[Cariyaputta]

Hi all,

Before going into the main topic, I would like to mention about the unimaginable threat of Gamma Ray Burst for ones who didn’t know (100 000 times stronger than a typical supernova), which when it happens to us, all life will be wiped out within seconds and we cannot even predict or aware of them because they travel at light speed.

To answer @Lal from another post which he asked me if I’ve read his Quantum Mechanics section. In fact it is one of the first sections that I’ve read in this website, on the way to find sciences evidences to back up my faith in the Buddha (and his teachings).

In some posts that I read, Lal mentioned a Maha-kalpa is the age of a solar system which has inhabitants – about 30 billions or so years. But I think it is much much longer than that and I still don’t know whether a Maha Kalpa represent age of a solar system, age of a galaxy, a galaxy cluster or age of our universe it self. Still waiting for Lal’s posts about Agganna Sutta. Here, I will present some evidence from sciences.

According to the lifetime of stars (details here) and their abundance in the universe, a Red Dwarf’s age is vary from 100 billions years (BY) to 1 billion billion years (BBY), and they are the most abundant stars in the universe (80%). In recent years, with new discoveries of many habitable solar systems (most of them are Red Dwarf), scientists think that they may be our best chance to find habitable alien worlds (here). So if such a solar system is able to maintain 31 realms, a Maha Kalpa here is ranging from 100 BY to 1 BYY.

Not to mention White Dwarf, its lifetime is thought to be the same of the lifetime of the proton (which sciences haven’t found out yet, at least 100 MBBBY). These kind of stars are thought to be the last source of light when our universe dying. And White Dwarf are bright enough to support Habitable Zone. So we cannot exclude them when accounting for a Maha Kalpa. In this regard, a Maha Kalpa can last an unimaginable long period of time (> 100 MBBBY). So you can feel how long and helpless is 37 Maha Kalpa without a single Buddha to show us the Path. In this sense, and in the variant of Maha kalpa length, that I believe

An interesting point is the proton, they are said to be the last element of a dying universe. So they maybe somewhat relate to suddhastaka. The proton itself is formed with 3 quarks and the gluons that bind them.

Which the inconsistent of the length of a Maha Kalpa (varies from star system to star system), and
– the rate of supernova in our Milky Way (about 1 per 50 years),
– the vast distance between stars,
– the safe distance to a supernova (about >30 light years),
– our sun will not go supernova (because it not big enough) but will become a red giant.
These add up to the mystery of the length of a Maha Kalpa.

And the Wikipedia article came up with a Maha Kalpa calculation itself:

In another simple explanation, there are four different lengths of kalpas. A regular kalpa is approximately 16 million years long (16,798,000 years[1]), and a small kalpa is 1000 regular kalpas, or about 16 billion years. Further, a medium kalpa is roughly 320 billion years, the equivalent of 20 small kalpas. A great kalpa is 4 medium kalpas, or around 1.28 trillion years.

Hope all of you contribute to this discussion.

On the way to Stream Entry.

[Cariyaputta]

Oops. Why my initial post disappear after my edit it?
I hope it can be recovered because I wrote quite long. Sorry if I was being spammy.

On the way to Stream Entry.

[Lal]

Yes, Tien. Your original post was in the spam folder.

Since this happened to a couple of people before, I checked the spam folder and “unspammed” it.

Anyone running to this problem, please send me an email: [email protected].

You said: “According to the lifetime of stars (details here) and their abundance in the universe, a Red Dwarf’s age is vary from 100 billions years (BY) to 1 billion billion years (BBY), and they are the most abundant stars in the universe (80%).”

I checked that link and the maximum lifetime shown there seems to 200 billion years. Did I miss the higher numbers somehow?

[Cariyaputta]

Hi Lal,

You said: “I checked that link and the maximum lifetime shown there seems to 200 billion years. Did I miss the higher numbers somehow?”

I was the one that misreading, sorry all for the misinformation. I looked at the number 700 000 M and was somehow mistakenly rounded it up to 1 BB.

On the way to Stream Entry.

[y not]

Tien,

In: Forums › Questions About Puredhamma Posts › Saddharma Pundarika Sutra (Lotus Sutra) – A Focused Analysis – July 2, 2018 at 9:31 am – I quoted something from the book ‘Theories of Nature and the Universe: Comparison of Pure Buddhist Philosophy’,by Muditha Champika.

What I quoted had to do with the number of ‘world systems’ in ever-increasing coglomerations, closing with ‘up to 1000 x10 ^99 (!!!) world systems, Sata-Sahashri-Loka-datu.’ This is just to indicate the extent of range of it. I have just tried to relocate the book online for you and failed, but the book may well deal with the duration of the various kalpas as well, I do not know. Just something you could look up yourself.

You will please excuse my not contributing to the discussion itself. My concerns have become exclusively the immediate ones.

Metta

[Cariyaputta]

Hi y not,

Is this the book you mentioned? (here). Thank for your mention to the book, I found places in the book were mentioned by you. But it’s lack concrete evidences from both Tipitaka and sciences. The number of “world systems” (10^102) which a single Sata-Sahashri brahma governs is too much, exceeds the number of particles in the observable universe itself, if this is true it will mean a Buddha Sansana governs the whole universe and more, not just 1000 star systems, but I need more research though.

On the way to Stream Entry.

[y not]

Tien,

Yes, it is.

Thank you. I did not know for a fact that the details were not supported by Tipitaka evidence.

At any rate, I am no longer into such matters, as I said.
(The page I quoted from, p.33, has since ‘become unavailable’ )

I will forward you references should I happen to stumble upon anything related to the matter.

Thank you once again.

[Author]

Posts