The Buddhist Cosmos

by Punnadhammo Mahathero

  We have seen that the rūpabhūmi levels are located at a very great elevation above not only the earth, but the sensual devalokas as well.732 The immense physical distance reflects the great spiritual elevation of these worlds from those which lie below (SN-a 6:3). The physical arrangement of these worlds is in complex nested hierarchies. There may be between a thousand and a hundred thousand entire world-systems beneath a single brahmāloka. The brahmās are said to be able to review the thousands of world below them just as a man might examine some gall-nuts held in the palm of his hand (MN 120).

  A note on life-spans: The life-spans of the beings from this level and beyond are measured in kappas. This is a term of cosmological time corresponding to the entire cycle of a world-system. It should be pointed out there that for first jhāna level brahmās, the kappa referred to is not a full kappa but an asaṅkheyyakappa (“intermediate kappa”) or roughly one fourth of a full kappa.733 This distinction is necessary to fit the life history of the brahmās into the bigger cosmological scheme. The life-spans of beings above the first jhāna level are measured in full kappas.

  3:6:5 BRAHMAPĀRISAJJA—BRAHMĀ’S ASSEMBLY

  Each brahmaloka is ruled over by a mahābrahmā (“great brahmā”) who is served by a population of lesser brahmās. The rank-and-file of the brahmā worlds are the brahmapārisajja (“Brahmā’s assembly”). A person is born into this class if he or she has developed the first jhāna but only to a minor degree (AN-a 7:44). Both pronouns are used advisedly, because the commentary tells us that a woman who develops jhāna can be reborn here, or as a brahmapurohita, but not as a mahābrahmā. In the new brahmā existence, she will nevertheless have a male appearance, even though brahmās are basically genderless (AN-a 1:281). Like many of the other beings we have encountered, brahmās are capable of bodily transformation. When a great host of brahmās came to listen to the Buddha, he said they were so closely spaced that sixty could fit on the head of an awl; this was due to the power of their “peaceful minds” (AN-a 2:37).

  A brahmapārisajja being has a life-span of one-third of a kappa. The radiance of their bodies is less than that of the higher classes of brahmās (AN-a 7:44). The Buddha would sometimes appear among them incognito to teach Dhamma, as he did with other kinds of assemblies (MN 12). The Buddha would also teach openly in the brahmā world from time to time. The brahmapārisajja beings were not always dutiful students, however. When the Buddha Sikhī went there with his disciple Abhibhū he asked the latter to speak, and the brahmapārisajja beings grumbled, “Why does the disciple teach in the presence of the teacher?” The Buddha had Abhibhū perform various supernormal feats which overawed the brahmās and won them over (SN 6:14). Likewise, when the Buddha Gotama went to see the brahmā Baka for the purpose of correcting the latter’s false views, Māra possessed one of the brahmapārisajja beings and caused him to criticize the Buddha (MN 49). This last incident is significant because it clearly places these lowest tier brahmās as being within the range of Māra’s power, even though they are, by definition, outside the plane of sense-desire. The commentary makes clear that in the rūpabhūmi it is only the brahmapārisajja beings that can be possessed by Māra, and not any of those of the higher levels (MN-a 49). These are beings that have just barely transcended the range of sensuality.

  The brahmapārisajja beings that arise in an established brahmaloka do so after the prior appearance of a mahābrahmā. It can often happen that both ruler and ruled fall into a mutually reinforcing delusion about their true natures, and the brahmapārisajja beings worship the mahābrahmā as the Supreme Being and their creator:

  In their imagination, they come to think “We have been created by him.” Thinking thus, they bow before his feet, bending over like crooked fish-hooks. (DN-a 1)

  This delusion eventually finds its way to the human realm and becomes the basis for theistic religion. (We shall return to this idea in more detail when we consider mahābrahmās). Being beyond sense desire, and having no need to eat, it would seem that the needs of a brahmā for any kind of service would be minimal. We do have at least one incidence of a brahmapārisajja being serving as a messenger for his mahābrahmā, taking a Dhamma question to Moggallāna on earth (SN 6:5).

