This lesson is about paths of rebirth and the path that leads up.
This short sutta describes five destinations of rebirth.
This next sutta also describes the destinations of beings (The Paths of Rebirth - MN 12). A video of the sutta is available in Russian.
Questions about the sutta:
- Where is it possible to be free of suffering?
- Who are the Pure Abodes accessible to?
- What five realms are described here?
- What is one who accumulates qualities leading to Nibbana like?
- If you were to combine the realms described in the first sutta and in MN 12, what are all the six realms?
Consider Milarepa’s saying: “I have practiced my entire life and always saw two paths before me — a path up and a path down. I understood that the purpose of our earthly life is to choose the path that goes up.”
- What is the meaning of this phrase?
To further understand the meaning of “a path up”, consider Akkhankhiya sutta, MN 6, as it depicts the meaning of “a path up”:
Questions about the sutta:
- What does right effort enable?
- Are these goals which the practitioner should focus their mind on or natural stages of purifying the mind?
- How does the fulfillment of noble desires occur?
- What are the types of noble desires?
Further Questions:
- How would you imagine the lower and higher realms to be like? (the next lesson will be about two suttas which explain how the lower realms and higher realms look like)
Other questions that arose during discussion
- What offering is good in the Pure Land Mandala? (To animals, like a pet bird)
Why is it better to give simple things in the Pure Lands — bread, seeds, water? This kind of food is not so that it would be tasty for the beings. This kind of food is only so that they would feel that they are there. To an animal, the primary feeling of its reality is when it eats. With this kind of food, we teach them to not be attached to their form. In the earthly world, there is food and suitable tastes. In that world, they do not have an ordinary body, and when they eat, they feel that this food (seed, bread, etc…) goes through them, they begin to feel like beings who consist of light. Beings of the Pure Lands have no internal organs. They simply begin to feel like forms made of light.
Food here is simply a substance. It is not for the sake of taste, but so that there is a little of this fuel from which arises the feeling of one consisting of light. They do not actually eat the food. It serves as medicine for them.
- How does an animal who became a human in the next life feel (ex: if a bird became a human in the next life, what would she experience; would her mind be empty or would she be aggressive)?
If they were under positive human influence, if they were associated with the Pure Lands, the passion they would have is passion directed on good deeds. This passion would be directed on good things. They’ll have a desire to do good things.
- Does everyone have to go through suffering?
Suffering is the world of samsara, the earthly world. It's not a necessity, it's just a state, the place we all live in. All beings who live in the earthly realm suffer one way or another, more or less. The suffering could even be, say, that one would fail their exams. It is suffering that is associated with certain things in the earthly realm. However, these sufferings end in nibbana. The person is sick, they know sickness is suffering. Restlessness in school is also suffering, and so on. The person is afraid of some things that could happen in the future. Nibbana doesn't have any of that.
- Do you have to be a certain specific animal to become human?
Only an animal which lived long enough with people and which has imprints in memory from the people that were its owners can be born as a human. Wild animals cannot be reborn as humans. The mind of an animal is like a notebook, where its life gets written in this book. When an animal lives with people, what people show it is imprinted in its memory, impressions from what people did around this animal. And when the animal dies, these imprints, its memory — the animal can identify with a human form and it will seek to mimic the behaviour of its owners. It’ll remember what its owners wrote in its book. Doesn’t really matter what animal it was. It works like a recording device.
- What is the asura realm like? What do asuras look like?
Like angry gods. There are different kinds of asuras. There are asuras that are more formless, there asuras that can have enchanting forms.
- Can other food be offered in the Pure Land Mandala?
If given other food, the animal will remember how it was an animal. It needs to remember more than that; when we invite a being to the Pure Lands, we invite its body of light. It doesn’t need those tastes.
- Should one make their bird a bird bath in the Pure Lands?
In the Pure Lands, there are infinite sources. There is no need to make it a bath. If one wishes to make one, then the cap of water can be a bath for it.
- What is the subtle body?
When a person sees a dream, they move in some body in the dream, but it is not the gross body. This body has no internal organs. It can change. One can appear in a dream in the body of a bird, in the body of an animal, in the body of a god even. All of these are the qualities of the subtle body. It easily moves between worlds and is empty. When the subtle body fully realizes its abilities, it is the body of the world of the gods.
- What does it mean to attain the abodes of Brahma?
It means to develop the immeasurable feelings (goodwill, compassion, detachment, joy)
- Can beings of the lower realms be reborn in the human realm?
Domestic animals (pets) can be by looking at how their human owners behave, as this creates an imprint in their memory which they can identify with upon death.
Hungry ghosts and hell spirits need someone to liberate them. For instance, if the dead relatives of a person are born in the hungry ghost realm, the relatives can do a mandala offering to liberate the dead relatives from the hungry ghost realm.
- Are humans dependent (like hungry ghosts on humans) on asuras and worldly gods to go to the asura/worldly god realm?
When the dhamma is available in the world, humans can just practice it. They are not dependent on asuras or gods. However, in the course of practice, they would probably come into contact with asuras and worldly gods.
