October 19, 2024; October 20, 2024 (revised #5); November 4, 2024 (revised #9)
Aggañña Sutta is one of the few suttās in which the Buddha addressed the origin of the “external world.” Its account vastly differs from the current scientific theory that the universe came into existence only 15 billion years ago in the “Big Bang.”
Introduction
1. In a previous post, “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27),” I discussed the salient aspects of Buddha’s explanation of our physical universe. That post raises many questions in the minds of those who read it for the first time because Buddha’s answer is drastically different from the picture proposed by modern science. Here, I will provide some necessary background.
▪Modern science’s current theory is that the universe started with a “Big Bang” out of nothing about 15 billion years ago, i.e., the universe did not exist before that.
▪In contrast, the Buddha taught that each of us is going through a rebirth process with “no discernible beginning,” i.e., the universe has existed forever!
▪Those are two very different “worldviews.”
2. In the “Aggañña Sutta” (DN 27), the Buddha explained that the universe is not static, i.e., it does not remain the same over time. He taught that Earth—with its Sun and other planets (called a cakkavāla)—is one of the uncountable such systems in the universe. [Cakkavāla : The name given to a whole world-system, there being countless such systems.]
▪A cluster of 10,000 such cakkavāla constitutes a “loka dhātu,” and there could be an uncountable number of them in the universe.
▪Such a “loka dhātu” undergoes a cyclic process of destruction and re-formation over billions of years, i.e., it is destroyed and then re-formed over many billions of years. However, only a few are in the “destruction phase” at a given time.
▪Every year, scientists observe a few such destructions with their telescopes. There must also be a few “re-formations,” but scientists cannot observe them. All scientific observations of the universe are based on detecting light emitted by the stars. For example, the destruction of a “loka dhātu” is due to the “blowing-up” of a star in that cluster, and scientists can easily observe that intense light from such a supernova explosion.
▪However, there is no available mechanism for scientists to directly observe the re-formation of a cakkavāla, which happens over billions of years (as pointed out in “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27).”)
3. Even though the “dense matter” (including the human realm) in all of those 10,000 cakkavāla disappear (destroyed), the living beings in them survive in higher-lying realms that are not destroyed. Thus, “destruction” means only the destruction of the “realms of living beings with dense bodies,” and living beings there would have moved up to higher “less-dense realms” (at or above the Ābhassara Brahma realm) well before the destruction takes place.
▪All cakkavāla in a loka dhātu remain in that state for billions of years. Toward the latter half of that phase, all those Brahmās start “missing the close companionship” they enjoyed in the human realm. Brahmās, by their nature, live secluded lives (like those ancient yogis who practiced anāriya jhāna to be reborn in Brahma realms.) Their desire to go back to such a way of living creates suddhaṭṭhaka (the fundamental particle in Buddha Dhamma; see below) in abundance; the accumulation of them over billions of years lead to the re-formation of the Sun, Earth, and other planets (cakkavāla.) It happens to all cakkavāla in that loka dhātu.
▪When each cakkavāla is re-formed, those lower-lying realms are re-populated over billions of years. See the introduction in “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27)” for details.
▪A critical point is that only a tiny fraction of the universe is destroyed periodically, not the whole universe.
Scientific Theories about the Universe Have Evolved
4. Even a few hundred years ago, scientists (or, more accurately, philosophers and religions, because no actual science existed before Galileo’s generation) believed our Earth was at the center of the universe: “WebLink: en.wikipedia.org: Geocentric model.” They thought “Gods” resided in the “heavenly sphere” with the stars above the Earth.
▪Only after Galileo invented the telescope (in the late 1500s) did actual science emerge, and it was realized that the Earth (and other planets) orbited around the Sun. Even as recently as at the beginning of the 1900s, Lord Kelvin (one of the top scientists of the day) estimated that the age of the Sun was less than 40 million years. Our knowledge of the universe was also pretty much limited to the Solar system. So, this meant the age of our “known universe” was very short.
