Perhaps we feel happy, or sad, or neither. Perhaps there is something on our minds, something we hope to obtain, or achieve, something that drives us in a particular direction. Nichiren Buddhism has a very clear way of explaining the different ways that we feel and respond to the world around us. It is a principle often referred to as 'the Ten Worlds'.

Each of the Ten Worlds or life-states are ways that we respond to what is going on in our lives. We have each one of these states latent in our lives, it is just a question of how and when they are stimulated and become manifest. Let's start with a calm, rational state called 'Tranquillity'. Sometimes it is also called 'Humanity' but I would like to stress its calmness and reasonableness. When we are in this state, things in the world appear to be 'just right'. It's the ideal life-condition to be in on holiday, when we can recharge and recover from the challenges of life. We all need to experience tranquility, but too much can be a problem, and can lead to laziness. This is also the time to point out that we will see a positive and negative side to most of these worlds and extreme laziness is the negative side of tranquillity. Imagine you are resting on a sunny afternoon, having a nice, tranquil experience, when the neighbours put on some music which is not only too loud, but of a sort which you would normally avoid. The life-state of tranquillity will probably have been replaced by some kind of annoyance, even perhaps a restrictive feeling of suffering. This could be the world known as 'Hell'. Unlike the hell which some cultures or faiths describe as being underground, this is a very real experience where we feel imprisoned by our circumstances.

Or rather than the neighbour's music, perhaps you receive a pleasant message on your phone - someone you are fond of has told you that they love you and as a result your heart sings! This is likely to be the world of 'Rapture' (also known as 'Heaven'). This might be followed by a desire to see that person, and the yearning is likely to be a manifestation of the world of 'Hunger'. This is not just a condition that is to do with the desire to eat food, but can also be about relationships or other objects and ways that we think we can improve life. There is also a world in which we operate on the level of our more basic animal instincts, and this world, perhaps unsurprisingly, is known as 'Animality'. Perhaps if the noisy neighbours had a reputation for causing trouble our instinctive reaction would be fear that they might react dangerously to any complaint. If instead we feel superior to our neighbours -perhaps because we have a disdainful opinion of their choice of music - then this sounds rather like the world of 'Anger'. This world is not about being angry, instead it is usually quite a quiet world, but one that is dominated by our small ego and therefore demonstrates arrogance and contempt.

By looking at tranquillity, hell, rapture, hunger, animality and anger, we have briefly considered what are commonly considered the six 'lower' worlds. These are worlds that we experience due to the things that happen in our environment and it is just a question of our personal buttons being pushed. There are also four 'higher' worlds which require effort for us to experience them. 'Learning' and 'Realisation' are states where we are trying to improve our lives, either by studying the wisdom and experience of others, or through our own insight into life.

Then there is the compassionate and altruistic state of 'Bodhisattva’ in which we make efforts to take away the sufferings of others and to replace it with something more positive. Finally, we have the dynamic and creative world of 'Buddhahood' in our lives, characterised by courage, compassion, wisdom and life-force. This world of Buddhahood is the only one that is purely positive. Having introduced these ten states, the next thing is to acknowledge that life is much more complicated than humans having just ten ways of operating. A great Chinese Buddhist thinker known as T'ien-t'ai1 observed that people tend to have one of these worlds as their 'basic' life-condition and that they then experience the world through the 'lens' of that basic world. For example someone who is incredibly laid-back might have 'tranquillity' as their basic condition, and then they will experience rapture, hunger and anger in a tranquil way. Someone else who is fiercely driven by their ego will experience tranquillity, hell and animality through the 'lens' of their anger state. When I first started to read about Buddhist principles, it was this aspect, known as 'the mutual possession of the Ten Worlds' which really grabbed my attention. The implication is that rather than ten, there are a hundred worlds at play in each of us. This principle provides an extremely sophisticated analysis of human psychology, and explains a lot about how we each behave and how different people can react differently to the same situation. The aim of Buddhist practice is to establish the world of Buddhahood as our fundamental life-condition, and then to experience the other worlds through that state. The Buddha has all of the worlds including anger, hunger and rapture, but they are states that create value rather than being self-centred or destructive