Learn Buddhism: Buddhist Cosmology

Buddhism has a rich and vast cosmology that can sometimes be overlooked or disregarded by Westerners. However, this cosmology is central to the half-billion Buddhists around the world and shapes the desire and effort they have in practicing Buddhism. Learn about the six realms of rebirth, units of time (kalpas), and pure lands in this new episode.

Transcript

Welcome to Learn Buddhism.

I'm Alan Pedo.

Buddhist cosmology is something that confuses Westerners to the point of disregarding it completely.

We have different heavenly beings.

We have different realms of rebirth.

We have different units of time and understanding of worlds and universes and dimensions.

Why does it all matter?

If Buddhism is really all about transforming your mind in this lifetime,

Then where does Buddhist cosmology come in?

Why do we even have it as part of this religion?

Was it just added after the Buddha's death?

Was it something that just spoke to some people and that's why we have it now?

Why does this exist in our religion and does it have any true purpose?

That's what I want to talk about in this episode today.

As Westerners we have sometimes a very challenging mindset and we like to apply what we believe is being the scientific mindset to things.

If I can't prove it or I don't know this truly exists,

I'm going to disregard it completely.

Buddhist cosmology comes into play there as well because it's something that sounds so supernatural,

So out there.

Why?

Why is it here and what's its purpose?

Right?

And this is something where I feel that Westerners are losing a very rich part of the religion because they just want to focus on just the black and white bare-bones essentials of Buddhism such as I'm just gonna meditate or I'm just gonna read the scriptures and that's all I need to become enlightened in this lifetime.

All this afterlife rebirth stuff or all these different realms and all these different beings it's just useless.

It means nothing to me and it means nothing as it relates to the true Buddhism that I assume Buddhism should actually be.

So when we look at what the Buddha said in the sermons,

Whether you look at the Pali Canon,

Chinese Canon for example,

You see that he talked about different beings and he actually had like devas come and listen to him and he would teach them.

Why is that inside the sermons,

Right?

He talked about different units of time that makes our mind boggles which I'll talk about today.

He talks about this different existences and so his past lives and why is that all there?

I like to relate all of this in a very practical approach in one way.

This is all talking about Samsara,

The cycle of birth and death.

It's talking about impermanence,

Dependent origination,

Karma,

These core fundamental Buddhist teachings that are really important for us to understand.

Because if we just back up a second here,

The Buddha is trying to tell us you have to break down this belief,

This false belief in a permanent unchanging independent self which he says does not exist.

We are impermanent,

We are ever-changing and we are interdependent upon other things.

But because we are ignorant to the truth,

We live in this delusional state and we're consumed with greed and hatred and this is just causing us to be trapped in this cycle of rebirth and it's causing us to create all these actions,

Karma,

That is a catalyst for just being trapped in a cycle of rebirth which is,

He said,

Is dukkha.

Impermanence is dukkha.

It is not satisfactory.

So when we look at Buddhist cosmology,

It is a very visual representation of what he was teaching but it's also showing how your actions,

Your karma,

Plays out in many different ways.

Now right now in your existence you are temporary,

You are impermanent just like me.

We are a temporary grouping of things called the five aggregates and it works so seamlessly together in something called nama rupa that we believe we have this self and that results in this fuel to start clinging and craving to things and this delusion we have of the world we are living in because we're ignorant to the Buddhist truth and fundamentally what it means.

And because of this self,

The self is just constantly keeping us in this cycle,

Right?

So when we're looking at that,

We're thinking really much in our life right now.

We don't really see anything beyond just the existence that we're aware of.

The Buddha talked about prior lifetimes and prior existences that he had.

So as a fully awakened enlightened being,

A Buddha,

They are able to understand and see their past lives and actually he talked about these and we have it in his past life tales which are very not only interesting but they're also teaching moments.

They're showing his bodhisattva path,

It's showing morality and conduct,

Generosity,

Compassion,

All these different things that are very important inside Buddhism.

But what's very important about this was the Buddha stopped.

He could have kept going on and on and on to always pass lives.

It's pointless to keep going back because it's not going to really help us.

So he gave us a glimpse at some of his past lives as teaching moments but he didn't feel it's really important to keep going on in which he could have.

