5/11/2014 Gale Virtual Reference Library - Document - Cosmology 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: Page 183 COSMOLOGY Although the earliest Buddhist texts of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS—the nikāyas or āgamas (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 THERAVĀDA, the Sarvāstivāda, and the Yogācāra. The Theravāda or "southern" tradition has shaped the outlook of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. The Sarvāstivāda or "northern" tradition fed into the abhidharma system of the MAHĀYĀNA school of thought known as "yoga practice" (yogācāra) or "ideas only" (vijñaptimātra), 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 nikāya and āgama texts: http://go.galegroup.com.eproxy1.lib.hku.hk/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=hku&ta… 1/7 5/11/2014 Gale Virtual Reference Library - Document - Cosmology 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 PRATĪTYASAMUTPĀDA (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 SAṃSĀRA, is the knowledge that constitutes the attainment of NIRVĀṆA. Levels of existence The abhidharma systems agree that saṃsāra 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 saṃsāra 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 (kāmadhātu, -loka) at the bottom of the hierarchy; the realm of pure form or subtle materiality (rūpadhātu, -loka) in the middle; and the formless realm (arūpadhātu, -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 (akuśala) 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 (kuśala) 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 brahmās, who have consciousness but only two senses—sight and hearing. Beings are reborn in these realms as a result of mastering increasingly subtle meditative states known as the four DHYĀNA (TRANCE STATE). These are attained by stilling the mind until it becomes Page 184 | 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 NIRVĀṆA. 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 (cakravāḍa). At the center of a cakravāḍa 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, Jambudvīpa (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 (himālaya), is effectively India, the known world and the land where buddhas arise. At the outer rim of this world disc is http://go.galegroup.com.eproxy1.lib.hku.hk/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=RELEVANCE&inPS=true&prodId=GVRL&userGroupName=hku&ta… 2/7 5/11/2014 Gale Virtual Reference Library - Document - Cosmology 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 (Majjhimanikāya 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 Śakra (Pāli, 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 TuṢita, 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 MĀRA, 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 (Abhidharmakośa iii, 69–70). Above these sense-world heavens is the Brahmā World, a world of subtle and refined mind and body. Strictly, brahmās 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 Brahmā of even the lower brahmā heavens may rule over a thousand world systems, while brahmās 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 Brahmā—God the Creator. It may be that beings come to take a particular Great Brahmā as creator of the world, and a Great Brahmā may himself even form the idea that he is creator, but this is just the result of delusion on the part of both parties.