Devachan De-ba-can de-wa-chen (Tibetan) [from bde-ba; happiness + chan; possessing] The happy land; exoterically, a translation of the Sanskrit sukhavati, the happy Western Realm or Pure Land of the dhyani-buddha Amitabha of East Asian Buddhism. Certain Tibetan books contain glowing descriptions of devachan, such as the Mani Kambum (or Kumbum) and the Odpagmed kyi shing kod. Devachan is a state of peace and happiness beyond ordinary mental cognizance, and no disturbing element can enter until the reincarnating ego, alo called the Linga Sarira has finished resting and recuperating its energy for a new sojourn on earth. Because the reincarnating ego builds its own paradise out of the materials it gathered in the last incarnation, there are great varieties in the devachanic state. It is the product of every individual's unfulfilled spiritual yearnings, longings, and aspirations: since these were not fulfilled or only partly so in earth life, during the interval between earth-lives the ego seeks to fulfill them, rehearsing its spiritual yearnings which, being mental visions or pictures, are thus real in a far truer sense that anything possible on earth, where the consciousness is so thickly enshrouded with the obscuring veils of lower attractions. It is the quality of these aspirations, however, which determines the length of the devachanic state: the more lofty and spiritual the aspirations, the longer the stay.
In considering devachan and nirvana, devachan appertains to the higher human ego, however sublimated it may be, of any particular incarnation; whereas nirvana is a far higher state in which the personality is completely transcended and dropped, or has become so thoroughly purified that it is identified with the higher self. The devachanic state is of an illusory nature (although real enough to the devachani, just as earth life is to us); but the nirvani has attained universal consciousness and experiences reality -- sachchidananda, as expressed by the Vedantists. Devachan and nirvana in essence are states of consciousness of the beings in those respective spiritual conditions, but since Nirvana is the complete detachment of the Guna’s; the earthly desires that bind the soul to the physical plane, Devachani still are earthbound souls and will therefore reincarnate as such. It is like immigrating to another country; you take yourself along with you. The state of devachani varies from happiness to unhappiness, which may be seen (in lack of a better word) as a self imposed punishment and Devachan may therefore be compaired with the levels of Hades. Nirvana is the highest spiritual or superspiritual state; devachan is the intermediate or high psychological states; and Avichi, popularly called the lowest of the hells, is the nether pole of the spiritual condition. These three are states of beings existing in the lokas or talas, the worlds of the cosmic egg; whereas paranirvana ("beyond nirvana," a super-nirvana) is that divine state which is virtually identification with cosmic reality.