And he also had a very expansive understanding of the universe and existence and everything to the point where he wouldn't answer certain questions about it.

He understood it,

He knew about it,

But he didn't feel it was important to talk about at that point in time.

So for you and me we have been going through a cycle of rebirth for a very very very long time.

A time period that is unimaginable,

Uncomprehensible to us right now.

It's that vast.

So the Buddha gave a teaching where he said just imagine like a boulder or rock that's like 19 miles wide right and imagine you had a feather and every 100 years he would just brush this gigantic boulder with that feather until that boulder was completely worn away by that feather every hundred years right.

These are units of time we have in Buddhism and for you and me I don't know about you but for me I can't even imagine the length of time right.

But he's saying that you know what these things have been going on for a very long time and this is going to be very important when we talk about Buddhist cosmology.

So time is important,

Our universe is important,

These existences are important,

But understanding that we are just at one part of this very very long story.

So I'm going to start off on Buddhist cosmology talking about the realms of rebirth.

But before I do I want to give you this imagery.

I'm sure you've all seen Buddhist mala beads,

The Buddha beads right,

Wearing your wrist or you know the longer ones there are 108 beads.

So you can think of rebirth in this way.

The string that's connecting all the beads on there is karma,

Store consciousness.

This is the thing that continues on in the cycle of rebirth.

It is not a soul or a self but it is something that casually connects all these existences.

So my prior existence is not the same as this one right here.

There's nothing fundamental that came from that prior existence to the existence that I'm in right now except for karma.

The past fruition of it,

Traces of it,

And the future potential of them.

And it's a store consciousness,

This casual connection between them all,

Which is what's linking the beads on that mala bead,

On a mala wrist bead if you will,

Or the 108 bead one right.

Those little beads are obviously independent of each other right.

You know they're all separate,

They're not part of the other bead right,

But they're all connected on this long string.

And so just imagine that string is not tied off.

There's constantly being put onto it.

It's gonna be another bead,

Another bead,

Another bead.

Now each of these beads can have their own qualities.

Some could be very nice beads,

A very fine wood or a very polished stone for example,

Or it could be a very rotten piece of wood or just just not right.

And these are all our different realms of rebirth that we might be in the what's happened inside them,

The level that we're born into.

And so that's a good place for us to kind of begin because when we're thinking about what we're doing as Buddhists,

We're trying to break that string if you will.

We're trying to stop it.

We're trying to make sure no more beads can be added to it.

So that means we are stopping this cycle of rebirth,

Which is very much like being a prisoner.

You know you're chained to it and you're chained to it because of your karmic actions.

You are just like clinging and craving things.

You just can't escape it,

Right?

And so we're trying to stop it.

So these realms of rebirth,

We have six of them inside Buddhism.

And they are things that we have likely at one point or another all been inside.

They all have different time periods inside there,

Right?

Some you can stay in there for a very long time in existence and other ones maybe relatively short.

The important thing about all six of them is they are all impermanent.

That you don't stay in any one forever and ever and ever.

It's not like an infinite period of time you stay inside there.

So you may hear some things that sound very much in your Western ears like other religions.

Where you're like,

Wow that's gonna be forever not inside Buddhism.

The only thing that's forever is being trapped inside this cycle of rebirth until you end it.

And that's what the Buddha taught.

So the very first cycle or realm of rebirth we have is the devas or God's realm.

And this sounds very much you probably have the imagery going right now like devas,

Gods,

Right?

We sometimes call this the heavenly realm.

And there's many different ones and without going too complicated into it.

There's different layers if you will or levels.

And so there's like ones at the bottom you're closer to our world if you will and our kind of existence and ones higher up.

But it's sort of like a pleasure-filled type realm.

Now even though that sounds great this isn't permanent.

This being reborn inside there is a result of your activities,

Right?

Just imagine your human realm right now.

The existence that you're in right now.

Are you compassionate?

Are you generous?

Do you have loving-kindness?

Are you practicing wholesome qualities along the Buddhist path?

Are you generating good and merits?

These are likely more conducive to help you being reborn inside this heavenly realm.

And so we may look at this almost like a heaven if we will in our Western years.

But it's not something that you stay inside.

