The system of Ayurvedic medicine is based on the idea of balancing the four elements.17 The four elements are also found in the western tradition: their discovery is traditionally accredited to Empedocles.18 Returning to the four elements as understood by Buddhism, earth (paṭhavi) has the quality of extension, hardness or the taking up of space, water (āpo) is viscosity or cohesion, wind (vāyo) is motion and fire (tejo) is heat and energy.19
The four elements may be divided into those that are internal (ajjhattika), parts of the human body and external (bāhira), belonging to the outer world. The internal elements are cited as suitable objects for meditation in, for example, the Mahāsatipaṭṭhāna Sutta (DN 22). Thus earth element is taken to be bones, skin, muscles, organs and so forth; water to be bodily fluids such as blood, pus, phlegm and urine; wind to be the breath as well as “upward going winds, downward going winds and winds in the belly” and fire is bodily heat and the energy of digestion.
The Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta (MN 28) deals with the external elements, emphasizing their impermanent and changeable nature by discussing what happens in the world when the elements are disturbed or destroyed.
There is an occasion, friends, when the external water element is agitated (pakuppati lit. “angry”). At that time there will be the complete disappearance of the earth element.20
There is an occasion, friends, when the external water element is agitated and villages, market towns, cities, provinces and whole countries are carried away. There is (another) occasion when the waters of the great ocean sink by a hundred yojanas, by two hundred yojanas, (and so forth until) the water in the great ocean is not sufficient even to wet one’s finger tip.
There is an occasion, friends, when the external fire element is agitated and villages, market towns, cities, provinces and whole countries are burned up. It is only when the fire reaches green grass, a road, stone, water or a fair and open meadow that it is extinguished for want of fuel. There is (another) occasion when they seek (in vain) to make fire even with cock’s feathers and dried scraps of hide.21
There is an occasion, friends, when the external air element is agitated and villages, market towns, cities, provinces and whole countries are blown away. There is (another) occasion in the last month of the hot season when they seek to make wind by means of palm leaves and fans. At that time the wind is insufficient even to stir the grass on a thatched roof. (MN 28)
Whereas there were teachers in India like Pakudha Kaccāyana who taught that the four elements were among those things to be considered stable and permanent “like pillars” (DN 2), the Buddha always emphasized their changeable and impermanent nature. Further, they were not to regarded as the self or belonging to the self (SN 4:177). In short, the four elements upon which all material reality is based are themselves subject to the laws of conditioned existence; they are imperfect, impermanent, changeable and void of real self-substance.
All four elements are present in every instance of actual matter. One who has attained mastery of mind might focus on an object like a block of wood and perceive it as earth, water, air or fire because all these are present in the wood (AN 6:41). Similarly, among the listed psychic powers possible to one who has gained such mastery are walking on water as if it were earth or passing through solid objects as if they were water (DN 2). These ideas imply something beyond a materialist or naïve realist position. In the dependently arisen universe nothing can be considered a discrete, solid, self-sufficient entity.
The four element physics continued to be elaborated in the Abhidhamma and commentaries. Along side the essential four elements which are present in every real material instance there is an additional list of 24 secondary attributes of matter.22 The majority of these are applicable only in the special case of the bodies of living beings. One important secondary element is that of space (ākāsa) which we will consider in the context of the formless realms (§3:7,3). In a later development only fully worked out in the sub-commentaries this became a kind of atomic theory. Clusters of the four great elements together with at least four of the secondary elements (colour, smell, taste and nutriment) form the smallest unit of matter, a rūpa kalāpa.23 These represent the fundamental units of physical reality. The rūpa kalāpa are material instances of the Abhidhamma concept of a dhamma; the momentary “point-instant”24 of existence.
Especially when considering these later developments, the names of the elements should not be considered as representing the ordinary substances of earth and water etc. but as mnemonic devices only. The elements in the Buddhist system are more like qualities or potentials of matter than discrete physical constituents. Thus, earth element is not strictly speaking some thing which possess the quality of hardness, it is hardness itself. The Abhidhammic concept of discrete dhammas does not allow for any duality of substance and quality.25 In the later texts it is said that all four are present equally in all instances of physical matter and the differences observed in different substances are determined by the varying intensities of the four elemental qualities.26
Beside their importance as the fundamental constituents of physical reality, the four elements have at least two implications for the cosmology presented in these pages. Four of the five elements are said to be stacked vertically in the world-system. The earth rests on water which rests on air (wind) which rests on space.27 And when that world-system comes to an end it will be destroyed either by fire, water or air (§ 2.7–2.8).
