The Wheel of Becoming (Bhavachakra)
Understanding the Six Realms
The six realms of existence (Sanskrit: gati or bhava) are the destinations for rebirth in Buddhist cosmology, depicted in the Bhavachakra (Wheel of Becoming). These realms are driven by karma—the consequences of intentional actions—and the three root poisons: greed, hatred, and ignorance.
While Buddhist texts describe these as literal destinations for rebirth after death, they also function as psychological states experienced in human life. Each realm represents both an afterlife location and a present-moment state of consciousness shaped by particular mental afflictions.
The six realms are arranged in three pairs, from highest to lowest: Gods (Devas) and Jealous Gods (Asuras) form the upper realms, Humans and Animals the middle, and Hungry Ghosts (Pretas) and Hell Beings (Narakas) the lower realms.
The Three Poisons at the Center
At the hub of the Wheel of Becoming, three animals symbolize the root causes that perpetuate rebirth in the six realms:
- Rooster (Red): Greed, attachment, desire (lobha)
- Snake (Green): Hatred, aversion, anger (dosa)
- Pig (Black): Ignorance, delusion (moha)
These three poisons feed each other in an endless cycle, creating the karma that determines which realm beings are born into.
The Six Realms in Detail
1. Deva Realm - Gods
Sanskrit: Deva-gati | Tibetan: lha
Dominant Affliction: Pride and heedlessness
Characteristics: Extreme pleasure, longevity (but not eternal), divine powers, celestial palaces, beauty, and sensory delights. Time passes slowly, and one divine day may equal many human years.
Suffering: While gods experience great pleasure, they suffer from pride and complacency. They become intoxicated by their fortunate state and fail to practice dharma. When signs of death appear (their flowers wilt, clothes become soiled, they begin to sweat), they experience terror knowing they will fall to lower realms once their good karma is exhausted. The suffering of transition from bliss to a lower rebirth is considered worse than never having experienced divine pleasure.
Human Parallel: The wealthy and privileged who are blind to suffering, intoxicated by success and comfort, accumulating no merit for the future.
Buddha Who Appears: White Buddha playing a lute, teaching the impermanence of pleasure.
2. Asura Realm - Jealous Gods/Titans
Sanskrit: Asura-gati | Tibetan: lha min
Dominant Affliction: Envy and jealousy
Characteristics: Power and strength, but constant dissatisfaction. Asuras possess great abilities but always compare themselves unfavorably to the Devas. They can see the wish-fulfilling tree that grows in the god realm, but its roots are in their realm and its fruits are out of reach.
Suffering: Endless warfare attempting to seize the divine tree and overthrow the gods. They are consumed by jealousy, competitive aggression, and inability to enjoy what they have. Every victory is temporary, every defeat humiliating, and the cycle of battle never ends.
Human Parallel: Competitive, paranoid individuals consumed by rivalry, status anxiety, and resentment of others' success.
Buddha Who Appears: Green Buddha with a flaming sword, cutting through jealousy and competition.
3. Human Realm - Humans
Sanskrit: Manushya-gati | Tibetan: mi
Dominant Affliction: Desire and attachment
Characteristics: Balanced mixture of pleasure and pain, awareness of impermanence, capacity for choice and reflection, access to dharma teachings.
Suffering: The traditional "eight sufferings": birth (trauma of being born), aging (deterioration), sickness (disease and pain), death (fear and loss), separation from loved ones, meeting with enemies, not getting what one wants, and the five aggregates of clinging (the burden of having a body and mind).
Advantage: Most conducive realm for enlightenment. Humans have enough suffering to motivate practice but enough leisure to pursue it. Unlike gods who are complacent or hell beings who are overwhelmed, humans can comprehend teachings and make spiritual progress.
Buddha Who Appears: Yellow Buddha Shakyamuni with staff and begging bowl, teaching the middle path.
Significance: Human rebirth with access to dharma is considered extraordinarily rare and precious—like a blind turtle surfacing once every hundred years and putting its head through a yoke floating on the ocean.
4. Animal Realm - Tiryak
Sanskrit: Tiryag-yoni | Tibetan: dud 'gro
Dominant Affliction: Ignorance and stupidity
Characteristics: Instinct-driven existence ruled by survival needs: eating, reproducing, and avoiding predators. Limited intelligence prevents understanding of dharma or cause-and-effect beyond immediate concerns.
