The History of Buddhist Thought c13.24

c13.24

The Buddhist commentators, however, have succeeded in interpreting the series as the different stages, or the essential factors of the stages, which an individual assumes during his existence in the world of change. Buddhaghosa makes it a theory of the causes of rebirth in any part of the universe.¹ For him the whole universe is divided into three planes, of which the lowest, the world of sensual desire from the deepest hells up to the heavens of sensual pleasures, is inhabited by beings with their six senses. Above these is the world of form, in which the senses of taste, smell, and touch are absent. In the formless world only mind exists. It is inhabited by beings who have practised the four Attainments of non-form.