Buddhist Cosmology - From Encyclopedia

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Cosmology
Encyclopedia of Buddhism

Title: Cosmology
Author(s): RUPERT GETHIN
Source: Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr.. Vol. 1. New York: Macmillan Reference USA,
2004. p183-187.
Document Type: Topic overview
Bookmark: Bookmark this Document
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2004 Macmillan Reference USA, COPYRIGHT 2006 Gale
Full Text:
COSMOLOGY
Although the earliest Buddhist texts of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLSthe nikyas or gamas (fourth to third
century B.C.E.)do not set out a systematic cosmology, many of the ideas and details of the developed cosmology of the
later traditions are, in fact, present in these texts. Some of these have been borrowed and adapted from the common
pool of early Indian cosmological notions indicated in, for example, the Vedic texts (1500 to 500 B.C.E.). The early ideas
and details are elaborated in the later texts of systematic Buddhist thought, the ABHIDHARMA (third to second century
B.C.E.), and presented as a coherent and consistent whole, with some variation, in the exegetical abhidharma
commentaries and manuals that date from the early centuries C.E. Three principal abhidharma traditions are known to
contemporary Buddhism and scholarship, those of the THERAVDA, the Sarvstivda, and the Yogcra. The
Theravda or "southern" tradition has shaped the outlook of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The
Sarvstivda or "northern" tradition fed into the abhidharma system of the MAHYNA school of thought known as
"yoga practice" (yogcra) or "ideas only" (vijaptimtra), and their perspective on many points has passed into the
traditions of East Asian and Tibetan Buddhism. The elaborate cosmology presented by these abhidharma systems is
substantially the same, differing only on points of detail. This traditional cosmology remains of relevance to the worldview
of ordinary Buddhists in traditional Buddhist societies.
Along with many of the details, the four basic principles of the developed abhidharma Buddhist cosmology are assumed
by the nikya and gama texts:
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1. The universe has no specific creator; the sufficient cause for its existence is to be found in the Buddhist cycle of
causal conditioning known as PRATTYASAMUTPDA (DEPENDENT ORIGINATION).
2. There is no definite limit to the universe, either spatially or temporally.
3. The universe comprises various realms of existence that constitute a hierarchy.
4. All beings are continually reborn in the various realms in accordance with their past KARMA (ACTION); the only
escape from this endless round of REBIRTH, known as SASRA, is the knowledge that constitutes the attainment
of NIRVA.
Levels of existence
The abhidharma systems agree that sasra embraces thirty-one principal levels of existence, although they record
slight variations in the lists of these levels. Any being may be born into any one of these levels. In fact, during the course
of their wandering through sasra it is perhaps likely that all beings have at some time or another been born in most of
these levels of existence. The most basic division of the thirty-one levels is threefold: the realm of sensuality (kmadhtu,
-loka) at the bottom of the hierarchy; the realm of pure form or subtle materiality (rpadhtu, -loka) in the middle; and
the formless realm (arpadhtu, -loka) at the top.
The realm of sensuality is inhabited by beings endowed with the five physical senses and with minds that are in one way
or another generally occupied with the objects of the senses. The sensual realm is further divided into unhappy destinies
and happy destinies. Unhappy destinies comprise various unpleasant forms of existence consisting of a number of HELLS,
hungry ghosts (preta), animals, and jealous gods (asura, which are, according to some, a separate level, but to others, a
class of being subsumed under the category of either hungry ghosts or gods). Rebirth in these realms is as a result of
unwholesome (akuala) actions of body, speech, and thought (e.g., killing, taking what is not given, sexual misconduct,
idle chatter, covetousness, ill will, wrong view, and untrue, harsh, or divisive speech). The happy destinies of the sensual
realm comprise various increasingly pleasant forms of existence consisting of human existence and existence as a divinity
or god (deva) in one of the six heavens of the sense world. Rebirth in these realms is a result of wholesome (kuala)
actions of body, speech, and thought, which are opposed to unwholesome kinds of action.
Above the relatively gross world of the senses is the subtler world of "pure form." This consists of further heavenly
realms (reckoned as sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen in number) occupied by higher gods called brahms, who have
consciousness but only two sensessight and hearing. Beings are reborn in these realms as a result of mastering
increasingly subtle meditative states known as the four DHYNA (TRANCE STATE). These are attained by stilling the mind
until it becomes
completely concentrated and absorbed in an object of meditation, temporarily recovering its natural brightness and
purity. The five highest realms of the form world are known as the pure abodes, and these are occupied by divinities
who are all either nonreturners (spiritually advanced beings of great wisdom who are in their last birth and who will
reach enlightenment before they die) or beings who have already gained enlightenment. All the beings of the pure abodes
are thus in their last life before their final liberation from the round of rebirth through the attainment of NIRVA.
