Chapter 140: The Six Paths

As the morning sunlight returned to the earth once more, Hua Feng and his companions began their study of the Six Realms.

The Six Realms are also known as the Six Paths of Existence—the various worlds to which sentient beings migrate according to their respective karma. These are: the Deva Realm (Realm of Heavenly Beings), the Human Realm, the Asura Realm, the Animal Realm, the Hungry Ghost Realm, and the Hell Realm. Among these, the Deva Realm, the Human Realm, and the Asura Realm are known as the Three Good Paths, while the Animal Realm, the Hungry Ghost Realm, and the Hell Realm are the Three Evil Paths.

In Buddhism, the Six Realms refer to the realms of deities, humans, asuras, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings. These six realms serve as the dwelling places for sentient beings within the Desire Realm. Without attaining enlightenment and Buddhahood, one is bound to wander endlessly through the wheel of reincarnation within these six domains.

Buddhism posits that the secular world is composed of these six realms, and sentient beings continuously flow and transmigrate through them. These six realms are the Deva Realm, the Human Realm, the Asura Realm, the Animal Realm, the Hungry Ghost Realm, and the Hell Realm. Among them, the Deva Realm, Human Realm, and Asura Realm are the Three Fortunate Paths, whereas the Animal Realm, Hungry Ghost Realm, and Hell Realm are the Three Unfortunate Paths.

The Hell Realm:
The name of hell appears in numerous Buddhist scriptures, most commonly referred to in the *Abhidharmaprakarana-sasanapada Shastra* as "Niraya" (Sanskrit: niraya or naraka), meaning a place devoid of joy and merit. In the *Mahavibhasa Shastra*, it is called "Naraka" (Sanskrit: naraka), signifying a lack of pleasant intent and happiness. Free translation reveals that the Hell Realm is the most agonizing state within the Six Realms of the Desire Realm, for the beings residing here not only lack even a shred of joy but are also subjected to various forms of horrific torture. (The Hell Realm is indeed the most agonizing realm among the six paths of the Desire Realm.)

For instance, in the Reviving Hell (also known as the Hell of Conceiving), the beings within suffer through being chopped, stabbed, ground, and pounded, their skin torn and flesh rent apart in agonizing pain until death overtakes them. When a chilly wind blows across their corpses, their wounds heal and their bodies are restored to life, only to undergo the torment all over again. Such suffering continues ceaselessly until their karmic retribution is exhausted, allowing them to escape this uninterrupted abyss of pain. Furthermore, the lifespan of beings in hell is exceptionally long, and while undergoing such torment, they truly find it impossible either to live or to die.

According to Master Yin Shun in *The Path to Buddhahood*, hells can be divided into four major categories:

The Hungry Ghost Realm:
According to the *Yogacarabhumi Shastra*, hungry ghosts suffer from three kinds of obstacles regarding food and drink:

External Obstacles: Such hungry ghosts constantly suffer from hunger and thirst, resulting in messy hair, darkened faces, withered and emaciated appearances, and parched lips and mouths. They can only lick their lips with their tongues. Although they run about in all directions seeking food, any pools of water they encounter transform into pus and blood, rendering them undrinkable.

Internal Obstacles: Such hungry ghosts have throats as thin as needles, mouths as large as torches, and bellies as bloated as mountains. Yet even when they manage to obtain food, their slender throats prevent them from swallowing it.

Unobstructed: Although these hungry ghosts face no impediments in obtaining food and drink, whatever sustenance they receive instantly bursts into flames, leaving them to suffer the intense agony of hunger and thirst.

Because of the varying wholesome and unwholesome karma created in past lives, the karmic retributions experienced within the Hungry Ghost Realm differ as well. Depending on the poverty or wealth of a ghost's living conditions, they can be broadly divided into two categories: ghosts with majesty and ghosts without majesty. Ghosts without majesty live in extreme poverty, whereas those with majesty are abundantly wealthy. Most of the ghostly deities worshipped in folk traditions belong to these highly majestic ghosts. The *Mahaprajnaparamita Shastra*, varying by the degree of good fortune, also refers to ghosts constantly plagued by hunger and thirst as "hungry ghosts," while those possessing majesty and enjoying abundant pleasures are called "malicious ghosts."

