MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
The Six-Fold rebirth
Because of the interpenetration of all planes of existence, the Sixfold Rebirth not only applies posthumously to successive phases in the cycle but also during the course of this lifetime. Though outwardly human in appearance, we may in truth be living in one of the other worlds. Thus the violently aggressive man has already been reborn as an antigod, or shura, while the glutton or drunkard is even here and now a gaki, or hungry ghost. But once the karma of any given state is exhausted, the being must transmigrate to another, higher or lower, according to his latent dispositions and previous deserts. Even the fortunate state of the gods is not everlasting, and only the attainment of Nirvana, which lies outside the Round of Samsara altogether, brings permanent release.