Systematic Cosmology
Although the earliest Buddhist texts of the MAINSTREAM BUDDHIST SCHOOLS—the nikayas or agamas (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 fromthe early centuries C.E.
Three principal abhidharma traditions are known to contemporary Buddhism andscholarship, those of the THERAVADA, the Sarvastivada, and the Yogacara. The Theravada or “southern” tradition has shaped the outlook of Buddhism in SriLanka and Southeast Asia.
The Sarvastivada or “northern tradition fed into the abhidharma system of the MAHAYANA school of thought known as “yoga practice” (yogacara) or “ideas only” (vijñaptimatra), 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 nikaya and agama texts:1. The universe has no specific creator; the sufficient cause for its existence is to be found in theBuddhist cycle of causal conditioning known as
PRATITYASAMUTPADA (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 roundof REBIRTH, known as SAM SARA, is the knowledge that constitutes the attainment of NIRVANA.
Levels of existence
The abhidharma systems agree that sam sara embraces thirty-one principal levels of existence, although they record slight variations in the lists of these levels. Anybeing may be born into any one of these levels. In fact, during the course of their wandering through sam sara 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 (kamadhatu, -loka) at thebottom of the hierarchy; the realm of pure form or subtle materiality (rupadhatu, -loka) in the middle; and the formless realm (arupadhatu, -loka) at the top.
The realm of sensuality is inhabited by beings endowed with the five physical senses and with mindsthat 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 (akus´ala) 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 consistingof 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 (kus´ala)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 furtherheavenly realms (reckoned as sixteen, seventeen, or eighteen in number) occupied by higher gods called brahmas, 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 DHYANA (TRANCE STATE).
These are attained by stilling the mind until it becomes completely concentrated and absorbed in an object ofmeditation, temporarily recovering its natural brightness and purity. The five highest realms of the formworld 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 thusin their last life before their final liberation from the round of rebirth through the attainment of NIRVAN A.
The subtlest and most refined levels of the universe
are the four that comprise “the formless realm.” At thislevel of the universe the body with its senses is completely absent, and existence is characterized by pureand rarified forms of consciousness, once again corresponding to higher meditative attainments.