1:3 CAKKAVĀḶA—THE WORLD-SYSTEM
The basic unit of the Buddhist cosmos is the cakkavāḷa which may be translated as a “world-system.” This is the functional, but not the structural, equivalent of a solar system in modern terms. The cakkavāḷa is like a solar system in that it is a grouping of “worlds” or “realms” that includes one sun and in which various kinds of beings live. Furthermore, as we shall see, it is a unit of cosmic space but not the entirety. There are countless other cakkavāḷas spread out through space, just as there are solar systems in modern scientific cosmology. However, we cannot push this analogy too far. The other cakkavāḷas are not associated at all with the stars, nor is the sun the central feature. The cakkavāḷa is grouped around the great central mountain, Sineru.28
The term cakkavāḷa is almost unknown in the canon,29 and the concept is only fully developed in the commentarial literature. The canonical texts use lokadhātu (lit. “world-element”) or just loka (“world”) to refer to the world-system. The contents of loka are defined in the Aṅguttara Nikāya as:
As far as the sun and moon revolve, shining in all directions, this is the world (loka). There is the moon, the sun, Sineru king of mountains, (the four island-continents of) Jambudīpa, Aparagoyāna, Uttarakuru, and Pubbavideha, the great ocean, (the six “sensual heavens” of) the Four Great Kings, the Cātumahārājika, Tāvatiṃsa, Yāma, Tusita, Nimmānarati, and Paranimmitavasavatti, and the Brahmaloka.30
The commentators no doubt introduced the term cakkavāḷa for the sake of precision. The word loka is extremely variable in its exact signification, even when modified as lokadhātu which may refer to one world-system or to some multiple of world-systems. The element loka may also be used to refer to a particular realm within a cakkavāḷa such as the devaloka or the brahmaloka. The commentary is often obliged to exactly specify what is meant by loka in any given context, for example:
There are three (meanings of) loka; okāsaloko “the world of space”, sattaloko “the world of beings” and saṅkhāraloko “the world of formations.” The world of beings is meant here. (DN-a 2)
The Pali Text Society’s Pali-English Dictionary (PED) devotes a page and a half to sorting out the various nuances of meaning of loka. It is not surprising that the compilers of the commentaries felt the need for a more precise term to refer to this very specific grouping of objects.
The word cakkavāḷa (Sanskrit cakravāṭa, cakravāḍa, cakkavāla) implies an enclosed circular space. The first element, cakka, is the word for a “wheel” and the second, vāḷa from Sanskrit vā�
��a means “an enclosure or enclosed space.”31
The fullest description of the cakkavāḷa is given in the Visuddhimagga:
The diameter of a cakkavāḷa is 1,204,450 yojana. The circumference is 3,610,035 yojana. The whole rests on a layer of earth 240,000 yojana thick. This rests on a layer of water 480,000 yojana thick and this on a layer of vapor (nabhamugga) 960,000 yojana thick.
The cakkavāḷa contains the following:
Sineru, the greatest of mountains which is 84,000 yojana high and descends into the sea a further 84,000 yojana.
Around Sineru there are seven circular ranges of mountains, each of which is one half the height of the preceding one. These are named, from the innermost to the outermost, Yugandhara, Īsadhara, Karavīka, Sudassana, Nemindhara, Vinataka and Assakaṇṇa. These ranges are adorned with many gems. Here abide the great kings (mahārājā) and many devas and yakkhas.
(Lying in the ocean around the outermost ring of mountains there are the four island-continents:) Jambudīpa which is 10,000 yojana across, Aparagoyāna and Pubbavideha which are each 7,000 yojana in size and Uttarakuru which 8,000 yojana across. Each of the island-continents is surrounded by five hundred small islands.
