The Buddhist Cosmos

by Punnadhammo Mahathero

  114. Jāt 316. The image of a hare in the moon may not be obvious to those living in northern latitudes, but closer to the tropics the moon is seen at different angle and the markings do indeed resemble a long-eared hare.

  115. SN 2:10. For asuras see § 3:3,23.

  116. DN 1, in the section on virtue.

  117. Strictly speaking, planets cannot be eclipsed either.

  118. Bv-a 2. See also DPPN s.v. “osadhī”.

  119. Jāt 49. Attha is a broad concept and could also be taken to mean “profit, interest, significance etc.” See PED.

  120. Britannica Library, s.v. “Aryabhata,” http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/9749, accessed January 4, 2017.

  121. Translated by Reynolds and Reynolds, 1982.

  122. See Lopez, 2010. chap.1.

  123. AN-a 3: 81. See also MN-a 26 and Sn-a 3:7.

  124. DN-a 28, which gives the number as 100,000 ko ṭis of worlds. See appendix on units for definition of a koti as 10,000,000.

  125. MN-ṭ 115. For contraction and expansion of the universe see § 2:4 & 2:7.

  126. AN-a 1: 277 and Bhikkhu Bodhi, NDB, note 155.

  127. AN-a 3: 81. See also Bhikkhu Bodhi, NDB, note 514.

  128. See Kloetzli 1983: 61 f.

  129. Such awakened beings are thought to have entered nibbāna and are no longer manifest in any conceivable realm.

  130. See Barua 1946. The quoted passages are Barua's translation.

  131. MN 120. Or should this be interpreted as 1000 to the 2nd power, 3rd power etc.? The Pali is dvisahasso, tisahasso etc. The commentary says there are five kinds of pervasion; pervasion by mind, by kasiṇa (mental image as used for meditation), with the divine eye, with light and with the body. MN-a 120.

  132. The cosmic cycles of creation and destruction will be discussed in § 2:4f.

  133. Chiliocosm is a term used by De La Vallée Poussin to refer to a “thousand-fold universe.” He attributes its coining to Rémusat, see AK note 463 p. 538.

  134. SN 15:1. anamataggoyaṃ, bhikkhave, saṃsāro.

  135. To assume creation by divine fiat is not satisfactory either, because the divine creator must then be an uncaused entity.

  136. For instance, in the commentary to the Mahāparinibbāna Sutta (DN-a 16) it is taken, in that context, to mean one full human life-span.

  137. SN 15:6. Presumably it would be possible to calculate this to a fair degree of approximation.

  138. This ranges from one day and night equal to one hundred human years in Tāvatiṃsa to sixteen hundred years in the Paranimmitavasavatti realm. A celestial year is 360 of such days. See § 5.

  139. There is the possibility of some confusion about the use of the various terms referring to divisions of time. See appendix on “Units of Measurement” for clarification.

  140. AN 4: 156. The list of the kappas there begins with kappa saṃvaṭṭati, the era of destruction. Note that the definitions of saṃvatta and vivvaṭṭa given in the PED are confusing and seem to be reversed.

  141. There is somewhat of a contradiction here in that, as we shall see, the previous cycle of destruction is said to have left no residue, not even so much as an atom.

  142. Dhp-a 16, 9. Perhaps not empty, as his retinue may also precede him.

  143. See for example DN 1 which speaks of a mahābrahmā being born into an empty mansion at the beginning of a cycle.

  144. DN 27. A detailed interpretation of this sutta relating it to modern science can be found in “Dhamma Aboard Evolution” by Dr. Suwanda Sugunasiri.

  145. DN 27—manomayā pītibhakkhā sayaṃpabhā antalikkhacarā subhaṭṭhāyino.

  146. Sugunasiri’s note 11.2 relates this to the state of the early earth according to modern science which was covered by a dense dark atmosphere.

  147. Some of these comparisons are taken from the commentary.

  148. Lit. “born greedy”. The commentary says they were those beings who had been of a greedy nature in the previous universe.

  149. See § 3:6,2.

  150. Gombrich, 2006: 86–87.

  151. Sugunasiri, “Dhamma Aboard Evolution”, p. 49.

  152. We have already described this episode in § 1:16.

  153. Sugunasiri, Dhamma Aboard Evolution, note 14.1.

  154. In passing we may note that more recent forms of colour prejudice would be anachronistic here. The “ideal” complexion was “golden” (suvaṇṇavaṇṇa) as is said of the Buddha's skin at MN 35. In the following sutta, white skin is listed among the ugly discolourations he experienced during his period of austerities.

