Kāmadhātu
kāmadhātu (T. 'dod khams འདོད་ཁམས་; C. yujie; J. yokukai; K. yokkhye 欲界) is translated as "sensous realm," "world of the five senses," "desire realm," etc. It is one of the three realms of existence within Buddhist cosmology. "The common characteristic of beings in [the kāmadhātu] is that they are all endowed with consciousness and five physical senses."[1]
This realm is characterized "as principally dependent on external objects of sensual desire such as form, sound, and so on."[2] If explained further by means of body, feelings, and resources: "the body is coarse, experience is predominantly a mixture of pleasure and pain, and beings depend mainly on coarse food."[2]
In this realm, there are six classes of beings that live within 36 abodes or regions.
Divisions of the kāmadhātu
The kāmadhātu is inhabited by six different types of beings, with each type of being described as inhabiting a seperate realm. (These realms are more conceptual than physical; for example human beings and animals are described as beloning to different realms, yet the inhabit they same physical space).
The six classes of beings in the kāmadhātu are:
- Devas of the kāmadhātu
- Jealous gods (asura)
- Humans (manuṣya)
- Animals (tiryak)
- Hungry ghosts (preta)
- Hell beings (nāraka)
Sentient beings (sattva) are born into a particular "class" or "destiny" based on the karma accumulated in previous lives.
The destinies/situations (gati) of these six classes of beings are sometimes referred to as "six domains," "six realms," etc.
Some texts present a system of five classes of beings (pañcagati), in which the jealous gods are included in the class of gods (deva).
Alternate translations
- world of the five senses (Rupert Gethin, Foundations of Buddhism)
- desire realm (Thupten Jinpa; Princeton Dictionary; et al)
- sense realm (Thupten Jinpa)
- sensuous realm (Princeton Dictionary)
Notes
- ↑ Gethin 1998, s.v. Chapter 5.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Thupten Jinpa 2017, s.v. "The Formation of World Systems".
Sources
Gethin, Rupert (1998), Foundations of Buddhism, Oxford University Press- Thupten Jinpa, ed. (2017), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World, translated by Ian James Coghlan, Wisdom Publications
External links
འདོད་ཁམས་, Christian-Steinert Dictionary
Desire realm, Rigpa Shedra Wiki
