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Ven. Suvanno Mahathera

The 31 Planesof Existence

The 31 Planesof Existence

BuddhaNet Title Page – “The 31 Planes of Existence”

Printed in Conjunction withKathina 2001 (B.C. 2545) of

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Homepage: www.mahindarama.com

ISBN 983-9439-57-X

An Inward Journey Book

IJ058/01

The Thirty-One Planes of Existence

(as transcribed from Bhante Suvanno’s cassette recordings)

byJinavaüsa

Published by

Inward Path

Penang • Malaysia

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Printed for free distribution

Dedication

This book is dedicated to all devotees ofThe Venerable âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera.

May they enjoy the highest of blessings

Asevana ca balanam; panditanam ca sevana

Puja ca pujaniyanam; Etam Mangala muttamam

Not to associate with fools, to associate with the wiseAnd to honour those who are worthy of honour

This is the highest blessing.

Acknowledgement

Grateful acknowledgement is extended to all thosewho have helped, each in his or her special way, tomake this Dhamma book and the audio facilitiesavailable.

Special thanks to KLA, Poay Hoon and VivianChong for their remarks, proof-reading and variouscontributions to the English language edition.

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Special thanks to Peter Babka (Vimaladhamma)and Libor Sulak from the Czech Republic, andLee Tiam Kean for their contributions to the suc-cess of the sound system; Sisters Jacqlyn Khooand Ng Wai Foong for their vocal contribution.

And most of all a very special “thank you” to theVenerable Bhante âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera inallowing us to bring his Dhamma messages to allDhamma-seekers.

Sàdhu! Sàdhu! Sàdhu!

Cover design by Sunanda Lim

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Contents

Dedication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Acknowledgement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

The Thirty-One Planes of Existence

(Foreword) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

The Thirty-One Planes of Existence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Kàma-loka (The Sensuous World) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Råpa-loka, Form Realms

(The Fine Material World) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

Aråpa-loka, Formless Realm

(The Immaterial World) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46

Tables (31 Realms) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 75

Large Chart of 31 Realms of Existence . . . . . . . . . . . 80

Sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

The Author . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82

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Introduction

One of the main tenets in the Buddha’s Teachingsis that all things happen due to a cause. In the con-text of birth and death, these two phenomena areactually one process. Death is followed by immedi-ate rebirth in accordance with a law known as theLaw of Causality. Death signals the end of a phaseof kamma and at that point the beginning of thenext phase of kamma gives immediate rebirth inanother plane of existence as dictated by the qual-ity of the kamma arising at that moment in time. Ican do no better than to append herewith somepertinent writings by Anagarika Sugatananda(Francis Story) on the spirit world in introducing“The Thirty-One Planes of Existence” by VenerableBhante Suvanno.

“In accordance with the universal Law of Causality,death is followed by immediate rebirth in one of thethirty-one planes of existence as a result of previ-ous kamma. That is to say, a being arises in theappropriate sphere to which past conscious ac-tions and habitual tendencies culminating in the“death-proximate kamma”, or last conscious thought-

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moment, have led him. If his actions of the threetypes (mental, physical and vocal, manifesting inthought, action and speech) have been directed bya purified consciousness, he will re-manifest in ahigher plane or Brahma-loka; if they have been ofmixed type he will be reborn in one of the interme-diate spheres of the kàma-loka (world of desire orsensory gratification). If his kamma has been pre-dominantly bad, with a strong reflex at themoment of death, he will be reborn in what arecalled the Duggatti (unhappy) states, including theworld of earthbound spirits or peta-loka. Thedeath-proximate kamma is an important factor indeciding the immediate rebirth. It may be good orbad, but whichever it is, it tends to be the state ofmind characteristic of the individual in his previ-ous life, which takes possession of his lastmoments of consciousness before it leaves thebody. Thus a person whose predominant charac-teristic is a mental attitude of hate will at once re-manifest in a form embodying his hatred, as that ishis death-proximate kamma, induced by habitualpast thoughts. If he has cultivated Mettà andKaruna (benevolence and sympathy) it is that con-sciousness that will arise in a higher plane wherethese characteristics manifest.

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The most common type of habitual consciousnessis neither of active love nor active hatred, but desire(taõhà). It is desire and attachment that bind theindividual to the wheel of Saüsàra. They providethe motives of all activities: hatred and love them-selves arise from the root cause of desire; love to-wards the object of attraction, hatred when the de-sire is thwarted. Most kamma, therefore, is of amixed type and its effects alternate in the experi-ences of the future life in the kàma-loka. The worldwherein we now find ourselves is in the kàma-loka,as it is one of the spheres dominated by desire andsensual attachment.

The highest doctrine (of the Buddha) teaches thebasic truth of anatta, which means that even in theearthly life-continuity of the individual there is nopersistent or unchanging entity. All things are in acondition of flux; a causal continuum of successivethought-moments and material conformations aris-ing and passing away in obedience to the Law ofDependent Origination. That which is developed bymental discipline and spiritual purification is not apersonality, but a tendency. An infant carries thelatent tendencies of the past existence and theseeds of the future life before it; but the child of five

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is not the same personality as the subsequent boyof fifteen or man of fifty. Body, mind and all the ele-ments will have changed many times between thesestages of the individual’s life. When we allude tothem as the same ‘person’ we are only using a nec-essary convention; there is no identity linking thechild of five, the boy of fifteen and the man of fifty.There is only a causal continuity; because the childexisted the man exists, and his ‘personality’ is theaggregate of his thoughts, words, actions and expe-riences during the intervening period. It is the func-tion of memory alone which gives this causal-continuum an appearance of being an identical per-sonality continuous in time. When age, or anyorganic alteration of the physical brain, causes thefaculties to decay, further changes of character orpersonality arises, this time caused solely throughchange in the material structure of the body. Thisis further explained in the Buddhist doctrine ofanicca (impermanence of all phenomena).

We are in a better position to understand what ac-tually takes place at death and rebirth. The beingthat is reborn bears the same relationship; a causalone, to the being of the previous life as the boy offifteen does to the child of five, or the man of fifty to

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the boy of fifteen. It is the same ‘person’ only in thesense that the one carries on the cause-effect cur-rent of the other. To use a familiar illustration: if weknew a boy of fifteen and then lost sight of him un-til he reached the age of fifty, we should findscarcely anything by which to recognise him. Un-less he bore some unusual physical characteristicof a kind to endure all his life, even his own motherwould not be able to identify him.

A section of the Buddhist scriptures, the Peta

Vatthu, describes the state of those reborn in theDuggatti spheres, and how they can be helped bythe living. The word ‘Peta’ may be roughly translatedas ‘ghost’, though it is related to the Sanskrit Pitri,meaning ancestor. In the Peta Vatthu it is shownthat those reborn in the spirit world nearest theearth-plane often have an inferior type of conscious-ness to that with which they were equipped in theirprevious existence. Far from having access to widerrealms of knowledge... they re-manifest with a lim-ited consciousness and intellect, with imperfectmemory of the past life, and inhabiting a vague, in-determinate half-world. At the same time because oftheir strong attraction to the sphere they have left,their contacts with it are relatively easier and more

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frequent than those of beings in the higher lokas. Ina sense, they exist side by side with the ‘living’; thestep between their place and ours is only small andone easily taken by the psychically-sensitive.

It is from these beings that the trivial messages andmeaningless phenomena emanate. They have notthe same ‘personality’ they had on earth, but retainonly the accumulated characteristics most predom-inant in that personality. This condition prevailsuntil that particular kamma-resultant is exhausted,when they are reborn once again in the ceaselessround of saüsàra, from which final escape is onlypossible through the realisation of Nibbana.

On the human (manussa) level of the kàma-loka

there is pain and pleasure, good and evil, hatredand love. It is the sphere of opposites, from whichwe, as free agents, have to make our own choicesfor the fulfillment of our evolution. All the lokas

must be regarded as planes of consciousness whichare attainable... in the physical body.

In effect while still on earth we can raise ourselvesto the plane of our choice and will inevitably re-manifest there when the term of earthly existence isended. But any law, to be a true universal princi-

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ple, must operate both ways; we cannot logicallyexpect the cosmic law to work only in our favour. Ifit did, there would be no point in man’s freedom ofchoice in moral issues. Where it is open to man togo upward, forward, it must be open to him to de-scend in the scale of spiritual evolution also.

Greed, hatred, sensuality and inertia all have theirappropriate spheres of manifestation and their cor-responding corporeal forms. When these types ofconsciousness arise more frequently than theirspiritual opposites of generosity, love, purity andenergy, they create the form of the next birth. It isat death that the Jekyll and Hyde metamorphosistakes outward effect, not by any process of trans-migration, or passing of a soul from one body to an-other, but in accordance with the subtle and uni-versal law of causality that rules the cosmos…. Thelower planes of the spirit world are peopled by crea-tures imperfect in form and sub-human in the intel-lect, the direct result of misuse of their facultiesduring earthly life. Spirits such as these lingerabout the places with which they were associated inlife, drawn thither by the strong force of attach-ment, and they are able to make use of psychicallydefenceless persons to make their contact with the

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world for which they crave. Themselves living in adim and cheerless world, they seek to share the lifethey once knew, as a cold and homeless travellerlooks with longing into a warm and comfortableroom, where friends are seated round a glowing fire.