  155. This is the same method of cooking still used by the people of Uttarakuru. See § 3:1,3.

  156. For the concept of cakkavatti, see § 3:1,10.

  157. DN-a 27. In a parallel passage from the Aṅguttara Sub-commentary ( AN-ṭ 3:56) micchādhamma is defined as “Indulgence in some base of lust (rāgassa vatthuṭṭhānaṃ) other than that considered good by the world’s standards”, which obviously makes the actual definition dependent on social norms. See NDB, n.414, p.1645. There seems to be no direct reference to homosexuality anywhere in the Sutta Pitaka itself.

  158. Yo ciraṃ jīvati, so vassasataṃ appaṃ vā bhiyyo—DN 14, SN 15:20 etc. The span of life is given as one hundred also at Visuddhimagga Ch 8 and Abhidhamma Vibhaṅga Ch 18.

  159. Antarakappa = “intermediate period”.

  160. This is the commentarial explanation of the odd phrase kukkuṭasampātika. lit. “cuckoo collision”. Walshe renders it as “the cities will be but a cock's flight one from the next”.

  161. Avīci maññe phuṭo. Avīci is the worst of the nirayas and one of its many agonies is the dense crowding. The commentary takes this meaning and interprets the phrase as meaning “as crowded as avīci.” But this would be an unusual use of a name which almost never occurs in the canon. Avīci here may not be a name at all but a negation of vīci, “an interval”.

  162. Sanskrit = Maitreya

  163. Note that this term is used differently in the Pali sources. See appendix on units.

  164. The Thai cosmological treatise The Three Worlds According to King Ruang makes no mention of it.

  165. GGB p. 190 f and p. 205-206. For the Burmese Chronicles, see “Burmese literature”, Britannica Library, http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/18189, accessed January 4, 2017. and Bischoff, 1995.

  166. The principal Pali sources are AN 7: 66 the Sattasūriya Sutta or “Sutta of the Seven Suns” and Vism 13.28f. which inserts this cosmological history into the section on the psychic power of past life recall, in order to clarify the phrase “He recalls many kappas of the world folding in and many kappas of the world folding out. ”

  167. Vism 13.32, this cloud is not mentioned in the Aṅguttara account.

  168. Muttasirā. Translation follows the suggestion of Vism-mhṭ 13.

  169. Virūpavesadhārino. Vism-mhṭ 13 attributes their unkempt appearance to the sorrow and fear engendered by the coming end of the world.

  170. Sn-a 2:4. See also Vism 13.34. AN-a 7:66 has a slightly different version, the devas there fly about in the sky and warn beings that “there is nothing permanent here, develop loving-kindness etc. ”

  171. This was considered problematic and Buddhaghosa adds that “some say” that beings in Āvici do not die until near the end, with the arrival of the seventh sun.

  172. DN-ṭ 1. See Bodhi, AENV p. 153.

  173. All these descriptions are taken from AN 7:66 and Vism 13.41.

  174. Reynolds, Three Worlds According to King Ruang, p. 309-310.

  175. MN 28 and commentary. The text also mentions another disturbance of the fire element, a time will come when people will be unable to kindle a fire even with feathers and hide parings. The commentary, seemingly at loss to explain this odd statement, says that these will be the only fuels available and are inadequate to make any heat.

  176. This is explicitly stated at the outset of the section on world-cycles and Buddhaghosa frequen
tly makes reference to the koṭisatasahassacakkavāḷa which suffer the various calamities together. This view is also supported by the sub-commentary at MN-ṭ 115.

  177. This scheme also presents its own conceptual problem; the destructions of all worlds would have to be in synch if at the end of 64 kappas all were destroyed together by wind.

  178. Vism 13.64. The text goes on to cite another view held by some which changes the causal factors to dosa—fire, rāga- water, moha—wind.

  179. AK 3:6. p 494. For a summary description of the jhānas and jhāna factors see the chapter on brahmās in § 3:6,8.

  180. See Gethin 1997.

  181. GGB p. 113 puts the number at 100,000 kappas plus four asaṅkhyeyya. It is not clear what an asaṅkheyya means in that context. The Abhidharmakośa does calculate the number, arriving at a figure of one quadrillion (10^15) kappas, see AK 3:6 p. 480.

  182. Although they are difficult to fit into the standard lists. See § 3:3,23.

  183. As did Sakka, king of the Tāvatiṃsa devas, at DN 21.

  184. Khp-a 5. For the physical description of the islands, see § 1:10.

  185. See Bodhi, CMA p. 196 and DN 26 & 27 and Part Two of this book.

  186. AK 3:5. p.470. The thousand year life-span in Uttarakuru is also supported by the Pali at AN-a 9:21.

  187. AN 9:21. See Bhikkhu Bodhi's note on visesabhuno, NDB, note 1885.

  188. Sahitorū—the translation of this rare word is uncertain

  189. rattakañcukato—the placenta?