Can you advance up it?

Of course.

There's higher levels but it's not something that's meant to exist in forever.

Although periods of time inside here are extremely long.

So our understanding of time is different than other realms.

So for example what may be one year for us may be I don't know just like a second or something for them or even less than that.

So we're seeing where our period of time is almost going faster than theirs is but theirs could also be a lot longer.

So that's why it may seem very,

Those are gods they're just living forever.

Not so.

It's still impermanent.

And impermanence as the Buddha said is still Dukkha.

So even though they're inside this pleasure-filled realm it's still Dukkha.

They're still trapped.

That's why you saw or we read I should say inside the Buddhist scriptures that the devas would come down and talk to the Buddha to have him teach to them because they want to escape the cycle of rebirth also.

And before we kind of leave this realm how can the Buddha see devas because we can't see them unless they make themselves visible.

But even then that's kind of pushing it.

So fully awakened light and being like a Buddha has this what's called divine eye.

They can see almost these ones.

I don't want to say they're form or formless but basically not something that we humans can typically see but they can Buddha can see it.

And also when we're looking at these heavenly realms there's a particular one where bodhisattvas reside in especially right before they come to earth.

So if we look at Shakyamuni Buddha or Gautama Buddha.

So before he became Siddhartha Gautama became the Buddha he was a Buddha in his prior existence in a heavenly realm.

So through his meritorious activity through his wholesome karma his compassion generosity loving kindness vows all that right he was in a heavenly realm and he was destined to be the next Buddha.

So he resides almost if you will like in his waiting room not the same but he was almost like in his waiting room and he decided his heavenly realm and he decided when the right time for his rebirth in the human realm which is our next realm coming up where he was going to be reborn in because for a Buddha to exist they got to get to this human realm to help others.

Now is there celestial Buddhas?

Yes I'll talk about that in a second but this is where we see Shakyamuni Buddha come into being first as Siddhartha Gautama born into this realm because the Bodhisattva decided his rebirth his next existence next one that current one next one was going to be inside the human realm and so that's a really important part.

So we're looking at kind of like these heavenly realms it's like a permanent thing in our maybe our Western mindset not so they are impermanent and especially for Bodhisattvas they're kind of like a place that they're going to but they're going in and out to our realms to help us but also looking ultimately as a Buddha to come to a human realm.