Impermanence is the inherent nature of all condi-tions and neither suffering nor heavenly happinesslast forever. In time the kamma that produces themruns its course and another phase of existence isentered. So the state of these unhappy beings isonly temporary. Far from having greater knowledgeand power than human beings, they have less andthe teaching of Buddhism is that they should be re-garded with compassion. They can be helped by theloving thoughts of the living and good deeds done intheir names can, if they take advantage of the op-portunity offered, by rejoicing in these deeds, allevi-ate their unhappiness. The method of doing this –by psychic dedication – is also fully dealt with inthe Pali commentaries and is regularly practised inall Buddhist countries.” (Francis Story; The Light

of the Dhamma Vol.1)

Francis Story, an eminent student of Buddhism,and the description of the “31 Planes” by the Ven-

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erable âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera should serve toanswer some questions regarding the relationshipof birth and death in the Buddha’s cosmology.

In the Chinese tradition of reckoning age, the Ven-erable âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera will be 82 in thisyear of 2001. From the age of 12 he has been prac-tising the Buddha’s Teachings; progressing gradu-ally and painstakingly until today, where he findshimself immersed totally in the nitty-gritty of teach-ing the Dhamma to one and sundry as and whenthe demand falls on him. These constant and some-times urgent demands on his time (sometimes thedemand can come as early as 2.00 am, as whenthere is a knock on his door and he is called to thebedside of a dying devotee to chant for the favoura-ble rebirth of said devotee) mean that his time is nothis own. Such has been the case with Bhante forthe better part of his life as a practising monk. Ithas always been “devotees come first” no matterthat he has no time to practise for his own salva-tion. It is rare indeed that a call from a devotee is ig-nored; even the whimpering of a stray dog has hisear or the mewing of a hungry cat has his immedi-ate attention. He has been known to stop half-wayin a Dhamma talk to enquire why a certain puppy is

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whimpering piteously in fear. “Please do not ill-treatthe poor little puppy, for he has a wretched birth.Someone tried to drown the poor thing. Please treatit with compassion.” A dying fish in an artificial lilypond brings immediate action on his part to returnall the fishes to the river and do away with thepond; all by himself!

The plight of a fellow monk in Yangon struck downwith a stroke takes him immediately to that city toarrange for hospitalisation, up-to-date medical careand nursing. Further, on arriving home; organisingmedical funds for repatriation for the expenses ofthe sick monk. Many too are the Theravada medita-tion centres in Malaysia and Myanmar that havebenefited from his advice and financial assistancewhen such centres were in the beginning stages oforganisation. Needless to say that this list of benefi-ciaries is long.

In the period of his monkhood, a period of 21 years,the Venerable Bhante has given his time for thewelfare of those who came to seek help and advicein the many facets of life experiences, from happi-ness to sadness, simple problems to problems of amore serious nature. Amongst his many memora-

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bilia, throughout the years of his monkhood, thathe will leave to posterity, are cassette tapes of hisDhamma talks in the Hokkien dialect. On thesetapes are recorded various topics of Dhamma as ex-pounded by the Buddha in His 45 years of ministry.

“Sabbe sankhàra aniccati”; all compounded thingsare impermanent, as such and at such times whenwe are unable to hear the original Bhante Suvannoin the flesh speaking to us in his inimitable way,there will be available a new series of Dhammabooks and cassettes in English, Hokkien and Man-darin, dedicated to his life’s work on the Path.Beginning with No.1 in this new series of Dhammatalks will be “The 31 Planes of Existence” and fol-lowing will be such titles as “The Sixteen Dreams ofKing Pasenadi,” “The Story of King Vesantara,” etc.These Dhamma talks in Hokkien, currently on au-dio tapes, will be transcribed into English, editedand translated to Mandarin and eventually re-corded onto CDs. This series will have a serialnumber for easy identification.

Since 1990, when he was 70 years of age, BhanteSuvanno had hinted that he would soon retire intoseclusion. The conditions had never been appropri-

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ate enough for the event to happen; however astime passes by, he fully realises the urgency of con-centrating on the true reason for his renunciation.“Mere acts of reverence cannot be deemed to hon-our, esteem, venerate and worship the Tathàgatha

rightly. Only the bhikkhu … lay disciple who prac-tises fully according to the Teachings, who is en-dowed with correctness in the practice of theTeachings and who lives with righteousness andtruth, can be deemed to honour, esteem, venerate,revere and worship the Tathàgatha in the highestdegree.” In the eyes of Bhante Suvanno, the highestdegree of veneration is to practise Vipassanà

Bhàvanà, as recommended by the Buddha.

In concluding this introduction to the new series ofDhamma books that are forthcoming, we on theeditorial board conjoin our felicitations with all whoshared in making this Dhammaduta possible,financially and service-wise, by wishing: dearBhante Suvanno,

May safety and comfort in the Dhamma be your blessings,May good will and sincerity be your strength,May mental and physical well-being be the twin pillarsOf the bridge that takes you to the shore of Nibbàna.

Jinavaüsa,October, 2001

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The Thirty-One Planes of Existence

Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Samma Sambuddhasa

Homage to Him, the Exalted, the Worthy, the Fully Enlightened One

I have been asked to repeat my talk about the 31Planes of Existence which I had given some timeago. I did talk in general about that and there isalso a chart that I had organised and it is appendedhere for your study. Today I shall explain eachplane in detail so you can be clear on the matter.These may well be my last few Dhamma talks as itis my aspiration to pursue my goal of being a “no-body”; to retire into retreat and away from worldlypursuits. I believe that there are many of myDhamma talks recorded on cassette tapes and ifthere is an opportunity, please listen to my tapes. Ifyou feel depressed or sad, take out my tapes andlisten to the message; it may help you to know andunderstand the Dhamma better.

It is my sincere hope that you will contemplate thisDhamma talk and understand the fearsomeness ofhell. If you are constantly mindful of this, you willfear to do evil and if you do no evil and abstain fromthoughtless actions you are on the correct path.

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The Thirty-One Planes of Existence

In this context, existence means life or living.Planes means realms, levels or worlds, places. InPàli the word “Loka” is a near equivalent, as theEnglish language does not have an exact transla-tion. We can say that these realms are as muchplaces as they are mental states. For example, ifyour mind is evil, nasty or unwholesome and youare constantly following your mind’s will, then youare already living in the realm of hell. Furthermore,if you perform such unwholesome actions againand again without fear and without being mindfulof the results, you will be reborn in a place of suf-fering: a hell realm. If you are honest, virtuous andyour mind is pure and you constantly practise thewholesome acts of dàna, sãla and bhàvanà (medita-tion) to develop your purity, then you are living in aheavenly state and are sure to be reborn in a clean,beautiful and pure place: a heavenly realm or evenattain Nibbàna. This cosmology and natural “law”applies to all beings, not just Buddhists, for suchlaws or Dhamma are not inventions of the Buddha,but are natural and re-discovered by Him when Hebecame Enlightened under the Bodhi tree.

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One thing that we should remember is that all be-ings, without exception, living in the differentrealms are impermanent; they do not live forever.Some beings in the heavens can live for aeons butonce they die in one realm, they will be reborn asanother being in another realm, unless they haveattained Nibbana – which means that they don’thave to suffer or be reborn in any of these realms;they have achieved “non-existence”.

The inescapable law of kamma guarantees thateach and every one of our actions, whether it be ofbody, speech or mind, has consequences in linewith the skilfulness or otherwise of that action.We can often witness this process first-hand inour own lives; the effects may not be immediatelyapparent. But the Buddha also taught that ouractions have effects that extend far beyond ourpresent life, determining the quality of rebirth af-ter death: act in wholesome, skilful ways and youare destined for a favourable rebirth; act in un-wholesome, unskilful ways and an unpleasant re-birth awaits. In our ignorance, we stumble foraeons through saüsàra, propelled from one birthto the next by the quality of our choices and ouractions, not knowing where we shall end up next

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and unconsciously clinging to and craving for abetter existence; rushing helter-skelter, as ifblindfolded to join a speeding bullet train takingus to a destination we know not where. Comparethis to a flock of chickens on the farm, happilyscrounging for food, oblivious of the fact that atany time, one or any of its number will be pickedup and slaughtered!

The suttas described 31 distinct “planes” or“realms” of existence into which beings can be re-born during their long wandering throughsaüsàra. These range from the extraordinarilydark, grim and painful hell realms all the way upto the most sublime, refined and exquisitely bliss-ful heavenly realms. Existence in every realm isimpermanent; in the cosmology taught by theBuddha there is no eternal heaven or hell. Beingsare born into a particular realm according to boththeir past kamma and their kamma at the momentof death. When the kammic force that propelledthem to that realm is finally exhausted, they passaway, taking rebirth once again elsewhere accord-ing to their kamma. And so the wearisome cyclecontinues on and on into the deepest recesses ofinfinity.

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In these 31 planes, eleven realms are dominatedby the five senses, which includes our own humanrealm, six other realms occupied by devas andfour realms of suffering. The lowest plane beinghell, niraya and, in ascending order, the animalworld, the world of the peta or hungry ghosts andthe world of the asura; these are the planes of suf-fering where there is no opportunity to gain mer-its. Unfortunately these planes are the most popu-lated, bursting at their seams with beings reapingthe fruits of their past evil deeds. We must under-stand that in these four woeful planes, the mostfearsome is hell, there being eight major hells, fiveminor hells and various sub-hells. In certain hellsituations there is no let up of suffering for evenone moment.