  190. kapparukhesu locative plural.

  191. mālākamma-latākamma-bhittikamma—presumably styles of decoration.

  192. This is abbreviated from a long list of musical instruments, most of which cannot be identified precisely.

  193. Another name for Mount Sineru. The apparent placing of Uttarakuru in the vicinity of Sineru is perplexing.

  194. Jotika was a lay follower of the Buddha whose life was full of marvels. His wife was from Uttarakuru and she brought a set of these stones with her. See DPPN.

  195. Ekakhuraṃ—This is a very rare word and the translation is uncertain. A literal interpretation would be to take it as an adjective modifying “oxen” and meaning “single-hoofed”, a reading supported by the only other incident of this word in Jāt 544, where the commentary glosses it with abhinnakuro. “unbroken hoof”, but the context here implies some kind of vehicle. Maurice Walshe (LDB, p. 274) translates it as “single-seated”, as good a guess as any.

  196. It is interesting that the commentary adds two additional officials to make up the number twelve, which is then repeated in the number of door-keepers. Is this some echo of solar symbolism with the king as sun attended by the twelve houses of the zodiac?

  197. Hopkins 1915: 186.

  198. Dhs-a 2. The translation is admittedly problematic. Much rests on the interpretation of the rare word visado and its opposite avisado. These words do not occur at all in the canon. When it occurs elsewhere in the commentaries visado either means “clean, pure” (as at Vism 4:43) and is paired with parisuddha, or “clear, distinct” (as at Vism-mhṭ 11 and MN-a 4) and may be paired with the synonym vibhūta. It might even mean “sharp, accurate” (as at Vism-mhṭ 20 where it is paired with tikkha).

  Visado and avisado occur several times in the passage translated here and it proved impossible to convey any kind of sense using a single pair of english words. In general, a woman's appearance and mannerisms are said to be avisado except that her lower body is visado. Conversely, a man's appearance and mannerisms are visado except that his lower body is avisado.

  199. Dhp-a 3:9. This is very probably the later of the two explanations.

  200. See especially SN 37:1 f.—the Mātugāmasaṃyutta.

  201. SN 1:77—bhaṇḍānamuttamaṃ.

  202. Definitions from Vin Sd 3.

  203. See the discussion in Bodhi 2012: 60f.

  204. See T. W. Rhys-Davids, 1903, chap. 4 and Eraly 2004: 94f.

  205. Rig Veda, hymn 40, tr. by R.T.H. Griffith. The Sanskrit forms of the caste designations are used; vaiśya = vessa, śūdra = sudda.

  206. DN 27 terms defined as according to the commentary.

  207. Jāt 472. This text also says that banishment was not yet practiced although this contradicts the text of DN 27.

  208. DN-a 27. Maurice Walshe (LDB footnote 848) points out that the true etymology of ajjhāka is probably adhy-āyaka meaning a reciter. Cf. Critical Pali English Dictionary, “ajjhāyaka, m. (from ajjhāyati, cf. sa. ādhyāyika, adhyāyin), one who studies (the Vedas), skilled in the Vedas, a brahmanical teacher. ajjhāyati, pr. 3 sg. (prob, denom, from ajjhāya [sa. adhyāya], cf. sajjhāyati), to study, learn by heart”.

  209. DN-a 27. No clear etymology is given for sudda in the text or commentary.

  210. MN 98 for one example among many.

  211. AN 3: 13. Some terms are translated following the interpretation of the commentary. Of note is the term translated “tanner” which is rathakāra in the Pali. A more straightforward translation would be “chariot-maker” but this seemingly did not seem “low” enough for the commentator. The emphasis on having no hope for a noble anointing ceremony supports the idea of a non-Aryan origin for these outcaste groups.

  212. Vin Cv 7. He was ordained before several high caste Sakyan nobles so that he would always be senior to them.

  [[

  213. Sources used for map: Law 1932, DPPN; mapsofindia.com; Google Maps, & Britannica Library, s.v. “India,” accessed January 4, 2017, http://library.eb.com/levels/referencecenter/article/111197#214184.toc.

  ]] 214. Ibid. milakkha is the Pali form of the Sanskrit mleccha which the PED says is an onomatopoeic imitation of the strange sounds heard in foreign languages. This is reminiscent of the Greek division of the world into civilized Hellenes and barbarians who made a noise like “bar-bar”.