The Animal Realm:
To human beings, sentient beings in the animal realm may be classified as cute or unappealing, harmful or beneficial. However, on the whole, their primary characteristic is that suffering outweighs happiness. As recorded in the *Sutra of Cause and Effect of the Past and Present*, not only do they possess bizarre and unsightly appearances, but because their bones, flesh, tendons, horns, skins, teeth, fur, and feathers are regarded as "treasures" by humans, they are hunted and killed; or they are captured by humans to carry heavy loads, enduring hunger, thirst, and exhaustion. Moreover, they suffer various torments such as having their noses pierced, jaws hooked, lashes whipped, and bodies bound, or they inflict harm upon one another, living in constant terror and bewilderment within a world where the strong prey upon the weak.

Consequently, beings in the animal realm are categorized among the three wretched paths of misery and tragedy within the revolving six realms. In addition, due to their low level of intelligence—sometimes restricted merely to neurological reflex reactions—they are incapable of understanding the Dharma, lacking even the opportunity for spiritual practice. They can only await the end of their lives, drifting into other realms driven by the karmic force of past lives.

In terms of species and numbers, the animal realm constitutes the largest category among the six realms. The *Saddharmasmrtyupasthana Sutra* even points out that there are as many as 3.4 billion kinds of animals, far exceeding the limits of human imagination. These countless sentient beings vary drastically in appearance and physical form, with diverse dietary habits and lifestyles. Categorized by their spheres of activity, they are divided into terrestrial, aerial, and aquatic groups; classified by their behavioral rhythms, they fall into diurnal, nocturnal, and day-night active types.

The animal realm is sometimes referred to as "sideways-moving beings," or translated phonetically from Sanskrit as "tiryanc." The designation of animals implies that they are frequently domesticated and raised by humans, yet in reality, the scope of this realm far exceeds that, extending even into various inconceivable celestial abodes, netherworlds, and miraculous domains in the heavens and beneath the earth. The meaning of "sideways-moving" indicates that their bodily forms differ from the upright posture of humans, and their ways of moving and living are horizontal rather than vertical. Their lifespans vary as widely as their numerous species, ranging from the mayfly, which lives for merely a single morning and dies by evening, to the Dragon King, whose life spans an entire intermediate kalpa.

To address such complex categories, Buddhist scriptures document the diverse causes of their karmic retribution. Among these causal conditions, some are shared karmic causes common to the three wretched paths of animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings, while others belong exclusively to the animal realm. For instance, the *Sutra of the Elder Bianyi* points out the "five animal deeds" that lead to rebirth in the animal realm: frequently committing theft, failing to repay debts, delighting in taking life, disliking hearing the sutras and teachings, and creating various conditions to obstruct others from holding Buddhist assemblies.

The Human Realm:
According to Buddhist scriptures, humans dwell across four continents: the eastern continent of Pūrvavideha, the western continent of Aparagodānīya, the southern continent of Jambudvīpa, and the northern continent of Uttarakuru. The *Dirgha Agama Sutra* describes the center of the world as Mount Sumeru, surrounded by seven golden mountains, beyond which lies the vast and boundless salt sea, where the four great continents are scattered. Different human populations inhabit these four continents, completely isolated from one another without any communication. We, the human beings on Earth, reside in the southern continent of Jambudvīpa, also known as "Jambudvīpa." The inhabitants of each continent possess distinct characteristics. Descriptions of the four great continents are dispersed throughout scriptures such as the *Dirgha Agama Sutra*, the *Lokarajasthana Sutra*, the *Lokaprajnapti Shastra*, the *Abhidharmakosa Shastra*, and the *Sutra on the Creation of Heaven and Earth*. Each continent has its unique traits; for instance, Aparagodānīya is characterized by an abundance of cattle, sheep, and precious gems; Pūrvavideha is distinguished by lands of vast, immense, and supreme excellence—supreme excellence referring to extreme fertility; whereas the people of Uttarakuru have no distinctions of skin color or racial superiority, nor do they experience grief, sorrow, or weeping. However, this region is regarded in the Dharma as one of the eight difficulties, because it offers only pure material indulgence while lacking a lofty spiritual life.

