Abhasvaraloka
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Abhasvara loka (Pali: abhassaraloka; Tibetan: 'od gsal ba; Chinese Mandarin: jiguangjing tian/guangyintian; Japanese: gokukojoten/koonten; Korean: kukkwangjong ch'on/kwangum ch'on 極光淨天/光音天).
In Sanskrit, the “heaven of radiant light” (in Chinese, the name is also parsed as the “heaven of radiant sound”), the highest of the three heavens associated with the second concentration (dhyana) of the realm of subtle materiality (rupadhatu). As the BRAHMa divinities dwelling in this realm perpetually experience this profound] [[state of meditation, they are described as subsisting on bliss (PRiTI) and abiding in ease (sukha). Their bodies radiate light in all directions like lightning or like flames from a torch. While the bodies of the divinities of this realm are uniform, their perceptions are diverse, and there is no assurance that they will not be reborn in a lower realm of existence after their death. At the beginning of a world cycle, when the physical world (BHajanaloka) of the sensuous realm (kamadhatu) has not yet been formed, and at the end of a world cycle when that physical world has been destroyed, many beings are reborn into the abhasvaraloka. A Bodhisattva is never reborn in the immaterial realm (arupyadhatu) even if he has achieved meditative states consistent with that realm, but he may be reborn in the abhasvaraloka. The Buddha once disabused a Brahma God dwelling in that realm of the mistaken view that he was eternal. This God, whose name was Baka, had been the first living being born in the abhasvaraloka after a period of world dissolution, and presumed that no one had existed before him. When the divinities (deva) of the abhasvaraloka are first reborn in the realm of human beings (MANUshYA), they may retain their divine attributes for a time, being spontaneously generated rather than born viviparously, and possessing bodies made from subtle materiality rather than gross matter. However, as time passes and they take on the physical and mental characteristics of ordinary human beings, they lose their luminosity, develop sexual characteristics, and come to subsist on solid foods.