Going beyond these eleven are another sixteenrealms of devas and gods of various classifications,and finally there are the four pure abodes of form-less gods where the life span is so long that it ap-pears to be timeless. Because of this length of timecertain gods whose life spans are much longer thanothers have the idea that they are immortal, havingseen so many others coming and going whilst theythemselves are still around.

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The Buddha further said that these 31 Planes of Ex-istence exist not only in this universe but are foundamongst millions of other world systems or uni-verses. Every system or world has its 31 Planes ofExistence. This unique universal truth was realisedby the Buddha on His Enlightenment 2,500 yearsago. It is perhaps worth mentioning that only theBuddha was able to discover this unique truththrough the process of a method or discipline knowntoday as Vipassanà Bhàvanà (or Insight Meditation).Thus far no other religious teacher has been knownto propound and teach this unique natural law. TheBuddha further exhorted that to strive for the at-tainment of Enlightenment should be the ultimategoal of His students and disciples. Many of His dis-ciples were able to achieve enlightenment during Hisministry and one of the few notable ones, called An-uruddha, was able to confirm what the Buddha saw.

So how many world systems are there in all? Theearly Buddhist texts (Nikàya) sometimes talk interms of “the thousandfold world system”, “thetwice-thousandfold world system”, and the“thrice-thousandfold world system”. According toBuddhaghosa there are 1,000,000,000,000 worldsystems1.

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Two thousand five hundred years ago the Buddhaand His enlightened disciples had witnessed whattoday, science has just begun to discover: thatthere are other world systems, each with its lifeforms as are found in this vast universe.

Human beings who are ignorant of the Dhammaneither find the necessity to develop wholesome orgood actions or deeds nor do they fear to do baddeeds. The Buddha was very clear. If beings do notdo good deeds they will not accumulate merits, inwhich case in their next rebirth they are sure to bereborn into the world of hungry ghosts, animals orwandering spirits. If one disregards good deeds andonly performs bad deeds, it is similar to one plant-ing a tree with its root reaching right to the bottomof hell. Beings who advocate against good andwholesome deeds are very unwise: why? In a per-

1. This view is supported in the book Atlas of theUniverse by Patrick Moore, published by CambridgeUniversity Press in the UK in 1998, Life in theUniverse pp 206; in which is stated: There are100,000 million stars in our Galaxy, many of whichare very like the Sun; we can see 1,000 milliongalaxies, and it does not seem reasonable to believethat in all this host, our Sun alone is attended by asystem of planets.

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son who does not perform good deeds, the kammicenergy he creates is unwholesome and at every re-birth he will find himself in one of the four woefulplanes. It has been said by the wise that whateverseeds one sows, the fruits thereof shall one reap.

The Buddha has said that beings who had per-formed good deeds in previous existences wouldfind rebirth in one of the twenty-seven planes in-cluding the human plane. These twenty-sevenplanes are known to be sugati, that is, in a happyworld. The four woeful planes are known as dug-

gati. These four woeful planes are really sorrowfulas there will be no joy or laughter, only suffering.

Only human beings who regularly practise mentaldevelopment and those in the habit of doing gooddeeds will gain merits to be reborn in one of thetwenty-seven happy planes. Unfortunately, humanbeings make up the minority number here. Even inthese sugati planes, some humans are laughingand some are crying. Some have plenty to eat andsome go starving. Why do all these inequalitiescome about? All these are the results of kamma. Inthe final analysis, good things that happen to one;wealth, having enough to eat and wear, happinessand peace are due to the sowing of good seeds on

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fertile ground thus accumulating merits. “One can-not be reborn into any existence as one desires, butwill fall into any one of the 31 planes of existenceaccording to one’s past kamma.” (The Manuals of

Buddhism by Ledi Sayadaw)

Ledi Sayadaw further states that: “Dispersion oflife” after death is worse than death itself, for thefour realms of misery down to the great “Avãci” Hellstand wide open to a puthujjana (a worldling who isignorant of the Dhamma) who departs from theabode of men, like space without any obstruction.As soon as the term of life expires, he may fall intoany of the niraya or realms of misery. Whether faror near on passing away, there is no interveningperiod of time. He may be reborn as an animal, as apeta, a wretched shade or as an asura, or titan, inthe wink of an eye. The same holds true if he dies inthe upper six realms of the devas. However, if hedies from the higher levels of råpa loka and aråpa

loka, there is no direct fall into the four realms ofmisery, but there is a halt of one existence either inthe abode of men or in one of the six realms of thedevas, wherefrom conditioned by his kamma andhis unskilful actions in the human abode, he mayyet fall into one of the four realms of misery.

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In our experience in this existence, we know thatsome people are reborn into wealthy families andsome into poor families. Some grow up in goldencradles and some sleep on gunny sacks on thefloor. Some are tall or short, beautiful or ugly; someare stupid and some are intelligent. All these in-equalities, the Buddha explained, are the results ofthe merits or demerits of the actions of dàna andgenerosity done in our previous existences.

Giving dàna, keeping of precepts and practisingmeditation are good wholesome deeds. If humanbeings practise these three good and wholesome ac-tions they will stand very good chances of findingrebirth in happy planes.

These 31 planes are divided into three types ofworlds:

1. Kàma-loka or kàmabhava(the sensuous world)

— 11 planes

2. Råpa-loka or råpabhava(the world of form / fine material world)

— 16 planes

3. Aråpa-loka or aråpabhava(the formless world / immaterial world)

— 4 planes

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Kàma-loka

(The Sensuous World)

The sensuous world is finely divided into the follow-ing planes:a. Kàmaduggati

b. Kàmasugati

A. Kàmaduggati Bhåmi — The Four States ofDeprivation (apàya) are as follows:

1. Niraya (Hell)These are realms of unimaginable sufferingand anguish (described in graphic detail in

Majjhima Nikaya 129 & 130). They should notbe confused with the eternal hell proposed byother religions, since one’s time here is, as it isin every realm, temporary. Unwholesome ac-tions, murdering one’s parents or an arahant,injuring the Buddha, or creating a schism inthe Sangha, being quarrelsome and annoyingto others are the ways to enter this region.

Human beings usually consider hell as beingat the very bottom in the planes and oftenthink that hell is inside a volcano or under the

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ground or the ocean but it doesn’t have to bein any one place. Besides there are about a bil-lion solar systems so why does hell have to beunder the ground on earth. It could be any-where and the heavens could be anywhere too,not just up in the clouds. We should try to vis-ualise these realms more as states of being,not just places or up and down.

Niraya, the lowest level in the hell region, is aplace of unimaginable torment. Totally devoidof happiness (sukha), only suffering (dukkha)is to be found here. In this life, if one does veryharmful things, like killing, patricide or matri-cide, one will condition the mind to be negativeand unwholesome. When passing away in thisstate of mind, one will surely find rebirth inthis realm of great torment, joining other nega-tive minded beings to suffer for a very longtime. One must realise that one is not beingpunished by anyone; it’s a natural process ofcause and effect. Just as similar grains of sandgather to form a beach and birds of a featherflock together, so do evil beings naturally at-tract and end up with other evil beings. Thesame natural “law” applies to all realms.

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2. Tiracchàna Yoni (Animals)

This realm includes all the non-human formsof life that are visible to us under ordinary cir-cumstances: animals, insects, fish, birds,worms, etc. Behaving like an animal will getone to this plane.

The animal world is also not a pleasant placebut often we think that it is. We look at birdsflying in the sky and we say, “Ah, so beautiful,they are free and can go anywhere they wantto.” Flying is not as easy as it looks. Imagineputting on a set of wings and trying to take off,could you keep your arms out-stretched foreven five or ten minutes? Birds do it for hours,sometimes days! Besides, why are they flyingaround up there anyway? They’re not doing itfor fun, they’re working. They’re searching forfood or something to build their nests with,looking after their kids, and looking out fordanger. Birds and animals are always afraidthat someone or something is going to getthem, so they live with fear and worry.

Animals’ lives are not so great; they have nochoice but to search for food, fight and kill to

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stay alive. They must mark and guard theirterritory and then become hostile to intruders.We think that some animals are lucky, likehouse pets but are they really happy? Maybethey would prefer to be out in the wild orcatching their own food; we don’t know. I knowthat they are dependent upon us and when wego away, they fret and worry. I once met a manwho said that he wanted to be reborn as a lion,king of the jungle. I said that lions have to killfor their food and fight the other lions to con-tinue to be the king; it’s not an easy life. Also,animals don’t have many options in life, theyare bound and restricted by their environ-ments, intelligence, and instincts.

3. Peta Loka (Hungry ghosts)

The next realm is that of the peta, often re-ferred to as hungry ghosts. They wander hope-lessly about in this realm, searching in vain forfulfillment. It is said that hungry ghosts havebig, fat stomachs and tiny, little mouths. Theyare never satisfied, always hungry and cannever get enough to eat. So if people are verygreedy and don’t practise dàna (sharing/giv-ing), then they might become one of these be-

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ings. Sometimes people have pity for the peta

because they can’t do good deeds for them-selves, so they try to help them by doing gooddeeds and sharing merits with them, particu-larly if they think that their departed relativemay have been reborn as one.

Generally speaking, ghosts are the humanswho have a very strong attachment to humanexistence or a particular place and althoughthey are dead, they can’t leave. I think thatfriendly ghosts exist in this realm too, the oneswho have lost their way, or those who diedsuddenly and don’t know that they’re dead yetor who have “unfinished business” to do. Forthese “trapped” beings, mettà (loving-kindness)from us will help them along; there’s no needto be afraid of ghosts.