The subtlest and most refined levels of the universe are the four that comprise "the formless realm." At this level of the
universe the body with its senses is completely absent, and existence is characterized by pure and rarified forms of
consciousness, once again corresponding to higher meditative attainments.
World systems
The lower levels of the universe, that is, the realms of sensuality, arrange themselves into various distinct world discs
(cakrava). At the center of a cakrava is the great world mountain, Sumeru or Meru. This is surrounded by seven
concentric rings of mountains and seas. Beyond these mountains and seas, in the four cardinal directions, are four great
continents lying in the great ocean. The southern continent, Jambudvpa (the continent of the rose-apple tree), is
inhabited by ordinary human beings; the southern part, below the towering range of mountains called the abode of snows
(himlaya), is effectively India, the known world and the land where buddhas arise. At the outer rim of this world disc is
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a ring of iron mountains holding in the ocean. In the spaces between world discs and below are various hells; in some
sources these are given as eight hot hells and eight cold hells. An early text describes how in the hell of Hot Embers, for
example, beings are made to climb up and down trees bristling with long, red hot thorns, never dying until at last their
bad karma is exhausted (Majjhimanikya iii, 185).
On the slopes of Mount Sumeru itself and rising above its peak are the six HEAVENS inhabited by the gods of the sense
world. The lowest of these is that of the Gods of the Four Kings of Heaven, who guard the four directions. On the peak
of Mount Sumeru is the heaven of the Thirty-Three Gods, which is ruled by its king, INDRA or akra (Pli, Sakka),
while in the shadow of Mount Sumeru dwell the jealous gods called asuras, who were expelled from the heaven of the
Thirty-Three by Indra. Above the peak is the Heaven of the Contented Gods or Tuita, where buddhas-to-be, like the
future MAITREYA, are reborn and await the time to take birth. The highest of the six heavens of the sense world is that of
the Gods who have Power over the Creations of Others, and it is in a remote part of this heaven that MRA, the Evil
One, lives, wielding his considerable resources in order to prevent the sensual world from losing its hold on its beings.
The six heavens of the sense world are inhabited by gods and goddesses who, like human beings, reproduce through
sexual union, though some say that in the higher heavens this union takes the form of an embrace, the holding of hands, a
smile, or a mere look. The young gods and goddesses are not born from the womb, but arise instantly in the form of a
five-year-old child in the lap of the gods (Abhidharmakoa iii, 6970).
Above these sense-world heavens is the Brahm World, a world of subtle and refined mind and body. Strictly, brahms
are neither male nor female, although it seems that in appearance they resemble men. The fourteenth-century Thai
Buddhist cosmology, the Three Worlds According to King Ruang, describes how their faces are smooth and very
beautiful, a thousand times brighter than the moon and sun, and with only one hand they can illuminate ten thousand
world systems (Reynolds and Reynolds, p. 251). A Great Brahm of even the lower brahm heavens may rule over a
thousand world systems, while brahms of the higher levels are said to rule over a hundred thousand. Yet it would be
wrong to conclude that there is any one or final overarching Great BrahmGod the Creator. It may be that beings
come to take a particular Great Brahm as creator of the world, and a Great Brahm may himself even form the idea
that he is creator, but this is just the result of delusion on the part of both parties. In fact the universe recedes upwards
with one class of Great Brahm being surpassed by a further, higher class of Great Brahm. Thus the world comprises
"its gods, its Mra and Brahm, this generation with its ascetics and brahmins, with its princes and peoples"
(Dghanikya i, 62).
The overall number of world systems that constitute the universe in its entirety cannot be specified. The nikya/gama
texts sometimes talk in terms of the thousandfold world system, the twice-thousandfold world system, and the thrice-
thousandfold world system or trichilicosm. According to north Indian traditions, the last of these embraces a total of
one billion world systems, while the southern traditions say a trillion. But even such a vast number cannot define the full
extent of the universe; there is no spatial limit to the extent of world systems.
