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Buddhist Creation
- Thread starter gnostic
- Start date
Engyo
Prince of Dorkness!
Gnostic -
Buddhism doesn't really concern itself with creation, as how this world was created really has little to do with what one does today in one's life.
Buddhist cosmology comes primarily from ancient India; deriving from Hindu cosmology to begin with. So you will find references to Mt. Sumeru worlds and to the continent of Jambudvipa throughout Buddhist works.
I am most familiar with the Lotus Sutra, as that is what my tradition is based on. In the Lotus Sutra, an infinite universe is postulated; the Buddha discusses stellar/planetary systems and galaxies to describe the amounts of time he is talking about (dust-particle kalpas). Strangely enough this is quite consonant with modern astronomy/cosmology. Different realms are discussed, with different kinds of living beings inhabiting those different realms. It is all quite sci-fi-like, especially for a text a couple of thousand years old.
Here is a link; the dust-particle kalpas are described in the first paragraph of chapter 7. There is also a paragraph describing an infinite universe in chapter 1, the last few paragraphs before the first verse section.
http://www.purifymind.com/LotusSutra.htm
I hope this is of help.......
Buddhism doesn't really concern itself with creation, as how this world was created really has little to do with what one does today in one's life.
Buddhist cosmology comes primarily from ancient India; deriving from Hindu cosmology to begin with. So you will find references to Mt. Sumeru worlds and to the continent of Jambudvipa throughout Buddhist works.
I am most familiar with the Lotus Sutra, as that is what my tradition is based on. In the Lotus Sutra, an infinite universe is postulated; the Buddha discusses stellar/planetary systems and galaxies to describe the amounts of time he is talking about (dust-particle kalpas). Strangely enough this is quite consonant with modern astronomy/cosmology. Different realms are discussed, with different kinds of living beings inhabiting those different realms. It is all quite sci-fi-like, especially for a text a couple of thousand years old.
Here is a link; the dust-particle kalpas are described in the first paragraph of chapter 7. There is also a paragraph describing an infinite universe in chapter 1, the last few paragraphs before the first verse section.
http://www.purifymind.com/LotusSutra.htm
I hope this is of help.......
Hi Gnostic,
I think there are indirect references to Creation and God, in the poems of Lao Tzu.
For ex. one of them talks about the "Mystery of mysteries", smth like this, this is
thought to refer to the highest supernatural Being, i.e. God. I dont have the text at
hand now, but you can check out poems from Lao Tzu and Toshihiko Izutsu's book about
parallelism between Taoism and Sufism (or Islam) in this respect.
About Buddhism, I havent done a serious search about it, whether it has a Creation myth or not.
Cheers
I think there are indirect references to Creation and God, in the poems of Lao Tzu.
For ex. one of them talks about the "Mystery of mysteries", smth like this, this is
thought to refer to the highest supernatural Being, i.e. God. I dont have the text at
hand now, but you can check out poems from Lao Tzu and Toshihiko Izutsu's book about
parallelism between Taoism and Sufism (or Islam) in this respect.
About Buddhism, I havent done a serious search about it, whether it has a Creation myth or not.
Cheers