So that's our second one is the human realm and a human realm that word human we're thinking Homo Sapiens right you and me well human means essentially these sentient beings that can determine their karmic activities so it's just not human beings is what we're saying the human realm there's a many world systems inside Buddhism like you know we obviously in our quote-unquote scientific world we have improved the existence of any other species outside of our planet except for us but in Buddhism it's recognized there's like billion world systems and yes there's multitudes of sentient beings all throughout what we can conceive of and we're talking about not just the vastness of space in our universe but dimensions and everything else right things we can't even wrap our heads around so human is kind of like a term we're using for kind of like all these type of sentient beings that can do that so the human realm you may be going well they're suffering here but sometimes you're happy sometimes you're not it's it doesn't feel like a really good realm to be inside but we saw where the Bodhisattva who became Siddhartha Gautama came to this realm why because they become a Buddha and that's a really important part as well if you look at the imagery of a lotus flower which is very symbolic inside Buddhism that's mostly growing in this muddy cloudy water you can't even see it you know just buried inside there it's not until it breaks the surface of the water that flower opens up and it's just this beautiful lotus flower right not even dirty that is all symbolic of Buddhism that nourishment of that muddy water was not pretty but is nourishing that future flower so what we're experiencing here our ability to shape our karma to decide upon the meritorious action to a wholesome karma the decisions to listen to the Dharma to understand it to practice it all these are things we have under our control even though we may not always do it we do have the power and we saw that was the Buddha we saw that was his enlightened followers we saw was Bodhisattvas so this is a very very powerful realm where rebirth is actually desired now imagery of that Buddha flower as it breaks the surface enlightenment right it blooms all right okay that's our enlightenment right there that is all due to this existence this realm right here so you're not really gonna get that up in that heavenly God's realm that's too pleasure-filled you're not gonna get into lower realms that's just too stressful you know I really even here in the Dharma it's this human realm it's so rare and that's the thing that's repeated all the time in Buddhism that the human realm is a rare opportunity and existence to understand and practice the Dharma we often squander it I'll be very blunt we often squander that opportunity we're too busy with work or this or maybe you know there's something on TV or I want to watch this movie or I want to go travel so whatever the excuse is we don't really practice Buddhism we don't feel we have that urgency to do it the Buddha and many of his servants show the urgency is very much a urgent matter that the Buddha was explaining why wait why are you waiting right and he would very much do very illustrative descriptions of this almost like you're going into battle and so why is he being so emphasizing us so much right because this don't squander this opportunity this human realm is that nourishment don't let it go to waste then we have like this demigod realm right below and this is sort of like not the same as Devas but they are something's always quarreling or combating or in a war if you will or fighting with the Devas in this god realm and this is sort of a realm you don't want to get into because when you go to these lower realms you're kind of looking at like the three fires or three poises greed anger ignorance delusion right and so what are they doing hateful right you don't want that or the animal realm right below that it's a very hellish realm where you're always acting on impulse and instinct no that's almost like greed clinging right and they're not understanding they're not hearing the Dharma they can't help themselves we got a hungry ghost realm this is you can almost imagine that imagery they can't satisfy themselves no matter if they're hungry if they're you're craving that or if they want this or that they can't satisfy themselves so it's a very stressful environment because they're clinging and craving but they can't satisfy those attachments and then ultimately there's a hell realm and so again our Western imagery hell oh I'm gonna be there forever all impermanent all of these realms are impermanent the only thing permanent here is that you're cycling through them all based upon your actions and so does hell realm we obviously don't want to get down and this is the one where if you violate into five precepts for example that is pretty much gonna be maybe where you're going right so we don't want evil karma we don't want bad and wholesome karma because this could ultimately be a place we want to go to now these lower realms the ones below the human realm they're not hearing the Dharma they're not practicing Buddhism they're not able to really free themselves like we can in a human realm or even a devas who are listening to maybe like a Buddha or a bodhisattva being able to free themselves so getting down to these lower realms not advisable is not what Buddhists want so if you look at the