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 Six States of Existence
Six Roads of Reincarnation
Six Paths of Transmigration
Six Realms of Samsara
Six Directions of Reincarnation
Wheel of Life (jump below)
Buddhist concept stemming from Hindu philosophies.
In Japan, most commonly referred to as the "Six Roads"
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Six Jizo Statues
at Busy Intersection
This grouping is found commonly in Japan, as
Jizo Bosatsu vowed to protect all beings
in the six realms.
See below for more.
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Long before Buddhism's introduction to India, Hindu (Brahman) beliefs and traditions held sway. One important concept was "transmigration," more commonly known in the West as "reincarnation." It holds that all living things die and are reborn again. Your rebirth into the next life will be based on your behavior in your past life. This rebirth occurs again and again. When Buddhism emerged in India around 500 BC, it too stressed this Hindu belief in transmigration, one that still plays a major role in modern Buddhist philosophy. The modern Buddhist concept of Karma is also a byproduct of ancient Hindu beliefs in transmigration and reincarnation.
Among Buddhists, all living beings are born into one of the six states of existence (Samsara in Sanskrit, the cycle of life and death). All are trapped in this "wheel of life," as the Tibetans call it. All beings within the six realms are doomed to death and rebirth in a recurring cycle over countless ages -- unless they can break free from desire and attain enlightenment. Further, upon death, all beings are reborn into a lower or a higher realm depending on their actions while still alive. This involves the concept of Karma and Karmic Retribution. The lowest three states are called the three evil paths, or three bad states. The Japanese spellings of all six, plus brief descriptions, are shown below:
- Beings in Hell (Naraka-gati in Sanskrit)
 ; the lowest and worst realm, wracked by torture and characterized by aggression.
- Hungry Ghosts (Preta-gati in Sanskrit; Gaki in Japanese)
 ; the realm of hungry spirits; characterized by great craving and eternal starvation; see below photo/link for "Scroll of the Hungry Ghosts" (Gaki-zoshi)
- Animals (Tiryagyoni-gati in Sanskrit)
 ; the realm of animals and livestock, characterized by stupidity and servitude.
- Asura (Asura-gati in Sanskrit);
The realm of anger, jealousy, and constant war; the Asura (Ashura) are demigods, semi-blessed beings; they are powerful, fierce and quarrelsome; like humans, they are partly good and partly evil. See Hachi Bushu (8 Legions) page for details.
- Humans (Manusya-gati in Sanskrit)
The human realm; beings who are both good and evil; enlightenment is within their grasp, yet most are blinded and consumed by their desires.
- Deva (Deva-gati in Sanskrit);
The realm of heavenly beings filled with pleasure; the deva hold godlike powers; some reign over celestial kingdoms; most live in delightful happiness and splendor; they live for countless ages, but even the Deva belong to the world of suffering (samsara) -- for their powers fill them with pride -- and thus even the Deva grow old and die; some say that because their pleasure is greatest, so too is their misery. See also the Tenbu page and Hachi Bushu (8 Legions) page.
Only those who attain enlightenment, the Bosatsu (Mahayana), the Rakans (Theravada), and the Nyorai (Tathagata or Buddha, in both traditions) are free from the cycle of birth and death, the cycle of suffering, the cycle of samsara. To escape from the cycle, one must either (1) achieve Buddhahood in one's life or (2) be reborn in Amida Nyorai's Western Pure Land, practice there, and achive enlightenment there. Those reborn in the Pure Land are no longer trapped in the cycle of samsara, and can thus devote all their efforts to attaining enlightenment.
