The Sufferings of the Lower Realms
- It is certain that we will die, it is uncertain when we
will die
- With each breath, our life is getting shorter
- When we die, we will take rebirth in one of the six realms of existence
- Where we go depends on our karma
- If we have a mixture of good and bad karma, whatever is stronger will
ripen first
- If both types are equally strong, the type we are most familiar with
will ripen first
- If we are equally familiar with both types, the type produced first
will ripen first.
The six realms of existence
- There are three higher realms and three lower realms
- Higher rebirths include birth in the realms of human, demi-gods, and
gods
- God realms are heavenly environments where there is great pleasure and
happiness
- But even if one achieves a god realm, eventually one's positive karma
to do so comes to an end, and one takes a lower rebirth.
- Demi-gods are a subset of gods who do not experience such pronounced
pleasure as do the greater gods, and who are thus consumed with jealousy
- Lower rebirths include rebirth in the realms of animals, hungry ghosts,
and hell.
1. Why should we meditate on the suffering of the lower realms ?
- Meditating on the suffering of the lower realms has many purposes,
but its main purpose is to cause us to develop a very strong desire never
to take another rebirth in them
- Meditating on lower rebirths can also:
- be a powerful tool to turn our mind away from the states of mind like ignorance, attachment, and anger that result in a lower rebirth
- can help reduce our pride, because we cannot be sure we will not be reborn there
- Pabongka says it can help develop a mind of renunciation
- Geshe Kelsang Gyatso says it will increase our compassion - if we cannot feel compassion for those enduring very intense forms of suffering, how can we ever develop compassion for all sentient beings caught within cyclic existence ?
2. How can we know that the lower realms exist ?
- There is no point on meditating on the sufferings of the lower realms
if we do not believe these realms exist
- Some believe in the lower realms unquestioningly simply because Buddha
said they exist
- But Buddha also said, "Do not believe everything I say just because
I am Buddha"
- For those of who do not now believe in the existence of the lower realms,
there are lines of reasoning to take us to that belief.
- The principal line of reasoning for believing in the existence of teh
lower realms examines the similarities between sleep and death
- We can also look at the range of conditions in human rebirths - some
are so fortunate and some so unfortunate - why should this range of conditions
not also exist outside the human realm ?
- Also we can look around us to see conditions and situations on earth
that resemble the lower realms
- We can also refute our reasons for not believing in the hell realms.
2.1 Examining the similarities between sleep and death
- Nihilists believe the end of our present life is like a candle flame
going out
- But it is not
- While it is true that gross minds, such as our ordinary waking conciousness,
cease at death, the most subtle level mind continues on to the next life
- After a while the grosser minds of the dream state arise
- The absorption of gross minds that occurs in death is similar
- Our gross minds absorb and become increasingly more subtle
- Finally we have the clear light of death
- Then just as dreams arise out of the clear light of sleep, so the Bardo
state arises out of the clear light of death.
- The clear light of death has been likened to the clear sky on an automn
dawn
-A Yogi or Yogini is training himself or herself to die with full awareness
- But a person untrained in meditation just experiences a sense of personal
annihilation at the appearance of the clear light of death
- With this experience, the old habit of grasping for existence is activated,
causing the very subtle mind to leave the old body
- This very subtle mind is mounted on a very subtle energy wind
- As mind and energy wind leave the old body, they enter the Bardo state
- The wind becomes the Bardo body, and the mind becomes the Bardo being's
mind
- When our consciousness arises out of the clear light of death, there
are only two places it can take rebirth - in the higher realms or in the
lower realms
- When we are in the Bardo, we have taken the form of the beings in the
realm into which we are taking rebirth
- If we examine the process of falling asleep and then awakening we will
see how the levels of consciousness absorb and become increasingly more
subtle, only to re-emerge
- There is no basis for denying that the same process takes place at death.
3. The lower realms as state of mind
- Because the realms of the hungry ghosts and hell beings are more problematic
for western students, many prefer to relate to them as expressions of
mind, evidence for which we can see within our human experience.
- Geshe Thubten Loden says seeing the various realms as expressions of
states of mind is a good way to develop conviction that they really exist
- Geshe Thubten Loden says we may even see the cycle of rebirths in the
cycle of our own mind
- At time we may go through the painful depths of an emotional hell, our
anger and fustration fueling and increasing our pain
- At other times, we may be obsessed with an object of attachment, and
pursue it with all the fervour of a hungry ghost, only to discover we
either never achieve it or we achieve it only to be bitterly disappointed.
- If we can see the various realms as expression of states of mind and
states of being, then we can take the next step of seeing these states
projected onto actual realms of existence
- Through recognizing the creative power of mind, and group and individual
karma, we can come to accept the existence of the various realms.
4. The suuferings of the hell beings
4.1.1 Two lines of reasoning that the hell realms exist
- We can look around us and see thosesuffering the agonies of hell right
here on Earth
- Weonly have to think of the Holocaust, of Rwanda, of Bosnia, of Albania
- these are surely hell realms
- We can also see other instances of unspeakable suffering
- The children working in the sex trade, the hcildren throughout the world
working in unsafe conditions and being kept from getting an education
- In our own country, we have abused children, whose lives are surely
hell
- We have the patients in the psychiatric wards,each trpped in a private
hell
- Victims of tortureundergo unspeakable atrocities very similar to those
experienced by hell beings
- Elsewhere in the world, famine, drought, disease, and war cause dreadful
suffering
- These conditions are known as RESEMBLING HELLS because the environment
temporarily resembles an environment of hell.
