[Tobi-Wan Kenobi]

Why is the universe so cold?

• Why is the universe so cold?
• Because we exist!
• Moreover, why do we exist?
• Due to the anicca nature of this Universe..

Because based on today’s science, I would say that the anicca describes the nature, the inability to maintain an imbalance system.

A non-equilibrium system based on Earth, Sun and the coldness of the universe could be explained as follows. 
The energy difference between the Earth, Sun and Universe must be large enough for energies to flow. Because we need the cold universe so that thermodynamic processes can take place between the earth, the sun and the universe. This expanding universe is cooling down more and more as it expands. The earth is supplied with a certain specific energy by the sun and is thereby warmed. The Earth then releases the remaining energy into the cold universe in the form of infrared radiation. A flow of energy is created.

Planets only form around stars that have “metallicity,” i.e. an abundance of heavy elements.
Metallicity refers to the abundance of chemical elements heavier than helium in astronomical objects, particularly stars and galaxies. It is a crucial factor in understanding stellar evolution and the formation of celestial structures. Our solar system had to be reborn more frequently in the cycle so that the heavy elements were returned to the interstellar medium by stellar explosions and reshaped.

We are at the structural level of Kama Dhatu, essentially carbon units with some trace elements, oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen. All lower Dhatus are subject to this level of structure. In other words, the age of our universe and its structural state can be determined by its temperature.

An imbalance system based on man, Gandhabba, and the being Spirit(Hadaya Vatthu). The human brain passes on the data of the recognized environment (Outer Rupa) to the Gandhabba in a form that the Gandhabba also understands.

The Gandhabba passes on this recognized data from the brain to the Hadaya Vatthu in an advanced form. So, if it is an arammana, this perceived environment creates a thought (citta) about that arammana. When we have a strong gati, āsava, anusaya to attach to this arammana, we generate Sankhara through this external Rupa (environment), which becomes abhisankhara in a PS cycle with multiple Citta Vithi. We are connected to this outer Rupa. This attachment creates Javana Citta, which generates heat energy through greater movement of the Hadaya Vatthu and generates two types of Kamma energy.
One form is Kama Vipaka, which is associated with the external matter and gives this matter (Rupa) an intrinsic theological direction. The second is Kama energy in the form of dhammā deposited in the Viññāna Dhatu. There are three types of this Kama Dhamma: Kamma Bija, Viññāna Kamma and Patisandi Kamma.

This kamma vipaka was created through desire/craving. And when we recognize it for what it represents, we create new kamma by desiring it when it agrees with our gati. It is rupa, which has an intrinsic theological orientation, which she received through association with Kama Vipaka and in generation through Abhisankhara with Javana Citta.

Because we have recognized the earth as earth, we enjoy it, with the mountains and beautiful shapes, on it. Or because we have recognized sugar as sugar, we cling to the sweetness of sugar if our character (Gati) suits it. A strength athlete will, therefore, consume less sugar than a normal person. A fish would have no saññā for sugar.
So broadly, we have two lines: the outer rupa, like the sugar, and the inner rupa, like the namarupa.
A.) In our case, the Inner Rupa includes the human body, the Gandhabba and the “Hadaya Vatthu”, our mind.
B.) The outer rupa was created or associated with a certain expectation to represent something. It therefore has an intrinsic theological orientation.

Little analogy to the connection with Gati:
A little boy and a little girl. Were raised according to their gender. The boy was always given boy’s toys, had the blue room, was addressed in a boy-appropriate manner and was treated robustly. The girl was always given girl’s toys, the pink room, she was treated more gently and spoken to more gently. The boy developed the boy Gati and the girl developed the girl Gati.
The boy now gets a red fire department toy car to play with. The girl gets the baby doll. Both are happy, lots of PS cycles(beginning with”avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra”…) are created when playing, they are happy and a bond (with “tanha paccaya upadana, upādāna paccayā bhava, …”) develops with the toy. Now the toy is taken away from both of them and both are sad. Both children create Kama Raga by thinking about the missing toy using a PS cycle(bhava paccayā jāti, jāti paccayā jarā, marana, soka-paridēva-dukkha-dōmanassupāyasā sambhavan’ti”).
Now we give the toy back to both of them. The baby doll for the boy and the red fire engine for the girl. Both are still sad even though they both got the toys back, they are sad because it does not agree with their saññā and Gati.
Now we can clearly see that the fun and joy was not in the toys but in the Gati and the children’s attachment to the form (Rupa). This could even go so far that the children fight over the toys out of greed (lobha), which turns into hatred (dosa) because one child is supposedly in the other’s way (moha).