4. Asura (Demons)

Asura, demons or titans are powerful and war-like but it seems that they don’t harm hu-mans. These demons, “titans” that dwell hereare engaged in relentless conflict with one an-other. Some people are afraid of these beingsbut few beings can go from one realm to an-other. We can’t become animals or just go and

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visit heaven or hell and come back again, nei-ther can they. So do not be afraid, be friendly.

These four lower realms are unhappy ordukkha (suffering) realms. There is no chanceto be good or to do good. When we do mettà

bhàvanà (loving kindness meditation) and wesay, “May all beings be happy and peaceful,healthy and strong”, it includes all of thesebeings too.

B. Kàmasugati Bhumi — After the four woefulplanes, there is the human plane and six otherplanes of heavenly gods, the highest of whichis Paranimmita Vasavatti, the abode of thegods who make others’ creation serve theirown ends.

5. Manussa Loka (Human beings)

World of human beings. You are here (fornow). Rebirth as a human being is extraordi-narily rare (see Saüyutta Nikàya LVI.48). It isalso extraordinarily precious, as its uniquemix of pleasure and pain facilitates the devel-opment of virtue and wisdom to the degreenecessary to set one free from the entire cycle

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of rebirths. The attainment of stream-entry(sotàpatti) guarantees that all future rebirthswill be in the human or higher realms.

The human world has not only a mixture ofdukkha and sukha but also upekkha, whichmeans balance, neutrality or equanimity.Humans are found in many varied and ex-treme life situations. Some are born in poorvillages or countries, without proper food,clean water, clothes, money, adequate sanita-tion etc. To these unfortunate people it’s hellon earth; all dukkha. I assume that all of ushere are average; we have good families, wellfed and clothed, with children going to goodschools. We’re not rich, not poor and our liveshave the normal ups and downs. Some are re-born as princes or princesses and have thebest of everything; very little dukkha and lotsof sukha. They live heavenly lives in this world.Only in this human realm is there pleasantand unpleasant, happy and unhappy, goodand bad, and everything in between; thereforebeings can only really understand the truenature of existence in the human realm. Wecan realise the imbalance of existence and en-

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deavour to restore the balance, particularly inour own minds.

It is pointless to debate whether these realmsare real or whether they are merely fancifulmetaphors describing the various mind-stateswe might experience in this lifetime. The realmessage of this cosmology is simply this: un-less we take steps to break free from the irongrip of kamma, we are doomed to wander aim-lessly in saüsàra, with genuine peace and sat-isfaction always out of reach. The Buddha’sNoble Eightfold Path provides us with preciselythe tools we need to break out of this cycle,once and for all, to true freedom.

6. Càtumahàràjika HeavenDevas of the Four Great Kings, home of thegandhabbas, the celestial musicians, and theyakkas, tree spirits of varying degrees of ethi-cal purity.

7. Tàvatiüsa HeavenThe Thirty-three Gods with Sakka (Indra) astheir king, a devotee of the Buddha, presidesover this realm. Many devas dwelling here livein mansions in the air.

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8. Yàma Heaven

Yàma Devas. These devas live in the air, free ofall difficulties.

9. Tusita Heaven

World of contented devas. A realm of pure de-light and gaiety. Bodhisattas abide here priorto their final human birth.

10. Nimmànarati Heaven

World of devas delighting in creation. Thesedevas delight in the sense objects of their owncreation.

11. Paranimmita-vasavatti Heaven

World of devas wielding power over the crea-tion of others. These devas enjoy sense pleas-ures created by others for them. Màra, the per-sonification of delusion and desire, lives here.

There are six deva realms included in this group.In other religions when they talk about heaven(only one), they are talking about this Deva Loka.

Here, there is very little dukkha, it’s mostly verypleasant. The beings here are not born as babies,they are already adults and they remain the sameage until they die. There may be beautiful golden

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mansions with gardens and angels playing lovelymusic. There are documented cases where peoplehave physically or clinically died, “left” their bod-ies (the rebirth process has already begun) andseen these heavens but meanwhile recover andhave to “come back” to their bodies again. This iscalled a near-death experience, it’s not strange,it’s natural. A person might end up in theserealms by following his religion correctly. Bud-dhists who practise dàna (sharing), sãla (morality)and bhàvanà (meditation), particularly mettà

bhàvanà (loving kindness) may be reborn in theseDeva Lokas.

The luxuries and sensual pleasures enjoyed by thedevas and devis in the six Deva Lokas are far supe-rior to any human pleasures one can dream of.There are beautiful gardens and parks where devas

and devis stroll about in an almost timeless period.Their dwellings are mansions nestling gently amongverdant green foliage and beautiful pleasant lakeswhere crystal clear waters give them a sense ofpeace and calmness.

The jewelled mansions where devas reside are cre-ated by their own good kamma. All devas look as ifthey are 20 years old, and devis, 16. They never

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age; they remain youthful and beautiful all theirlives. They consume only celestial food so their bod-ies produce no excreta. Devas and devis have differ-ent kusala kamma and so some are better lookingthan others, naturally their mansions too are of dif-ferent grades according to their kusala kamma.

All these divine abodes are full of sensual pleasuresand are fully enjoyed by the celestial beings, somuch so that they do not find the necessity to med-itate or to keep their precepts. Thus there is no pos-sibility of doing good or practising the Dhamma ormeditation in these Deva Lokas. Passing away onexhausting their kusala kamma, and not having ac-cumulated further merits in these Deva Lokas, theyare sure to descend into one of the four woefulplanes. To be reborn into the Deva Lokas or celes-tial planes is not a great comfort as we see clearlythat there are many dangers and hindrances to-wards spiritual progress. To the unwary these arelikened to booby traps.

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Råpa-loka, Form Realms

(The Fine Material World)

The following are the different planes of devas:

12. Pàrisajja Brahma

Retinue / servants of Mahà Brahma.

13. Purohita Brahma

Ministers / advisors of Mahà Brahma. Beingsin these planes enjoy varying degrees of jhanicbliss.

14. Mahà Brahma

Great Brahmas. Two of this realm’s morefamous inhabitants are the Great Brahma, adeity whose delusion leads him to regard him-self as the all-powerful, all-seeing supposedlycreator of the universe (see Digha Nikaya 11),and Brahma Sahampati, who begs the Buddhato teach Dhamma to the world.

15. Parittàbha Deva

Devas of Limited Radiance.

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16. Appamàõàbha Deva

Devas of Unbounded Radiance.

17. âbhassara Deva

Devas of Streaming Radiance.

18. Parittàsubha Deva

Devas of Limited Glory.

19. Appamàõàsubha Deva

Devas of Unbounded Glory

20. Subhakiõõa Deva

Devas of Radiant Glory

21. Vehapphala Devu

Very Fruitful Devas, they enjoy varying degreesof jhanic bliss.

22. Asa¤¤a Sattà

Mindless beings, only body is present; absenceof sa¤¤à cetasika.

23. Aviha Deva

Devas not Falling Away. They live their full lifespan.

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24. Atappa DevaUntroubled Devas. They are not troubled bythe five hindrances.

25. Sudassa DevaBeautiful Devas. They have magnificient/beautiful body forms.

26. Sudassi DevaClear-sighted Devas. They see things with ease.

27. Akaniññha DevaPeerless Devas. Beings who become non-returners in other planes are reborn here,where they attain arahantship.

In these sixteen planes there are no females, all aremales and when one is reborn there one becomes amale and there is no attachment or emotion be-cause there is no sex, no greed and all sensuousfeelings are non-existent. They are very peaceful be-ings and they live very pure lives, free from allthoughts of sensual pleasures. In their existence ashumans they had preferred the solitude of medita-tion in quiet places away from town centres, cities,houses, villages and monasteries, remote fromworldly and sensual pleasures.

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Most religions teach that there is one God who cre-ates everything and is the ruler of all. In Buddhism,we don’t say that there is just one God but we saythat there are many gods, in many godly realms.Buddhists don’t pray to or worship any of these be-ings. Remember that it is very rare that beings cango from one realm to another; in the same way, thegods don’t rule over humans, they rule over theheavens. The Gods and divine beings, not havingachieved Enlightenment, still have pride and egoand like to have large retinues or attendants. Thusmost religions form around the belief that there areeternal and omnipotent beings that create and ruleover everything and everyone. Buddhists don’t livein the shadow of or obey any beings with selfishpride. Everyone has the power to become enlight-ened, which is greater than mere godly status. Thebeings in the heavenly realms have very fine mate-rial bodies, they can go anywhere; they just thinkwhere they want to be and they are already there,as in the imagination or in a dream.

These realms are accessible to those who havereached at least some level of attainment in theirmeditation and who have thereby managed to erad-icate hatred and ill-will to some extent, though not

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all. They are said to possess extremely refined bod-ies of pure light. The only way to reach this plane isthrough the practice of meditation. There is noneed for illumination in this plane, as all beingshere are beautiful and radiant in different degreesand their faces shine brilliantly, lighting up the sur-rounding area. This plane is called the Råpa worldwhere Brahmas live.

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Aråpa-loka, Formless Realm

(The Immaterial World)

The highest in these realms, the Pure Abodes(28-31), are accessible only to those who have at-tained to “non-returning”, the stage of arahantship.It consists of four realms that are the abodes ofthose who pass away while meditating in the form-less jhànas. This is the purest of the 31 planes ofexistence.

