gzugs med khams - Formless Realm

The third realm in the khams gsum is gzugs med khams - formless realm, arupyadhatu in Sanskrit.

As before, gzugs is form, and med here is a negation, form-not. Note the a in front of rupya which is the negation in Sanskrit. khams is as before realm.

This realm could be further divided to four parts. The very, very few beings who experience this realm have no grasping to form, but instead to mind, and in the most extreme case, grasping to nothingness. Due to such strong meditations they experience what they think is the peak of existence. Some always wonder where this realm is, but as it's formless, the beings who dwell here have as the starting point where their strong meditation is forcing them into this experience, so there's no location at all! Thus, any meditation still grasping to mind, or grasping to nothingness could lead to this state. Hence many Buddhist meditations, especially in Tantra, have sections where grasping is purified by proper focus on emptiness.

But, as with any any causes and results, the causes for this experience will end at some point, and meanwhile the beings in gzugs med khams have not generated any virtue for a long time, so they end up usually at the worst possible experience level.