What are the differences between kāma-loka, rūpa-loka, and arūpa-loka as they are all mental realities?

The Teaching of Ajahn Suchart.

9 September 2023

Question from Italy: What are the differences between kāma-loka, rūpa-loka, and arūpa-loka as they are all mental realities?

Than Ajahn:  These are the 3 realms of existence. ‘Kāma-loka’ means the realm of existence of the mind that still has cravings for the senses as the objects of pleasures. Those who still like to see, to hear, to feel, to touch, to smell or to taste, will be born in the kāma-loka, the realm of sensual pleasures. Beings in the kāma-loka are:

(i) the animals and humans – which have physical bodies;

(ii) Devas and the lesser beings – which have no physical bodies. The lesser beings are beings which had done bad kamma so they exist as hungry ghosts or other undesirable forms of beings like beings in hell.

These are the composition of the kāma-loka, the sphere of sensual existence.

Those who can practice meditation and attain rūpa-jhāna (the first, second, third and fourth rūpa-jhāna) will be born in the rūpa realm, the realm of calm where they don’t need to have a body to make them happy. 

And those who can practice and develop the arūpa jhāna, they will go to higher realm of existence which has more happiness than the rūpa realm. So, these are the 3 realms of existence where all minds exist by virtue of their kamma or the practice.

If they still have the desire for sensual gratification, they will be stuck in the sensual sphere of existence. If they can satisfy the mind by meditation and enter the 4 rūpa jhānas, they will be in the rūpa sphere of existence. And if they can enter the arūpa jhānas, they will be in the arūpa sphere of existence.

“Dhamma in English, May 16, 2018.”

By Ajahn Suchart Abhijāto
www.phrasuchart.com

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