28. âkàsàna¤càyatanupaga DevaSphere of Infinite Space.

29. Vi¤¤aõa¤càyatanupaga DevaSphere of Infinite Consciousness.

30. âki¤ca¤¤àyatanupaga DevaSphere of Nothingness.

31. Nevasa¤¤ànàsa¤¤àyatanupaga DevaSphere of Neither-perception-nor-non-perception.The inhabitants of these realms are possessedentirely of mind. Having no physical body, theyare unable to hear Dhamma teachings.

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Aråpa means no bodily form at all; having no mate-rial body and possessing mind only, beings in theserealms do not feel physical dukkha. Life here is verypleasant and extremely long. One may be reborn insuch a realm by practising strong and deep absorp-tion concentration meditation techniques. Thesestates are very pure and having become adept atentering into these states one may, upon death,choose to die in this state and be reborn in such arealm. However this is not to say that one shouldaspire to be born in this realm, as the primaryobjective of meditation taught by the Buddha is toattain Nibbàna, and that can only be through Vi-

passanà Bhàvanà (meditation), the Buddha said.

The Fine-Material World and the Immaterial Worldtogether constitute the “heavens” (sagga).

All this information is not really important if youwant to attain enlightenment. It’s just an interest-ing subject that many people like to philosophiseover. But the Buddha’s teaching is not merely aphilosophy; it is a practice, a blueprint for blissfulliving. As we have just mentioned, Vipassanà

Bhàvanà is the only way to Enlightenment and toachieve the goal of the Buddha’s teaching. For thisto happen we need to practise diligently.

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In the rounds of saüsàra that beings go through,regardless of the plane they live and die in, theprocess of being reborn, getting old, sick, dying andbeing reborn again had been tediously timeless. Allbeings undergo these processes many times in asmany Great Kappas. What is a kappa? The Buddhaexplained that a kappa is likened to an enormouspiece of rock that is seven miles long, seven mileswide and seven miles deep in dimension. A Deva,once in one hundred years, taking a piece of veryfine cloth, rubs it, till it is no more. This is thelength of time of one kappa. We could have been re-born many times in this Great Kappa. (Manual of

Abhidhamma, Ch.5 & Note V.1)

In their ignorance and delusion, beings go throughtheir unending cycles of rebirths repeatedly, with-out contemplating the sufferings they have experi-enced in saüsàra. In their delusion they believethat they are having great enjoyment in their livesand thus at each rebirth they crave to be rebornagain and again, even though some of their rebirthsare in the planes of animals, hungry ghosts orsometimes as gods in the heavenly realms.

In our repeated cycles of rebirth, many Buddhashave passed through, and we have sometimes met

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with the Buddha and sometimes not. The Buddhahas said very clearly that there are as many Bud-dhas in the many Great Kappas as there are peb-bles along the two thousand miles of the banks ofthe River Ganges. So lengthy a time and with somany opportunities, yet the greater number of hu-mans have not awakened to the realities of the hor-rors of rebirths.

In their ignorance and delusion, the Buddha said,human beings are unable to realise and rememberany single vestige of the sufferings they had experi-enced in their previous existences, and in their de-luded cravings for and clingings to sensuous pleas-ures they are inevitably reborn to a world wheretheir cravings, clingings and kamma take them.Human beings, especially, have experienced somany losses of loved ones in their many existencesthat the tears they have shed are more than all thewaters of the oceans in this present world. Yet theyare desirous of rebirth.

The Buddha also said that humans are normallydesirous of doing unwholesome deeds rather thanwholesome deeds. When they are about to die, inthe last death moment when they see that they are

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going to be reborn into one of the four woefulplanes, only then are they repentant and pray to bereborn into the human world. That is then too late!

The Buddha had often said that to be born as ahuman being is a very rare feat. One of His disci-ples then asked the Buddha how rare was the occa-sion, and to give an example for clarification. TheBuddha said:

“Monks, suppose that this great earth were to-tally covered with water, and a man were totoss a yoke with a single hole therein. A windfrom the east would push it west, a wind fromthe west would push it east. A wind from thenorth would push it south, a wind from thesouth would push it north. And suppose ablind sea-turtle were there. It would come tothe surface once every one hundred years.Now, what do you think? Would that blindsea-turtle, coming to the surface once everyone hundred years, stick his neck into theyoke with a single hole?”

“It would be a sheer coincidence, lord, that theblind sea-turtle, coming to the surface onceevery one hundred years, would stick his neck

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into the yoke with a single hole.” (Majjhima

Nikàya 129.24)

“It’s likewise a sheer coincidence that oneobtains the human state. It’s likewise a sheercoincidence that a Tathàgata, worthy andrightly self-awakened, arises in the world. It’slikewise a sheer coincidence that a doctrineand discipline expounded by a Tathàgata

appear in the world. Now, this human statehas been obtained. A Tathàgata, worthy andrightly self-awakened, has arisen in the world.A doctrine and discipline expounded by aTathàgata appears in the world.”

“Therefore your duty is to contemplate: ‘This isstress… This is the origination of stress… Thisis the cessation of stress… This is the path ofpractice leading to the cessation of stress.’”(Saüyutta Nikàya LVI.48)

So it is the same in our repeated rebirths. We are ig-norant and hold many wrong views, and because ofthese we have done many wrong and unwholesomedeeds. In the many lifetimes that we passed throughsamsàra we may have by chance met with theBuddha sàsana once or twice at best, at which timewe may know the Truth. We are repeatedly reborn

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into this world where the strong will destroy theweak and the intelligent will despise the not so intel-ligent. The world we are born in is a very materialis-tic world and sensuous desires are very corrupting.

To be reborn as a human being is already a veryrare occasion, to be reborn as a human being in aBuddha sàsana with the knowledge to practise theDhamma is much more singular and unique.Maybe once in a thousand rebirths are we able tobe so fortunate as to have that happen to us, as ex-plained by the Sayadaws Ledi and Mahàsi. Thereare also times when there will not be a Buddha

sàsana. These then will be very bleak times indeed.

In our repeated rebirths, the Buddha said, we carrywith us many wrong views. In some rebirths we areagainst the Buddha’s teaching. Sometimes in ourmeditation or when we are chanting, our sub-conscious shows up and we find that we have an-tagonistic thoughts of the Buddha. These thoughtsare not of our own thinking but due to the wrongviews that we may have held in the Buddha sàsana

in countless previous lifetimes.

We sometimes find some young persons and evenmatured persons with very unruly and destructive

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behaviour, even with the things they profess tolove. This is because of the results of unwholesomeactions accumulated through many lifetimes, ris-ing from the depths of their sub-conscious in thispresent lifetime, characterising their every wordand action. These results of past unwholesomeactions cause much suffering and give rise to de-filements which colour their present deeds. Whatare these defilements? They are greed, anger or ha-tred and delusions. Because of these defilementstheir words and actions will be tainted. Somespeak with barbs in their words and some act with-out restraint.

Most importantly, we must be aware and mindful ofthe defilements of greed, hatred and delusion. Notto be associated with an entity such as ‘I’, ‘me’ or‘mine’, all these ‘I’s; ‘I’ am so and so; ‘my father is soand so’; all these are very strong egoistic referencesto self, and the Buddha has called this ‘sakkàya-

diññhi’, the wrong view of self. ‘I’ drives ‘I’ to performunwholesome action that will cause endless suffer-ing to ‘I’. Thus the most important goal of the medi-tator or yogi in meditation is to destroy this falseconcept of ‘I’. If one does not have the wrong view of‘I’, one does not place importance on ‘I’. Example:

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Noticing some beautiful floral arrangements, onemay wish to commend those responsible for ar-ranging those flowers so beautifully. When ad-dressed thus, the person who did the job, if of astrong self-centred personality will probably remarkthat it was he or she who did the job. ‘I did it, it wasall my own work.’ The one without wrong views of ‘I’will probably say ‘This is my first attempt and is notgood. So-and-so taught me the work, you shouldsee her arrangement. It really is very good.’

Comparing the two individuals, one with strongview of self and the other not so, you can see whichspeech is more hurtful to the ears of the one whohears. Pride of self concept can be very dangerousand harmful, and it can lead to misunderstandingand conflict of egos.

Mahàsi Sayadaw and Ledi Sayadaw have said thatthose who understand the nature of suffering andare knowledgeable of the Dhamma, fear the resultsof unwholesome actions and will refrain from doinganything of that nature. Those who are not know-ledgeable of the Dhamma are not exempt from thesufferings resulting from unwholesome actions. Iftheir excuse is that, since they do not know about

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the Dhamma they should not be affected due totheir ignorance, they are sadly mistaken, becausewhat the Buddha taught are universal laws and willaffect everyone – whether one is aware of it or not.

There are those that hear the Dhamma but stillcontinue to do their unwholesome actions. Theseare people that are asking for trouble. Just imaginethose that leave this hall today, as they go out theywill have to pass through railings on the left andright. One group knows that the railings are burn-ing hot, another group does not. Those that knowwill, of course, not touch the railings, but thosethat don’t will grab the railings and thereby getthemselves burnt badly. In the eyes of the law, ig-norance of the law is not a valid defence. Pleadingguilty will, of course, draw a lighter sentence.