- The existence of a resembling hell is a sign indicating the existence
of an actual hell
4.1.2 Reasoning using internal signs
- The law of karma in general good actions produce good results and bad
actions produce bad results - hell is the result of the worst kinds of
bad action
- Dreams - according to Geshe Kelsang Gyatso, nightmares about hostile
environments come from karmic imprints that remain in our mind from actions
we have committed in our past lives or in this life - the world of dreams
is as real as our waking world - there is not a single phenomena that
is truly existent - the Buddha said, "All phenomena are like dreams".
- the way the world appears to us depends on karma - a pure mind experiences
a pure world and an impure world experiences an impure world - a mind
that is completely pure perceives of the world as a Buddha land while
a mind that is extremely disturbed and full of delusion will see the world
as hellish.
- Milarepa saw Marpa as Vajradhara - others saw him as an ordinary person
who wore long earings, farmed, drank beer, and had a wife.
5. The actual meditation on the suffering of the hell-beings
- hell realms are not visible to human beings
- the beings in the hell realms experience constant searing pain
- beings with strong negative karma can remain in the hell realms for
eons
- HATRED is the cause of rebirth as a hell being
5.1 The great hells
- There are eight great hells, with different degrees of suffering
- In each the whole environment is pervaded by fire
- There is a hell for those who have killed out of hatred or spite, a
hell for those who have killed animals.
- Pabongka says the great hells are located one on top of the other under
Bodhgaya in India
5.2 The neighbouring hells
- According to Geshe Kelsang Gyatso there are six neighbouring hells
surrounding each of the great hells
- According to Pabongka there are four neighbouring hells surrounding
each of the eight great hells
5.3 The cold hells
- These are north of the hot hells, under Tibet
- There are eight of them
5.4 the resembling hells
- The resembling hells are either human experiences that resemble the
hell realms or situation in which a being is in a hell-realm part of the
time and in a god realm the other
- There is a story of merchant who got lost one evening upon returning
from a trip to an island - there was a splendid mansion on the island
- the merchant saw a man being served by four beautiful goddesses - but
when dawn came, the mansion became a furnace and the goddesses became
dogs savaging the man.
6. The suffering of the hungry ghosts
- Hungry ghosts may be very intelligent and powerful
- Some even have miracle powers and contaminated clairvoyance with which
they help or harm human beings
- The realm of the hungry ghosts is not visible to human beings
- The realm of the hungry ghosts is marked by extrem desolation
- Hungry ghosts can visit the human realm
- Hungry ghosts are obsessed with finding foodand drink, and exhaust themselves
in constant, fruitless searching:
- even if they find sustenance, they can get no benefit from it
- food turns to fire as they try to swallow it
- drinking merely increase their thirst
- Hungry ghosts have huge and ugly bodies with large distented bellies
and emanciated limbs
- Their necks are very thin and their heads are enormous and heavy
- Pabongka says there are three kinds of hungry ghosts
- Much as we can see people on earth whose suffering resembles that of
hell beings, so we can also see people whose suffering resembles that
of the hungry ghosts
- In our own culture, we can see the people who buy, buy, buy, who shop
until they drop, and who never find what they are looking for
- Or we can see the realm of the hungry ghosts in those who pursue the
perfect partner, the perfect career- they too, are never satisfied - no
sooner do they grasp what they have wanted than it turns to dust in their
hands
- Rebirth as a hungry ghost is determined by ATTACHMENT of one sort or
another - grasping, desire, greed, covetousness, miserliness, abusing
charity, etc ...
7. the suffering of animals
- We can see the limitations to and suffering of an animal rebirth for
ourselves.
- Animals are preyed upon by other animals and humans, and many have to
hunt and kill to stay alive
- Wild animals are caught in an endless struggle for survival
- Domisticated animals fare no better
- Some are condemned to various tortures in animal research facilities,
others must endure inhuman conditions in feed lots, only to end up in
the slaughterhouse
- Even domestic pets suffers
- The humane societies full of abandoned and abused household pets
- It is said that there are five kinds of suffering that animals experience
- Ignorance and stupidity
- Heat and cold
- Hunger and thirst
- Exploitation by human beings for labour, food, resources, and entertainment
- being prey to one another
- The mentality that determines animal rebirth is IGNORANCE
8. How to meditate on the suffering of the lower realms
- When we meditate on the sufferings of the lower realms, we should imagine
that we are actually experiencing these sufferings
- We should identify closely with these experiences, remembering that
we have had them in the past, and that we have created the causes to experience
them again in the future.
References
Geshe Acharya Thubten Loden (1966) Meditations on the Path to Enlightenment. Tushita Publications, Melbourne, Australia
Geshe Kelsang Gyatso (1990) Joyful Path of Good Fortune. Tarpa Publications, London
Pabongka Rinpoche (1997) Liberation in the Palm of Your Hand: A concise Discourse on the Path to Enlightenment. Wisdom Publications. Boston