The Six Realms: Introduction

After meditation and check-in, I brought out the big foam board image of the Six Realms.  I wasn't ready with a check-in topic, but the kids came up with a good one: your favorite color.

We spent time looking at it, just seeing what they could see. I told them this is the Six Realms, known as the Wheel of Life.  They had good questions.  Who is that holding the Six Realms?  That is Lord Yama.  Immediately one child noticed he was also in the bottom realm, the Hell Realm.  One boy was seeing it as the Devil Realm.  As we observed, I shared short descriptions of the realm in question, just a word or phrase, if needed.  In the Asura or Fighting Gods Realm, the people feel needy, and want what they haven't got.  In the Animal Realm, all they are thinking about is survival.  In the Hell Realm, they are angry and in pain.  Some kids remembered about the Hungry Ghosts, and could share that these Gakis needed help as they find it hard to eat and drink.  In the Human Realm, we are able to make choices.  In the Heaven Realm, everything is easy, but it is easy to get too sleepy.

I explained that not only is this the Wheel of Life, but it is a reflection of who we are, that what Lord Yama is holding up is a mirror.  That we each have emotional ways of being that can put us in each of these realms, in fact we can go through each of these realms even in one day.  One child wanted to know about the hub, with the three animals of the defiling passions.  I told her that was like the hub of a wheel, those represented what kept us going round and round on the Wheel of Life, and that we would get to that in another lesson.

I was without a co-teacher this day, so it was helpful that my craft for the day was coloring of the Six Realms.  Because it is complex, kids tend to take great care with it, and are quiet while they concentrate.  While they colored with markers, I read them a story from The Wisdom of the Crows and Other Buddhist Tales titled The Man Who Didn't Want to Die. The kids were concerned about coloring and seeing the pictures from the story at the same time, but I assured them I would show them a picture when there was one, and there weren't many.

The story truly has examples of every realm.  A man has a good, easy life, but after he reaches a certain age, he begins to be concerned about death.  He doesn't want to die, and he seeks out the source of a tale of a man who went in search of an elixir of life, a man who reportedly became a god.  He finds the hermitage where they pray to this god Jofoku, and the man prays for his answers.

After a week, the god visits him, and sends him to the Land of Neverending Life.  The man settles there, and finds the people aren't happy with their long lives.  They keep trying to kill themselves, but can't.  After many many years, the man decides he could die after all, and calls out to Jofoku for help.  On the way home, he changes his mind and wants to turn back, and while flying in a storm over the ocean, his transport disintegrates and he is almost eaten by a shark.  He calls for help from Jofoku again.  He wakes up in the temple, and is told Jofoku sent him the dream so he would know he doesn't want to live forever, and he doesn't want to die yet either.  The messenger tells the man he should live a good life, do good for others, and be content.  The man does, and lives to a good old age.

This story had the kids quite engaged.  I told them we would probably revisit it later in the year, as we could find all the Six Realms in the story.  Shows how much I know...they already could find the Six Realms.  One boy said,  "I bet I know what the Land of Neverending Life is!"  He said Heaven, because they never get sick and die, and always have what they need.  I started asking more questions.  What about when there was the shark?  The Animal Realm, of course.  What about when the man wanted never to die? The Hungry Ghost Realm.  What about when the man left the Land of Neverending Life, but wanted to turn back?  The Fighting Gods Realm...he wanted what he had lost.  What about the people in the Land who wanted to die and kept trying to poison themselves?  The Hell Realm.  What about the end, when the man was content and helped others?  The Human Realm.  The kids had all the answers.  One mom told me her son was already telling her about each of the Realms and was so impressed with what he already knew.

The Six Realms

While I was planning for this Dharma School lesson I didn't know if I would have many or a few, or how many girls would be experienced with Dharma School, and how many would be new. I needed to be flexible with my lesson. I supposed I might spend a lot of time explaining how to meditate, how to share something in checkin, how to set up an altar. It turned out we had just two girls who knew each other and Dharma School quite well.

For this first lesson, I just wanted to introduce the idea of the Six Realms and the Wheel of Life, and allow as much or as little time available to examine the image and let the girls see what they would see. [That link to the Wheel of Life depicts the Animal Realm below the Human Realm. Some Buddhist sects view it this way. In our Zen sect we find the Hungry Ghost realm in that spot.] There is a book in the Zen Center library that is at about 4 feet tall with giant photos of Buddhist art. We spent time examining the image of Yama holding the Wheel of Life, and I and my co-teacher Kim would say just a little bit about the images that attracted the girls. They didn't think the Animal Realm looked like that bad of a place, and they noticed that the Heaven and Hell realms seemed like opposites, but wondered about the Animal and Human realms or the Hungry Ghost and the Asura (Jealous Gods) realms being opposites. That sparked a conversation about the realms not necessarily being opposites, but ways of being that we can find ourselves in, and the idea is not to get stuck in any of them, even the Heaven realm.

They also noticed the circle that depicts the twelve links of dependent origination. Trust kids to find the man and woman having sex, depicting karmic existence or rebirth. I readily admitted the twelve links of dependent origination are complex and adults can have a difficult time understanding them. I wish I'd recorded the lesson, because Kim told me what I said sounded pretty good, but as soon as it left my mouth, I couldn't remember what I'd said, exactly. I told them as far as I understood it, the Six Realms show us different states of being that we experience, and dependent origination explains how that being comes into existence, how we get wrapped up in our greed, anger, or delusion so that we become a being in one of those realms. Or something like that.

The girls were rather interested in Yama, the Lord of the Underworld holding up this mirror, showing us our worldly existence, so while they colored, I decided to wing it and tell them a story that comes out of India.

I found this story in Shower of Gold: Girls and Women in the Stories of India retold by Uma Krishnaswami. Uma's version of Savriti and the God of Death was a bit different than Deepak Chopra's version found here.


As I told the story, I welcomed comments and questions, and the girls colored as they listened and commented. I retell it here, perhaps not exactly as I did that day.

Savriti and the God of Death

Once there was a king and queen who were old and never had children, even though they wanted a child. One day they were finally blessed with a girl, and she grew up to be the best at everything. Savriti was beautiful, smart, and athletic. At that time and place, people usually preferred to have sons, but the king and queen were so happy with their talented daughter, they did not miss having a boy. When she grew up, it was hard to find a husband though. Men weren't interested in a princess who was wiser, more educated, and more clever than they were. Savriti went out to explore and to find a worthy husband.

Savriti returned home rather quickly. She found her love in a forest, son of a blind king and queen whose lands were stolen from them. She didn't care that he was poor. He was kind and wise. Even though she was warned by a fortune-teller that this man would die in exactly one year, she didn't care. She chose the happiness she could have with him now, in the forest. The fortune-teller gave her a mantra to practice, one that could give her the power to see what others could not. She was to recite this mantra for the three days and nights before her husband's death.

The year passed, and as the fateful day grew closer, Savriti became more thoughtful. She prayed and fasted and chanted the mantra for three days. Her husband fell from a tree and died. When Yama, Lord of the Underworld, came to take him away, Savriti could see him, unlike other living people. It was through her meditative practice of chanting the mantra that she could see the cycle of life and death, and the one who holds the mirror of the wheel of life. She was so clever, she ran after them and negotiated with Yama. Yama was so impressed with her love and compassion, he granted her anything she asked, but her husband's life. She gained wealth for her in-laws, and health and youth for them and her parents. Still she would not relent, and finally she got Yama to agree to her husband's life as well. They lived long and their kingdoms united with peace and prosperity.