Six Paths

The Six Paths in Buddhist cosmology are the six worlds where sentient beings are reincarnated based on their karma, which is linked to their actions in previous lives. These paths are depicted in the Bhavacakra ("wheel of existence"). The six paths are: the world of gods or celestial beings (deva) the world of human beings (manushya) the world of warlike demigods (asura) the world of animals (tiryagyoni) the world of hungry ghosts (preta) the world of Hell (naraka) The first three paths are known as "the three benevolent destinies" (kuśalagati), where beings experience varying degrees of virtue, pleasure, and pain. The last three paths are referred to as the three unbenevolent destinies (akuśalagati), where beings lack virtue and suffer predominantly. Typically, we as human beings only perceive the animals around us. The first Buddhist texts mention only five paths without distinguishing between the paths of deva and asura. Moreover not all texts acknowledge the world of asura. In Japan, the monk Genshin even inexplicably places the path of humans below that of the asuras. The elements forming karma are constituted in bodily, oral or mental volitional acts. The chain of transmigration due to the Three Poisons (hatred, greed, ignorance), of which ignorance (avidyā) of the ultimate truth (Sanskrit: paramārtha; Chinese: zhēndì 真谛) or the true law (Sanskrit: saddharma, सद्धर्म, correct law; Chinese: miàofǎ, 妙法, marvelous law) is generally presented as the source of reincarnation in the three non-benevolent destinies. Early Buddhist descriptions divided the psychocosmic universe into three "worlds": the kāma-loka ("world of desire"), rūpa-loka ("world of form") and arūpa-loka (""world of non-form"). The kāma-loka dealt with the daily psychological possibilities of humans and was divided into five above mentioned worlds with the exception of the asura realm.