What are the Six Realms in Buddhism? Expert explains the six levels of Samsara: God Realm, Demigod Realm, Human, Animal, Hungry Spirit or Ghost and Hell Realm. The Six levels of Samsara--we are on the fourth...
The Six levels of Samsara--we are on the fourth level. Right below us is the Animal Level. Right below the Animal Level is the Hungry Spirit Level. Below them, the very bottom of the pit is the Hell Realm. So, above us is the Demigod Realm, and right above them is the God Realm. So, it's God Realm, Demigod Realm, Human, Animal, Hungry Spirit or Ghost and Hell Realm.
People are reincarnated into one of the six until we get off, until we obtain liberation, Nirvana. We will go up and down in each one of our lives without choice according to the Karma that manifest when we die. Buddha calls it the Karma that ripens when we die.
To go to the Hell Realm our anger has to be extreme to get there. Say we kill our mother and our father viciously and we rejoice, and we are so happy and so thrilled we got them out of our lives. That mind, that nasty vile, violent mind could end up in the Hell Realm, because they are creating the causes to go there-through the violence, through that huge negative action. The law of Karma depends on a lot of things. Maybe their whole lives they were plotting to kill their father and mother and now they are 40 and they finally do it. So, that is a lot of time they have had the thought to kill in their mind. They actually create the causes of killing and do it. So, they might end up staying in the lower realm, Hell Realm for a long time. But they'll eventually move about to another realm, because they purify the suffering causes also.
The difference between humans and the other realms is that we can practice Dharma. So we can take the teachings, and put them in our lives. So, in the Human Realm we can move out of the six flights of Karma. Animals can't because they don't have a mind like we do.
