Where will I go when I die?

Ven. Nyanatiloka, Buddhist Dictionary, palikanon.com) edited by Dhr. Seven, Wisdom Quarterly

Death stands behind the wheel or cyclical-round of samsara.

The "abodes of beings" are called sattāvāsa or nava. In the sutras (e.g., DN 33, AN IX.24) nine abodes are mentioned:

"There are, O meditators, nine abodes of beings, namely:

1. "There are beings who are different in body and different in perception -- such as the human beings, some devas (heavenly space beings), and some beings living in the world of suffering (vinipātika).

2. "There are beings who are different in body but the same in perception, such as the first-born brahmas of the Brahma World (i.e., at the beginning of each new cyclical world-formation that then devolves through the ages until it reforms; see deva II).

3. "There are beings who are the same in body but different in perception, such as the radiant brahmas (ābhassara, see deva II).

4. "There are beings who are the same in body and the same in perception, such as the all-illuminating brahmas (subha-kinha; see deva II).

5. "There are beings without perception or feeling, such as the unconscious/insensate beings (asañña-satta).

6. "There are beings who, through the complete overcoming of perceptions of materiality (rūpa-sañña), the disappearance of perceptions of sense-reaction (patigha-sañña), and non-attention to perceptions of variety by thinking, 'Boundless is space' are reborn in the sphere of boundless space. (See deva III; jhāna 5).

7. "There are beings who, through the complete overcoming of the sphere of boundless space by thinking, 'Boundless is consciousness' are reborn in the sphere of boundless consciousness. (See jhāna 6).

There are uncountable worlds in 31 categories.

8. "There are beings who, through the complete overcoming of the sphere of boundless consciousness by thinking, 'Nothing is there' are reborn in the sphere of nothingness. (See jhāna 7).

• [NOTE: This seems to be a place not yet formed, akin to a construction zone or a desolate place or primordial location yet to be formed; it is not, however, nothing-nothing; it is not nothing at all. It is not nirvana, yet many cling to this wrong view given that sometimes nirvana is described in negative terms as not this and not that. We confirmed with a person able to enter this meditative absorption or jhana as to this place's nature, thinking that it must be just the awareness of anatta, but we were told that it is a real place, a scary and awesome place or void, which sounded to us like a black hole set apart from other things to be perceived. Things were not necessarily emerging from it. It was just there. Anyone is able to develop this and the other levels of absorption to see it for oneself in this very life. There's no need to take account of others' direct experience of it. In fact, all 31 Planes of Existence are verifiable and the countless worlds on each plane, like the many human worlds besides this one.]

9. "There are beings who, through the complete overcoming of the sphere of nothingness, are reborn in the sphere of neither-perception-nor-non-perception (A.IX.24). (See jhāna 8).

According to the Commentary to the Anguttara Nikaya or the "Numerical Discourses of the Buddha," the beings of the "Pure Abodes" (suddhāvāsa) are not mentioned here because they exist only in those world-periods in which buddhas appear. Cf. viññāna-tthiti.

• The "Pure Abodes" are worlds where those who have gained the initial stages of enlightenment/awakening may be reborn to study and practice in order to gain the final stage of full enlightenment. This is where "non-returners" are reborn before gaining arhatship. These worlds are only accessible to the noble ones (ariya).