Transcending Madness

Our experience of the present moment is always coloured by one of six mind-states known as the six realms of being: the god realm (bliss), the jealous god realm (jealousy and lust for entertainment), the human realm (passion and desire), the animal realm (ignorance), the hungry ghost realm (poverty and possessiveness), and the hell realm (aggression and hatred).

All six realms are totally alive in all of us, in terms of different ways of reacting, or conjuring with duality. They are different speed settings on the circular self-defeating mechanism of samsara. These realms are all either greater or lesser experiences of pain. They are the process of the dualistically distorted elements as self-defeating cycles, either speeding up or slowing down.

Understanding this psychological categorisation opens up the possibility that we can recognise, in every moment, in which realm we are operating. Having done so, we have the opportunity to relax the struggle and liberate the ‘madness’ of neurotic emotions into their intrinsic non-dual nature.