The defining characteristic of we humans in Jambudvīpa is our boundless desires, which enable us to create all kinds of wholesome and unwholesome karma. Yet precisely because we possess the capacity for contemplation, a sense of shame, and remorse, we are also capable of spiritual practice. Most importantly, humans possess three exceptional qualities: mindfulness, the practice of a holy life, and courage. Manifested outwardly, this means one is willing to sacrifice oneself for the benefit of others; possesses the willpower and perseverance to endure various hardships; and demonstrates the spirit of the "Bodhisattva Path"—accomplishing the difficult to accomplish, enduring the difficult to endure, and bearing the difficult to bear.

Among the six realms, only human beings are truly capable of generating the Bodhicitta and practicing the Bodhisattva path. This demonstrates how precious it is to be born into the human realm. Thus, Volume 32 of the *Nirvana Sutra* states: "A human birth is as difficult to obtain as the Udumbara flower."

Furthermore, only humans are capable of practicing meditation, leaving home to become monastics, upholding precepts, cultivating the path, transcending the cycle of birth and death, and attaining Buddhahood. Therefore, although the human world is fraught with various sufferings, through human existence one can transform afflictions into Bodhi, turn pain into joy, and manifest the Pure Land right here in the human realm.

Yet for most people, faced with the reality of a continuously growing global population—with worldwide numbers already exceeding five billion—one cannot help but ask: "Can a human birth truly be so difficult to obtain?" In truth, when viewed from the perspective of sentient beings across the six realms, taking rebirth as a human is indeed a matter of extreme difficulty.

The *Madhyama Agama Sutra* contains a parable illustrating the difficulty of gaining human birth: it is akin to a blind turtle swimming in a vast, boundless ocean, which happens to encounter a floating piece of wood. This wood has a single small hole in it, an occurrence already exceedingly rare, and the turtle's head happens to emerge precisely through that very hole in the floating log. Such a chance is truly described as difficult upon difficulty, and the scriptures use this metaphor to illustrate the immense rarity of obtaining a human body.

How, then, may one attain rebirth as a human? According to the *Tattvasiddhi Shastra: Chapter on the Six Karmas*, beings who are reborn in the human realm do so because they created the karma of the human realm in past lives. Regarding the karmic causes for taking rebirth in the human realm, Volume 37 of the *Samyukta Agama Sutra* states: "If one performs unwholesome karma, one is born in hell; if one is subsequently reborn among humans, one encounters all manner of hardships. Conversely, if one performs the ten wholesome actions, one is born in the heavens; if one is subsequently reborn among humans, one is spared those hardships." Therefore, the *Lotus Sutra Commentary* declares: "The five precepts yield a human birth, and the ten wholesome actions lead to rebirth in the heavens." If one can faithfully uphold the five precepts throughout one's life in past lives, the fruit of the human realm will be attained in the next life.

The Asura Realm:
Renowned for their bellicosity, the beings of the Asura Realm possess good fortune yet lack virtue. Some accounts classify them merely among ghosts and deities, or describe them as fallen heavenly beings. Northern Buddhism categorizes them within the good paths, whereas Southern Buddhism classifies them among the evil paths.

The Asuras were originally ancient Indian deities regarded as malevolent spirits, fierce and bellicose, constantly engaging in warfare with Shakra (Lord of Devas). True to the Sanskrit translation of Asura as "non-god," their karmic reward is sublime, enabling them to live and enjoy pleasures akin to heavenly beings, yet they lack the virtue of devas and possess an inherently combative nature.

Asuras are also known as the deities who abstain from alcohol, a designation with its own origin story. It is said that the Asuras dwelling at the bottom of the ocean originally loved to drink wine. However, because the wine they brewed from seawater was always salty and bitter, they flew into a rage and vowed never to drink alcohol again.

Those who are reborn into the Asura Realm, although free from grave evil deeds in their past lives, harbored heavy arrogance and extreme pride, either looking down upon others or envying those superior to themselves. The *Sutra on the Distinction of Karmic Causes* meticulously lists ten karmic causes, including minor physical misdeeds, minor verbal misdeeds, minor mental misdeeds, harboring pride, harboring arrogance, harboring overweening pride, harboring grand pride, harboring perverted pride, harboring competitive pride, and deflecting all wholesome roots.