There are some questions that the Buddha is said to have refused to answer as not vital to his Teachings. These include ...
Is the universe finite or infinite?
Is the universe eternal or not eternal?
(e.g., Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipi....063.than.html)
Whether the universe is finite or cyclic, big or small ... get back to chopping wood and cleaning the garage, each a universe unto itself and big job enough.
On the other hand, certain Buddhist cosmologies, also attributed to the Buddha, are pretty wild ...
I just mention this in passing, as this was reported in the science news today ...
Anyway, I'm just saying. Now, need to get back to cleaning the garage.
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
Is the universe finite or infinite?
Is the universe eternal or not eternal?
(e.g., Cula-Malunkyovada Sutta: https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipi....063.than.html)
Whether the universe is finite or cyclic, big or small ... get back to chopping wood and cleaning the garage, each a universe unto itself and big job enough.
On the other hand, certain Buddhist cosmologies, also attributed to the Buddha, are pretty wild ...
[A]ltough no single sūtra sets out the entire structure of the universe; in several sūtras the Buddha describes other worlds and states of being, and other sutras describe the origin and destruction of the universe ...
... Buddhist temporal cosmology describes how the universe comes into being and is dissolved. Like other Indian cosmologies, it assumes an infinite span of time and is cyclical. This does not mean that the same events occur in identical form with each cycle, but merely that, as with the cycles of day and night or summer and winter, certain natural events occur over and over to give some structure to time.The basic unit of time measurement is the mahākalpa or “Great Eon” (Jpn: daigō). A mahākalpa is divided into four kalpas or “eons” (Jpn: kō), each distinguished from the others by the stage of evolution of the universe during that kalpa. The four kalpas are:
– Vivartakalpa “Eon of evolution” – during this kalpa the universe comes into existence.
– Vivartasthāyikalpa “Eon of evolution-duration” – during this kalpa the universe remains in existence in a steady state.
– Saṃvartakalpa “Eon of dissolution” – during this kalpa the universe dissolves.
– Saṃvartasthāyikalpa “Eon of dissolution-duration” – during this kalpa the universe remains in a state of emptiness.
... Originally, a kalpa was considered to be 4,320,000 years. Buddhist scholars expanded it with a metaphor: rub a one-mile cube of rock once every hundred years with a piece of silk, until the rock is worn away — and a kalpa still hasn’t passed! During a kalpa, the world comes into being, exists, is destroyed, and a period of emptiness ensues. Then it all starts again.
[There is also spatial diversity, universes upon universes] ... A collection of one thousand [universes] are called a “thousandfold minor world-system” (culanika lokhadhatu). Or small chiliocosm. A collection of 1,000 times 1,000 world-systems (one thousand squared) is a “thousandfold to the second power middling world-system” (dvisahassi majjhima lokadhatu). Or medium dichiliocosm. The largest grouping, which consists of one thousand cubed world-systems, is called the “tisahassi mahasassi lokadhatu”. Or great trichiliocosm. The Tathagata, if he so wished, could effect his voice throughout a great trichiliocosm. He does so by suffusing the trichiliocosm with his radiance, which at the point the inhabitants of those world-system will perceive this light, and then proceeds to extend his voice throughout that realm.
... Buddhist temporal cosmology describes how the universe comes into being and is dissolved. Like other Indian cosmologies, it assumes an infinite span of time and is cyclical. This does not mean that the same events occur in identical form with each cycle, but merely that, as with the cycles of day and night or summer and winter, certain natural events occur over and over to give some structure to time.The basic unit of time measurement is the mahākalpa or “Great Eon” (Jpn: daigō). A mahākalpa is divided into four kalpas or “eons” (Jpn: kō), each distinguished from the others by the stage of evolution of the universe during that kalpa. The four kalpas are:
– Vivartakalpa “Eon of evolution” – during this kalpa the universe comes into existence.
– Vivartasthāyikalpa “Eon of evolution-duration” – during this kalpa the universe remains in existence in a steady state.
– Saṃvartakalpa “Eon of dissolution” – during this kalpa the universe dissolves.
