Inner-Space Worlds

Dhr. Seven and CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly, based on Ven. Nyanatiloka Mahathera (anupubba-nirodha) from A Buddhist Dictionary: A Manual of Pali Terms and Buddhist Doctrines 

The nine "successive extinctions" are the eight extinctions or sublime temporary-liberations reached through the eight meditative absorptions known as jhanas.

  
In addition, there is a more profound and exclusive meditative accomplishment known as nirodha-samapatti or the "extinction of feeling and perception." [It is exclusive in that only non-returners and arhats can attain it.] It is not actual extinction of suffering.

As it is said in A. IX, 31 and D. 33: 

1. "In one who has entered the first meditative absorption, sensual perceptions (kama-sañña) are extinguished. [That is, the meditator is blissfully but temporarily liberated from their oppression.]

2. Having entered the second absorption, thought-conception (vitakka) and discursive-thinking (vicára) are extinguished. 

3. Having entered the third absorption, the supersensual rapture (piti, joy, pleasant sensations) of the previous absorptions is temporarily extinguished. 

4. Having entered the fourth absorption, in-and-out breathing (assása-passása) are both temporarily extinguished. 

• "In-and-out breathing" are corporeal or physical functions or "formations" (kaya-sankhara), whereas thought-conception and discursive-thinking are called verbal functions or formations (vaci-sankhara). They are one of the six aspects of the motion-element. (Vayo-dhatu, translated as "wind-element," refers to the qualities of movement, support, strength, etc.)

On the edge of knowing (Glowing Star/flickr.com)

5. Having entered the plane of boundless space (akasha-nañca-ayatana), corporeality (rúpa) perceptions are extinguished.

[Numbered accordingly, entering upon this base is called the fifth absorption as are the three remaining immaterial absorptions.]

6. Having entered the plane of boundless consciousness, the perception of the plane of boundless space is extinguished. 

7. Having entered the plane of nothingness, the perception of the plane of boundless consciousness is extinguished.

8. Having entered the plane of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, the perception of the plane of nothingness is extinguished.

9. Having entered the extinction of perception and feeling, perception and feeling are temporarily extinguished."

Buddhist Cosmology
Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

Breathing in, breathing out, nivarana, nimitta, jhana, piti, upekkha, rupa, arupa, nirodha

 

31 Planes of Buddhist Cosmology (Inward Path)

The Buddhist description of outer space in the physical universe corresponds to inner states of consciousness.
 
Ordinary states (semi-conscious, beset by lust, annoyance, and delusion) limit us to the Sensual Sphere.
 
This is the lowest of a threefold division of our "world-system," which we can think of as our galaxy.

The worlds of sensuality (kama-loka) are bound in a sphere that includes sensuous "heavens," or superhuman worlds in space, as well as all the miserable worlds inferior to the human plane. And there are lots of them. For instance, although naraka (the Great Waste or purgatory-hell) is spoken of as one plane, it is classified as having at least 16 increasingly miserable levels -- the worst one of which is not even counted.
 
This desolate and abysmal hell is called "interstitial" because it is a kind of exile outside the multiverse into the spaces between bubble-like world-systems. (If there is only one universe, then we may think of world-systems as the countless galaxies in it). Like hyperspace, there is no light in those places, and beings reborn there feel utterly alone.

Hyperspace is no more static than this tesseract

  
The animal world, another plane, is so incredibly diverse as to easily constitute a million planes: Think of the life of an ant compared to that of a cow, or the existence of an apartment dog compared to that of a frigid penguin, or a lake amoeba compared to that of a kinkajou... or the countless species we have yet to discover and describe here and on other planets.

The 31 Planes of Existence are general types of worlds within a world-system. They can be reached from here. That may be because there are waves that make limitations in the speed of light irrelevant or may be due to the fact that whatever can be known exists interdependent with consciousness, that is, the knower.

And a knower can gain awareness and therefore verify the reality of these other worlds by success in meditation. What is "success"? First of all one lets go and thereby attains a natural state of relaxation and sharp awareness not distracted by personalizing or identification with impersonal phenomena.