The moon is forty-nine yojana across and the sun is fifty. The realm of the Tāvatiṃsa devas (on the peak of Sineru) is 10,000 yojana in size. Likewise the realm of the Asuras (under the sea, at the base of Sineru). The niraya of Avīci (below Jambudīpa) is also 10,000 yojana across. Encircling the whole is a ring of mountains plunging 82,000 yojana into the sea and rising a like distance into the sky.
(In various places there are these great trees) each stand 100 yojana tall altogether, with a trunk 15 yojana around and 50 yojana high and with foliage extending 100 yojana around (and upwards to the same height). On the southern continent Jambudīpa there stands the Jambu tree, on Aparagoyāna the Kadamba tree, on Uttarakuru the Kapparukkha, on Pubbavideha the Sirīsa tree, in the realm of the asuras there stands the Cittapāṭali tree, in the place of the supaṇṇas (on the slopes of Sineru) there is the Simbali tree and in the realm of the Tāvatiṃsa devas there stands the Pāricchattaka tree.
The Himavā mountains (roughly speaking, the “Himalayas” located on Jambudīpa) are 500 yojana high, 3000 yojana in length and width and contains 84,000 peaks.
The number of cakkavāḷas is endless and in between are the Lokantaranirayas (the dark hell realms existing between worlds).32
All of these elements will be described in due course.
Taken together, these two passages from the Aṅguttara Commentary and the Visuddhimagga provide the most complete map of the cakkavāḷa we can find in the Pali sources. To complete the picture we need to turn to the Abhidharmakośa which supplies some of the missing measurements. There we are told that Sineru and the seven surrounding mountain rings are each as wide as they are tall, thus Sineru is 80,000 yojana across the base where it emerges from the sea, Yugandhara is 40,000 and so on. The mountain rings are separated by circular seas. The one between Sineru and Yugandhara is 80,000 yojana wide and each successive ring is half as wide as the preceding one. The celestial saggas (deva realms or “heavens”) above the earth are each twice as high as the preceding one, thus the Yama world, the first of the six saggas is 80,000 yojana above the Tāvatiṃsa world at the peak of Sineru or 160,000 yojana above “sea-level’ and the highest sagga, the Paranimmitavasavatti world, is 1,280,000 yojana above sea-level. If we include the lowest Brahmā world in the definition of the cakkavāḷa, as the Aṅguttara Commentary does, then it must be 2,560,000 yojana above the earth.33
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To summarize the picture of the cakkavāḷa: the world-system is dominated by the central mass of Sineru which is surrounded by seven rings of mountains separated by broad seas. In the outermost ocean belt are found four large island-continents and two thousand smaller islands. The southern island-continent, Jambudīpa, is where the familiar kind of humans live. The whole is surrounded by a ring of mountains which mark the boundary of the cakkavāḷa. Below the surface, the earth is supported by a layer of water which is supported by a layer of vapour. Above, in space, are the various saggas, each twice as far away as the preceding one.
The first thing to note about this map is the enormous scale of the world-system as conceived by the ancient Indians. If we take the yojana as being approximately twelve kilometres,34 then Sineru is 960,000 km high and the entire cakkavāḷa is 14,453,400 km in diameter. By way of comparison, in modern reckoning the diameter of the earth is 12,756 km and the distance from the earth to the moon is 384,400 km or less than half the height of Sineru. The island-continent of Jambudīpa, which corresponds to the then known world of human habitation, has a width about three times the modern reckoning of the earth’s circumference and a glance at diagram one will demonstrate that, physically, Jambudīpa is a very insignificant part of the whole.
The second feature which strikes us about this cosmos is the elegant symmetry and harmony of the whole. Horizontally, the system radiates out from the central mass of Sineru in rings of water alternating with rocky mountains, each successive ring one-half the size of its predecessor. Above, each sagga is twice as distant as the preceding one. The number seven is important; there are seven rings of mountains and seven intervening circular seas. Above the ground level of human habitation, there are seven saggas if we include the Brahmaloka. This number seven is a potent symbol and is prominent in many mystical systems around the world. There are seven days of the week, seven (astrological) planets,35 seven chakras, seven musical notes and so forth. In the cosmological system we are considering here, we see the creative force of an unfolding cosmos emerging from the immense central mass of Sineru like resonant frequencies, and this applies both horizontally and vertically.
