The 10 realms, which are derived from the Indian notion of the six realms of reincarnation, are part of Buddhist cosmology and consist of four higher realms and six lower realms.
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The degrees of enlightenment that flow across these worlds can also be used to characterize them.
They've been translated in a number of different ways.
They are separated into the Six Realms (), which are followed by higher levels of enlightened consciousness that culminate to Buddhahood. Hell (), the Hungry Ghosts or pretas (), the Beasts (), the Titans or Asuras (), Humans (), and Heaven, or the realm of the gods () are the Six Realms. Above them are the four holy states: rvaka (), Pratyekabuddha (), Bodhisattva (), and ultimately, fully enlightened Buddhahood ().
In some cosmological systems, these states are viewed as distinct realms in which the occupant must undergo various sorts of suffering in order to atone for his or her karma.
The ten realms are considered as separate tests of discipline that a practitioner must face or surpass in order to achieve a material or spiritual objective in Japanese syncretic rituals.
According to Chih-interpretation i's of “three thousand realms in a single moment of life,” they are not different physical realms into which one can be reborn, but rather interconnected realms of consciousness, each of which is included within the other (Jp. jikkai gogu). The Lotus Sutra's vision of the linked relationship of phenomena, the ultimate reality of the universe, and human activity is embodied in the Ten Realms.
How many spiritual realms do we have?
The ten realms, sometimes known as the ten worlds, are part of various Buddhist traditions' notion that sentient beings are subject to 240 different conditions of life that they experience from moment to moment.
What are the 5 realms?
In each of the six realms, there are six Enlightened Buddhas. The “Six Sages” are another name for these six Buddhas. Indrasakra (Buddha of the god realm), Vemacitra (Buddha of the tiny god realm), Sakyamuni (Buddha of the human realm), Sthirasimha (Buddha of the animal realm), Jvalamukha (Buddha of the hungry ghost realm), and Yama Dharmaraja (Buddha of the human realm) (Buddha in the hot hell realm). Gods, demi-gods, people, animals, hungry ghosts, and hells are the six realms of rebirth and life in Buddhist cosmology. Earlier Buddhist writings relate to five rather than six realms; when portrayed as five realms, the deity and demi-god realms are combined into a single realm.
Three higher realms (good, fortunate) and three lower realms are usually separated into the six realms (evil, unfortunate). The gods, mortals, and demi-gods inhabit the three higher realms, while animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings inhabit the three lower realms. In east Asian literature, the six kingdoms are divided into thirty-one levels. These realms are described as follows in Buddhist texts:
- The gods (devas) realm is the most pleasurable of the six realms, and it is usually divided into twenty-six sub-realms. The accumulation of exceptionally good karma is thought to be the cause of reincarnation in this celestial state. A Deva does not need to labor and can enjoy all of life's pleasures in the heavenly realm. The joys of this universe, on the other hand, lead to attachment (Updna), a lack of spiritual pursuits, and so no nirvana. According to Kevin Trainor, the vast majority of Buddhist lay people have traditionally undertaken Buddhist rituals and practices motivated by rebirth into the Deva realm. According to Keown, the Deva realm in Buddhist practice in Southeast and East Asia includes Hindu gods like Indra and Brahma, as well as Hindu cosmological notions like Mount Meru.
- The manuya realm is the human realm. Because of one's prior karma, Buddhism claims that one is reborn in this realm with dramatically differing bodily endowments and moral natures. A rebirth in this realm is seen as fortunate since it provides the opportunity to achieve nirvana and bring the Sasra cycle to a stop.
- Demi-god realm (Asura): In Buddhism, the demi-gods (asuras) are the third realm of existence. Asuras are known for their rage and magical abilities. They attack the Devas (gods) or cause illness and natural disasters to the Manusya (humans). They are reborn after accumulating karma. Because there are legends of demi-gods fighting the Gods, they are sometimes considered one of the evil realms.
- The animal realm refers to a person's state of being an animal (tiryag). Because animals are supposed to be led by impulse and instinct in Buddhist teachings, they prey on each other and suffer, this realm is typically thought to be analogous to a hellish realm. Plants, according to some Buddhist teachings, are part of this realm and have rudimentary consciousness.