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Six Directions of Reincarnation
Six Realms of Samsara (Tib. rikdruk)
六趣 or 六道眾生 or 六道 (Japanese. Six Roads)
- 天道 or 天趣 Deva (deva-gati)
- 人道 or 人趣 Humans (manusya-gati)
- 阿修羅道 or 阿修羅趣 Ashura (asura-gati)
- 畜生道 or 畜生趣 Animals (tiryagyoni-gati)
- 餓鬼道 or 餓鬼趣 Hungry Ghosts (preta-gati)
- 地獄道 or 地獄趣 Beings in Hell (naraka-gati)
- above from Dictionary of Chinese Buddhist Terms
(by Soothill & Hodous); from digital dictionary at:
www.acmuller.net/ddb/ or also at
hm.tyg.jp/~acmuller/soothill/data/s516d-8da3.html
Ten Stages From Hell to Buddhahood
There are nine states from Hell to Bodhisattva (Bosatsu). The highest level, the tenth level, is Buddhahood. After the six lower states come the four highest states, the "Four Noble Worlds." These final four stages can only be achieved through deliberate effort -- in contrast, our movement in the six lower states is passive and blinded by false understanding. The Four Noble Worlds are:
- Learning -- seeks truth from teachings or experiences of others
- Realization -- seeks truth from one's own direct perception of world
- Bodhisattva (Bosatsu) -- aspires to help all achieve salvation; there are six perfections (parmitas) that a Bodhisattva must cultivate in order to attain Buddhahood (learn more about parmitas); another term for Bodhisattva is Arhat (Sanskrit); this refers to the first disciples of the Historical Buddha; these disciples also attained enlightement, soon after their teacher; the term Arhat is associated specifically with the Theravada school. For more on the Bosatsu (Mahayana tradition) click here. For more on the Arhat (Theravada tradition) click here. The Bosatsu and Arhat will surely attain Buddhahood, but for a time, they renounce the blissful state of Nirvana (freedom from suffering), vowing to remain on earth in various guises (reincarnations) to help all living beings achieve salvation. See the Bosatsu page more many more details.
- Buddhahood -- In Japan, those who have attained Buddhahood are called the Nyorai (Tathagata), Butsu, and Hotoke. Terminology here, or visit the Nyorai menu.
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SAMSARA (Sanskrit)
The cycle of life and death, rebirth and redeath, of delusion and suffering, in which all sentient beings are trapped unless they can break free of the cycle. The "cycle" refers generally to the Six States of Existence (this page), but there are also two, three, four, seven, and twelve kinds of samsara (not discussed herein). The Six States are also known as the Six Paths/Roads of Reincarnation/Transmigration. One must achieve nirvana (enlightenment, satori, emancipation, nibanna) to break free of the cycle. These latter terms are synonomous in modern English usage. See Terminology page for more. In Japan, where Mahayana teachings are widely practiced, groupings of six statues of Jizo Bosatsu are quite common, one for each of the six realms. In the Tantric traditions of Tibet, the Wheel of Life on Tibetan Tankas depicts the six realms with great graphic detail -- the wheel is traditionally clutched in the hands of Yama, the Lord of Death, and shows images of hell, torture, war, human life, divine spirits, and other detailed iconography. See below for Tibetan Wheel of Life Tanka.
KARMA, KARMIC RETRIBUTION, Cause and Effect
From Sanskrit KARMAN, "deed," fate, or work.
The law of cause and effect. Doing good deeds will result in good effects, doing bad deeds will result in bad effects. Your actions in this life thus impact where you are "reincarnated" into the next. In essence, you "reap what you sow." The sins of the parent are NOT the sins of the child -- that which occurs to you in this life is that which you have brought upon yourself. You are responsible for your actions, not others. This is entirely opposite the Western tendency to place blame on others (e.g., my parents were neurotic, so they made me neurotic). This unwillingness to take responsibility in Christian traditions streches back to Adam and Eve, who themselves blame the serpent for beguiling them into eating the fruit of the forbidden tree. Yet, it appears, after further research, that in early Buddhist traditions among the Jains in India, parents could indeed pass on their bad karma to their children. Says Daniel J. Boorstin in his book "The Seekers:"
<abridged, pages 15, 16, 17>
Karma was a byproduct of belief in the transmigration and reincarnation of souls. Karma was a name for the force of all a person's acts -- good or evil -- in all past incarnations shaping his destiny in the next incarnation. So karma was an ingenious way of giving each person some responsibility for prosperity or suffering in the present life. A classical form of the idea imagined this karmasaya as an accumulation of the forces of good and evil from what a person did (or failed to do) in earlier incarnations. The suffering or good foturne in the present life, then, was a punishment or reward for earlier acts, just as suffering or good fortune in future lives would compensate for the acts in this life. Writers in the Upanishads suggested that somehow the practice of yoga or the power of a god who lived outside the realm of karma might possibly help get a person off the wheel of samsara. Thus a person might avoid consequences of his acts in earlier incarnations. It is thus conceivable that a devout ascetic, renouncing all corrupting desires, might struggle free of his karmic debts.
