Desire realm

Common card · No. 498736

The desire realm (Sanskrit: कामधातु, kāmadhātu) is one of the trailokya or three realms (Sanskrit: धातु, dhātu, Tibetan: khams) in Buddhist cosmology into which a being caught in saṃsāra may be reborn. The other two are the Form Realm (Sanskrit: rūpadhātu) and the Formless Realm (ārūpadhātu). Within the desire realm are either five or six domains (Sanskrit: gati, also sometimes translated as "realm"). In Tibetan Buddhism, there are six domains (Wylie: rigs drug gi skye gnas), and in Theravada Buddhism there are only five, because the domain of the Asuras is not regarded as separate from that of the Nāgas. The concept of these five realms is also to be found in Taoism and Jainism. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra in Mahayana Buddhism regarded the 10 kinds of Xian as separate immortal realms between the deva and human realms. The six domains of the desire realm are also known as the "six paths of suffering", the "six planes", and the "six lower realms". In schools of thought that use the ten realms system...

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