What kind of realms are there?
Yo-Yo Ma and the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, led by Jukka-Pekka Saraste, gave the world premiere.
The God Realm and The Jealous God Realm are the sixth and seventh realms, respectively.
Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project entailed collaboration with musicians from all over the world who lived along the old Silk Road that connected east and west. Yo-Yo invited me to offer a piece that highlighted my long-standing Tibetan Buddhist practice. Rather than creating a work based on Tibetan folk music or something similar, my first thinking was to construct a song that highlighted Tibetan Buddhist principles.
The Buddhist six worlds offer a highly detailed depiction of our human psyche. The God realm, the jealous God realm, the human realm, the animal realm, the hungry ghost realm, and the hell realm are the different realms. According to some theories, these are real places inhabited by beings invisible to the naked eye. These two perspectives do not have to be viewed as one being more literal and the other being more fantastical, because when a world is completely manifest within our awareness, whether or not it exists as an actual place is largely unimportant. Each realm is linked to a specific emotion: anger with the hell realm, immense neediness with the hungry ghost realm, jealousy with the jealous God realm, and ignorance with the God realm, but a different kind of ignorance than the animal realm, a blissful kind of ignorance and snug self-satisfaction.
The solo cello initiates and guides the portrait of the six kingdoms in my concerto. I intended to provide the cello a wide range of music while maintaining a focus on the lyric quality and melodic line. The Sorrow of the World, an opening to the piece, is a lament for the state we find ourselves in time after again. The first notes played are a high G-sharp in the piccolo and a low E in the contrabasses. Other instruments that play the same notes are added until the cello enters, as if to suggest that everything in the world arises from and returns to that area. With an evocative motif, the cello enters. A-flat to G-flat to G-natural, which gradually widens and climbs in register until the full orchestra plays the motive, which is then developed into a long melodic line.
The cello has a solo at the end of this part, which begins the description of the Hell Realm. At first, it is introspective, but there is soon a build-up of angry energy. This causes the orchestra's clothes to become “hot” and then “cold” or frozen, which is characteristic of human reactions when we are upset. The force of the hell realm progressively dissipates after a final orchestral tutti, and the movement concludes with the cello playing the opening melancholy theme, now converted into a “folksy” melody, as if to say: this was all a dream. I should also mention that this modified cello melody serves as a type of passport to the next realm, preceding each of the subsequent sections.
The Hungry Ghost Realm is mostly for cello and strings, and it starts immediately. The unsatisfied ghost who never has enough and is always in search of more. There's also a sense of melancholy. The motive appears at the end of this movement, again light and folksy, first the solo horn, then the cello. A tuba solo introduces The Animal Realm. This is a scherzo that has a sluggish feel to it, but also a sense of innocence and excitement. The melody fades away, and we are led into the human realm by a solo cello. The human sphere is marked not just by passion, but also by a sense of loneliness a sense of being cut off from others, which heightens our desire to communicate and unite with others. This movement was written primarily for solo cello with very little accompaniment.
In the last movement, the God Realm and the Jealous God Realm are merged. These realms have been depicted in a non-linear, simultaneous manner. The Gods who are consumed by envy strive to “enter” the domain of the Gods who are consumed by their own self-absorption on a regular basis. The movement begins with a prolonged chord that, like the Gods, refuses to be overshadowed by the rest of the music. The cello emerges beneath, abrupt and belligerent, and launches into a long emotional solo. Like envy, this movement is particularly focused the jealous God is a very “windy” realm, continually blowing in one direction, determined to announce its point of view. The cello gradually ignites an orchestral outpouring, which answers in a wild and furious manner. The movement comes to a close with a reprise of the opening lament – we've come full circle. The work closes gently, maybe returning to a more human dimension – there is an openness to the piece, as if it had “seen the nature of these realms,” having gone through the entire experience.
How many realms of existence are there?
Different realms of existence are discussed in Buddhism. There are ten realms, according to the Lotus Sutra, which is considered to contain the Buddha's last teaching. They range from the lowest state of ignorance and suffering to total enlightenment.
