What Is the Six Realms of Rebirth — Hell, Hungry Ghosts, Beasts, Asura, Humans, Heaven

"What is the Six Realms of Rebirth?" Many know the phrase yet cannot name the six worlds one by one. This article explains the Buddhist idea of the six realms and the cycle of rebirth, drawing on its roots and sources.

What the Six Realms of Rebirth is

The Six Realms of Rebirth is the Buddhist idea that living beings are reborn endlessly through six worlds. Which world one is reborn into next is said to be decided by one's deeds in life — that is, by "karma." For more on this, see What is karma.

"Rebirth" translates the Sanskrit samsara — that which keeps flowing on, wandering without cease. Dying and being born, dying and being born again, turning like a wheel without end, is what this word names. The six realms are also called the "six destinations" (rokushu), the places toward which beings head.

The six worlds

The six realms generally refer to these six:

• The realm of hell: receiving the retribution of sin, said to suffer most fiercely, with layered depths such as the Eight Great Hells.
• The realm of hungry ghosts: endless hunger and thirst; food is said to turn to flame at the lips.
• The realm of beasts: living by instinct, spent in the law of the jungle.
• The realm of asura: the world of the asura, of ceaseless strife and wrath.
• The realm of humans: our world, holding both joy and suffering.
• The realm of heaven: the most blissful, yet still the world of heavenly beings not free of the cycle.

The lower three (hell, hungry ghosts, beasts) are called the three evil paths, the upper three (asura, humans, heaven) the three good paths. On hungry ghosts, see also What is the realm of hungry ghosts.

The karma and three poisons that decide rebirth

What separates the worlds is karma. And the root of that karma is said to be the three poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion. Insatiable craving leads toward the hungry ghosts, ungoverned wrath toward asura and hell, and the delusion that ignores reason toward the beasts — the state of one's mind shapes the very next life.

This is not merely a tale of the afterlife. It paints the teaching that "the mind of this very moment decides what lies ahead" onto the grand canvas of six worlds.

Even heaven holds suffering

A common misunderstanding is that being born in heaven means lasting ease. Buddhism does not teach this. Heavenly beings too have a lifespan, and as their end nears, their robes soil, their bodies lose radiance, and they come to loathe their seat — a decline called the five signs of decay of the heavenly beings — after which they too fall to another world.

Bliss itself can be the herald of the next fall. This is why, whatever realm one is born into, it is said to be only for a time.

Liberation from the cycle

The core of the Six Realms is that suffering and bliss alike eventually shift and pass. This is why leaving delusion and stepping down from the wheel — liberation, nirvana — has long been held as a goal.

The six realms are, so to speak, the defiled world of delusion. The realm of peace beyond this wheel is the Pure Land described in the difference between hell and paradise.

The six realms in images

The teaching was conveyed not only in words but in pictures. Wheel-shaped diagrams of the six worlds and hell paintings told even the unlettered of the weight of deeds. In Kyoto, the area around Rokudo Chinno-ji is called the "Crossroads of the Six Realms," where Jizo Bodhisattva was believed to appear in all six realms to save beings. See also What is Jizo Bodhisattva.

Yurusen, and hell as one of the realms

What the app "Yurusen" draws on is the world of the deepest of these six realms — the realm of hell. The wraiths that appear at the end of judgment are depicted as the "types" of unforgivable people fallen into hell, and at their summit stands Lord Enma, who binds together the root of every ledger of judgment.

Just as the cycle keeps turning, feelings with nowhere to go keep circling within the chest. Yurusen is your private place to give those feelings a shape, shrink them to a manageable size, and quietly set them down.

You can view the wraiths fallen into hell on the Wraith Codex page.