The Ten Life States In Nichiren Buddhism | Ten Worlds Explained

Have you ever felt angry? Or sad? Hopeless? Happy? Elated – over the moon where your whole world reflects that joy back at you? Have you ever felt jealous? Bored? Calm? Lost in thought? Or so absorbed in what you were doing that you felt like it was teaching you things – things you couldn’t even put into words? Did your heart ever break with someone else’s pain, even a stranger, someone across from you on the subway? Did you feel in that moment their suffering as if it was your own?

These are some of the inner states described in the Buddhist concept of the Ten Worlds. When we’re feeling good, why can something quickly knock us out of that good feeling? And how can something lift us out of feeling awful?

The Ten Worlds are ten conditions of life which everyone possesses and which we experience from moment to moment.

The majority of people spend most of their time moving between the first six conditions of life, from Hell to Rapture, governed by their reactions to external influences and therefore highly vulnerable to changing circumstances. Based on his reading of the Lotus Sutra, the sixth-century Chinese Buddhist T’ien-t’ai developed a system that classifies human experience into ten states or “worlds.” This Ten Worlds teaching was adopted and elaborated by Nichiren, who stressed the inner, subjective nature of these worlds: “As to the question of where exactly Hell and the Buddha exist, one sutra reads that Hell exists underground and another sutra says that the Buddha is in the west. However, closer examination reveals that both exist in our five-foot body.” What are these ten worlds, then? Ordered from the least to the most desirable, they are:

1. HELL.

HELL is a condition of suffering, in which one is devoid of freedom and has very little life force (physical or mental energy). Without the world of Hell, however, we would never be able to understand happiness, or identify with anyone else’s suffering. Also, the desire not to fall into this condition is a powerful incentive for us to make efforts in daily life.

2. HUNGER.

HUNGER is a condition characterized by an insatiable desire for food, power, wealth, fame, pleasure and so on. Looked at positively, though, hunger is the driving force behind most human activity. Put simply, without the desire to do something, nothing would get done.

3. ANIMALITY.

ANIMALITY is a condition in which one is governed by instinct, in which one has no sense of morality and lives only for the present moment. The positive aspects of animality are our intuitive wisdom and the instinct to protect and nurture life — both our own and the lives of those close to us.

4. ANGER.

ANGER is the condition in which one is dominated by the selfish ego, competitiveness, arrogance and the need to be superior in all things. Its positive side is passionate energy, a desire for excellence and, above all, a burning abhorrence of injustice.

5. HUMANITY.

HUMANITY (or Tranquillity) is the a tranquil state marked by the ability to reason and make calm judgments. However, it is a very unstable state and one can quickly find oneself in a lower world if this world is disturbed.

6. RAPTURE (or Heaven).

RAPTURE (or Heaven) is the condition of pleasure, experienced when one’s desires are fulfilled. This state is temporary and easily disrupted by even a slight change of circumstances.

The four higher worlds are characterised by the fact that one needs to make effort to reveal them from within one’s life.

7. LEARNING.

LEARNING is a condition in which one seeks some skill, lasting truth or self-improvement through the teachings of others.

8. REALISATION (or Absorption)

REALISATION (or Absorption) is a state in which one discovers a partial truth through one’s own observations, efforts and concentration. The worlds of Learning and Realization are closely related. People in these states can become arrogant and self-centered.

9. BODHISATTVA.

Bodhisattva is a condition in which one not only aspires for personal enlightenment but devotes oneself to relieving the sufferings of others through compassionate and altruistic actions. Even this state can have a negative aspect, however, the tendency towards self-sacrifice and acting but merely from a sense of duty and with resentment.

10. Buddhahood.

Buddhahood is the highest of the Ten Worlds, a condition of pure, indestructible happiness which is not dependent on one’s circumstances. It is a condition of perfect and absolute freedom, characterized by boundless wisdom, courage, compassion and life force.

Each of the Ten Worlds possesses all Ten Worlds and has the potential to reveal any of the others at any moment. This means that we have the capacity to reveal our Buddhahood from the first moment we begin to chant. As we practice, we make Buddhahood the dominant state of our lives, as it acts as a kind of filter, revealing the positive aspects of the other nine worlds from Hell to Bodhisattva.

In the course of a day, we experience different states in response to our interaction with our environment. However, all of us have one or more worlds around which our activities usually centre and to which we tend to revert when external stimuli subside. This is one’s basic life tendency, and it has been established by each individual through prior actions. The purpose of Buddhist practice is to elevate the basic life tendency and eventually establish Buddhahood as one’s fundamental state.

Establishing Buddhahood as our basic life tendency does not mean we rid ourselves of the other nine worlds. All these states are integral and necessary aspects of life. Without experiencing the sufferings of Hell ourselves, we could never feel true compassion for others. Without the instinctive desires represented by Hunger and Animality, we would forget to eat, sleep and reproduce ourselves, and soon become extinct. Even if we establish Buddhahood as our fundamental life tendency, we will still continue to experience the joys and sorrows of the nine worlds.

However, they will not control us, and we will not define ourselves in terms of them. Based on the life tendency of Buddhahood, our nine worlds will be harmonised and function to benefit both ourselves and those around us. The purpose of Buddhist practice–for Nichiren Buddhists the recitation of the phrase Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is to bring forth the life-state of Buddhahood which can illuminate our lives and enable us to forge lasting value from our eternal journey through all the Ten Worlds.