Traditional Buddhist Cosmology
Cosmology and religion are often closely interlinked. Traditional Buddhism is no exception. Thoroughly grounded in its Indian origins, Buddhist cosmology nevertheless plays a large role in the popular understanding of Buddhism in East and Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, China, and Korea. This article attempts to present an overview of early Indian Buddhist answers to many of the key cosmological questions that have aroused human curiosity for thousands of years and how these answers relate to our contemporary conception of the universe.
Basic Components of Matter
As in the modern Western conception of the universe, traditional Buddhist cosmology is based on the principles of atomic theory. Early Buddhist theories as outlined in an important philosophical treatise called the Abhidharmakosa propose that atoms are “the smallest part of matter, uncuttable, unable to be destroyed, taken up, or grasped. They are neither long nor short, neither square nor round. They cannot be analyzed, seen, heard, or touched.”[1] This conception closely parallels some of the principal theories of modern physics, notably the ideas that matter cannot be created or destroyed and the uncertainty principle of quantum theory which stipulates that the smallest particles cannot be analyzed without affecting the particles directly.
According to these Buddhist theories, atoms come together to form compounds and this process of conglomeration continues as these groups of matter become larger and larger, eventually becoming visible to the naked eye. An “invisible force,” much like the strong force or the electromagnetic force of modern physics, makes this process possible.[2] Like many other ancient civilizations, early Indian Buddhist philosophers propose that all matter can be divided into four basic groups: earth, water, fire, and air. These divisions were used to explain the interactions between various substances and their intrinsic properties.
The Structure of the Universe
Unlike Western scientific cosmologies, early Buddhist texts posit that the universe only comes into existence because of the karma (actions and their enduring results) of living beings, including humans.[3] Thus in Buddhism the universe is strongly associated with human life and consciousness and its position as a objective spatial entity is subservient to its role as the theatre of volition actions and their enduring consequences. Furthermore, because the universe is created by the minds of living beings, it also follows that their karma also brings about its disintegration.[4]
The ancient Indians measured distance in yojanas, each of which is about seven kilometers. The universe as described in classical Buddhist uses yojanas as the primary way of describing the vast distances of the cosmos. The Abhidharmakosa gives the following description of the universe: A vast cylinder of wind floats in space. Shaped like a disk, in is 10^59 yojanas in circumference, 1,600,000 yojanas in depth and supports a disk of water that measures 1,203,450 by 800,000 yojanas. Above this is a disk of golden earth of equivalent diameter and a depth of 320,000 yojanas. This basis of the universe rather resembles a gigantic wedding cake. On top of the layer of golden earth is a vast ocean, at the center of which a great mountain of 160,000 yojanas rises into the air. In the ocean are four great landmasses, on of which corresponds to where the ancient Indians resided.[5]
The sun and the moon are critical elements of most cosmologies. According to early Buddhist sources, the sun and the moon revolve in the circle of wind that surrounds the great mountain at the center of the world. The sun is said to be fifty-one yojanas in diameter and the moon has a diameter fifty yojanas, indicating that the ancient Indians assumed that the apparent sizes of these objects were in fact their real sizes. They also explained the change in the length of the days over the course of a year as a function of how the sun moved around the massive central mountain. Traditional Buddhist cosmology also asserts that the waxing and the waning of the moon are due to the way shadows are cast on it, although they also believed that the moon gave off a light of its own.[6]
Transmigration, Karma, and Enlightenment
One of the central points of Buddhist cosmology is the idea of the six realms. Transmigration, a key element of all Indian philosophy, refers to the belief that living beings live many lives in succession and may be reborn into any of the six realms according to their past volitional actions, or karma. The six realms are the hells, hungry spirits, animals, humans, titans, and gods. Each of these realms is a realm of delusion, and even though beings in hell face immense physical pain and gods in heaven live long and happy lives, beings do not stay forever in any realm. The ultimate goal of Buddhism is to transcend the six realms, attain enlightenment and escape from the round of birth and death.
The hells are located deep beneath the landmass where humans live; according to early texts they extend as deep as 40,000 yojanas below the surface. Just below the surface live the hungry spirits, which are considered to make up the second realm, who suffer from interminable greed and hunger but cannot find any anything to satisfy their desires. Above them are the animals, followed by humans, who live on the surface. The human state is considered to be the only one from which it is possible to attain enlightenment. The titans live on the lower slopes of the central mountain, and are constantly fighting with the gods. The significance of this realm is unclear. Above the titans live the gods, who live on the top of the central mountain and above into the heavens. Furthermore, it is possible for humans to practice meditation, enter states of deep concentration and ascend into the heavens. The furthest extent of the highest heaven is 167,722,160,000 yojanas above the earth’s surface and is the realm of the deepest states of meditation short of enlightenment.[7] Those who have attained complete enlightenment no longer abide in the six realms and are not subject to time and space, realizing perfect nirvana (extinction).