half billion boosts around the world these realms of rebirth are important because they are trying to generate good merits meritorious activities wholesome karma to be reborn in the human realm in a state where they can continue on the practice the path of Buddhism or advance up to that devas realm or the heavenly realms so they can continue practicing as well they want to stay in the realms where they can still hear the Dharma where they can still practice because if they fall down to the lower realms they got a burn off their karma before they can continue on in the cycle of rebirth so for example if you're in the animal realm well you're not even aware of Buddhism but you have to burn off whatever karma that brought you to that realm before you can move up and so you see where being reborn in the lower realms is not advisable because it's not going to be beneficial to the Buddhist path now you might be going well that's all a very nice story you know prove that these actually exist you're not going to get this empirical evidence that proves any of this you can't get that and that's not what Buddhism is about there's things inside Buddhist cosmology you're not gonna prove can it maybe be proved one day scientifically who knows maybe but that's not the point of it you can also look at these in a very everyday aspect right and that's not the purpose of it but you can also look at it this way as you are going through your your day are you being compassionate loving whatever right maybe you're in a devas or human realm right maybe you're just like so consumed with hatred and anger maybe you're in a demigod realm or maybe you've done something a violated precepts just just evil right you're gonna be in a hell realm so your mental condition mental state can cycle through these realms of rebirth not in the literal sense like we're talking about after your five aggregates your current existence fades away we're talking about it also in that mental aspect so where do we want to be obviously we want to be in our mindset in a realm that's conducive to the Buddhist path now all of this whether you believe in it or not is part of Buddha's are both my Anna Theravada it's all part of that now why it's so important I mentioned you know a few times already it's because we want to make sure that our path is consistently on the road the direction towards enlightenment and if you follow the Buddhist teachings which have wisdom it has your morality or conduct it also has your concentration or meditation decided a threefold training this is helping get you there or made Mahayana tradition the six perfections right or in in general in Buddhism the eightfold path which includes the threefold training this is all gained us directly towards alignment does it happen in our lifetime maybe maybe not so that's another thing inside Buddhism I give you that illustrative example of the Buddha was to feather in that big boulder right we have long periods of time in Buddhism called kapas and and so these are infinitely long if you were to think about it was like an eon and so everywhere from 16 million years long with a traditional general type kapa up to like nearly a trillion years and it's so hard for us understand but the most important thing to understand is where it was known to be inside the fortunate and right now and this is where Shaky Muni Buddha his current teachings that we're following but he's the fourth Buddha in this eon and there's been Buddhas before him so there's like 20 Buddhas before him right and he just think about this vast amount of time we're talking about right and what we're gonna have in this eon and it's fortunate Ian because this is the best one right now to become enlightened after shocking many Buddha's teachings go away we're going to see another Buddha coming to being called my trail and so that's the next Buddha remember I was talking about that heavenly realm where the Devas are right so that same heavenly realm is where the Bodhisattva Maitreya is right now and as soon as the conditions are right here on earth where the current Buddhist teachings are long lost and it's ready for him he will become the next Buddha of our era and so what will happen is he will that exists as the Bodhisattva right now that's ending his new existence will be manifested here physically inside this world just likes it hard to got them up so we have this continuous cycle going on but it's cosmology everything's in cycles the various it just the impression that we have of the universe and world is very much shaped by our limited understanding of it I don't understand everything science doesn't understand everything we're trying very very hard to understand things but are things that we still can't understand or see or know and so with Buddhist cosmology it's all about us understanding how this intersects if you will with our religion and does it reveal to us these different beings and different realms and different time periods absolutely there's also what's called Buddha fields or pure lands very big in Mahayana Buddhism we're basically a Buddha through their Dharma and reward body can have like almost like this field around them if you look at Shakyamuni Buddha right when he was on this earth manifested on search was his manifested body he was he did have a Buddha field around him too that's why there were so many people became enlightened around him but when he went to Parinavada,

