Reply To: Post on “Vedās Originated With Buddha Kassapa’s Teachings”

#51207
Lal
Keymaster

1. All Buddhās teach in the Māgadhi language. 

  • Māgadhi= “maga” + “adhi” where “maga” is “path” and “adhi” means “superior.” 
  • Thus, it means the language used to explain the “Noble Path.” 
  • That is also the “language” of the Brahmas. Of course, there is no spoken language in Brahma realms. However, that is the “natural way” they communicate via thoughts.
  • When “Brahmakayika humans” first populate the Earth, they also don’t have dense bodies and thus do not “speak to each other.” They use the same “language,” and when they gradually acquire dense bodies, Māgadhi becomes a spoken language.
  • Pāli is derived from Māgadhi, and Sinhala is derived from Pāli. As I mentioned before, all the terms in Paticca Samuppada are the same in the Sinhala language as in Pāli.
  • Tipiṭaka was written in Pāli with Sinhala script. Pāli is a version of Māghadhi suitable for writing down oral discourses in a summary form suitable for transmission.

2. In the “Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14),” Buddha Gotama provides the lifetimes of humans (lifetimes of the physical bodies, not the duration of human bhava“). 

  • As stated where I linked to above, it varies from 80,000 years (Vipassī Buddha’s time) to around 100 years (Gotama Buddha’s time.) It is expected to increase again by the time Buddha Maitreya appears on this Earth (last Buddha on this Earth.)
  • The environment for a given Buddha adjusts naturally; those are details we cannot expect to understand. I guess languages evolve to become Māgadhi , at least in the region where a Buddha is to be born.
  • Just like the lifetimes, many things move up and down with the passage of time. 

3. Regarding: “Q. What language do they speak in heavens and hells? A. Pali,..”

  • That is not correct. We don’t know how communication happens in Deva realms or hells (apayas). I don’t think animals have “languages.” They have limited capabilities for communication.

In any case, those are issues that are not critical to cultivating the Noble Path.

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