If we are ignorant in this existence, we must not goon being ignorant in our next existence. We shouldwork towards gaining knowledge in this presentexistence. Once we have found the Truth in this ex-istence, we shall have continuity of knowledge ofthe Truth in our future existences. We have men-tioned that the Buddha has said that it is a rarefeat to be born in the time of a Buddha sàsana! We

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are very lucky in deed to be born in this Buddha

sàsana, where we are exposed to His Teachings,but unfortunately, very few will be able to discernthe Truth of the Dhamma. Even so, those few thatlisten and practise the Dhamma will find a betterrebirth for themselves and we shall be very happyfor them.

Those who are ignorant will not make any attemptto know and practise the Dhamma. It is very unfor-tunate, as they do not even know how to keep theFive Precepts. It is also pitiful that some are onlyable to keep the Precepts once, at the beginning ofthe year! And do nothing wholesome the rest of thetime. They expect good results will be theirs be-cause of this once-in-the-year precept keeping.These poor people are cheating themselves. Thesepeople are not serious in wanting to do good and topurify their minds. Those who are serious will pre-pare themselves days ahead of the actual day theyare taking precepts. It does not mean that onekeeps the precepts on certain days and not onother days. No! One must keep the Precepts everyday, with mindfulness! Keeping the Five Preceptswell daily will, the Buddha has said, enable one tobe reborn in a happy plane.

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The way to a better rebirth and happy plane of ex-istence is by observing the precepts, doing gooddeeds, performing dàna and practising Vipassanà

Bhàvanà. Do not view wrongly that the perform-ance of dàna is a very simple action. It is possible todo dàna only if one has the opportunity and themeans.

It is not by chance that we are able to hear thisDhamma and be together with all our Dhammafriends today, but by the accumulated merits ofwholesome actions done presently or in our pastexistences. One’s meeting with a knowledgeable orgood Dhamma friend is also due to accumulatedmerits of good practices such as dàna and medita-tion. If one has not performed such wholesomedeeds one will not be able to have merits to warrantsuch good, fortunate, meetings. Some people want-ing to and even being invited to hear the Dhamma,might not be able to do so due to not having per-formed wholesome deeds, dàna or meditation towarrant the good results. They have missed theboat due to ignorance and not having performedwholesome deeds.

It is of utmost importance to observe the precepts,practice meditation, perform dàna and other good

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deeds of a selfless nature, without any expectationsof material gains. The results of such deeds of dif-ferent kinds will result in different benefits. Evenwhen we have attained to the top of the happyplanes, there is no guarantee that we are safe fromfuture sufferings. Depending on our merits, we canstill have defilements which, if we are not mindfulof them, will lead us to the lower planes of exist-ence. We have to be constantly mindful to guardthe entrance to the six sense doors in order to beaware of our actions.

One we hear the Dhamma and practise meditation,we will be mindful of the sensuous desires arisingfrom our six sense doors. Once we are mindful wewill know the evil of the concept of ‘I’. We will beable to meditate and see ‘rising and falling’ withclarity. From then on deep insight will be attained,and hopefully we may reach the first stage of ara-hatship, known as sotàpanna. We must renouncethe wrong view of self and become selfless.

However, there is no certainty that anyone will bereborn into the happy planes. Many instances havebeen documented and talked about by variousauthorities and ordinary people in what they them-

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selves believe are near-death experiences. Theyhave described what they have seen, which corre-sponds with other unrelated instances: descriptionof guardians of the hell realms and the tremendousheat there are so similar, and experienced in differ-ent spans of time and places, as to exclude anyform of collusion.

Many people do not want to hear the realities of therealms of hell because they are fearful of the uncer-tainties of hell. Is it real or is it superstition? Theyare full of anxieties and doubts, they choose toignore the facts, believing in the edict ‘ignorance isbliss’ or due to a guilty conscience over dark mat-ters deep in their minds. These are fatalistic peoplewho only see the negative side of any situation.They fail to realise that the beginning of fear canlead to wisdom; the wisdom to stop doing unwhole-some actions and start doing good.

All beings reap the fruits of the seeds they sow andare given rebirth by and according to their kammicresults. No deity of any sort controls the birth anddeath of any beings. It is only their kammic ener-gies that condition the rebirth of beings. The goodor bad kamma will determine the happy or suffer-

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ing planes that they will find rebirth in. Make hasteto do good, check your mind for evil. If one is notenergetically doing good, one’s mind will subcon-sciously be thinking of evil thoughts. The mind hasa tendency to gravitate towards unwholesomethoughts, and if one were to let it alone it wouldstart looking for dirt. Refrain from evil deeds.Should one be contemplating unwholesomethoughts, now is the time to stop. One should notfind pleasure in evil; brush off even a simple act ofevil. Buddha says there will be painful suffering ifone does not stop contemplating doing unwhole-some deeds.

In the process of performing good deeds, thethoughts of evil or unwholesome actions will notenter one’s mind. When the merits of one’s gooddeeds ripen, one will enjoy great happiness.

A lot of people do not want to believe that there ishell. They want to believe that hell is only a con-cept. If a person commits any crime he will bearrested by the authorities and be punished, andthat is all there is to it. There is no such thing asatoning for committing bad deeds when on yourdeathbed. Some people may use this excuse to

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assuage their conscience. As an answer and con-solation to their sufferings, they will find variousreasons for their happiness; they will believe thathappiness is what they have achieved on their own.With their achievement and money they believethey can have what they desire. This happens inany age and time. One such instance is given in thefollowing paragraph:

In the time of the Buddha, there were four verywealthy men. They were so rich they did not knowwhat to do with their money. So they decided to usetheir wealth in the pursuit of sensuous pleasureswith women. They would look for beautiful women,marry them and, having become tired of them,would pay them off and get rid of them. If they werenot able to marry them, these four men would kid-nap and rape them, and then pay them off. Theywere able to get away with these atrocities becauseof the circle of sycophantic cronies their wealth at-tracted, who were able to keep them out of troubleif caught by the authorities. Thus they used theirwealth to buy themselves out of trouble in theirpresent lifetime, but how would they possibly farereaping the results of these unwholesome deeds intheir future existences?

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In the four woeful planes of existence too, beingshave the five senses: they see, hear, smell, tasteand touch. However, their faculties can only beconscious of suffering! Their existence in the lowerplanes has suffering as the sole objective, there isno occasion for happiness, sense of pleasure, recre-ation or performance of any deeds that cause hap-piness. Beings here are also unable to choose to dogood, hence they do not have any opportunities toaccumulate merits. Their consciousness is only forsuffering. They cannot choose to do one iota ofgood! They can only suffer, so much suffering thatthe Buddha said: “...it is hard to find a simile forthe suffering in hell.”

Even so, the Buddha gave the following simile:“Suppose bhikkhus, men caught a robber culpritand presented him to the king… and the king said:“go and strike the man in the morning with a hun-dred spears.” And they struck him in the morningwith a hundred spears. Finding him still alive in theafternoon, the king ordered that he be struck againwith a hundred spears and again in the evening.“What do you think, bhikkhus? Would that man ex-perience pain and grief because of being struckwith three hundred spears?” the bhikkhus replied

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in the affirmative… “So too, bhikkhus, the pain andgrief that the man would experience because of be-ing struck with the three hundred spears does notcount beside the suffering of hell; it is not even afraction, there is no comparison.”

The Buddha further elaborated on just a fraction ofthe fruits of evil deeds:

“Now the wardens of hell torture him with the five-fold transfixing. They drive a red-hot iron stakethrough one hand, they drive a red-hot iron stakethrough the other hand, they drive a red-hot ironstake through one foot, they drive a red-hot ironstake through the other foot, they drive a red-hotiron stake through his belly. There he feels painful,racking, piercing feelings. Yet he does not die solong as that evil action has not exhausted its result.

“Next the wardens of hell throw him down and parehim with axes. There he feels painful, racking,piercing feelings. Yet he does not die so long as thatevil action has not exhausted its result.

“Next the wardens of hell set him with his feet upand his head down and pare him with adzes. There

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he feels painful, racking, piercing feelings. Yet hedoes not die so long as that evil action has not ex-hausted its result.

“Next the wardens of hell harness him to a chariotand drive him back and forth across burningground, blazing and glowing. There he feels painful,racking, piercing feelings. Yet he does not die solong as that evil action has not exhausted its result.

“Next the wardens of hell make him climb up anddown a great mound of burning coals, blazing andglowing. There he also feels painful, racking andpiercing feelings. Yet he does not die so long as thatevil action has not exhausted its result.

“Next the wardens of hell take him feet up and headdown and plunge him into a red-hot metal caul-dron, burning, blazing and glowing. He is cookedthere in a swirl of froth. And as he is being cookedthere in a swirl of froth, he is swept now up, nowdown, now across. There he feels painful, racking,piercing feelings. Yet he does not die so long as thatevil action has not exhausted its result.

“Next the wardens of hell throw him into the GreatHell. Now as to that Great Hell, bhikkhus:

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It has four corners and is builtWith four doors, one set in each side,Walled up with iron and all aroundAnd shut in with an iron roof.Its floor as well is made of ironAnd heated till it glows with fire.The range is a full hundred leaguesWhich it covers all-pervasively.

Yes, hell is very real indeed. It can be likened to ahuge furnace, flames shooting out from all sides in-cluding top and bottom. Doors lead to and fromthis furnace like chambers. There are altogethereight chambers. The flames are constantly burningand there is no switch to shut off the flame and thetremendous heat. Ledi Sayadaw, who is known tobe very advanced in his practice, says that thosebeings in hell have their bones, nerves, flesh, heart,lungs, brains etc. burning hot, and the skins are sohot that flames shoot out from them. In hell theywill remain for hundreds of thousands of years,even millions of years or trillions, descillions ofyears2. There they will remain experiencingsufferings. There are many beings in hell, just likemustard seeds packed into a bamboo tube.