Final nirvada we saw that enlightenment kind of dropped off right it's called the age of decline so it's very much recognized in all of Buddhism yeah you know what becoming enlightened on this earth is gonna be pretty rare because there's no living Buddha where we have his teaching but he's not here to in his manifested form teach us and so it's very very challenging for sentient beings like you and me to become enlightened and so when we're looking at that well what can we do so a lot of Buddhists especially in Theravada are looking to Maitreya the next Buddha and we're talking about a very very very long time away like we still have Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings right now they have to be lost and there's a whole series of events that have to occur before we see Maitreya so in Mahayana it's recognized that we have a lot of help out there right we got celestial Buddha so there's Amitama Buddha so there's different pure lands and these are these Buddha fields right they don't have to exist on this earth and so the very famous Buddha is Amitama Buddha all there's there's others that also have pure lands it's this Western pure land by Amitama that anybody who sincerely vows and recites and wants to go to his pure land can and so these pure lands they sound very unusual like what are we even talking about here like a different world different dimension different universe I think it's hard to explain where it's at or you know in scientific terms or anything like that but the concept is you can go and learn under the guidance of a living Buddha and bodhisattva attendants and Dharma teachers in this conducive environment it's like a training ground it's like going to like the best University College whatever in the universe right you can go there for the sole purpose of becoming enlightened awakened because in the Mahayana path is the bodhisattva past and bodhisattva path is the same path that the Shakyamuni Buddha took where it went through countless lifetimes of the bodhisattva and then became a Buddha so in Mahayana becoming a Buddha is the ultimate right so this training ground is helping you become a Buddha which can take a long time there but it's the best best way to actually do it because you're under the guidance of a living Buddha and enlightened beings so these pure lands are extremely popular and factually it's the most popular form or practice I should say of East Asian Buddhism like in China Vietnam etc you also have independently inside Japan pure land schools so it's extremely popular in that way but it also has a mental component to it as well so these are considered literal places you will be reborn into but also impermanence now like a heaven you go there to train and then your event you're gonna go back for example to the human realm to become a Buddha and maybe one of these countless worlds out there but you also have this mental component so I can China Vietnam this is very much part of the meditation school as well where it's all intertwined so we look at Amitama Buddha as your own internal Buddha nature and pure land as almost like your mind almost like nirvana right so there's different the three different levels if you will in pure land for most of us it's going to be trying to be reborn inside Amitama Buddha's pure land but if you could actually do it you can become enlightened here on this earth and with that you realize your own true if you will Amitama Buddha your own internal Buddha nature and you have your own pure land which is a pure land of your mind and yourself and so that's really the ultimate but extremely hard to do on your whole own in this existence now all of this as I mentioned seems very far-fetched to some people and may be very confusing to some people you don't have to go oh I absolutely understand all of this right now or yes I agree with you on all this that's perfectly okay just realize this is part of Buddhism it's not really separate you know it is part of it just meditation just doing maybe this or that just reading scriptures that's not Buddhism there's a whole reason why we are so invested so interested so devoted the effort put into Buddhism because we want to escape the cycle of rebirth and that doesn't mean this existence right now because it's Buddhist cosmology is teaching us there's a lot more going on and the reason we practice there there has to be this urgency and the urgency is understanding periods of time realms of rebirth these existences these beings we can be reborn into there if we don't practice we don't do this we can fall into these lower realms whether you want to think about that mentally like your mental states but more literally these different realms we can be reborn into that is going to be detrimental to yourself on a path and so this is not to be scary in that way but as I mentioned before in all of Buddhism like with the Buddha and everybody else there's this urgency for people to practice you are being exposed to the Buddhist teachings which is rare there's periods of time where there is no teachings there's no Dharma inside the world and we're gonna experience that again in a far future when Shakyamuni Buddha's teachings are gone where we don't have it we have it right now even if you can't be enlightened in this lifetime in this existence right now you are setting the conditions that progress forward and I'll leave you with this thought to kind of tack on to that as I mentioned before the Bodhisattva who eventually had his next rebirth inside this land became Siddhartha Gautama who became Shakyamuni Buddha the Buddha of our era that was accumulation of countless countless countless existences and throughout those countless existences extremely long period of time Bodhisattva Bodhisattva Bodhisattva Bodhisattva so there was his vow there's his identity that long long long time ago that he would become the Buddha of our era he would become a Buddha essentially and so with that set out this long series of events beads on that that string right you can also set forth on that path right now now as I mentioned there is Mahayana and Theravada are two major traditions right now in Theravada it's the goal to become an arhat we have all these we have cosmology inside Theravada as well but basically you can end your existence the cycle of rebirth you know if you will through your through your efforts in this lifetime with Mahayana it is recognized that you know this is gonna be a long path here because the goal is not to be an arhat is to be a Bodhisattva and eventually on that path towards becoming a Buddha just like Shakyamuni Buddha did so just different ways of doing it both are rooted inside of Buddhist teachings and different aspects of Buddhist cosmology but I think the more you listen and learn about Buddhist cosmology the more it will make sense in some ways but also gets you that urgency to practice Buddhism I hope you enjoyed this brief introduction to Buddhist cosmology which is actually more vast and complex and mind-blowing than this very very short episode I wanted to talk about the realms of rebirth and periods of time in Pure Land briefly just to kind of introduce you to some major things that Buddhists around the world factor in to the Buddhist religion and their religious practice as it relates to Buddhism if you have any questions I'd like to hear back from you my website is alanpedo.

Com where you can send a message you can also reply on Spotify to this podcast if you'd like as well and with that I will talk with you in our next episode thank you

Reviews

It’s amazing how these teachings come across in different ways. It’s very much like learning metaphysics. I love the analogy of the prayer beads and the string that connects to beats. I also really like the concept of the equivalent of ““ heaven, and hell, not being forever, but just being another realm of impermeant existence. Thank you for the teachings.

This was fantastic! I've been wanting to understand this for ages and your talk hit the nail on the head.. Thanks.

On a slight tangent it would be great if you could share your knowledge on the link between Buddhism and Reiki. Their are mantras in Reiki of dainichi nyorai and sey heiki coming from amitbha
The explanations Western Reiki teachers give me does not satisfy me. They say there is no link to Buddhism but then why are their mantras of such exact Buddhist references? I suspect it might be westerner teachers teaching what is convenient to us and not going deeper as we could do.

Thank You Alan . Yours lessons always teach me something new .
Namaste 🙏💗