Six Classes of Sentient Beings

Six Classes of Sentient/ Living Beings ('gro ba rigs drug)

• A birth in cyclic existence is characterised as occuring among one or other of the six classes of living beings, depending on the nature and maturity of an individual's past actions. The six classes of sentient beings include the three lower types, who are subject to unfavourable or inferior birth, namely: the inhabitants of the hells (naraka), the tormented spirits (preta), and animals (tiryak) who are respectively under the sway of aversion, miserliness, and delusion; and the three higher types, namely: humans (manuṣya), antigods (asura), and gods (deva), who are respectively under the sway of attachment, envy, and pride. It has also been stated that since all these dissonant mental states have influence on human beings, it is not inappropriate to look upon all of these conditions also as extrapolations of human psychological states. For an account of the sufferings experienced by the three lower classes of beings, see dPal-sprul Rin-po-che, The Words of My Perfect Teacher, pp. 63-78.
• Wth reference to the three world-systems (Skt. tridhātu), in particular, it is said that the world-system of desire (kāmadhātu) is specifically inhabited by beings of all six classes, including those gods who indulge in and have mastery over sensory experience (kāmadevaṣaṭkula). In addition, the world-system of form (rūpadhātu) is inhabited by the twelve ordinary classes of gods (dvādaśapöthagjananivāsa) and those of the five pure abodes (pañcaśuddhanivāsa) is inhabited by gods who have mastered the four successive meditative concentrations (caturdhyāna). Lastly, the world-system of formlessness (ārūpya dhātu) "at the summit of existence" is inhabited by those formless beings who have mastered the four formless meditative absorptions (catur?samāpatti). For an outline of the gradation of the six classes of beings through the three world-systems, see the chart in bDud-'joms Rin-po-che, NSTB, pp. 14-15; and for a detailed discussion, see L. Pruden, (trans.) Abhidharmakośabhāṣyaṃ, Ch. 3, The World, pp. 365-495. GD (from the Glossary to Tibetan Elemental Divination Paintings)