In Naruto, the Sage of Six Paths was the creator of the ninja arts long ago.
And the Six Paths of Pain is a ninja technique that lets you control 6 bodies.
So what is this Six Paths thing that they keep talking about?
Naruto is packed with Buddhist references.
What is the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Buddhism?
That’s right, Asian Santa.
Ok, what’s the second thing?
That’s right, reincarnation.
But did you know that you don’t just reincarnate as another human,
you can reincarnate into an animal or a totally different type of being.
In Buddhism World, there are six types of beings. Six paths, or six realms.
The Sage of Six Paths carries this staff with 6 rings, which looks like a shakujō,
a staff that Buddhist monks carry around to beat the desire out of you. The 6 rings represent the 6 paths.
No matter which being you reincarnate into,
you’re still trapped in the endless cycle of death and rebirth, forever suffering.
Now unless you become enlightened, after you die,
you are reborn into one of the 6 realms.
It depends on how much karma you hoarded in your past lives.
Hoard good karma, and you get into a good realm. Hoard bad karma and you’re stuck in a bad realm.
After a while, you die and the cycle repeats.
The good news is you have infinite lives. The bad news is it’s a s--tty game.
Each realm is not like a different universe.
They’re all in the same universe.
Some beings live among humans, like animals. Some live in places high up in the air.
And some live deep underground.
The 3 lower realms are called the evil realms, or the unfortunate realms,
and the three higher ones are the good realms.
Jigokudō, the realm of the hell beings, the lowest and worst realm.
You don’t want to go here. This realm lies deep underground.
Hell beings ignore the teachings of Yoda, they suffer from the main vices of anger and hate.
Their bodies are ugly and twisted to match their personalities.
People enter this realm by racking up too much evil karma in their past lives.
It’s a place for murderers, thieves, and Call of Duty players. Just the worst of the worst.
The more bad karma a person has, the longer he stays in this realm, and the worse his torture is.
And the tortures are unpleasant.
You could have blisters grow all over your body then pop like bubble wrap.
You could be eaten alive.
You could be burned in great fires.
You could be frozen in great blizzards.
You could be forced to watch a 15 second YouTube ad, then get hit with another 15 second ad.
The lower you descend the many layers of Jigokudō, the worse it gets.
And the lowest level is reserved for the most evil of people,
people whose mothers couldn’t even love them, because they killed their mothers, probably.
This all sounds a lot like the Christian hell,
except the Christian hell is eternal while Jigokudō isn’t.
You stay until the suffering has balanced out your bad karma,
which could be anywhere from only a few trillion years to a million trillion years.
Gakidō, the realm of hungry ghosts. A place full of starving spirits.
According to scripture, these hungry ghosts are like small Asian women.
They can eat a ton and still look emaciated.
These beings suffer from the vice of greed.
People enter Gakidō because of bad karma from excessive greed and being too attached to worldly things.
If your partner’s love language is gifts, they’re probably going to Gakidō.
They roam the world of humans, invisible most of the time.
But if you catch a glimpse of one,
you’ll see a creature with a small mouth and a large belly, a mouth too small for its appetite.
They’re a lot better off than those Call of Duty players in hell,
because they can walk around the world instead of being stuck underground,
and they’re not being physically tortured.
You’re supposed to pity these ghosts.
That’s why people sometimes leave offerings of food and money for them.
Chikushōdō, the path of animals.
These are animals. They suffer from the vice of being stupid.
They only follow instinct and eat each other without spices.
Some are even slaves to humans.
Ashuradō, the realm of asuras. Artists usually draw them with 3 faces and 6 arms.
They live at the base of Sumeru, the mythical mountain at the center of the universe.
They’re often called demigods because they look super weird and have some supernatural powers.
Unfortunately they sometimes use these powers to mess with humans,
like they’ll spread disease and summon natural disasters.
Their love language is war.
They can’t get enough of it, and their short tempers cause constant conflict.
WaWa2 started when a Polish person accidentally bumped into an asura while walking past.
They even fought with the gods long ago, or the devas, who we’ll talk about soon.
Asuras suffer from the vice of jealousy.
Even though they live more pleasurable lives than humans,
they’re super jealous of the cushy celebrity lives of the devas that live in the heavens.
Different Buddhist traditions disagree on where to put the asura path.
Some say it’s part of the lower realms because the asuras are so aggressive.
Others are like, “Oh my Buddha you’re annoying, just leave it there okay?”
Nindō, the human path. Our home.
Humans suffer from the vice of desire, some more than others, judging from some of the henthai out there.
Their lives are controlled by desire, it’s hard for them to see past it.
A rebirth into this realm is considered a good rebirth,
because you have the opportunity to reach enlightenment and escape the cycle.
Your lot in life depends on your karma.
Someone with good karma may be born to a rich household.
Someone with bad karma may be born as a woman,
which is bad because menstrual blood and stuff.
See the Blood Pool video.
Tendō, the realm of divas, I mean devas.
Devas are gods.
They have mighty cosmic powers, and live in the many different heavens that stack on top of each other above the earth.
In the lower heavens, the devas are closer to humans.
They’re often ruled by their passions and get into fights.
In the higher heavens live the higher devas, gods who are closer to enlightenment.
Those who have really good karma are reborn as devas.
It’s a pretty sweet deal. It’s a realm of pleasure.
Most devas live in luxury and happiness. No one needs to work. Some rule over kingdoms.
The lower devas do have to eat and drink,
but most devas don’t eat food nor do they have seksual desires,
but they still live in pleasure, which seems like an oxymoron to me, but maybe I’m just an oxymoron.
It seems like the perfect place to live, but the devas do have some problems.
They suffer from the vice of pride.
Their powers and lives of comfort make them prideful and make them forget the world of suffering that all beings live in.
Also, they’re attached to worldly things.
It’s hard to stay unattached when pleasure is all around you.
Devas are so busy enjoying pleasure that they forget to work towards enlightenment.
This realm is similar to the heaven of Christianity, but the difference again is it’s not eternal.
Devas live until they use up all their good karma, which can take thousands or billions of years.
Then they reincarnate into another level of heaven or one of the other 6 paths.
So even the gods are stuck in the cycle of death and rebirth.
In Naruto, there’s another reference to the Six Paths.
The Six Paths of Pain are these 6 guys who are controlled by the rinnegan.
Rinnegan 輪廻眼 means samsara eye.
Samsara is the Buddhist cycle of death and rebirth. Each Pain is named after one of the 6 paths.
Jigokudō, the hell path, has a technique called King of Hell used for interrogations.
It passes judgement on you if you lie.
Gakidō, the hungry ghost path, can absorb chakra like a hungry ghost that loves to eat.
Chikushōdō, the animal path, can summon animals.
Ashuradō, the asura path, has 3 faces and 6 arms like asuras.
He uses weapons of war, even busting out missiles. The asuras love to make war.
Nindō, the human path, is related to humans because he looks like a human.
He can also pull the soul out of a person. Not sure how that’s related.
And Tendō, the deva path, the path of the gods, has pretty devastating powers that seem godlike.
Alright, for more videos, check these out.
We have a new Emperor patron on Patreon this week: warubozu047. You are amazing.
We also have other new patrons:
Katherine Navia,
Bravehorn the Brave,
Gwen Smit I’m smitten with her,
and Phil.
Thanks so much you guys.