This article is the 4th part of the teaching series
The Four Profound Thoughts that Turn the Mind Toward the Dharma
The Four Profound Thoughts that Turn the Mind Toward the Dharma
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| The Wheel of Life representing all the Six Realms of Samsaric Existence |
As Shinran said in
In order to help us become aware of the painful reality of
the samsaric existence and to make us desire to escape from it, Shakyamuni
Buddha and all the Masters of our lineage and other lineages put great efforts
in describing the six planes of existence:
"Leaving the
unclean world means to abhor and to depart from this impure world. It means to
depart not only from this human world but also from the entire six realms.
These all taken together constitute what is called the Three Worlds.
There is no peace in
the Three Realms. The Buddha explained them by comparing them with a burning
house and by saying that it is like living in a house which is on fire. It is a
thing above all others from which to separate oneself with a feeling of
disgust".[1]
Thus, let us all carefully contemplate the various pains of
samsaric existence until we are deeply impressed by them. Then, quickly turn our
minds toward Amida Buddha, entrust our karmic destiny to Him and
wish to be reborn in His Pure Land after death. As Master Genshin
stated:
"Truly this world
is a prison-house and the Pure Land is our true country. We should therefore
make haste to dislike and escape from this prison-house and turn to our true
country of the Pure Land".[2]
As death comes to each one of us, we'll certainly die one
day, due to the exhaustion of our karma which provided us with the present
human life, and if we haven't yet entrusted ourselves to Amida Buddha, we'll be
reborn in one of the samsaric realms impelled by the power of our karma. So
please, contemplate the suffering inherent to all the six realms, and try to
imagine yourself there, because you''ll surely remain in samsara if you do not
accept Amida's helping hand.
As slaves to
their own delusions, blind passions and karma, unenlightened beings are reborn
in a threefold manner:
1) in terms of the three planes of existence, they are
reborn in the world of desire (kamadhatu), the world of form (rupadathu) and
the world of non-form (arupuadathu);
2) in terms of the types of beings they are reborn as the
six kinds of beings: hell dwellers (naraka), hungry ghosts (pretas), animals
(tiryanc), humans (manusya), demi-gods (asuras) and gods (devas);
3) in terms of the type of birth, they are reborn in four
ways, from the womb, like human beings, some animals and devas (gods)
inhabiting the earth, from the egg, like birds and fishes, from heat and moisture,
like some insects and worms, and by spontaneous birth, such as gods, pretas
(hungry spirits) and hell-dwellers.
The world of desire (kamadhatu) is the lowest of the
three planes of existence, and it contains (from the bottom to the top) the
realm of hells, the realm of hungry ghosts, the realm of animals, the realm of
humans, the realm of fighting spirits (asuras) and some realms of the gods.
The world of form (rupadhatu) and the world of non-form
(arupyadhatu) contain only the realms of superior gods. Now lets describe
them in detail and contemplate the various sufferings and insatisfactions
associated with each one of them:
[1] Ojoyoshu, by Master Genshin, translated
from Japanese by A.K. Reischauer and
published in The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, second series,
volume VII, 1930, http://amida-ji-retreat-temple-romania.blogspot.ro/2014/03/genshins-ojoyoshu-free-english-edition.html
[2] Ojoyoshu, by Master Genshin, translated
from Japanese by A.K. Reischauer and
published in The Transactions of the Asiatic Society of Japan, second series,
volume VII, 1930, http://amida-ji-retreat-temple-romania.blogspot.ro/2014/03/genshins-ojoyoshu-free-english-edition.html
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