Note 49 — THE SEVEN WAYS TO NEIBBAN.
Reading edition
It will perhaps be of some interest to a few of our readers to mention the names of the thirty-one seats in which Buddhists have located all beings. Let us begin with the lowest step of that immense ladder. The four first steps are the four states of punishment. In them are to be found living the unfortunate beings who, pursued by the inflexible law of their demerits, are doomed to atone in different ways for the evil that they have done. The lowest seat is Nga-yai or hell. It is placed in the centre of our planet, and subdivided into eight principal quarters, the last of which is called Awidzi. The second step of the ladder is occupied by the seat of Animals; the third by certain monsters called Preittas; and the fourth by another kind of inferior beings named Athourikes. These four seats are tenanted by beings who undergo punishment for the evil deeds they have performed.
The fifth seat is that of Manusa, or men. The beings that occupy it are in a state in which they can merit or demerit. It may be called a position of probation.
Above the seat of man are the six seats of Nats called Tsadoomaritz, Tawadeintha, Yama, Toocita, Nimanarati, Pare-neimittawasawati. The denizens of those seats enjoy the reward awarded to them for the performance of good and meritorious exterior works.
The three places above those of Nats, called Brahma-parisitsa, Brahmah-parau-hita, Maha-Brahma, are occupied by the contemplatives who have reached the first step of Dzan, or meditation. The three following, Pareitta-ba, Appa-ma-naba, Appa-sara, are tenanted by the beings who have attained the second degree of contemplation. The three next to those just enumerated are: Paweitta-sou-ba, Appa-mana-sou-ba, Souba-kannaka. They are the abodes of the contemplatives who have ascended to the third step of meditation. The two following steps of the ladder, Wa-happala, A-sou-gna-sat, are tenanted by the contemplatives of the fourth degree; and the five that follow, viz., Awiha, Atabpa, Sou-dasa, Sou-dasi, Agga-nita, are occupied by the contemplatives of the fifth degree; that is to say, by the beings who have entered the Thoda, or current of perfection, and who have qualified themselves for obtaining the state of deliverance, or Neibban.
Above those seats we find the four and last abodes of Arupa, without form. They are called: Akasanitza-yatana, Wigniana-witza-yatana, Akeitsignia-yatana, Newa-thagnia-nathagnia-yatana.