form_realm

| frame | Mount Meru surrounded by the continents and subcontinents, with the gods of the Desire and Form Realms aboveForm realm (Skt. rūpadhātu; Tib. གཟུགས་ཁམས་, zuk kham, Wyl. gzugs khams) — the second of the three realms, only 'populated' by gods and divided into seventeen heavens. The cause for being reborn in one of these heavens is the favourable karma accumulated through the practice of one of the four dhyanas, each 'causal meditative dhyana' acting as a cause of rebirth in one of the corresponding 'resultant dhyana levels'.

Seventeen Heavens of the Form Realm (Skt. ''rupadhatuvasiñjati''; Tib. [[གཟུགས་ཁམས་གནས་རི་བཅུ་བདུན་]], Wyl. ''gzugs khams gnas ri bcu bdun'')

<noinclude>The Five Pure Heavens (Tib. གཙང་གནས་ལྔ་, tsang né nga, Wyl. gtsang gnas lnga) are the five uppermost realms of the seventeen heavens of gods (Skt. rupadhatuvasiñjati; Tib. གཟུགས་ཁམས་གནས་རི་བཅུ་བདུན་, Wyl. gzugs khams gnas ri bcu bdun) in the form realm. They are a result of the fourth dhyana meditation, and are only accessible to noble beings.

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Unexcelled Heaven - Akanishtha
Extreme Insight/Great Vision (Skt. Sudarśa; Tib. ཤིན་ཏུ་མཐོང་, Wyl. shin tu mthong)
Perfect Appearance/The Marvellous (Skt. Sudṛśa; Tib. གྱ་ནོམ་སྣང་བ་, Wyl. gya nom snang ba)
The Painless/Without Distress (Skt. Atapa; Tib. མི་གདུང་པ་, Wyl. mi gdung pa)
The Slightest/Not So Great (Skt. Abṛha; Tib. མི་ཆེ་བ་, Wyl. mi che ba)<noinclude>

Note: the five pure heavens are also a result of the fourth dhyana meditation, but are only accessible to arya | noble beings.

Great Brahma (Skt. Mahābrahmaṇa; Tib. ཚངས་པ་ཆེན་པོ་, tshangs pa chen po)
Priests of Brahma (Skt. Brahmapurohita; Tib. ཚངས་པ་མདུན་ན་འདོན་, tshangs pa mdun na ‘don)
Heaven of Brahma (Skt. Brahmakāyika; Tib. ཚངས་རིས་, tshangs ris)