of terrorist attacks, or individuals going through withdrawal from drug addiction. Their entire being is organized around two things. The first is survival, the second is the escape from suffering. But just as the God Realm’s bliss and peace were impermanent, so too is the suffering of the Hell Realm. Eventually you encounter a helping hand, or some stroke of fortune which presents an opportunity to escape. Maybe the door is open just a crack, but that crack is enough to slip out through. You finally exit the Hell Realm, but you are not yet living in the Realm of Humans. Instead you first find yourself in the Realm of Animals.
Animal Realm
In the Animal Realm, pleasure once again becomes possible. You are able to finally feel some respite from the endless torment that characterized the Hell Realm. You begin to get a sense of the direction to move in for greater stability and peace, but it is still vague and uncertain. Existence in this realm is marked by confusion and a lack of clarity. There is love to be found in this realm, but also violence, hatred, and ignorance. You find yourself easily swayed by the beliefs and actions of others around you. You react to the circumstances around you as if by instinct alone. All of your concerns are very immediate and local. You are primarily thinking about how you and your immediate family will eat and sleep soundly tonight. You are likewise concerned with avoiding the grossest forms of suffering, such as violence or imprisonment.
Eventually though the veil of confusion slowly begins to lift. Little by little, you discover that there are patterns and order to the reality which you inhabit. You are able to take advantage of these for your benefit and the benefit of those close to you. Life ceases to be a daily struggle and planning for the future becomes possible. Your ignorance and reactivity has greatly decreased. You have space to think and space to feel. You have finally entered into the Human Realm.
Human Realm
In the Human Realm, you are capable of making decisions about your life and future which can be carried out over the course of not just days, but months, years, or even decades. There is certainly still suffering and pain, but there is just as often pleasure and joy. You can feel your desires, but not be overwhelmed by them. This widened psychological space gives you a new level of freedom, but also a new sense of responsibility. You are in a position to question whether the life you are living is the right one. You have the capacity to look around you and consider not only your welfare and the welfare of your immediate family, but also the welfare of your larger community.
It is here in the Human Realm that you find yourself faced with a choice. What should you do with this freedom? Should you try your best to achieve happiness and the ability to fulfill all desires? Another natural course of action would be to step up into the God Realm once again. You look around and see other beings following just this path. For a moment though, you pause. You consider that maybe, just maybe, there might be another way. Perhaps by now you have learned the bitter lesson about how this ride called Samsara works, and you’ve decided that you are ready to get off. You realize that the thrill of the ascent back to the Realm of Gods isn’t worth the torment of the descent which must necessarily follow it. You have instead decided to seek Nirvana.
Nirvana
And so it goes that one day you sit under a tree, quiet your mind, expand your awareness, and open your heart. The karmic fuel that kept you going around the wheel of Samsara is no longer being replenished, and eventually what fuel did exist is finally all burnt up. The wheel stops turning. It stops even being a wheel. You have reached a point where even at the subtlest possible level, pleasures are not chased after and pains are not run from.
You have reached the state of Nirvana, but this is far from an end. Free from the personal chains of ignorance, greed, and hatred, your concern moves from a focus on yourself to a focus on all the beings still caught up in the cycle of existence. You look back on the wheel of Samsara from the peace of the moon and hear the unbearable cries of all those still suffering. The animating thought guiding you becomes: “Now that I am free, I seek to bring all beings, without exception, to this same state of freedom.” You have taken the Bodhisattva vow.
And what you find yourself doing at this point might surprise you: you jump back into the wheel. You have decided that you aren’t getting off the ride till everyone else can too. Your entire existence is now organized around this principle. As you set out on this new journey, you find that not only are you not alone, but that there are indeed countless other Bodhisattvas just like you, all quietly working for the liberation of all. You know that your collective task is not easy, but then again nothing in life worth doing is. And after all, you have all the time in the world to accomplish your goal.