  3:6:6 BRAHMAPUROHITA

  The brahmās of middling rank, the brahmapurohita beings, attain that state of rebirth by developing first jhāna to a moderate degree. Their life-span is half a kappa, and the radiance of their bodies is greater than that of the brahmapārisajja beings (AN-a 7:44). In English translation, they are usually called “Brahmā’s ministers.”

  In Sanskrit usage, a purohit is a brahmin priest who presides at sacrificial ceremonies.734 In the Pali texts, a purohita is a high-ranking brahmin who serves the king in both ritual and political capacities. “The king’s head-priest (brahmanic), or domestic chaplain, serving at the same time as a kind of prime minister” (PED). It seems that the Indian states of the Buddha’s time were governed by a kind of dyarchy of the two noble (ariyan) castes, with the rājā at the top representing the chief khattiya (warrior-caste) seconded by a purohita who was always a brahmin and who often assumed day-to-day executive functions.735

  It is impossible to say just how far the analogy from human purohitas applies to the brahmaloka variety. As a class, they are not very well defined and seldom mentioned in the texts. We cannot say in what capacity they serve their mahābrahmā. One difference is that while a human king had only one purohita, a mahābrahmā is served by a large retinue of brahmapurohitas.

  No individual brahmapurohita is named anywhere in the sources, nor do we ever hear their voices. They are not actors in any stories. We are told of two gandhabbas (a lowly class of devas) who by establishing themselves in first jhāna attained to rebirth as brahmapurohitas. At the very moment of achieving jhāna, the gandhabbas, now unable to bear such a lowly sense-desire existence, died and were immediately reborn in the brahmaloka. Sakka and the other devas were amazed that these “of lower rank” had so far surpassed them.736 But this is a story about devas, and after their death and rebirth, we lose sight of the former gandhabbas.

  There is also a brief mention in verse:

  A great host of devas, powerful and glorious,

  Ten thousand in all, everyone a brahmapurohita,

  Came to honour Moggallāna, and stood there with joined hands. (Th 20)

  Most of the attention of the sources is paid to the highest class of brahmās, the mahābrahmās, and it appears that the function of the two lower grades is mostly to enhance the lustre of their lord as a glorious retinue.

  3:6:7 MAHĀBRAHMĀ

  The only really independent actors in the first jhāna level of the rūpabhūmi are the beings called mahābrahmā, “great brahmā”, one of whom rules in solitary splendour over each brahmaloka. Each mahābrahmā also presides over a thousand or more world-systems (cakkavāḷa) each with its central mountain, four continents and associated saggas (heavenly worlds). This structure is not fully worked out into a coherent and consistent system in the early sources,737 but the important point to bear in mind here is that for our world, and for many neighbouring worlds unseen by us, there exists only one mahābrahmā. It is not difficult to see how he could be taken to be a supreme being, as in the Brahmā of the Upanishads for instance. In fact, many mahābrahmās make this mistake themselves. The Brahmajāla Sutta (DN 1) describes what happens at the beginning of a new world-cycle:

  There comes a time when the world-system is unfolding (vivaṭṭati or “expanding”). In the expanding world, an empty brahmā vimāna manifests. Then a certain being of the Ābhassara world (second jhāna level) dies because of the exhaustion of his life-span, or the exhaustion of his merit, and is reborn in that empty vimāna. There he dwells, mind-made (manomaya), feeding on rapture (pītibhakkha), self-luminous (sayaṃpabha), moving through space (antalikkhacara, i.e. flying), glorious (subhaṭṭhāyī). And he abides like that for a very long time.

  Then, on account of having dwelled so long in solitude, longing
and discontent arise in him. “Oh, that other beings would come here!” Then other beings dying from the Ābhassara world are reborn here as his companions. They too are mind-made, self-luminous, move through space and are glorious. And they too abide there for a very long time.

  Then the being who arose in that world first thinks, “I am Brahmā, Mahābrahmā, Overlord (abhibhū), the Unconquered (anabhibhūto), Omniscient (aññadatthudaso), Wielder of Power (vasavattī), Lord (issaro), the Maker (kattā), the Creator (nimmātā), the Eldest (seṭṭho), the Ordainer (sajitā), the Master (vasī), the Father of All Beings (pitā bhūtabhabyānaṃ). These other beings were created by me. How so? Previously I thought, ‘May other beings come here’, and by the power of my mental determination (manopaṇidhi) they have come to this place.”