The children went through the entire IPS which could lead them to “Patisandhi” for a new life as it became Akusala-Mula Paṭicca Samuppāda. (“avijjā paccayā saṅkhāra; saṅkhāra paccayā viññāna; viññāna paccayā nāmarūpa, nāmarūpa paccayā salāyatana, salāyatana paccayā phassō, phassa paccayā vēdanā, vēdanā pa ccayā taṇhā, taṇhā paccayā up ādāna, upādāna paccayā bhavō, bhava paccayā jāti, jāti paccayā jarā, marana, soka – paridēva-dukkha-dōmanassupāyasā sambhavan’ti” and thereby generated so much kamma energy in the hadaya vatthu that kama dhatu rose to bhava dhatu.

Adult people argue about money, power, resources and lands when they have established, Putin or Kim Jong-un etc. “Gati”. These unfortunate creatures have earned their status in many previous lives and do no good with it. Acting with Ignorance (Avija), which leads you directly, into “apāyā”.

Back to heating the Hadaya Vatthu. More heat in Hadaya Vatthu means more energy, which means more mass (E=mc²). This more mass creates an increase in Kāma Dhatu through the increase in attraction, gravity, to the next Bhava Dhatu level, which in turn represents a changed connection to the Mind entity. A different level of consciousness arises.
This change is possible in two directions, with more heating towards Niraya and cooling towards Arupa bhumi…

Several “saññā” can represent a “Rupa”, with different states of consciousness.
So we can have different saññā for different states of consciousness for one and the same rupa. For saññā arises through volitional activity created with wholesome or unwholesome Citta.

According to Abhidhamma, consciousness can be classified, once according to the plane and secondly according to nature (Jati).

The classification according to the level of consciousness is the Innate saññā and is related to the Loka Dhatu level such as Kāma Dhatu, Rupa Dhatu, Arupa Dhatu.
The classification according to nature (Jati) is in the moment of life, but depends on the basic level.

Rupa-typs as form, or structure(Kalapa), or matter(Elements) .
Rupa is here defined as matter, divided into twenty-eight types of material phenomena..
1.) At the “Kāma Dhatu” level, we have 28 types of Rupa.
2.) At the “Rupa Dhatu” level, we have 23 types of Rupa.
3.) At the “Arupa Dhatu” level, we have only one Suddhāṭṭhaka.
Human by nature already has a rather heated mind at his structural level “Kāma Dhatu” when he is in “Uppapati Bhavanga”. The colder the mind, the lower the structural level, i.e. the density of matter, of a Namarupa. Heat levels roughly from hot to ice cold.

Niraya, animal, human, Deva, Brahma, then the bond is released leading to parinibbana.

In total, there are three lineages whose nature is Anicca, Dukkha, and Anatta.

The first line, is the Namarupa of the universe, the so-called energy balance between the Sun(on Top 6000 C°). The Earth(-89,2C° to 70,7C°) and the cool universe(-271,15C°). It takes many (jati) births of a sun to create the heavy elements for the emergence of complex human life. This also includes the construction of a mountain, Sineru, for the underground of the 31 Bhumi.

The second line, is the Namarupa at the basic level, Kama Dhatu for Human. This describes the exchange of energy between the physical body, Gandhabba and the Hadaya Vatthu (entity mind).
The third line is the exchange of Inner Rupa and Outer Rupa, which includes the first two lines, to then generate Kamma energy with thoughts (Citta, Abhisankhara to Kamma Viññāna…) via this duality. This is all rooted in a Namarupa flow, which is connected, to Kamma energy.

So the universe has the nature of Anicca, Dukkha Anatta. It is the inability to maintain an unbalanced system, which leads to suffering because these three lines do not provide lasting stability to any fruitful system.

Is the universe finite or not? The Buddha did not make a clear statement about this. It may be mathematically calculable, but not explainable.
And my analogy to that is:
The universe is finite because we can leave it and enter Nibbana.
So imagine a flat universe that is huge, based on the geodesic measurement of the 180° interior angle sum of a triangle, a truly gigantic, huge, flat universe. This is how it is done in astronomy. If we tried to explore this gigantic, super-sized, vast universe, we would come across a finite horizon. Ultimately, the information reaches us at a finite speed, namely almost 300,000 m/s (the speed of light). At 15 billion light years, this horizon is about as old as the universe, but has now grown so that the horizon is 46 billion light years across. The measurable universe is 46 billion light years across.
Now let’s imagine an ant trying to find out if the Earth is flat by walking around the Earth. The ant cannot determine whether the earth was a sphere or a plane. Even if it got to the point where it started, it wouldn’t recognize it because it would have changed so much over time that the ant wouldn’t recognize the starting point. The Buddha explained it with the analogy of a grain of sand on the beach: All grains of sand together appear infinite, but if you pick up just one with your fingertip, it appears finite.

