1. In other suttas, it is explained that 10,000 world systems (or “star systems” like our Solar system) will be destroyed together with the Solar system. The Pali word for such a “star system” is “cakkavāla.”
2. Such a destruction of a cluster of “star systems” is called a supernova in modern science.
3. Since people were unaware of such details then, the Buddha probably provided that analogy with the appearance of “seven Suns.”
- The point is that either the Sun or one of the 10,000 stars will blow up when our “star cluster” is destroyed in a supernova event in the future.
- The Buddha likely used an analogy of the appearance of seven Suns (one by one) to describe the temperature increase that eventually will lead to the destruction of the 10,000 world systems.
4. This feature of the Buddha’s model has been PROVEN by science. The destruction of a whole cluster of stars (together with their planetary systems) does happen in the universe. Such an event is a supernova. There are a few such supernovae in our Milky Way galaxy each year.
- The “re-formation” of star systems has also been confirmed.
- The periodic destruction and re-formation of Earth are discussed in the “Aggañña Sutta (DN 27),” and I have provided a summary in the post “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27).“
