August 22, 2024 at 5:49 pm
#51554
Keymaster
OK. Taryal’s question about cakkavāla.
“If this (cakkavāla) refers to a planetary system, it would be insane for someone to know this 2500 years ago without a telescope.”
- It is not that complicated. The Tipitaka contains many accounts of Buddha’s travels to the Deva and Brahma realms, which are located well above the Earth. See, for example, “Brahmanimantanika Sutta (MN 49).”
“The suttas that I’ve read which discuss the cosmos say that our sun, earth and the moon make up a cakkavāla. Then there are categorizations of a 1000 such systems, 10,000, million and even billions of cakkavāla. This can be interpreted as a collection of planetary systems but the suttas do not mention other planets.”
- From the above, it is evident that the Buddha could see the other planets associated with our Solar system. Also, he could travel to any of the other “star systems” or cakkavāla within our “dasa sahassi loka dhatu,” which contains thousands of “star systems.”
- It is true that the Buddha mentioned only the Sun, the Moon, and famous mountains in the discourses. There was no reason to describe other planets. Regarding other “star systems,” he mentioned that they also had their own Sun and Moon.
P.S. Also see “Buddhahood Associated Controversies.”