▪Thus, the Buddha’s teachings on a universe filled with an uncountable number of cakkavāla going through a cyclic “destruction/re-formation” process lasting billions of years seemed preposterous even in 1900!
▪Vindication of the Buddha’s teachings started in the 1900s with the advent of quantum mechanics and relativity. Becquerel’s Discovery of radioactivity in 1898 and Einstein’s explanation of the photoelectric effect in 1905 led to the quantum theory of atomic structure. That, in turn, led to the correct picture of nuclear fusion as the source of solar energy.
▪By 1956, the solar system’s age was more than 4 billion years, and the universe’s age was estimated to be around 14 billion years. Yet, even billions of years are hardly the same as “beginning-less time”!
5. Then, scientists (with the invention of better telescopes) discovered that our Solar system was just one of billions of such “star systems” in the Milky Way galaxy and that there were other such galaxies in the universe.
▪By 1929, Edwin Hubble proved that distant galaxies were moving away from each other and that our galaxy was but one of many galaxies. That was a vast understatement since now we know that there are well over 100 billion galaxies in our observable universe!
▪The existence of “exoplanets” (planets outside our Solar system) was observed only in 1991! Since then, scientists have discovered over 5000 exoplanets.
WebLink: Youtube: 5,000 Exoplanets: Listen to the Sounds of Discovery (360 Video)
▪So, the “scientific view” of the universe is much closer to the Buddha’s worldview now regarding its vastness (the uncountable number of stars) and the basic structure of planets around each star (cakkavāla). Therefore, it is clear that, at least in that respect, science has gradually proved the validity of Buddha’s explanations about the universe.
▪The remaining significant difference is regarding the universe’s age, as discussed in #1 above. Scientists say the universe was “born out of nothing” about 15 billion years ago. The Buddha taught that only tiny sections (loka dhātu with 10,000 cakkavāla) go through a cyclic “destruction/re-formation” process over many billions of years and that there is no traceable beginning to that process.
The Immensity of the Universe
6. At this point, it is worthwhile to pause and consider how incredible it is that a single human could “see” the universe’s structure using only his mind 2600 years ago. It took modern science 400 years to reach this level of understanding, culminating in the effort of many generations of scientists.
▪The following is a high-resolution image of our Milky Way galaxy. We can see only a couple of thousand stars with our naked eyes, as indicated by the “red dot” in the image. But there are hundreds of BILLIONS of stars in our galaxy. Furthermore, there are about an equal number of GALAXIES in our universe. Thus, there is a whole galaxy for each star in our galaxy. It is truly mind-boggling.
Milky-Way
Our Galaxy Map (May 31, 2018)
▪Yet, even a few hundred years ago, it was believed our Earth was at the center of the universe; see #4 above.
▪Therefore, Buddha’s view of the universe as consisting of innumerable “world systems” was not looked at favorably even a few hundred years ago. Of course, that has changed now.
Our “Mundane Knowledge Base”
7. Humans have developed many “theories” or “views” about the world. Those who focus on this issue fall into two categories: scientists and philosophers.
▪Both scientists and philosophers come to conclusions based on their observations of the external world, i.e., their sensory experiences.
▪However, our sensory experiences are limited. In particular, we can “see” the world only through a narrow wavelength range, and even then, we can see only a limited distance.
▪As we discussed above, Galileo’s discovery of the telescope enhanced that capability, i.e., our sensory experience. Subsequently, scientists have improved their ability to see through vast distances in space.
▪The image in #6 above provides a good visualization of this capability. Even though all our telescopes are within the “red dot,” we can deduce details of the structures of galaxies even outside our galaxy!
Limitations of Scientific Techniques
8. However, we should not be fooled into thinking that those measurements provide the “whole picture.”
▪As I mentioned above in #2, all those measurements are based on light emitted by stars!
▪We (I mean the scientists) can only indirectly infer things about planets around other stars. For example, they deduce the number of planets around a star by monitoring the shadow cast on that star’s light by the movements of those planets. Incredibly, they have enough precision in their measurements to accomplish that.