The Buddha called it viparīta saññā. Since we have the false “nicca saññā”, we believe that we can stabilize this imbalance system in the long term with natural knowledge. Of course that’s not possible. The only thing that helps is eliminating ignorance (avija) with the help of the Buddha Dhamma. We must cultivate the four “Satipaṭṭhāna” using the concepts and the Noble Eightfold Path. That is, with the help of “Sati”, we must develop the understanding to practice “Ānāpāna” with a mindset that cools our mind and breaks the three main bonds, Tanha..
1.)Kama-tanha (sensual desire): This refers to the desire for sensations that give rise to pleasant feelings or the desire for sensual pleasures
2.) Bhava-tanha (desire for existence): This is the desire to be something or to unite with an experience
3.)Vibhava-tanha (desire for non-existence): This refers to the desire for absence of existence or the desire for non-existence.

Only the big picture shows us this hidden magic trick and for this it is necessary to get rid of both distorted views (diṭṭhi) and the distorted Saññā. Since both of them influence our thoughts, citta, this leads to polluted consciousness (saṅkhāra to Viññāna). We have to break through the deeply rooted beliefs.

I welcome comments and think it’s always possible to be more detailed, it’s just meant to be a short essay. Please understand if I do not respond immediately.

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Yash RS, Jittananto

[Yash RS]

“And my analogy to that is:

The universe is finite because we can leave it and enter Nibbana.”

Nibbana is not a place where we enter or exit, it’s a state of mind with no suffering. We don’t “leave” the universe, it’s just that there are no causes left for the rebirth process.

Just like a fire extinguishes, where did the fire go? It didn’t go anywhere, it’s just there are no causes left for its manifestation.

I personally feel that the universe is infinite, with no beginning and no end 🙏

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Tobi-Wan Kenobi

[Lal]

Tobi’s essay has some good ideas. However, there are some incompatibilities with Buddha Dhamma.

1. As Yash pointed out, “The universe is finite because we can leave it and enter Nibbāna” is incorrect.

• Nibbāna is not a physical event, like a rocket leaving the Erath. The best way to understand that is as follows. During the beginningless rebirth process, the “seat of the mind” (hadaya vatthu) is REGENERATED in a new form every time it dies. For example, a human has specific hadaya vatthu for the whole duration of that human existence (bhava), which could be many thousands of years. At the end of that “human bhava,” a new existence (say that of a Brahma) is grasped, and a new hadaya vatthu matching that of a Brahma is created by kammic energy.
• That process ends at the death of an Arahant. The mind of an Arahant WILL NOT grasp a new existence in this world, i.e., no new hadaya vatthu arises when the hadaya vatthu of an Arahant dies with his/her physical body. That is how we separate from this world.
• Attaining “final Nibbāna” is purely a mental phenomenon. 
• P.S. Many posts on the website describe the hadaya vatthu; see, for example, “Mind and Matter – Buddhist Analysis.“

2. Furthermore, the main topic does not make sense. Tobi wrote, “This expanding universe is cooling down more and more as it expands.” 

• This idea of an “expanding universe” is attached to the “Big Bang Theory,” which says our universe started with a “Big Bang” only about 14 billion ago. According to the Buddha, our universe has “no traceable beginning. ” Only small parts are destroyed (and re-formed) periodically in a “loka vināsaya.” See “Buddhism and Evolution – Aggañña Sutta (DN 27).”

3. However, I appreciate Tobi’s efforts. The essay contains many good ideas. 

• It is not a good idea to try to explain “theorized” physical phenomena, such as an “expanding universe.” That does not help with cultivating the Noble Path to Nibbāna.

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Tobi-Wan Kenobi, Yash RS

[Tobi-Wan Kenobi]

Thanks to both of you!

I will also look at the Nibbana contributions again.

[Tobi-Wan Kenobi]

The four types of universes are WRONG!

