Not Going to Heaven or Hell

Why the human realm is important.
Part three

Here we are looking at the human realm, which is very significant as it is the key realm to unlocking the door to our prison. The human realm is the psychological realm of excessive activity, desire, and frustration. It’s not satisfying at all! And that is its key.

This realm is the escape route. However, we find ourselves still locked in because we either want to ‘better ourselves’ in the samsaric prison, or ‘blame’ the samsaric prison: it is for this reason that find ourselves going up and down. We hope that these two activities – bettering ourselves and blaming – will be the answer to our problems. Because the human realm is the desire realm, and these desires are never fulfilled, we become frustrated, and resort to our education and philosophies which in turn keep us programmed in the samsaric state. Frustration has another purpose beyond our dreams.

It is only in the human realm that we can communicate. We find that we cannot talk to those in the other realms, as they are occupied in a fixated state…

“My life is wonderful!” (god realm)
“You can’t say that!”(jealous gods)
“That’s not allowed!” (animal realm)
“It’s all mine!”(hungry ghosts)
“Nobody loves me!”(hell realms)

…all so very occupied!

The human realm is uncomfortable as it’s full of dissatisfaction – desires and frustrations – and this usually leads to addiction, so we re-enter one of the other realms.

The realm of desire and dissatisfaction is the cause for liberation. Once we recognise the fact that we are suffering, wisdom can dawn.

“There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”

In this speech, Hamlet is telling Horatio that earthly education and philosophy can’t explain everything: now that they’ve seen the ghost, their previous beliefs are turned upside down.

NB More detailed information about the six realms is available elsewhere.