Some Hindu sects saw karma as physical seeds that could be passed on through the generations. A dying father, in one Upanishad text, is said to transfer his karma to his son. "Let me place my deeds on you." Then the son's acts of atonement would free the father in his later incarnation from the consequences of his own earlier misdeeds. The Jains, from the sixth century B.C., made much of these possibilities. They imagined the pure liva, or living spirit, in each person that could and should be kept free of the karmic pollution that might burdern a person's next incarnation. The Jains' discipline aimed to keep the liva unpolluted, and so assure its rising toward enlightenment through rebirths. Their ahimsa, dogma of absolute nonviolence, made them fearful even of accidentally killing insects. As rigorous vegetarians, they applied ahimsa to plants. They refused to pick a living fruit from a tree, but waited till it fell ripe to the ground.
Followers of Buddha (who died about 480 B.C.), embroidering the Hindu notions, found their own ways of calculating the ethical balance sheet. They distinquished "deed karman" from "mental karman" (thoughts and motivations), and distinguished deeds from their results. They also attached karma to families and nations. But they kept inviolate their belief in the inevitable balancing of the karmic books. A person's present life was determined by past actions in other incarnations, but only until all those influences had been used up. Still, the chanting of sacred verses by a relative or a monk might reduce the force of evil karma. The Buddhist belief in an all-pervading flux kept them from any idea of a personal immortal soul. But they imagined a kind of karmic residue that adhered through endless incarnations." <end abridged quote by Daniel Boorstin>
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NIRVANA (Sanskrit)
The Historical Buddha sought, through meditation, to attain a state known as Nirvana, in which one is free of desire and therefore suffering. Nirvana literally means "the state of a flame being blown out." It represents the quiet state of mind that exists when the fires of attachment and desire are extinguished. It can also refer to the "flame of death." The death of the Historical Buddha, for example, is referred to as "the Great Extinction." But in general parlance, nirvana means heaven, the ultimate state, the final goal of those who practice Buddhism. If you have reached this state, you have broken free of the wheel of life, the six states, the karmic circle, the cycle of samsara.
ROKU JIZO -- Groupings of Six Statues of Jizo Bosatsu
Groupings of six Jizo Bosatsu statues are quite common in Japan, one for each of the six realms. Jizo vowed to assist beings in each state, especially those in hell, the lowest state, where the opportunities to improve one's karma are at all-time lows. Jizo is one of Japan's most popular and venerated deities. Statues of the deity are found most often in graveyards and as protective stone markers in mountain passes and country byways. Jizo is also the guardian of deceased children, expectant mothers, firemen, travelers, and pilgrims. Please visit the Jizo Bosatsu page for much more, plus many photos.
Roku Jizo (Six Jizo Bosatsu)
At Hase Dera in Kamakura
WHEEL OF LIFE - Tibetan Tanka (Thangkas)
Tantric Buddhism (Vajrayana Buddhism) is practiced most widely today in Tibet. The Buddhist wheel of life, often the subject of the Tibetan Thanka (also spelled thangka), is one of the most common artistic representations of the Six States of Existence.
Courtesy of The Fairhope Tibetan Society
http://www.angelfire.com/yt/fairtibet/whexpl.html
For many more details, please visit the above link.
THREE ANIMALS. At the center of the wheel one finds three animals -- a pig, a snake and a rooster. The pig symbolizes greed and ignorance and stupidity (Skt. = lobha), the snake anger and hatred (Skt. = dosa) and the rooster (or cock) lust and desire and delusion (Skt. = moha). The three animals are often shown biting each others tails, to show that these evils are inseparably connected. The emotions of the three stem from fundamental ignorance. Together, the triad represents the root causes of trouble on earth.
Closeup of center
from Tanka in Mark Schumacher's private collection (see photo below)
Tanka in Mark Schumacher's private collection
LEARN MORE
More Images of Hungry Ghosts
http://www.arthistory-archaeology.umd.edu/resources/modules/monsters/sld021.htm
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