Brahmajālasutta DN1

“The cosmos is neither finite nor infinite. The text does not specify what this is, but it may contain the view that the terms “finite” and “infinite” are not sufficient to describe the universe. Imagine a universe expanding at the speed of light. It is not infinite at any point, but since it is impossible to reach its end, it is not finite either.
‘nevāyaṁ loko antavā, na panānanto.
2.20.4
The ascetics and Brahmins who say this
Ye te samaṇabrāhmaṇā evamāhaṁsu:
2.20.5
The cosmos is finite, are wrong,
“antavā ayaṁ loko parivaṭumo”ti, tesaṁ musā.
2.20.6
as well as those who say it
Yepi te samaṇabrāhmaṇā evamāhaṁsu:
2.20.7
The cosmos is infinite,
“ananto ayaṁ loko apariyanto”ti, tesampi musā.
2.20.8
and also those who say that
Yepi te samaṇabrāhmaṇā evamāhaṁsu:
2.20.9
The cosmos is both finite and infinite.
“antavā ca ayaṁ loko ananto cā“ti, tesampi musā.
2.20.10
The cosmos is neither finite nor infinite.”
Nevāyaṁ loko antavā, na panānanto’ti.
2.20.11
These are the four reasons relied upon by some ascetics and Brahmins to assert that the cosmos is finite or infinite.
Idaṁ, bhikkhave, catutthaṁ ṭhānaṁ, yaṁ āgamma yaṁ ārabbha eke samaṇabrāhmaṇā antānantikā antānantaṁ lokassa paññapenti.

All of these four types of universes are false. Are wrong because a universe is conceived with “Anicca Saññā” and this understanding depends on our uppatti bhavaṅga and the “Kama Loka” with “Kāma Saññā” at the “Kāma Dhātu” stage. Each Citta arises from the initial Kāma-Dhātu stage with its characteristic “kāma saññā” and can then become even further defiling when Kāmaguṇa comes into play. Therefore, we can only understand these four types of universes with our “kāma saññā”.

For example, if we have realized that the universe is infinite, by holding on to this thought we create “Ditthi” for infinity. What binds us to an expanding universe in the next life. Conversely, if we think the universe is finite, then we create something that leads to rebirth in a shrinking universe.

If we do not reach for these four things, we will be freed from them.

Therefore, we are not even able to understand another kind of universe like these four at the Kāma-Dhātu stage with Citta, Cetasika and Rupa, the three Paramattha.

The purified state of mind will lead to a new reality. Nibbana is a “paramattha dhamma,” a different kind of reality.
According to Abhidhamma, there are four types of reality.

Citta paramattha
Cetasika paramattha
Rupa paramattha
Nibbana paramattha dhamma

As described in the analogy quoted by Yash, if there is no fuel, there is no fire in the universe, and that is exactly how one finds an Arahant after physical death in none of the three realms of Kama Loka, Rupa Loka, Arupa Loka because rebirth has stopped. Nibbāna, for me, therefore, means being freed from existential captivity or having erased the three (“san”>>”sam”) existential relationships. Liberation from samsaric captivity. It was very stupid of me to explain Nibbāna in the context of today’s sciences.

Therefore, I understand that Nibbāna is applicable only to the path (Magga Phala). Since “Viññāṇa-energy”, with IPS, PS cycles, in the entity Mind, arises through tanha. This then gives rise to the desire for sensual pleasures and to become or not to become. Moreover, that then keeps us trapped in the samsaric web of relationships, like threads in a spider’s web. Threads are like the three “San”‘s.
Therefore, I now see that achieving “final Nibbāna” is a purely mental phenomenon.

Question: how good the English translation of the Sutta portion is
Brahmajālasutta DN1, 3.1.3. The Cosmos is Finite or Infinite

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Yash RS, Jittananto

[Lal]

1. We tend to immediately think about the “physical world” with stars and planets when we hear the word “world” or “cosmos.”

• However, in Buddha Dhamma, the focus is on “each person’s world.”
• That is similar to the tendency to immediately think about “physical objects” when we see the word “rupa.” However, the Buddha almost ALWAYS referred to the “mind-made rupa” presented to the hadaya vatthu (seat of the mind) in gandhabba. See my comment in the thread “Conscious and Subconscious Mind” today.

2. It is easier to figure out why the Buddha made those comments that Tobi quoted at the beginning of his comment about the cosmos (world/universe in science) when we realize that.

• The Buddha almost always referred to one’s world. That world exists until one attains Parinibbana as an Arahant. That is why it is incorrect to say all four things about that “world.”
• See “Loka Sutta – Origin and Cessation of the World.”

3. Regarding Tobi’s question at the end, MOST sutta translations at Sutta Central (especially regarding verses with deep meanings) are incorrect. 

• That holds for most other English translations as well. See “Elephant in the Room 1 – Direct Translation of the Tipiṭaka“

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Tobi-Wan Kenobi, Yash RS, Sammasambodhi Gami, Jittananto

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