2. trillions = 1 followed by 18 zeros;descillions = 1 followed by 60 zeros.

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“Bhikkhus, I could tell you in many ways abouthell. So much so that it is hard to find a similefor the suffering in hell.” (Majjhima Nikàya

129.7; for more descriptions of the results of

wrong deeds, see Visudhimagga I.156)

Thus said the Buddha: the suffering in hell is greatindeed. Being forewarned by no less a person thanthe Buddha, we humans have the good fortune to beable to choose our course of action in this presentexistence, to determine in a big way the degree ofhappiness or suffering in our future existences.

Ledi Sayadaw has explained all this very clearly. Hefurther said that, ‘among the beings in this world,all have a myriad of evil kamma in them’. We havein us to a greater or lesser extent, conditioned byactions of previous existences, residues or accumu-lated defilements of anger, greed and delusion andwe may not understand the true Dhamma, as wemay not have been in contact with a Buddha

sàsana!

During our long stay in the hell regions, we havebeen conditioned by many unwholesome character-istics which stay with us in our rebirth in the hu-

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man existence. Some babies when they are bornare badly behaved, they cry for anything, theythrow tantrums very often and even to the extent ofthrowing away their milk bottles! They need super-vision constantly and they need attention all thetime. Some are really well-behaved and obedient.Why the difference? Those that are unruly havebeen reborn after a lengthy period in hell, after be-ing in hell and in constant sufferings, they havebeen conditioned accordingly. Human life span isbetween seventy to a hundred years, compared tothe life span of the different levels of hell that somebeings are freed from. Due to their good kammaripening, they are now reborn in the human plane.

The most important consideration is that we mustnot succumb to evil actions or deeds, otherwise wewill find ourselves in the hell regions. Once we arein hell all the unwholesome actions will create theright conditions and opportunities for bad kammato arise. So evil kamma after evil kamma will arise.

In certain cases, having passed away one goes tohell, having then passed away while in hell, onemay be reborn again and again in hell or other woe-ful states for many existences. All our actions and

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deeds, though unseen by anybody, or any agencies,will never escape the effects of kamma. Kamma willtake us to the many existences that are our justdesserts. It has no distinctions or preferences. Ourdeeds and actions are known by kamma and in dueseason will reward us with what is due. Even kings,emperors, gods, devas, beggars and humans andall beings are answerable to their kamma.

By the same token if in our lifetime we have per-formed wholesome deeds, kamma will be responsi-ble to see that good things come to us. Kamma willsee to it that at the appropriate time just rewardswill come to us, in the present life or in lives tocome. The right conditions must prevail to reapwhat we have sown.

Ledi Sayadaw has said that all the unwholesomedeeds done by human beings are mostly due to de-lusions we harbour, and these delusions can onlybe eradicated by meditation. When we meditate wewill realise the non-existence of ‘I’, me, you or mine.Once we have realised that, most of the delusionswill not arise in us, in which case we will have at-tained sotàpatti, the first step towards our finalgoal. Once we pass away in this stage, we will not

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be reborn into any woeful states and we will assur-edly be reborn as a human, not an ordinary hu-man, but an intelligent human!

***

Samsàra is a Pàli word which means the cycle ofexistences. It is based on life, death and rebirth andthe chain of cause and effect. Because we die withdesire, aversion and confusion, we can’t let go oflife; this tenacity propels us into a new existenceaccording to the quality of our minds at the time ofdeath. This death moment determines the nature ofthe next existence and so we may be reborn into apleasant or unpleasant existence. We are rebornwith a pre-existing disposition or inclination, whichexplains why we all have individual characters rightfrom birth. The Buddha fully understood the natu-ral way that beings constantly perpetuate their ownsufferings from life to life. He taught that if wecould completely purify the minds of selfish attach-ment we would be self-liberated and experience thepeace and freedom of Nibbàna (enlightenment), thecessation of suffering and the end of rebirth, theend of saüsàra. For to be reborn again and again isto experience untold suffering and misery. For theBuddha asked:

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“Which is greater, the tears that were shedfrom existence to existence while wanderingthis saüsàra, crying and weeping from beingjoined with what is displeasing, being sepa-rated from what is pleasing, or the waters inthe four great oceans?” The Buddha gave theanswer that the tears shed were truly greater.

“Long have you repeatedly experienced thedeath of a mother. The tears you have shedover the death of a mother while wanderingthis long, long saüsàra, crying and weepingfrom being joined with what is displeasing, be-ing separated from what is pleasing, aregreater than the waters in the four greatoceans.”

“Long have you repeatedly experienced thedeath of a father... the death of a brother... thedeath of a sister... the death of a son... thedeath of a daughter... loss with regard to rela-tives... loss with regard to wealth... loss withregard to disease. The tears you have shedover loss with regard to disease while wander-ing this long, long time, crying and weepingfrom being joined with what is displeasing, be-

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ing separated from what is pleasing, aregreater than the waters in the four greatoceans.”

“Why is that? From an inconstruable begin-ning comes birth. A beginning point is not evi-dent, though beings hindered by ignoranceand fettered by craving are being reborn re-peatedly. Long have you thus experiencedstress, experienced pain, experienced loss,swelling the cemeteries, enough to become dis-enchanted with all fabricated things, enoughto become dispassionate, enough to be re-leased.” (Saüyutta Nikàya, Part II, XV.3)

This brings us to the question: how enduring issaüsàra; is there a beginning and does it end? Is iteternal or not eternal?3 These selfsame questionsand others were contemplated by the monkMalunkyaputta, and he went to the Buddha with

3. A group of astronomers stated in The Early Universe, a paper in the Atlas of the Universe that they worked out a theory to be called the continuous-creation or steady-state theory, in which they picture the universe as having no beginning and never coming to an end; there is an infinite past and an infinite future.

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the intention of getting an answer from Him or elsehe would not continue being a monk (Majjhima

Nikàya 63). The Buddha refused to give him ananswer but rather declared that He could not seeany conceivable point where the beginning was andthe ending thereof.

To render a simile of the timelessness of saüsàra,He turned to the group of monks He was address-ing and enquired of them which they thought wasgreater: the mother’s milk they had drunk in thecourse of their long travels in saüsàra or the wa-ters of the four great oceans of the world. He statedthat the mother’s milk they had drunk was thegreater, thus demonstrating the lengthy duration ofsaüsàra.

Therefore it would appear that we have wandered insaüsàra from birth to death, from death to rebirth,again and again for so great a number of aeons thatshould we have been conscious of it we wouldsurely have stopped doing so. He further said toMalunkyaputta why He had not made known theanswers to those questions: “And why, Malunkya-putta have I not made known the answers to yourquestions? Because it is not beneficial and does notbelong to the fundamentals to leading a holy life, it

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does not lead to dispassion and disenchantment, tocessation, to peace and to Nibbàna. Thus have I notdeclared it to you.” The Buddha knew many thingsbut He did not want to burden people with unnec-essary knowledge that did not serve to lead them toNibbàna.

Why do we wander in saüsàra?

“It’s because of not understanding and not pene-trating four things that you and I have wandered onfor such a long, long time. Which four? Suffering,the cause of suffering, the cessation of sufferingand the path leading to the cessation of suffering(ie. the Noble Eightfold Path).”

“But when noble virtue is understood and pene-trated, when noble concentration, noble discern-ment, noble release is understood and penetrated,then craving for becoming is destroyed; the guide tobecoming (craving and attachment) is ended; thereis now no further becoming.” Therefore, the endingof saüsàra is the attainment of the state ofNibbàna, cessation of all suffering.

***

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The 31 Planes Of Existence

Formless Realms (aråpa-loka)

Form Realms (råpa-loka)

REALMS COMMENTS Cause of Rebirth

(31)

Sphere of Neither-perception-nor-

non-perception

(nevasa¤¤ànàsa¤¤àyatanupaga deva)

The inhab-

itants of

these

realms are

possessed

entirely of

mind.

Having no

physical

body, they

are unable

to hear

Dhamma

teachings.

Fourth

formless

jhàna

(30)

Sphere of Nothingness

(àki¤ca¤¤àyatanupaga deva)

Third

formless

jhàna

(29)

Sphere of Infinite Consciousness

(vi¤¤àõa¤càyatanupaga deva)

Second

formless

jhàna

(28)

Sphere of Infinite Space

(àkàsana¤càyatanupaga deva)

First

formless

jhàna

REALMS COMMENTS Cause of Rebirth

(27)

Peerless devas (akaniññha deva)

These are the five

Pure Abodes (sud-

dhàvàsa), which

are accessible only

to (anàgàmã) and

arahants. Beings

who become non-

returners in other

planes are reborn

here, where they

attain arahantship.

Fourth

jhàna

(26)

Clear-sighted devas (sudassã deva)

(25)

Beautiful devas (sudassa deva)

(24)

Untroubled devas (atappa deva)

(23)Durable devas (aviha deva)

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Table 1: Table 2: Table 3: Table 4: Table 5: Table 6:

REALMS COMMENTS Cause of Rebirth

(22)Mindless devas(asannasatta)

Only body is present, no mind. Fourth

jhàna(21)Very Fruitful devas(vehapphala deva)

Beings inthese planesenjoy varyingdegreesof jhanic.

