Rokudo

Rokudo Mandala:

The Rokudo Mandala is a Mandala (geometric figure representing the universe in Buddhist symbolism) which portrays the six paths of reincarnation. According to Buddhist philosophies, everyone is involved in a cycle of rebirth into one of the six realms; the realm of which one is reborn into is determined by one’s karma. The only way to escape this cycle is to achieve enlightenment.

The six realms, ranked from lowest to highest, are as follows: Jigokudō 地獄道, the Hell Realm; Gakidō 餓鬼道, the Hungry Ghosts Realm; Chikushōdō 畜生道, the animal realm; Ashuradō 阿修羅道, the Asura Realm; Nindō 人道, the human realm; and Tendō 天道, the Deva Realm. Below the human realm, there is much suffering, and the human realm is the realm in which there are the most opportunities for karma gain and loss; the realms below the human realm are largely focused on suffering and punishment.

In the Tale of the Heike, Taira no Tokuko, who would later come to be known as Kenreimon-in, lives a life that can be symbolized as a journey through the six realms. She is born into the Deva Realm, which is inhabited by heavenly beings, symbolized by her wealth as a part of the royal family. This is shown when she tells the cloistered Emperor that “I rode, as it were, the clouds of the transcendent heavens” (Initiates’ Book). Later, she descends into the human realm after she is forced from the capital by Yoshinaka, to which she says “All of us in the human realm taste the sorrow of parting from someone we love”. As the raging war moves closer and closer to her, she descends into the Asura Realm, where “the ashuras howl in their endless battles to overthrow Indra”. When she is captured, she descends into the Animal Realm, unable to do anything but watch as a spectator. Then, as her clansmen are slaughtered by the Genji, she descends into the hell realm, to which she says that the “shrieks and screams of those who remained sounded to me as deafening as the cries of sinners burning in hell”. As she grows old in her hut at Jakko-in, she lives in the Hungry Ghosts realm, where she lives a drab life where no one visits her.