གཟུགས་མེད་པའི་ཁམས། | Glossary of Terms

The third and highest of the three realms where living beings transmigrate.

One of the three realms of saṃsāra, where beings have only subtle mental form.

The highest of the three realms within saṃsāra, beings in the formless realm are no longer bound to even the most subtle materiality.

The highest of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by the fact that the beings reborn there dwell in deep states of meditation. It is divided in four levels according to each of the four formless meditations (ārūpyāvacara­dhyāna), namely, the Sphere of Infinite Space (Ākāśānantyāyatana), the Sphere of Infinite Consciousness (Vijñānānantyāyatana), the Sphere of Nothingness (Akiñcanyāyatana), and the Sphere of Neither Perception nor Non-perception (Naivasaṃjñānāsaṃ­jñāyatana).

One of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by having only subtle mental form.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings. See also “three realms.”

One of the three realms. See glossary s.v. “three realms” (khams gsum).

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings. See the “three realms.”

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings.

One of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by having only a subtle mental form.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings.

One of the three realms of saṃsāra, characterized by having only a subtle mental form.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings. It is one of the three basic divisions of the realms of existence that constitute saṃsāra. The other two are the desire realm and the form realm. See Gethin 1998, 116–18.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings.

In Buddhist cosmology, the sphere of existence two levels more subtle than our own (the desire realm), where beings are no longer physically embodied, and thus not subject to the sufferings that physical embodiment brings.