Realms

A couple of topics and some reading of a few buddhist books have made me think about the whole idea of realms in buddhism. Now, it is obvious some people will say these realms are created by us in our everyday life through consciousness and actions, others will claim they are places of existence after death due to rebirth subsequent to our karma.

I have read from the Dalai Lama and other sources about how the scriptures go into detail about the vast realms of existence after death. I do not know enough about the Buddha himself or the scriptures to know where this information was obtained. Was it through awakening? Sheer enlightement, is it some sort of superstition, has it got mixed up in the mix some how through time, what are your thoughts?

A couple of topics and some reading of a few buddhist books have made me think about the whole idea of realms in buddhism. Now, it is obvious some people will say these realms are created by us in our everyday life through consciousness and actions, others will claim they are places of existence after death due to rebirth subsequent to our karma.

I have read from the Dalai Lama and other sources about how the scriptures go into detail about the vast realms of existence after death. I do not know enough about the Buddha himself or the scriptures to know where this information was obtained. Was it through awakening? Sheer enlightement, is it some sort of superstition, has it got mixed up in the mix some how through time, what are your thoughts?

Maitreya’s Filigree of Realizations (mNgon-rtogs rgyan, Skt. Abhisamaya-alamkara) delineates twenty-one categories of untainted deep awareness (zag-med ye-shes sde-tshan nyer-cig) of a Buddha’s omniscient mind.

http://www.berzinarchives.com/web/en/archives/sutra/level2_lamrim/initial_scope/safe_direction/qualities_buddha_omniscient_deep_aw.html

Its believed in the Mahayana sutras (don't know about pali) that a buddha is omniscient. Take it for what its worth but there's the sutra name and a breakdown of Buddha's awareness qualities from it at the link.

wow yes at a quick glance that is quite astonishing. A buddha is affected by nothing. Does that mean radiation, death everything? omniscient? There is no start or end. And this is all in the Mahayana sutra's? It is hard to actually get back to what the buddha realized, said and taught due to time and translation.

Also, today I found out about actual hell realms, mainly in TB buddhism I think. There are meant to be 136 or something of them. It seems a lot less logical and more blind faith-like than buddhism seems at a first, second and third glance.

ThailandTom said:

Was it through awakening?

no,
anyone who do concentration meditation (samatha) and could be able to sharpen his/her mind

can see

1.their own past lives (pubbe-nivasa-anussati)

2. past lives of others (chuti-upath)
then there is no doubt about the different 'realms'


this is not the Enlightenment

one has to do insight meditation (vipassana) to awaken to the Truth

just awaken to the Truth (getting the Right View) is not enough to be Enlightened

one has to work further with the Right View to be certain that one has no Greed, Hate, Delusion anymore and then one is certain that one is Enlightened

Indeed, the Buddha saw this before his awakening:

"When the mind was thus concentrated, purified, bright, unblemished, rid of defilement, pliant, malleable, steady, & attained to imperturbability, I directed it to the knowledge of the passing away & reappearance of beings. I saw — by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human — beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma: 'These beings — who were endowed with bad conduct of body, speech & mind, who reviled noble ones, held wrong views and undertook actions under the influence of wrong views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. But these beings — who were endowed with good conduct of body, speech, & mind, who did not revile noble ones, who held right views and undertook actions under the influence of right views — with the break-up of the body, after death, have re-appeared in the good destinations, in the heavenly world.' Thus — by means of the divine eye, purified & surpassing the human — I saw beings passing away & re-appearing, and I discerned how they are inferior & superior, beautiful & ugly, fortunate & unfortunate in accordance with their kamma.

"This was the second knowledge I attained in the second watch of the night. Ignorance was destroyed; knowledge arose; darkness was destroyed; light arose — as happens in one who is heedful, ardent, & resolute.

See also:
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.019.than.html
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/mn/mn.036.than.html


To me it's obvious the above quote doesn't indicate states of minds with the different realms, but actual places.