What are the 7 spiritual dimensions?
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How can I see my spiritual eyes?
- Pray with your eyes closed. You don't have to close your eyes, but there's something about tuning into God's realm and shutting out the earthly sphere that allows us to see what He sees.
What is the difference between a dimension and a realm?
A Dimension is a dimension of consciousness, and Realms exist within a Dimension. A Realm is a specific level of consciousness in which an individual exists, and a Dimension can contain an endless number of Realms. It's similar to the spectrum of light and sound. We can see and hear a wide range of colors and tones, each having its own frequency, or level within the spectrum. In a Dimension, there are various levels, which we refer to as Realms. You may have also heard the term “vibrations” in this context. Realm is merely another word for vibration. Finally, a Universe is a collection of Dimensions, and a collection of Universes is the sum total of physical and nonphysical existence.
What are the realms of consciousness?
The realms of awareness might be conceived of as regions or layers of our existence's finer or spiritual plane.
On this spiritual dimension of existence, our Spirit, chakras (energy centers), nadis (energy conduits), and Kundalini energy are all present and represented. The realms of consciousness and all elements of individual human beings' subtle energy systems, as well as the universal, collective subtle energy system, all exist in the spiritual or subtler plane, with shapes, sizes, and relative position to one another, just as our hands and feet or tables and chairs around us all exist in the physical plane of existence with shapes, sizes, and relative position to one another.
Human beings have access to four basic planes of consciousness: subconscious, supraconscious, superconscious, and hell.
On the left, the subconscious realm is present; on the right, the supraconscious domain is present. These, on the other hand, reflect the past and the future, respectively. Every instant of the present that we are aware of vanishes into the past or unconscious. Similarly, our future is represented and stored in the supraconscious part of our right brain.
Super consciousness, or the state in which our attention elevates during thoughtless awareness, is the domain above. In other words, as our Kundalini energy rises, it expands the canvas of our awareness to this higher stage of super consciousness, where we are also connected to divine power. The collective unconscious relates to the domain of super consciousness.
The domain of hell, which is essentially the hell we've all known and feel we have some grasp of, is located beneath all of the chakras. (It's not a coincidence that we say things like “raising up to the skies” or “falling down to hell” even if we aren't entirely aware of our spiritual nature.)
There are also worlds known as sub-realms, such as the collective subconscious and collective supraconscious, which exist beyond the individual subconscious and supraconscious. Our minds shift into our subconscious as our concentration drags our consciousness into the past. Moving deeper and deeper into the past can lead to us into the collective subconscious. Our left energy channel, or the force of our emotions, also represents our individual subconscious. As a result, becoming overly emotional and concentrating too much in the past might force us to enter our subconscious, and in extreme cases, the collective subconscious.
The right side energy channel, likewise, represents our supraconscious and provides us with our physical and mental energies and powers. Excessive futuristic thought, as well as persistent hostile or violent actions, can force us to enter our supraconscious, and subsequently the communal supraconscious. Another example could be people who foresee the future maintaining a constant futuristic mindset (e.g., psychics). Those who can reliably foretell the future do so by tapping into the supraconscious realm and employing particular abilities to do so. They might be able to read your past by tapping into your mind. Spiritualists who interact with spirits in the collective subconscious or supraconscious are far more harmful.
Adolph Hitler is another well-known figure in human history. He learnt how to pull from the supraconscious dimension of human beings to make individuals exceedingly ego-oriented and aggressive, and to drive them so deep into their supraconscious that killing innocent Jews (including children) in gas chambers became normal and acceptable to them, from Tibetan Lamas. Once they were pushed too far into the right side or supraconscious domain, these so-called “war criminals” displayed such cruelty and aggression.
Spiritualists and gurus who may have had genuine intentions of influencing the Kundalini energy but lacked the knowledge or skills to take the Kundalini energy all the way up the primary channel are other examples of drastic shifts into planes of awareness. Instead, they took it only to the 6th chakra and pushed it up to the 7th chakra with such intensity that the Kundalini swerved into the subconscious or supraconscious areas rather than the superconscious. As a result, these unhappy practitioners developed mental illnesses.