  The other beings also think, “He must be Brahmā, Mahābrahmā, Overlord, the Unconquered, Omniscient, Wielder of Power, Lord, the Maker, the Creator, the Eldest, the Ordainer, the Master, the Father of All Beings. And we were created by this blessed (bhavanta) Brahmā. How so? We can see that he arose here first, and we arose after him.

  The being that arises there first has a longer life, more beautiful appearance and greater power than the beings that arise afterwards, who are shorter lived, not as beautiful and less powerful than him. (DN 1)

  The commentary expands upon the epithets the mahābrahmā awards to himself:

  abhibhū—having conquered, I stand immovable, I am supreme.

  anabhibhūto—no other has vanquished me.

  aññadatthudaso—by the power of vision, I see all things.

  vasavattī—I wield power over all persons.

  issaro kattā nimmātā—In the world, I am Lord. I made and created the world. The earth, the Himavā Mountains, Mt Sineru, the cakkavāḷa, the great ocean, the sun and the moon were all created by me.

  seṭṭho sajitā—In the world, I am supreme. I am the Ordainer. “You be a khattiya (“warrior”), you a brahmin (“priest”), you a vesso (“merchant”), a sudda (“labourer”; these are all caste distinctions), a householder, a renunciate. Likewise, I ordain that one be a cow, another be a camel.”

  vasī—I am the master of all skills (ciṇṇavasitāya vasī).

  pitā bhūtabhabyānaṃ -All beings, no matter whether they are spontaneously born, womb-born, egg-born or moisture-born, are my children (DN-a 1).

  The sub-commentary explains why the new brahmās do not recall their past lives:

  Is it not the case that devas can recall their immediate past life? It is true, but only if in that past life they were firmly established in an understanding of the workings of kamma. These beings were believers in the creative power of a supreme being in their previous life also. (DN-ṭ 1)

  When one of the lesser brahmās eventually dies, and is reborn in the human realm, it may happen that he becomes an ascetic and through the practice of meditation acquires some memory of his life in the mahābrahmā’s retinue including the idea that that Mahābrahmā is the supreme creator god. He might then proclaim this teaching as a religious truth revealed by a vision (DN 1). In this way, the Buddhist texts describe the origin of theistic religion, which is called Ekaccasassatavāda or “One-way Eternalism”, meaning that the world and the beings in it were created at some moment in the past and then continue on forever. The Buddhist picture of Mahābrahmā and his retinue thus incorporates, transcends, explains and refutes the Vedic-Upanishadic religion, all at the same time.

  As to their physical form, mahābrahmās are glorious, radiant and beautiful to behold. The form of a mahābrahmā is called “the best of all sights,” (AN 5:170) and “incomparable” (MN-a 95). The devas never grow tired of beholding them (Vv-a 17). They have the form of a male person (purisasaṇṭhāna), but without sexual organs (AN-a 1:281 & MN-a 115). Their limbs are said to be straights “like the pillars in a deva city” without protruding knees or hips.738 The only reference to their size appears to be a curious statement to the effect that a mahābrahmā has a “great body, two or three times the size of a farm field in Magadha” (DN-a 20). This is odd not only in its phrasing, but because this would make a mahābrahmā smaller than a deva. The speech of a mahābrahmā has eight characteristics: it is well enunciated (vissaṭṭho), easily understood (viññeyyo), sweetly pleasant (mañju), good to hear (savanīyo), distinct (bindu), not rambling (avisārī), profound (avisārī), and melodious (ninnādī).739 The voice is said to be pure because it is not obstructed by bile and phlegm (MN-a 91). Having transcended the sensual plane, the brahmās are not burdened with all the messiness and nastiness that comes with animal and human biology. The purity and subtlety of their being is far beyond even that of the devas. When a newly reborn brahmā came to see the Buddha in his natural form, he could not remain upright but sank into the earth like hot ghee into sand. The Buddha was obliged to instruct him to “create a gross body” (oḷārika attabhāva) (AN 3:128, eng.3:127).

