From Mushin:
During the Sejiki Ceremony, otherwise known as The Gate of Sweet Nectar enacted at Sunday service, we address the Hungry Ghost realm of the Six Realms. The hungry ghost realm refers to the constant seeking that comes with any addiction. These seeking behaviors create only more of themselves. No release is actually found because it doesn’t really address the most underlying hunger.
Are you wondering what the other five of the Six Realms are? Devas enjoy a life of pleasure, without awareness of the impermanence of their condition. Human is the only realm where we can awaken to the truth of impermanence and interdependence, and find true peace. Asuras are addicted to the passions, fighting and power. Animals are driven by the need to eat, sleep and procreate to the exclusion of anything else. Hell dwellers live in extreme torment, heedless of others. We notice these mind states in ourselves in an ordinary day. Seeing this can spur us to deeply appreciate our human condition, where we live by the vow to awaken to the very nature of being sentient. The Buddha showed us this path to freedom from being bound to the many ways that we suffer.