Kind of.
That is to say that, as we're just alluding to
in talking to the gods.
There are all kinds of different types of experiences
that are generated by karma, by actions,
and the motivations that underlie those actions.
And so,
as the mind is not a physical entity,
the impressions, the imprints of those actions,
reside, are deposited in the mind stream.
And when the time is right they ripen
as particular kind of experiences.
In short, there can be realms that are not physical,
that are not dependent on a physical form.
Like the human, the human realm, or the animal realm,
there are other realms
and if one thinks about the heaven realms
and the hell realms, as like indicate,
as like descriptive of temporary states of great pleasure,
in the case of the heaven realms,
and great anxiety and fear and paranoia
in the case of the hell realms,
one can see how they are generated out of mental actions,
out of intentions and actions.
The heaven realms, which might, in some cultures,
be called the god realms.
Because all theistic religions teach such realms.
For us, they are merely mental states,
but they can be experienced after death.
Because the mind does not cease, of course at death.
And so somebody who has lived a life that has been kind of,
as it were, irradiated by virtue,
in which they've developed some kind of spiritual focus,
perhaps through devotion to gods
or perhaps through training themselves to be,
to have some of the qualities of the gods.
They might well be reborn after death temporarily
in such an exalted state
where, as it were, the grossness of physicality
is totally absent
and one just enjoys the pleasure of enhanced perceptions.
That's the heaven realms.
Different cultures will populate them, as it were,
with different figures.
Like the Vedic gods of ancient India,
or the Christian heavens, or so on and so forth.
So the description will be culturally filtered.
But for us,
even though such realms may well exist,
they are temporary.
They are still samsaric.
They will come to an end.
Beings in the heaven realms have no more wisdom than we do,
in fact, in some ways less capacity for wisdom,
because they're intoxicated by their temporary good fortune.
The hell realms too exist.
Not because somebody has created them to punish the evil.
There is no god who administers this universe,
who rules who should go to heaven and who should go to hell.
You create your heavens out of your actions and choices.
You create your hells out of actions and choices.
So somebody's lived a life in which hatred and aggression
have come to the fore.
So that for him or her,
it's like others are intrinsically an enemy.
the world is intrinsically an enemy,
Their mind is full of such claustrophobia and fear
that at the time of death, after the time of death,
then that will flood their mind
and the hallucinatory experiences
which we'd call the very sufferings of hell
will certainly arise for them.
But, just like the temporary intoxicating,
blissful hallucinations of heaven,
so the temporarily fearsome hallucinations of hell
will wear off.
Because both are conditioned states.
They mature out of particular imprints in the mind
and will come to an end.
So, we should fear hell.
We should fear in fact the capacity
of our deranged emotions of hatred and so,
to produce hell.
We should fear that, and therefore wise up,
and overcome hatred.
We should not long for heaven
because it's pleasures are merely temporary
and actually are a deviation from the real matter at hand
which is developing the awakened compassion and wisdom
of a Buddha.
But do they exist?
Yes,
as relatively, they're as relatively true
as any other samsaric appearance
fabricated from mind.
How can we get an insight into them?
Look right now into your mind.
You'll see there in your hatred,
the germs of the claustrophobia and fear,
and oppression of hell.
And in this way you will know
that that hell is, so to speak, a possibility.
And why, gaining wisdom through that,
you want to practice the path.