Six Buddhist realms of existence

In Buddhism there are six realms of samsaric existence that beings are born into. The cycle is perpetrated by ignorance, greed, pride, anger and jealousy. As a result of each of these is a realm of suffering in samsara. Pride results in being born into the God realm, jealousy results in being born in the Asuras realm, greed results in being born into the Preta realm, ignorance results in being born into the animal realm and anger results in being born into one of the hell realms. A very common mistake is that people tend to fear rebirth in the lower realms and desire rebirth in the higher realms. This is a mistake, here the old adage applies, what goes up must come down. After all of the positive merits have been used up in the higher realms a being will tumble into the lower realms continuing the viscous cycle of rebirth and death.

God Realm

The seemingly highest of the six realms is the God realm. Think of the God realm as a never-ending college party (Ok not the best analogy for a parent but try and pretend.) Enlightenment is easiest to reach in the God realm, however because life is so great and you get to do what you want when you want with no worries you forget to do any positive deeds. There is always great music and food and you never get a hangover. Money is never a worry you are young and beautiful. You are convinced that you will never die that the pleasure is permanent. And so you never practice doing any good deeds.

Until, that is, your good karma has been spent. You start to die, you start reeking of decay and death, your beautiful body starts to shrivel and decay even though you are still living. Your 'friends' want nothing to do with you and abandon you, leaving you to your fate. There is no choice of when you fall from heaven and it is considered to be a very painful experience. After you die you are thrown back into the Bardo State and you don't know where you will be going next.

Demi-god Realm

The second highest realm of existence called the Demi-god realm; the realm of Titans, Asuras or the jealous god realm is marked with jealousy and paranoia. Those born into this realm, though blessed with a high birth, are exceedingly jealous of the God realm and of each other. The Titans spend all their time fighting among themselves and looking over their shoulders because they are paranoid and they forget what they might have learned about the Dharma.

Human Realm

Being born into the human realm is considered to be a very rare occurrence. The chance of being born into human realm happens about as often as if there is a lone sea turtle in the ocean. Every hundred thousand years that turtle comes up for breath and only if the turtle breaks through the ocean surface within a small ring the size of a hula hope. It is only in the human realm that sentient beings can overcome adversity and reach enlightenment. Because human birth is so rare Dharma practice should be of the utmost importance.

With less then a century to devote towards reaching enlightenment is it any wonder that the goal of enlightenment takes many lifetimes to achieve?

Animal Realm

The animal realm is nothing but suffering. A lot of people when they think of animals think of pampered pets, but even these well loved animals suffer because they are living in ignorance, they have no way obtaining the knowledge and taking the steps towards enlightenment. In the wild, animals are ruled by instinct and are either predator or prey. The herbivores live in a state of constant flux never completely safe always in search of fresh food and always wary of carnivores. The carnivores on the other hand are doomed from the start, driven by an instinct to survive they must kill and feed on the innocent or parish.

Preta Realm

In the hungry ghost or preta realm the inhabitants suffer from a greed that can never be satisfied. They have huge stomachs but tiny mouths, food and water is very scarce and when a preta sees food or water they are so delusional that they believe they are seeing blood, bile and other disgusting things of that nature. When and if a preta finds food or water and is able to consume it, it burns their throat and stomach like fire. An all you can eat buffet could never satisfy one born into the preta realm because they are so greedy that more they have the more they want, nothing is ever enough. Because of their overwhelming suffering they are unable to reach enlightenment.

Hell Realms

The lowest realm of existence is the hell realm. There are numerous different hells up to 136 depending on the tradition. These are divided into 8 hot hells and 8 cold hells.

Hot hells

The Reviving Hell
The Black Line Hell
The Crushing Hell
The Wailing Hell
The Great Wailing Hell
The Hot Hell
The Greatly Hot Hell
The Unceasing Hell

Cold hells

The Blister Hell
The Bursting Blister Hell
The Brrr Hell
The Alasss Hell
The Chattering Teeth Hell
The Utpala Flower Hell
The Cracked Like a Lotus Hell
Greatly Cracked Like a Lotus Hell.

The hell realms are looked upon as journey that is pure suffering. Surrounding the hot and cold hells mentioned above are hells that are considered to be minor. One born into the worst of the hot or cold hell realms must not only endure suffering in there respective hell but also must pass through each of lesser hells, a journey that can take eons and eons to complete. The Dharma is forgotten and even if it was remembered the anguish is such that it makes practice impossible.