▪However, scientists are genuinely blind to whether life exists on those planets! Biological activities do not generate light.
How Far Away Is the Closest Star?
9. Some say we should be able to detect emissions (light or radio signals) from highly advanced living beings on some of those faraway planets. Would that be possible?
▪The closest star (cakkavāla) in our loka dhātu is about four light years away (and thousands of such stars are within the “red dot” in the image above!
▪That means a rocket ship traveling at the speed of light will take four years to reach the closest star. For comparison, the distance from the Earth to our Moon would take only 1.25 SECONDS. Therefore, a rocket ship traveling at the speed of light will take only 1.25 SECONDS to arrive at the Moon! But our rocketships take about three days to get to the Moon. Therefore, a modern rocketship would take about 800 thousand years (depending on the speed attained in interstellar space) to reach the NEAREST star. See “Pāṭihāriya (Supernormal Abilities) of a Buddha – Part I.”
▪The following video shows how far away the closest star is to us.
WebLink: Youtube: How far away is the Nearest Star?
▪No matter how intense a light beam (like a laser), it will fade away at distances of the order of light years. Scientists can monitor only light from stars at such distances, and no artificial light source can match a star.
The Universe Is Unfathomably Enormous and Complex
10. Even the “range of a Buddha” is limited to a loka dhātu with 10,000 cakkavāla.
▪Since the Milky Way galaxy has roughly 100 billion stars, it contains 100 million loka dhātu!
▪This is why the Buddha admonished us not to probe the details of the universe. It is an impossible task, and it will consume the precious time that could be used to end suffering!
▪While we should be thankful to all those scientists who made all this “mundane knowledge” possible (because it confirmed Buddha’s teachings in one aspect), they wasted their time pursuing that “mundane knowledge”!
11. From the WebLink: suttacentral: Acinteyya Sutta (AN 4.77):
“There are four things that are not to be conjectured about, which could make one go mad (become a mental patient). Which four?
(i.)“Buddha’s knowledge is unconjecturable and not to be conjectured about.
(ii.)The details of jhāna (including kinds of supernormal powers that one can attain).
(iii.)The precise workings of the results of kamma, i.e., kamma vipāka.
(iv.)Origins/details about the external world, i.e., the universe.”
[In the “WebLink: suttacentral: Acinteyya Sutta (AN 4.77),” the Buddha specifically identified four subjects one should avoid. The necessary translation: “There are four unthinkable things. They should not be thought about; anyone who tries to think about them will lose their mind or be frustrated. Those four things are (i) the capabilities of a Buddha, [buddhavisayo acinteyyo] (ii) the subject of jhāna, [jhānavisayo acinteyyo] (iii) the subject of kamma vipāka, [kammavipāko acinteyyo] and (iv) speculation about the wider world, [lokacintā acinteyyā] e.g., other planetary systems, life on other planets, etc.]
▪These are the four incomprehensible things that are not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness and confusion to anyone who tries to find everything about them.
Basic Knowledge Necessary to “End the Suffering”
12. However, getting SOME IDEA about the broader world of 31 realms is good. No single sutta or a chapter on Abhidhamma is focused on that.
▪I have collected bits and pieces of information in many places in the Tipiṭaka and tried to form a crude picture. We will never be able to go into fine details. Even if the Buddha wanted to, he would not have been able to provide such a vast amount of information. People kept asking him questions about the universe, and in most cases, he refused. Aggañña Sutta is an exception, and even it provides only the baseline critical concepts.
▪He said he did not want people distracted from the main goal: to end suffering in the rebirth process.
▪I will discuss some critical issues relevant to understanding the fundamental principles of Buddha’s teachings in the sutta in the next post, “Aggañña Sutta – Further Details.”
13. See “WebLink: Pure Dhamma Forums: Pure Octad constituents” for a detailed discussion related to this subject (including a draft of this post) in the discussion forum. There are lengthy explanations of some related issues in that discussion.
▪We can continue the discussion there. If you have any comments/questions, please post them there.