Many religions teach about heaven and hell. In what respect are the Buddhist teachings different? Do we just have to believe in heaven and hell? Through the Buddhist teachings we learn to study realities, to study cause and effect in life. Each cause brings about its appropriate result. People perform good and bad deeds and these deeds bring different results; they can cause births in different planes of existence. A plane of existence is the place where one is born. Birth in a woeful plane is the result of a bad deed and birth in a happy plane is the result of a good deed. Since the deeds of beings are of many different degrees of kusala and akusala, the results are of many different degrees as well. There are different woeful planes and different happy planes of existence.
The animal world is a woeful plane. We can see how animals devour one another and we find that nature is cruel. The animal world is not the only woeful plane. There are different hell planes. The akusala vipaka in hell is more intense than the sufferings which can be experienced in the human plane. The descriptions of hells in the Buddhist teachings are not merely allegories; the experience of unpleasant things through eyes, ears, nose, tongue and bodysense is akusala vipaka and akusala vipaka is reality. Life in a hell plane is not permanent; when ones lifespan in a hell plane is over there can be rebirth in another plane.
Apart from the animal plane and the hell planes, there are other woeful planes. Birth in the plane of petas (ghosts) is the result of akusala kamma, conditioned by lobha. Beings in that plane have a deformed figure and they are always hungry and thirsty. Furthermore, there is the plane of asuras (demons). The objects which are experienced in the asura plane are not as enjoyable as the objects which can be experienced in the human plane. There are four classes of woeful planes in all.
Birth as a human being is a happy rebirth. In the human plane there is opportunity for the development of kusala. One can study Dhamma and learn to develop the way leading to the end of defilements, to the end of birth and death. Birth in the human plane is kusala vipaka, but during ones lifespan in this plane there are both kusala vipaka and akusala vipaka. Each person experiences different results in life: there is gain and loss, honour and dishonour, praise and blame, happiness and misery. Each person is born into the family which is the right condition for him to experience the results of his deeds. It is due to ones kamma that one experiences pleasant and unpleasant things through eyes, ears, nose, tongue and bodysense.
Other happy planes, apart from the human plane, are the heavenly planes. In the heavenly planes there is more kusala vipaka than in the human plane and less akusala vipaka. There are several heavenly planes and although life in a heavenly plane lasts a very long time, it is not permanent. The woeful planes, the human plane and the six heavenly planes which are deva planes, are sensuous planes of existence. Sensuous planes of existence are planes where there is seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, the experience of tangible object through the bodysense and other kamavacara cittas (cittas which are of the sensuous plane of consciousness). There are eleven classes of sensuous planes of existence in all.
Those who see the disadvantages of sense-impressions may cultivate jhana; they can be reborn in higher heavenly planes which are not sensuous planes. Those who attain rupa-jhana can be reborn in rupa-brahma-planes where there are less sense-impressions. There are sixteen rupa-brahma planes in all. One of them is the asanna-satta plane where there is only rupa, not nama. Those who have attained the highest stage of rupa-jhana and who wish to have no consciousness at all, can be reborn without citta; for them there is only a body. These beings have seen the disadvantages of consciousness; even happiness is a disadvantage, since it does not last.
Those who see the disadvantages of rupa cultivate arupa-jhana. If they attain arupa-jhana they can be reborn in arupa-brahma planes where there is no rupa. There are four classes of arupa-brahma planes. Beings born in these planes have only nama, not rupa. One may wonder how there can be beings which only have rupa or beings which only have nama. When right understanding of nama and rupa has been developed realities will be seen as only elements which arise because of conditions, not a being, not a person, no self. Then there will be no doubt that, under the appropriate conditions, there can be rupa without nama and nama without rupa.
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