Cycles of time
The temporal limits of the universe are equally elusive. World systems as a whole are not static; they themselves go
through vast cycles of expansion and contraction across vast eons of time. World systems contract in great clusters of a
billion at a time. Most frequently this contraction is brought about by the destructive force of fire, but periodically it is
brought about by water and wind. This fire starts in the lower realms of the sense-sphere and, having burnt up these, it
invades the form realms; but having burnt up the realms corresponding to the first dhyna, it stops. The realms
corresponding to the second, third, and fourth dhynas and the four formless realms are thus spared destruction. But
when the destruction is wreaked by water, the three realms corresponding to the second dhyna are included in the
general destruction. The destruction by wind invades and destroys even the realms corresponding to the third dhyna.
Only the subtle realms corresponding to the fourth dhyna and the four formless meditations are never subject to this
universal destruction.
The length of time it takes for the universe to complete one full cycle of expansion and contraction is known as a
mahkalpa (great eon). A mahkalpa is made up of four intermediate eons consisting of the period of contraction, the
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period when the world remains contracted, the period of expansion, and the period when the world remains expanded.
The length of a great eon is not specified in human years but only by reference to similes:
Suppose there was a great mountain of rock, seven miles across and seven miles high, a solid mass without
any cracks. At the end of every hundred years a man might brush it just once with a fine Benares cloth.
That great mountain of rock would decay and come to an end sooner than even the eon. So long is an eon.
And of eons of this length not just one has passed, not just a hundred, not just a thousand, not just a
hundred thousand. (Sayuttanikya ii, 181182)
The Buddha is said to have declared that sasra'sthat is, ourbeginning was inconceivable and that its starting point
could not be indicated; the mother's milk drunk by each of us in the course of our long journey through sasra is
greater by far than the water in the four great oceans (Sayuttanikya ii, 180181).
Within this shifting and unstable world of time and space that is sasra, beings try to make themselves at ease. The life
spans of beings vary. In general, beings who inhabit the lower realms of existence live shorter, more
A Tibetan thang ka (scroll painting) depicting the Wheel of Life. Earl and Nazima Kowall/Corbis. Reproduced by
permission.

precarious, lives, while the gods live longer; at the highest realms, gods live vast expanses of timeup to eightyfour
thousand eons. Yet the happiness that beings find or achieve cannot be true happiness, not permanently lasting, but
merely a relatively longer or shorter temporary respite. Beings in the lowest hell realms experience virtually continuous
pain and suffering until the results of the actions that brought them there are exhausted. In contrast, beings in the higher
brahm worlds experience an existence entirely free of all overt suffering; but while their lives may endure for
inconceivable lengths of time in human terms, they must eventually come to an end once again when the results of the
actions that brought them there are exhausted.
Cosmology and psychology
An important principle of the Buddhist cosmological vision lies in the equivalence of cosmology and PSYCHOLOGY, the
way in which the various realms of existence relate rather closely to certain commonly
(and not so commonly) experienced states of mind. Buddhist cosmology is at once a map of different realms of existence
and a description of all possible experiences. This can be appreciated by considering more fully the Buddhist
understanding of the nature of karma. Essentially the world we live in is our own creation: We have created it by our
own karma, by our deeds, words, and thoughts motivated either by greed, hatred, and delusion or by nonattachment,
friendliness, and wisdom. The cosmos is thus a reflection of our actions, which are in turn the products of our hearts and
minds. For in this fathom-long body with its mind and consciousness, said the Buddha, lies the world, its arising, its
ceasing, and the way leading to its ceasing (Sayuttanikya i, 62).
Essentially the states of mind that give rise to unwholesome actionsstrong greed, hatred, and delusionlead to rebirth
in the unhappy destinies or realms of misfortune. A life dominated by the mean spiritedness of greed leads to rebirth as a
hungry ghost, a class of being tormented by unsatisfied hunger; a life dominated by the mental hell of hatred and anger
leads to rebirth in one of the hell realms where one suffers terrible pain; while a life dominated by willful ignorance of the
consequences of one's behavior leads to rebirth as an animal, a brute existence ruled by the need to eat and reproduce.
On the other hand, the generous, friendly, and wise impulses that give rise to wholesome actions lead to rebirth in the
happy realms as a human being or in one of the six realms of the gods immediately above the human realm, where beings
enjoy increasingly happy and carefree lives. By developing states of deep peace and contentment through the practice of
calm meditation, and by developing profound wisdom through insight meditation, one is reborn as a brahm in a realm
of pure form or form-lessness, which is a reflection of those meditations.