1:4 SINERU
The cakkavāḷa is dominated by the huge central mass of Mount Sineru. This is the great axis of the world around which all else is arrayed symmetrically. Sineru towers 84,000 yojana into space and plunges an additional 84,000 yojana into the depth of the sea and is 84,000 yojana across at sea-level.36 To grasp the immensity of Sineru, consider that by modern reckoning the distance from the earth to the moon would work out to 32,000 yojana.37 Sineru is listed as one of the things which are “mighty and unique” (mahanto so ekoyeva).38 It is called “The King of Mountains” (pabbatarājā).39
The name Meru or Sumeru for this mountain, which is well known from Sanskrit sources, is almost never found in the oldest strata of Pali texts. One verse passage in the Suttanipāta refers to the devas as merumuddhavāsin (“dwellers on Meru’s summit”) (Sn 3:11), and in another verse from the Dīgha Nikāya, Sineru is referred to as Mahāneru (DN 32). These variant names are also found in the commentaries and in some of the later books of the Khuddaka Nikāya, usually as a poetic trope in verse passages.40 Even in the commentaries, the name Sineru is by far the most common and will be used exclusively here.
The shape of Sineru is that of a steep, truncated four-sided pyramid. The northern face is made of gold, the eastern of silver, the southern of jewels (identified as sapphires in the sub-commentary) and the western is of crystal. Each face emits rays which, extending to the world’s edge, determine the colour of the seas and the sky in that direction. Hence, to the south of Sineru, where we live, the seas and the sky are mostly blue, the colour of sapphires.41 Sineru is described as being “beautiful to see” (Jāt 541).
On the summit of Sineru is a flat plateau on which stands the city of the Tāvatiṃsa devas. This city is said to be 10,000 yojana across (Sn-a 3: 7 & Vism 7.44). It is not clear whether this city is coterminous with the plateau or if there are open terraces outside the city walls.42 If we make the assumption that the city covers the entire plateau, which would mean that it is also 10,000 yojana, then we can easily calculate the slope of Sineru, which works out to 58.05 degrees; which is quite steep.43 This accords well with the image of the asuras attacking Tāvatiṃsa “swarming up the slope like ants ascending an a
nthill” (MN-a 37).
The shape and dimensions of that portion of Sineru lying beneath the sea cannot be described with certainty. The most likely assumption is that the mountain side continues to slope in the same way down to the sea-bed. This would make the width of Sineru at the bottom about 150,000 yojana. This assumption is supported by the statement that the sea floor slopes gradually from the foot of Sineru. It is here, at the underwater base of the mountain, that the dwellings of the asuras are located.44 Another possibility, which can be seen in some old drawings, is that Sineru is lozenge shaped, that is to say, it tapers below the water at a reverse angle, resting on the sea-bed on a 10,000 yojana base. Although this seems absurd, it would accord with the concept of the asura realm as a mirror of Tāvatiṃsa, which will be discussed in Part Three (§ 3:3,23).
The slopes of Sineru are wooded, at least in part. It is on the lower slopes that the grove of Ṣimbali trees grows which is the home of the supaṇṇas.45 Where Sineru slopes into the ocean there are sandy beaches where in ancient times holy men lived who were troubled from time to time by the passing of the asura armies (SN 11:10). The sands there are variously described as being silver (SN-a 11:10) or golden (Jāt 542, Eng. 546) and when something is very difficult to accomplish it is said to be “like fetching sand from the foot of Sineru.”46
Looking beyond the Pali texts, we find a different and somewhat more elaborate picture of Sineru in the Abhidharmakośa. That text informs us that there are four terraces jutting out from the face of Sineru, the first at an elevation 10,000 yojana above sea-level and the others are spaced at 10.000 yojana intervals above that. These terraces are each said to have their inhabitants. On the first dwell a race of yakṣas (Pali = yakkhas) known as “Pitcher in their Hand” (karotapānaya), on the second the “Wearers of Crowns”, on the third the “Always Intoxicated” (sadāmatta), and the fourth is the home of the Four Great Kings and the lesser Cātumahārājika devas (AK 3:5, p.462). This last habitation agrees with the Pali texts which also place the Cātumahārājika realm half-way up Sineru (Vibh-a 18:6).
The Buddhist Cosmos Page 4