Form realm
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Form realm (Skt. rūpadhātu; Tib. གཟུགས་ཁམས་, Wyl. gzugs khams) — the second of the three realms, only 'populated' by gods and divided into seventeen heavens. The cause for being reborn in one of these heavens is the favourable karma accumulated through the practice of one of the four dhyanas, each 'causal meditative dhyana' acting as a cause of rebirth in one of the corresponding 'resultant dhyana levels'.
Seventeen Heavens of the Form Realm (Skt. rupadhatuvasiñjati; Tib. གཟུགས་ཁམས་གནས་རི་བཅུ་བདུན་, Wyl. gzugs khams gnas ri bcu bdun)
Five Pure Heavens (Tib. གཙང་གནས་ལྔ་, gtsang gnas lnga)
- Unexcelled (Skt. Akanishtha, Tib. འོག་མིན་, Wyl. ‘og min)
- Extreme Insight/Great Vision (Skt. Sudarśa; Tib. ཤིན་ཏུ་མཐོང་, shin tu mthong)
- Perfect Appearance/The Marvellous (Skt. Sudṛśa; Tib. གྱ་ནོམ་སྣང་བ་, gya nom snang ba)
- The Painless/Without Distress (Skt. Atapa; Tib. མི་གདུང་པ་, mi gdung pa)
- The Slightest/Not So Great (Skt. Abṛha; Tib. མི་ཆེ་བ་, mi che ba)
Note: the five pure heavens are also a result of the fourth dhyana meditation.
Fourth Dhyana (Tib. བསམ་གཏན་བཞི་པ་, bsam gtan bzhi pa)
- Great Fruition (Skt. Bṛhatphala; Tib. འབྲས་བུ་ཆེ་, ‘bras bu che)
- Increasing Merit (Skt. Puṇyaprasava; Tib. བསོད་ནམས་འཕེལ་, bsod nams ‘phel)
- Cloudless (Skt. Anabhraka; Tib. སྤྲིན་མེད་, sprin med)
Third Dhyana (Tib. བསམ་གཏན་གསུམ་པ་, bsam gtan gsum pa)
- Most Extensive Virtue (Skt. Śubhakṛtsna; Tib. དགེ་རྒྱས་, dge rgyas)
- Immeasurable Virtue (Skt. Apramāṇaśubha; Tib. ཚད་མེད་དགེ་, tshad med dge)
- Lesser Virtue (Skt. Parīttaśubha; Tib. དགེ་ཆུང་, dge chung)
Second Dhyana (Tib. བསམ་གཏན་གཉིས་པ་, bsam gtan gnyis pa)
- Clear Radiance (Skt. Ābhāsvara; Tib. འོད་གསལ་, ‘od gsal)
- Immeasurable Radiance (Skt. Apramāṇābha; Tib. ཚད་མེད་འོད་, tshad med ‘od)
- Lesser Radiance (Skt. Parīttābha; Tib. འོད་ཆུང་, ‘od chung)
First Dhyana (Tib. བསམ་གཏན་དང་པོ་, bsam gtan dang po)
- Great Brahma (Skt. Mahābrahmaṇa; Tib. ཚངས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་, tshangs pa chen po)
- Priests of Brahma (Skt. Brahmapurohita; Tib. ཚངས་པ་མདུན་ན་འདོན་, tshangs pa mdun na ‘don)
- Heaven of Brahma (Skt. Brahmakāyika; Tib. ཚངས་རིས་, tshangs ris)