Kāmadhātu

Mount Meru surrounded by the continents and subcontinents, with the gods of the Desire and Form Realms above

Kāmadhātu (T. 'dod khams འདོད་ཁམས་; C. yujie; J. yokukai; K. yokkhye 欲界), or the desire realm, is one of the three realms of existence within Buddhist cosmology.

This realm is characterized "as principally dependent on external objects of sensual desire such as form, sound, and so on." 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."

In this realm, there are six classes of beings that live within 36 abodes or regions.

Six classes of beings

The six classes of beings in the desire realm (kāmadhātu) are:

• Hell beings (nāraka)
• Hungry ghosts (preta)
• Animals (tiryak)
• Humans (manuṣya)
• Demi-gods (asura)
• Gods (deva)

All beings in these six classes are subject to karma and rebirth. The regions in inhabited by these six classes of beings are sometimes referred to as "six domains," "six realms of samsara," etc.

See also: Samsara § Realms of existence

Thirty-six abodes

See Thirty-six abodes of the desire realm

Sources

• Thupten Jinpa, ed. (2017), Science and Philosophy in the Indian Buddhist Classics, Volume 1: The Physical World, translated by Coghlan, Ian James, Wisdom Publications 

External links

• Desire realm