Episode 33: Six Samsaric Realms

Today’s topic is about how our moment-to-moment habits and impulses congeal into solid psychological realities or realms of existence  •  the wheel of life depicts six such realms—gods, jealous gods, humans, animals, hungry ghosts, and hell beings—worlds we create through pride, jealousy, passion, ignorance, greed, and anger  • the human realm is marked by passion, loneliness, and the search for connection and confirmation  •  the god realm is marked by ignorance, pride, and privilege: a bubble we can only stay in by ignoring the suffering of others  •  the jealous god realm is marked by envy and jealousy;  it is the realm of competitiveness and struggle •  the animal realm is dominated by a plodding kind of ignorance; it is the tendency to be stuck in routines  •  The hungry ghost realm is a realm of constantly needing more; no matter how much you have, you are never satisfied  •  the hell realm is dominated by hatred and aggression; you are ready to lash out and feel threatened at a very deep level  •  everything we experience, every interaction, is colored by the assumptions of the particular realm  we inhabit  •  the good news is that within every realm there are still possibilities of awakening; every realm has its own buddha who can speak the language of that realm