Suffering: Predation (being hunted and eaten), enslavement and exploitation by humans, constant fear, inability to comprehend or escape their condition, stupidity that prevents spiritual development.
Human Parallel: Those living only for basic survival, consumption, and reproduction without reflection or awareness—existing on autopilot.
Buddha Who Appears: Blue Buddha holding a book, dispelling ignorance through wisdom.
5. Preta Realm - Hungry Ghosts
Sanskrit: Preta-gati | Tibetan: yi dags
Dominant Affliction: Greed and craving
Characteristics: Depicted with enormous bellies and needle-thin throats, representing insatiable craving that cannot be satisfied. They wander constantly seeking food and drink but cannot consume.
Suffering: Eternal hunger and thirst. Anything they try to eat or drink turns to fire, excrement, or vanishes. Some are tormented by external obstacles (finding food but unable to reach it), others by internal obstacles (throat too small to swallow), and others by specific cravings (for particular substances they can never obtain). Desperate, obsessive seeking without ever finding satisfaction.
Human Parallel: Addiction, obsessive consumerism, never-satisfied desire, the hunger that grows with feeding.
Buddha Who Appears: Red Buddha holding food and drink, offering the satisfaction of contentment.
Duration: Can last for many eons depending on the severity of greed that caused the rebirth.
6. Naraka Realm - Hell Beings
Sanskrit: Naraka-gati | Tibetan: dmyal ba
Dominant Affliction: Hatred and anger
Characteristics: Intense, unrelenting physical and mental torment. Multiple hells exist, categorized as hot hells, cold hells, and neighboring hells.
Suffering: Extreme heat or cold, being torn apart repeatedly (only to be reconstituted to suffer again), crushed, burned, frozen, attacked by hell guardians. The suffering matches the intensity and nature of the hatred that caused rebirth there. One moment in hell can feel like an eon of human time.
Types of Hells:
- Eight Hot Hells: Progressively more intense heat and burning
- Eight Cold Hells: Progressively more intense freezing
- Neighboring Hells: Adjacent realms with specific torments
- Ephemeral Hells: Temporary hells experienced in various locations
Human Parallel: States of overwhelming rage, paranoia, hatred, or psychological torment.
Buddha Who Appears: Smoke-colored Buddha with fire and water, cooling the flames of hatred.
Important Note: Buddhist hells are not eternal. Once the negative karma is exhausted, beings are reborn elsewhere. Hell is a state, not a permanent destination.
The Mechanism of Rebirth
Rebirth in the six realms is determined by three factors:
- Karma: The accumulated consequences of past intentional actions
- Kleshas: The mental afflictions (greed, hatred, ignorance) active at death
- Habitual Tendencies: The deep-seated patterns developed through repeated actions
The state of mind at the moment of death is particularly influential. A lifetime of good deeds can be undermined by dying in a state of rage or attachment, and conversely, genuine remorse and devotion at death can positively influence rebirth.
Liberation from the Six Realms
The goal of Buddhist practice is not to achieve a better rebirth (which is still within samsara) but to escape the cycle entirely through Nirvana. This requires:
- Ethical Conduct (Sila): Avoiding actions that create negative karma
- Meditative Concentration (Samadhi): Calming and focusing the mind
- Wisdom (Prajna): Understanding the true nature of reality—impermanence, suffering, and no-self
Progressive stages of liberation include stream-entry (guaranteed not to fall to lower realms), once-returning, non-returning, and finally Arhatship or Buddhahood—complete liberation from all six realms.
The Precious Human Rebirth
Buddhist teachings emphasize the extraordinary rarity and value of human rebirth, especially with access to dharma. Teachers use vivid metaphors: imagine a blind turtle swimming in a vast ocean, surfacing only once every hundred years. On the surface floats a wooden yoke with a hole in it, drifting with the currents. The chance of that turtle surfacing with its head through the yoke is compared to the rarity of human rebirth.
This precious human life should not be wasted on mere pursuit of comfort or status, but utilized for spiritual development while the opportunity exists.
Related Concepts
- Samsara - The cycle of rebirth through the six realms
- Karma - The force determining rebirth destination
- Nirvana - Liberation from the six realms
- Dependent Origination - The mechanism perpetuating rebirth
- Kleshas - The mental afflictions driving the cycle
- Gautama Buddha - Who taught the path to liberation