The Cosmos and Time
Until this point this article has focused on the cosmology of the single-world system, or what may be called our world. However, early Buddhists in Indian also developed a much larger view of the universe, called the thousand-cubed great-thousand-world. A single world consists of the central mountain, the great ocean and its four landmasses, the sun, the moon, the disks golden earth and water, and the vast cylinder of wind on the very bottom.[8] In modern terms, this would correspond to a solar system. A thousand single worlds are described as a “small-thousand-world.” This can be likened to our modern galaxy. One billion of such worlds is called a “thousand-cubed great-thousand-world.”[9] This is the closest idea in traditional Buddhist cosmology to the modern picture of the entire known universe. To the ancient mind, the “thousand-cubed great-thousand-world” certainly represents the boundless and infinite nature of the universe.
Another key element in Buddhist cosmology is the conception of time. According to the ancient Indians, the smallest unit of time possible was the ksana. This unit is so small it can only be expressed in abstract terms, but the concept is similar to the idea of a Planck time, meaning the shortest possible instant or division of time. In terms of larger periods of time, such as hours, days, months, and years, the ancient Buddhist conception is relatively similar to the Western understanding of time.
Because of the Buddhist theory of the universe as being infinite in time as well as space, it is important to discuss the units of time used to describe the cycles of the universe. An important unit is called a kalpa, which is described as the time it takes for a block of rock one cubic yojana in volume to be worn down completely if it is wiped every hundred with a soft piece of silk.[10] Obviously, a kalpa is too great to be measured in years, and can even be thought as a metaphor for infinity, but the imagination of early Buddhist thinkers produced even longer units of time. One great kalpa is equal to eighty kalpas, but in comparison with an amsamkhya kalpa even these units seem no more than brief moments.
The final temporal element of the traditional Buddhist conception of the universe is the idea of the cycle of creation and destruction of each world system. The whole cycle takes place over one great kalpa, divided into four phases of twenty kalpas each. The first phase is known as the kalpa of dissolution. It begins when living beings are no longer reborn into the hells; when the hells are empty, they themselves vanish, having only been supported by the karma of living beings. This process occurs similarly in the other realms. When the karma of living beings that gave rise to the world runs out, the world system burns up and disappears. The living beings are reborn in other world systems.[11] After this dissolution comes the kalpa of nothingness, which lasts for twenty kalpas. According to the Abhidharmakosa, the kalpa of creation begins “through the indirect force of the karma of living beings.”[12] The world system forms from the bottom up for twenty kalpas. Then final stage is the kalpa of duration, in which the world exists as it is now for twenty kalpas. Traditional Buddhist philosophy asserts that we are now in the ninth kalpa of the kalpa of duration.[13]
The Modern Significance of Traditional Buddhist Cosmology
The fanciful and imaginative conceptions of the universe described in this article may seem to have little basis in science and have even less relevance to the modern world. Yet the insights of Buddhist cosmology are important to the contemporary world in several ways. The first of these is how many of the ideas of the early Buddhist philosophers are compatible with modern physics. However, much of scientific reasoning used by the Indians has been outdated, and today there are much more sophisticated methods of trying to understand the universe. The early formation of Buddhism was governed by the scientific theories of the time, but the religion as a whole has remained very open to new discoveries in science.[14] In fact, as shown above, many of the insights of modern science confirm and support the ideas of ancient Buddhist thinkers. However, the most important contribution that Buddhist cosmology can make to our contemporary society is the very human outlook it puts on cosmological speculation. Indeed, all of Buddhist cosmology can be viewed as a matrix for humans to use to find a path to happiness for themselves and others. It is this humanistic outlook that combines science and religion that will remain as the enduring legacy of traditional Buddhist cosmology. The condition of modernity is such that technology and fundamentalism seem to be pulling society dangerously in opposing direction, but the existence of the Buddhist conception of the universe points towards a way to unite science and religion without losing their respective insights.
[1] Akira Sadakata, Buddhist Cosmology: Philosophy and Origins.
[2] Sadakata, 23.
[3] K. Sankarnarayan with Kazunobu Matsuda and Motohiro Yoritomi. Lokaprajñapti: A Critical Exposition of Buddhist Cosmology. Mumbai: Somaiya Publications Pvt. Limited, 2002, 80.
[4] Jamgön Kongtrul Lodrö Tayé. Myriad Worlds: Buddhist Cosmology in Abhidharma, Kalacakra and Dzog-chen.
[5] Sankarnarayan et al, 84.
[6] Sadakata, 39.
[7] Sadakata, 58.
[8] Reynolds, Frank E. and Mani B. Reynolds. Three Worlds According to King Ruang: A Thai Buddhist Cosmology.
[9] Kloetzli, Randy. Buddhist Cosmology: From Single World System to Pure Land: Science and Theology in the Images of Motion and Light.
[10] Sadakata, 96.
[11] Sadakata, 103.
[12] Kloetzli, 62.
[13] Sadakata, 105.
[14] Sadakata, 183.
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