Rebecca is back from a week-long seshin at Zen Mountain Monastery in upstate New York.  She talked about the rigid schedule of sitting starting at 4:30 AM everyday.  There wasn't much time to sleep and sitting all day became very physically painful.  She talked about Orioki, the lectures and the rules of the monastery.  She loved it.
 
Doen talked about the "hungry ghost" state.  The hungry ghost has an extraordinarily long, skinny neck.  It's neck is so thin that it can't get enough down there to be satisfied.  It's basically a state of feeling like you never have enough.  Source of suffering is attachment (grasping).  Hungry ghost is in a constant process of taking in and never being present.  The cure for the hungry ghost state is being.  Limiting your desires can be helpful so you don't have to satisfy a zillion things.
The realms: Hell, Animal, Hungry Ghost, Jealous Gods, etc. are not you.  They are just mental states.  They can be dropped.  When you completely drop these mental states, that's enlightenment.  When you are just here. 
 
Nothing will improve your life so much as appreciating your life.