According to the Buddhist view of the world (as explained in World View), we all live in a permanent cycle called ‘samsara’, sometimes having good things as a result of our karma, sometimes bad.
Samsara is often represented as a number of levels and we move up and down between the levels from manifestation to manifestation, or life to life, depending on the karma most prevalent at the time of our death.
These levels are called the god, human, animal, hungry spirit and hell realms. The god realm is the top level where beings live in luxury with minimal suffering and the hell realm is at the bottom, where lives are full of suffering and torture. Hungry spirits are deprived of basic necessities such as food, water and shelter. Animals lack the intelligence and wisdom to understand the complexities of the world around us and also have lives of great brutality and fear.
It is said that we if we die full of virtue, peacefully and happily, we will manifest in either the human or god realm. But if we die with anger, frustration, bitterness and other delusions in our heart, we will come back in one of the lower realms.
There are two ways of thinking about these realms. One is that they are real effects or places, and the other is metaphorical, i.e. it is an analogy for how we experience the world. Pick whichever one helps you and fits most closely with your own personal beliefs. Both are explained below.
Samsara as a Real Place
Although the different realms are actually creations of our minds, as humans and animals we experience these effects as real objects – they are the ‘world’ that scientists observe and study. We create the nature of these physical worlds as a result of our perceptions, i.e. if our mind is full of anger and hatred, the world appears as an unpleasant and harsh place. But if we are light of heart and full of joy, the world appears that way to us. It’s the same world – a tree is still a tree – it’s just how we perceive and experience it that’s different.
The way we perceive the world will determine how we relate to it. If we perceive the world as harsh, then harsh and unpleasant things happen that verify our opinion. If we are joyful, then we can spend hours getting pleasure from a daisy leaf that other people wouldn’t even see, or would tread on without giving it a second thought.
In the god, spirit and hell realms, the world is less physical. It is a spiritual world that we cannot see, but still exists, like heaven or hell in Christian terms. But because it is created in our minds, it can be of whatever form is justified to that mind, based on their karma. Hence why it can be of the utmost luxury or an unimaginable horror. But remember that even though we cannot see these worlds, it is as real to beings in that world as our world is to us.
The process of dreaming provides a useful analogy. When we dream, it feels real to us and it’s only when we wake that we realise it was a dream. We will still experience the pain, fear, joy and other physical effects of what happens during the dream whilst we are having it. Nightmares can make us sweat, scream and cry, even though it’s ‘just a dream’, as it feels real to us.
Samsara as an Analogy
This metaphorical view is much, much easier for us Westerners to experience and grasp. Humans and animals we can see and study. Within human and animal existences, we can see those with lives that can only be described as hellish, or starved of basic necessities, or love and care. Just like hungry spirits, in fact. By the same token, we see people that have immense luxury, wealth and power. We might even call them gods.
Samsaric Bank Accounts
The personal samsara that we experience comes from our karma and we can use the analogy of bank accounts to show how it works. A credit balance – good karma – means we experience lots of good things as if we were spending the money in the account, until it runs out. A debit balance provides the reverse, with negative or unpleasant experiences needed to pay off the debt.
But it’s not like having a single bank account where both sides (credits and debits) cancel each other out to produce a combined result. It’s more like having multiple bank accounts; some for the good stuff and some for the bad, and you have to experience them all. This can explain why some dogs live such pampered lives, better than some humans, whilst some humans live hellish existences. Sometimes an account – good or bad – will sit dormant for a while until the conditions are right for it, then the results will be experienced. But we will always be adding to it, both the good and bad, it’s the circumstances and our reactions to it that determines which we cash in.
An understanding of karma and rebirth can help to explain every aspect of life and the world we see around us. It accounts for the experiences we have in life and why bad things happen to seemingly good people and why we have to endure things we don’t like. It gives a reason for everything we see around us – but you have to open your mind and eyes to see it.
It also gives us something to aim for in the future. If we want good things and pleasant future lives, we need to be adding to our bank account rather than spending it all.