– Saṃvartasthāyikalpa “Eon of dissolution-duration” – during this kalpa the universe remains in a state of emptiness.
... Originally, a kalpa was considered to be 4,320,000 years. Buddhist scholars expanded it with a metaphor: rub a one-mile cube of rock once every hundred years with a piece of silk, until the rock is worn away — and a kalpa still hasn’t passed! During a kalpa, the world comes into being, exists, is destroyed, and a period of emptiness ensues. Then it all starts again.
[There is also spatial diversity, universes upon universes] ... A collection of one thousand [universes] are called a “thousandfold minor world-system” (culanika lokhadhatu). Or small chiliocosm. A collection of 1,000 times 1,000 world-systems (one thousand squared) is a “thousandfold to the second power middling world-system” (dvisahassi majjhima lokadhatu). Or medium dichiliocosm. The largest grouping, which consists of one thousand cubed world-systems, is called the “tisahassi mahasassi lokadhatu”. Or great trichiliocosm. The Tathagata, if he so wished, could effect his voice throughout a great trichiliocosm. He does so by suffusing the trichiliocosm with his radiance, which at the point the inhabitants of those world-system will perceive this light, and then proceeds to extend his voice throughout that realm.
Cosmic 'hotspots' may be evidence of a universe that existed before ours
Scientists agree that the story of the universe began 13.8 billion years ago, when everything — all the matter and energy and even space itself — emerged from the extraordinarily hot, dense cauldron known as the Big Bang.
But ask a scientist what came before that first moment, and you’re likely to get a shrug. To many, thinking about a time before the beginning of time makes no sense.
Roger Penrose isn’t one of them. For more than a decade, the University of Oxford physicist has been honing his theory that the Big Bang was not the beginning of the universe but merely a single stage in an eternal cycle of creation and recreation. And now he claims he has the evidence to back it up.
In a new paper posted to the preprint library arXiv, Penrose and two collaborators report that they've identified strange hotspots of energy in the sky, located at the edge of the observable universe. Standard cosmology doesn’t predict these features. Cyclic cosmology does.
“I originally put this model out there as an outrageous scheme, a crazy scheme,” Penrose confesses — and some of his colleagues readily agree with that assessment. “I am highly skeptical of cyclic cosmologies no matter what flavor they come in,” Caltech physicist Sean Carroll said in a blog post, reflecting a common sentiment.
Penrose points to the sky itself as his rebuttal. If he's right, the cosmic hotspots are relics of a universe that existed before our own. That would utterly change the way we think about the universe's origins and ultimate fate. “In cyclic cosmology,” he says, “there is no beginning, and nothing is lost."
Scientists agree that the story of the universe began 13.8 billion years ago, when everything — all the matter and energy and even space itself — emerged from the extraordinarily hot, dense cauldron known as the Big Bang.
But ask a scientist what came before that first moment, and you’re likely to get a shrug. To many, thinking about a time before the beginning of time makes no sense.
Roger Penrose isn’t one of them. For more than a decade, the University of Oxford physicist has been honing his theory that the Big Bang was not the beginning of the universe but merely a single stage in an eternal cycle of creation and recreation. And now he claims he has the evidence to back it up.
In a new paper posted to the preprint library arXiv, Penrose and two collaborators report that they've identified strange hotspots of energy in the sky, located at the edge of the observable universe. Standard cosmology doesn’t predict these features. Cyclic cosmology does.
“I originally put this model out there as an outrageous scheme, a crazy scheme,” Penrose confesses — and some of his colleagues readily agree with that assessment. “I am highly skeptical of cyclic cosmologies no matter what flavor they come in,” Caltech physicist Sean Carroll said in a blog post, reflecting a common sentiment.
Penrose points to the sky itself as his rebuttal. If he's right, the cosmic hotspots are relics of a universe that existed before our own. That would utterly change the way we think about the universe's origins and ultimate fate. “In cyclic cosmology,” he says, “there is no beginning, and nothing is lost."
Gassho, J
SatTodayLAH
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