  A frequently remarked upon attribute of mahābrahmās is their luminosity. They are listed along with such objects as the sun and the moon among things which shine brilliantly.740 A Mahābrahmā is able to illuminate an entire cakkavāḷa (“world-system”) with a single finger, and ten cakkavāḷas with ten fingers (Dhp-a 5:11). The light which emanates from the body of a mahābrahmā surpasses that of lesser first jhāna brahmās, and is given as the primary feature distinguishing them from brahmapārisajja and brahmapurohita beings (AN-a 7:44). When a mahābrahmā manifests himself to beings of the plane of sense-desire, he first appears to them as a brilliant light, before he assumes a gross body which they can perceive (DN 11, 18 & 19).

  An important, if not defining, feature of a mahābrahmā is the possession of a large retinue of lesser brahmās, who serve and praise him. These are numbered in many thousands (MN-a 27). Mahābrahmā is included in the list of devarājās, together with Sakka, Suyama and the rest (MN-a 62). However, there are a few mentions of a class of brahmās called paccekabrahmā, “solitary brahmā”.741 They are nowhere defined in the text or commentary, and the sub-commentary only states that they are brahmās who go about alone, without a retinue (SN-ṭ 6:6). We can infer from the few times individual paccekabrahmās are mentioned that they are more spiritually advanced than most first jhāna level brahmās; all the individuals named are anagāmis (one who has reached the third of the four stages of awakening). It may be that in their clear wisdom they find the adoration of lesser beings unwanted.

  3:6:8 THE MIND OF BRAHMĀ

  The brahmās of this level enjoy a mental state that is the equivalent of first jhāna.742 Attaining jhāna is compared to “entering into a brahmāvimāna” (MN-a 24). To understand the state of existence of a brahmā we need to pursue a brief digression into the theory of the jhānas.

  The jhānas (Sanskrit dhyāna) are states achieved by meditation, primarily marked by a deep stability of mind. There are four jhānas of the rūpabhūmi (plane of form) and four of the arūpābhūmi (plane of the formless).743 These represent increasingly refined states of consciousness. The first jhāna is defined by the absence of the five hindrances (nivāraṇa) and the presence of five factors. The five hindrances are sensual desire (kāmacchanda), ill-will (vyāpāda), sloth-and-torpor (thinamiddha), anxiety and restlessness (uddhaccakukkucca) and sceptical doubt (vicikicchā). These do not arise in the mind-stream of a person in first jhāna, or in that of a brahmā. The five defining factors which do arise are:

  1. Vitakka—the factor which directs the mind onto an object, often translated as “initial application of mind”.

  2. Vicāra—the factor which steadily holds the object in mind, often translated as “sustained application of mind.”

  3. Pīti—the factor which takes delight in an object, variously translated as “happiness”, “zest” or “rapture.”

  4. Sukha—the factor of a general highly pleasant mental feeling. Usually translated as “bliss”.

  5. Ekaggatā—The mental factor of unification of mind upon a single object. It is commonly trans
lated as “one-pointedness” but a more literal rendering might be “gone to oneness”. It should not be thought that the mind in jhāna is narrowed to a point, instead it is wide and expansive, but completely stable, “non-wavering.”744

  It is important to remember that although jhāna is a refined state, it is not the goal of the Buddhist path, which is nibbāna, the unconditioned. Jhāna and the rūpabhūmi remain within the bounds of saṃsāra; the hindrances are not eradicated by it, merely rendered quiescent. Similarly, a mahābrahmā has not eradicated the root of ill-will, he has only suppressed it with mettā (“loving-kindness”) (MN-a 55).

  Mettā is one of the four states called the brahmavihāras (lit. “dwellings of Brahmā”). The other three are karuṇā “compassion”, muditā “sympathetic joy” and upekkhā “equanimity.” Whereas meditation on any object culminating in jhāna leads to rebirth in the brahmaloka, the development of these four as objects of meditation are especially associated with brahmā level rebirth,745 and of these four, meditation on mettā in particular leads to a rebirth at the brahmakāyika level.746 We can say that mettā is the normal emotional state of brahmās.