(20)Devas of Radiant Glory(subhakiõõa deva)

Thirdjhàna

(higher degree)

(19)Devas of Unbounded Glory(appamàõàsubha deva)

Thirdjhàna

(medium degree)

(18)Devas of Limited Glory(parittàsubha deva)

Thirdjhàna

(minor degree)

(17)Devas of Streaming Radiance(àbhassara deva)

Secondjhàna

(higher degree)

(16)Devas of Unbounded Radiance(appamànàbha deva)

Secondjhàna

(medium degree)

(15)Devas of Limited Radiance(parittàbha deva)

Secondjhàna

(minor degree)

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Table 7: Table 8: Table 9: Table 10: Table 11: Table 12: Table 13: Table 14:

REALMS COMMENTS Cause of Rebirth

(14)

Great Brahmas

(Mahà brahma)

Two of this realm’s

more famous inhabi-

tants are the Great

Brahma, a deity whose

delusion leads him to

regard himself as the

all-powerful, all-seeing

creator of the universe

(see DN 11), and

Brahma Sahampati,

who begs the Buddha to

teach the Dhamma to

the world.

First

jhàna

(higher degree)

(13)

Ministers of Brahma

(Brahma-purohità deva)

Beings in

these planes

enjoy varying

degrees

of jhanic.

First

jhàna

(medium degree)

(12)

Retinue of Brahma

(Brahma-pàrisajjà deva)

First

jhàna

(minor degree)

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The Sensual World (kàma-loka)REALMS COMMENTS Cause of

Rebirth

(11)

Devas Wielding Power Over

the Creation of Others

(paranimmitavasavatti deva)

Only body is present,

These devas enjoy

sense pleasures created

by others for them.

Màra, the personifica-

tion of delusion and de-

sire, lives here.

• (refer to

‘What

Buddhists

Believe’ by

K. Sri

Dhamma -

nanda)

• Generosity

(10)

Devas Delighting in Creation

(nimmànarati deva)

These devas delight in

the sense objects of

their own creation.

(9)

Contented devas

(tusita deva)

A realm of pure delight

and gaiety. Bodhisattas

abide here prior to

their final human

birth.

(8)

Yama devas

(yàma deva)

These devas live in

the air, free of all

difficulties.

(7)

The Thirty-three Gods

(tàvatimsa deva)

Sakka (Indra), a devo-

tee of the Buddha,

presides over this

realm. Many devas

dwelling here live in

mansions in the air.

(6)

Devas of the Four Great

Kings (catumaharajika deva)

Home of the gand-

habbas, the celestial

musicians, and the

yakkas, tree spirits of

varying degrees of

ethical purity.

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REALMS COMMENTS Cause of Rebirth

(5)Human beings(manussa loka)

You are here (for now). Rebirth as a human be-ing is extraordinarily rare (see SN LVI.48). It is also extraordinarily precious, as its unique mix of pleasure and pain facilitates the de-velopment of virtue and wisdom to the degree necessary to set one free from the entire.

• The development of virtue and wisdom.

The attainment of guarantees that all future rebirths will be in the human or higher realms.

(4)Demons(asura)

The demons “titans” that dwell here are en-gaged in relentless con-flict with one another. • refer to ‘What

Buddhists Believe’ by K. Sri Dhamma-nanda)

(3)Hungry Ghosts(peta loka)

Ghosts and unhappy spirits wander hope-lessly about this realm, searching in vain for fulfilment.

(2)Animals(tiracchana yoni)

This realm includes all the non-human forms of life that are visible to us under ordinary cir-cumstances: animals, insects, fish, birds, worms, etc.

• Ten unwholesome actions.

• Behaving like an animal.

(1)Hell(niraya)

These are realms of un-imaginable suffering and anguish (described in graphic detail in MN 129 and 130). Should not be confused with the eternal hell pro-posed by other reli-gions, since one’s time here is – as it is in every realm – temporary.

• Ten unwholesome actions.

• Murdering one’s parents, murdering an arahant, injuring the Buddha, or creating a schism in the Sangha

• Being quarrelsome and annoying to others.

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Sources

Buddhist Dictionary, by Nyanatiloka Mahàthera

(Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1980).

The Buddhist Religion: A Historical Introduction(fourth edition), by R. H. Robinson & W.L. Johnson

(Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 1996).

The Long Discourses of the Buddha, translated

by Maurice Walshe (Boston: Wisdom Publications,1987).

A Manual of Abhidhamma, by Ven. Narada Thera

The Middle Length Discourses of the Buddha,translated by Bhikkhu ¥anamoli and Bhikkhu Bodhi

(Boston: Wisdom Publications, 1995).

Teacher of the Devas (Wheel Publication 414/416), by Susan Elbaum Jootla (Kandy: BuddhistPublication Society, 1997).

The Three Worlds (wall chart), compiled by Ven.

âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera, (printed for free distri-bution by devotees).

81

Cassette Tapes of 31 Planes of Existence by Ven.

âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera.

Abhidhamma in Daily Life by Ashin Janakabhi-

vamsa; translated and edited by U Ko Lay and re-

vised by Sayadaw U Sãlànanda.

Atlas of the Universe. Published by Cambridge

University Press 1998.

“bhor jhow si”Hokkien

dialect

“bhor jhow si — not running away is death”

The Venerbable âcàra Suvanno Mahàthera

82

Collection Of Suvanno’s Sayings:

Bhante Suvanno, as he is known by his thousandsof devotees, friends and students started life as anunwanted waif, motherless and practically home-less, with stray cats and dogs as his playmates. Hegrew up to be counted as one of the pioneers ofTheravada Buddhism in Malaysia. His contributionto the spread of the sisana is worthy of note.

In a life largely devoted to the practice of theBuddha’s teachings, he has done well scholarly;married and raised a family, saw his daughtersgrew up; married them off and have grand children,only then did he renounce at the age of 60 to finallytake up the holy life.

“bhor jhow si — not running away is death”

This saying was orginally coined by BhanteSuvanno on meeting a fellow monk as a form offriendly greeting.

The intrinsic meaning is: “not getting away from

saüsàra is to return to the round of rebirth and

hence suffering.”

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Bhante Suvanno gives us ample warning of theneed to search ourselves and make ready for theday when we have to go to another world, to harvestthe fruits of the seed we have planted in thispresent time. Should we be found wanting and endup in the woeful planes, where there is no let up inthe suffering we must endure or, if we have takenheed of this advice, we may be transported to theworlds where sensual pleasures are beyond our im-agination. Better still, if we take notice of the warn-ings in real earnest we may never have to return toany worlds, but be totally liberated. The choice isyours to make. Make a wise choice!

The answer may be just a book away!

“Imagine someone searching for some under-standing, some answer to the confusion of life.This person knows that things aren’t quiteright. There must be better ways to live one’slife than this. She or he searches and picks upyet another book and, lo and behold, finds theanswer to his or her quest ~ That’s It! ~ andlife changes forever.” — Venerable ¥ànadassi

84

An Inward Journey Book comes to you as a freeDhamma publication. This book is designed andpublished by Inward Path Publisher (IPP), whichaims at disseminating the Buddha’s noble teach-ings of Wisdom and Compassion to people from allwalks of life through the printing of Dhamma booksfor free distribution.

If you wish to obtain an Inward Journey book, orsponsor or contribute towards the publication of In-ward Journey books for free distribution, pleasecontact:

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Publisher of Inward Journey books which are,in the spirit of giving, distributed free.

85

Happy are the well-doers here and hereafter

Here he rejoices

he rejoices hereafter.

In both worlds

the merit-maker rejoices.

He rejoices, is jubilant,seeing the purity

of his deeds.

Here he delights

he delights hereafter.

In both worlds

the merit-maker delights.

He delights at the thought,

“I’ve made merit.”Having gone to a good destination,he delights

all the more.

Buddha, Dhammapada Verses 16 & 18(Translations by Thanissaro Bhikkhu)

Sabbadànaü Dhammadànaü jinàti.

The gift of Truth surpasses all gifts.

86

The Thirty-One Planes Of Existence

An Inward Journey Book

Published by

Inward Path

P.O. Box 1034, 10830 Penang, MalaysiaTel/Fax: 04-659 6696

Email: sunanda@pc.jaring.myInwardPath@hotmail.com

Website: http://www.buddhanet.net/ipp.htm

@Peace House356V Lengkok Pemancar, 11700 Gelugor, Penang

Copyright © 2001 by Jinavaüsa (Inward Path)

This book may be copied or reprintedfor free distribution

without permission from the publisher.Otherwise all rights reserved.

A Compact Disc (CD) edition of this book is also available and is for free distribution.

87

Front & back cover designs and all charts to beused with permission from Inward Path.

Perpustakaan Negara MalaysiaCataloguing-in-Publication Data

Jinavaüsa

The thirty-one planes of existence : as transcribed from Bhante Suvanno’scassette recordings / by Jinavaüsa.– New ed.(An Inward journey book; IJ058/01)ISBN 983-9439-57-X1. Buddhism–Customs and practices.2. Buddhism–Doctrines. I. Title. II. Series.294.34

Book layout by Sunanda Lim

Printed in Penang, Malaysia

May the merits accruing from this Dhammadàna

be to the well-being and happiness of

all donors, departed ones and all beings.

May all beings be liberated from suffering.

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