  215. For the Buddhist version see AN 3: 71 (eng. 70) and AN 8: 42. See Law 1932, note 22 to ch, 1.

  216. Unless otherwise indicated, the sources for this section are the DPPN and Law 1932.

  217. Jāt 276, the Kurudhamma Jātaka.

  218. Malalasekera: 1994:179f.

  219. Aṭṭhārasannaṃ vijjaṭṭhānānaṃ; e.g. Jāt 50. There are some variant lists of the 18 branches of knowledge. The list in the Chāndogya Upaniṣad, which is probably the oldest extant, is as follows: The Ṛgveda, Yajurveda Sāmaveda & Ātharveda (the four Vedas), the Itihāsa Purāṇa (the Bhârata), the “Vedān of the Vedas, Pitrya (grammar & the rules for the sacrifices for the ancestors), Rāśi (the science of numbers), Daiva, (the science of portents), Nidhi (the science of time), Vākovākya, (logic), Ekāyana, (ethics), Devavidyā, (etymology), Brahmavidyā, (pronunciation, ceremony & prosody), Bhūtavidyā, (the science of demons), Kṣatravidyā, (the science of weapons), Nakṣatravidyāṃ, (astronomy), Sarpavidyā (the science of serpents & poisons), and Devajanavidyā (the sciences of the genii, such as the making of perfumes, dancing, singing, playing, and other fine arts). The English translations are following Max Müller (1879:109).

  220. The chronicle of the Mahāvihāra in Sri Lanka, the Mahāvaṃsa, gives the whole genealogy from Mahāsammata down to Siddhattha Gotama.

  221. Valmiki Rāmāyaṇa. Ayodhya Kānda. Sarga 110.

  222. See for example DPPN entry “Yona”.

  223. Eg. Rhys-Davids, Malalasekera and Law.

  224. Ud-a 1: 10, Pv 1:10, Jāt 360, Jāt 442, Jāt 539.

  225. § 2:5. See the Aggañña Sutta, DN 27.

  226. The grandfather of Makhādeva was called Sāgaradeva (sāgara = “the sea") and there was a legend that he created the sea by digging it out. This was not meant to be taken seriously, but given as an example of idle speculation. See DN-a 1.

  227. In the Jātaka version his name is given as Kāḷadeva. Both names are references to a dark complexion.

  228. Prose sections taken from Jāt-nid. Verse section from Sn 3:11. Kondañña later went on to become one of the five ascetics who followed the Bodhisatta and he was the
first of the Buddha's disciples to attain stream-entry at the preaching of the Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta, SN 56:11.

  229. SN 47:11—where a mahāpurisa is one who is said to have a liberated mind and to dwell in the four foundations of mindfulness.

  230. I.e. brahmas of the “Pure Abodes,” who have reached the third stage of awakening. See Chapter 6, Section 16.

  231. Bhāgavata Purāṇa 1: 19; pointed out to me in a personal correspondence from Jeffrey Armstrong.

  232. Descriptions of the marks are taken from the commentary to the Mahāpadāna Sutta, DN-a 14. The references to the kamma and the results involved are from the commentary to the Lakkhaṇa Sutta, DN-a 30.

  233. Sirivaccho—the translation is uncertain. The sub-commentary glosses with siriaṅgā, a “splendid limb” or perhaps a “mark of splendour” ,, which does not help much.

  234. This translation is conjectural. The Pali is nandi, which likely should be read as nandhi “a strap or thong”. Sub-commentary glosses as dakkhiṇāvatta “winding to the right".

  235. vāḷabījanī—translation is according of the sub-commentary which glosses as cāmarivālaṃ..

  236. GGB gives an expanded list of one hundred and eight images, each of which is said to occur in its own separate circle. The author cites a late Burmese source for this.

  237. All definitions from the PED.

  238. See Sendel..

  239. Kieschnick & Shahar 2013: 235, note 8.

  240. Dhammika 2010.

  241. Ṣamavaṭṭakkhandha—lit. “the mass is even around.” It is not clear why this phrase should refer to the throat, but both the description in the sutta, and the commentarial explanation, make it clear that it does.

  242. However, kaṇha and also kāḷa mean “black” exclusively. There does not seem to be an exclusive word for “blue".

  243. The commentary to the Mahāpadāna Sutta fails to explain this term, I have followed the usual explanation, as found for example in the GGB p. 238. The verses in the Lakkhaṇa Sutta (DN 30) do include the phrase, “from no pore do two hairs grow".

  244. The karavīka bird (Cuculus micropterus) is said to have a particularly clear and melodious song.

  245. For example at DN-a 16, DN-a 30, MN-a 140, AN-a 3: 64.