'gro ba rigs drug - Six Realms

Next when looking at the Wheel of Life image is six or five areas with beings inside. This describes 'gro ba rigs drug - the six realms, the general classification where non-enlightened beings exist. In Sanskrit this is lokas (plural) Sometimes these are only five parts in the Wheel of Life, but we will present the fifth and sixth at the same time later.

'gro ba is migrating beings; I always liked this Tibetan word, as 'gro is to walk, migrate. So another name for non-enlightened beings are the migrators.

rigs has many translations, see link, but here it means realm. When translating, you need to know the intent or placement of the word, so you know which one to use, as it's very common in Tibetan to have the word explain many various situations.

And drug is of course number 6.

As for the six realms, and we in the West... As you will see, they are very interesting explanations, and one should not just blindly accept it, but neither immediately disapprove it. Giving some examples, the situation in Iraq just now is unfortunately very hellish for those living there, but we might not even know how it feels as we are not there. Also, in the realm of emptiness there are no self-existing limitations! Hey, even the fourth chapter in Abhidharma-kosha immediately starts -- after presenting the six realms in chapter three-- that their basis is karma moving in mind, not a fixed location where beings end up in.