In short, if one lives like an animal, one is liable to reborn as an animal; if one lives like a human being, one will be reborn
as a human being; if one lives like a god, one will be reborn as a god. But just as in dayto-day experience one fails to
find any physical or mental condition that is reliable and unchangeable, that can give permanent satisfaction and
happiness, so, even if one is reborn in the condition of a brahm living eighty-four thousand eons, the calm and peaceful
condition of one's existence is not ultimately lasting or secure. Just as ordinary happiness is in this sense DUKHA
(SUFFERING) or unsatisfactory, so too are the lives of the brahms, even though they experience no physical or mental
pain.
Nirva and buddhas
The only escape from this endless round is the direct understanding of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHSsuffering, its cause, its
cessation, and the PATH leading to its cessationand the attainment of nirva. Significantly nirva is not included in the
thirty-one realms of rebirth, since these define the conditioned world of space and time, and nirva is precisely not a
place where one can be reborn and where one can exist for a period of time. Nirvana is the unconditioned, the
deathless, beyond space and time, known directly at the moment of enlightenment. Some beings may find the path to
nirva by their own efforts and become a PRATYEKABUDDHA (solitary buddha), but most must await the appearance in
the world of a samyaksabuddha (perfectly and fully awakened one), like Gautama, the buddha of the current age.
Such buddhas tread the ancient path of all buddhas, and can show others the way to release. Yet they appear in the
world only rarely, though views on precisely how rarely vary. According to the Theravda, some eons like our present
are auspicious (bhadda) with a total of five buddhas, of whom Gautama (Pli, Gotama) was the fourth and Maitreya
(Pli, Metteyya) will be the fifth. Other eons may have no buddhas at all.
A buddha's sphere of influence is known as his buddha-field (buddhaketra) and is not confined to the particular world
system into which he is born. The Theravda sources (e.g., Visuddhimagga xiii, 31) distinguish his (1) field of birth,
which extends to the ten thousand world systems that tremble when he is conceived, born, gains enlightenment, teaches,
and attains final nirva; (2) field of authority, which extends to the hundred billion world systems throughout which the
utterance of the great protective discourses (mahparitta) is efficacious; and (3) field of experience, which potentially
extends to infinite numbers of world systems.
Mahyna perspectives
The basic cosmology outlined above with some variation is assumed by the Mahyna stras, as well as the authors of
the systematic treatises of Indian Mahyna Buddhist thought. However, the Mahyna cosmological vision increasingly
expands its attention beyond "our" world system and our buddha to include other buddhas and their spheres of influence.
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Early Buddhist writings and the non-Mahyna schools such as the Theravda and Sarvstivda emphasize the
impossibility of the appearance in the world of two buddhas at the same time (for how could there be two "bests"?).
But this raises the question of what precisely constitutes the world. Mahyna writings tend to respond by suggesting that
while it is true that there can be only one buddha at a time in a single trichilicosm (set of a billion world systems), since
there are innumerable trichilicosms, there can in fact be innumerable buddhas at the same time in these different
trichilicosms. Thus Mahyna writings tend to focus on the universe as made up of innumerable clusters of world
systems, and each of these sets of world systems has its own series of buddhas. Since these sets of world systems are
not absolutely closed off from each other, we even now in our part of the universecalled the Saha worldhave
access to the living buddhas of other parts. A cluster of vast numbers of world systems constitutes in effect the buddha-
field or potential sphere of influence of a buddha. It is this buddha-field that a bodhisattva seeks to purify through his
wisdom and compassion on the long road to buddhahood. The notion of a purified buddha-field is related in the
development of Mahyna thought to the notion of a buddha's pure land, such as Sukhvatthe Realm of Bliss of the
buddha AMITBHA/Amityus, where the conditions for attaining enlightenment are particularly propitious if one can but
be reborn there. But the question persists whether such PURE LANDS are to be found in some far flung part of the
cosmos or are here now, if we had but the heart to know it.
The Mahyna notion of buddha-fields with their buddhas and bodhisattvas finds expression in the HUAYAN JING in a
wondrous cosmic vision of a universe constituted by innumerable world systems, each with its buddha, floating in the
countless oceans of a cosmic lotus, of which again the numbers are countless. This vision ends in the conception of a
multiverse of worlds within worlds where the buddha, or buddhas, are immanent.
See also: Divinities ; Realms of Existence
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RUPERT GETHIN
Source Citation (MLA 7
th
Edition)
GETHIN, RUPERT. "Cosmology." Encyclopedia of Buddhism. Ed. Robert E. Buswell, Jr. Vol. 1. New York:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2004. 183-187. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. 11 May 2014.
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