Artist's rendition of cycling through 6 sensual planes

Of course, all of these worlds are ultimately in flux, unsatisfying, and impersonal. Therefore, one may speak of "escape" or "final liberation" from the transient, disappointing, egoless phenomenal world. Where, what, how!?

It is not possible to say "where" anymore than it would be possible to say where a flame goes when it is extinguished -- right, left, north, south? These terms do not apply.

What does apply is the unsatisfactory explanation that whatever there was before, in this case the fire, was utterly dependent on constituents -- fuel, oxygen, heat, and so on -- and when one or more of the constituents was exhausted, the phenomenon ceased.
 
How? How can we escape the illusion, escape to reality? Success in self-development or cultivation (bhavana), also known misleadingly as "meditation," provides a way.

For scaling these heights in meditation, namely moving through the eight absorptions, opens up the possibility of developing liberating-consciousness or insight. Such wisdom undoes the painful illusion, our existence beset by suffering, impermanence, and emptiness (egolessness).

And even prior to actual liberation, attainment of any of the temporary absorptions is weighty good karma coming to fruition in the future as rebirth in excellent Fine-Material Sphere (rupa loka) planes. So inner-space quite literally becomes outer-space.

And even aspects of Sense Sphere "heavens," where beings enjoy much greater and long-lasting pleasures than can be found on the human plane, are described as coming into being on the power of one's former deeds.

Play!
But out of fear and aversion (to the unfamiliar), out of ignorance, out of craving, we want to stay. We want to play! We don't want to lose the familiar.
 
Know with certainty that it is a game. But also know that most of the "game" is spent playing in ignorance with NO idea that it is a game, or that it is unreal, or that there is an escape. When the game sours, all most of us are left with is "escapism," which is the antithesis of actual escape.

Growing up in a horrific situation where one is being molested, oppressed, or bored to near death, one often resorts to escapism in the form of violence, acting out" (as in the game of Charades when one is unable to speak so one enacts as the only means of communicating what is going on), drug abuse, alcoholic obtunding, sexual compulsion or addiction, self-mutilation, or suicide. So know that it won't be funny then.

But it will nevertheless be unreal. Isn't wisdom preferable? Intensive sitting meditation may seem boring or hard, but it is a portal to remarkable worlds of supersensual bliss, equanimity, peace, and knowledge-and-vision worthy of the noble ones.

Why is the Buddha always happy, always smiling, always balanced?

The World is Always Ending
Ven. Nanajivako (Buddhist Publication Society, Wheel No. 186)

The idea of impermanence and of ceaseless change, due to the never-ending "chain" of causes and effects has, in its broad meaning, become one of our stereotyped and oversimplified truisms, reduced, both in its formal and substantial significance, to a mere rudiment of conventional word-meaning.

As such, it may still have impressed us on the level of nursery rhymes and even of some grammar-school classics in the history of literature. (If I had to choose a deeper [poetic equivalent], I would not hesitate to select the lines from T.S. Eliot's Quartets: More

Ash on an old man's sleeve

Is all the ash the burnt roses leave.

Dust in the air suspended

Marks the place where a story ended. 

Dust inbreathed was a house --

The walls, the wainscot and the mouse,

The death of hope and despair,

This is the death of air.

There are flood and drouth

Over the eyes and in the mouth,

Dead water and dead sand

Contending for the upper hand.

The parched eviscerate soil

Gapes at the vanity of toil,

Laughs without mirth.

This is the death of earth. 

Water and fire succeed

The town, the pasture and the weed.

Water and fire deride

The sacrifice that we denied.

Water and fire shall rot

The marred foundations we forgot,

Of sanctuary and choir.

This is the death of water and fire.

In the uncertain hour before the morning

Near the ending of interminable night

At the recurrent end of the unending... More

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Massive Black Hole found, Mercury has ice

Pat Macpherson, Ashley Wells, Dhr. Seven, Pfc. Sandoval, Wisdom Quarterly

According to the Buddha there are countless inhabited worlds and world-systems (galaxies)

 

What we have been told about space, the akasha deva loka, is largely false, misleading, and isolating. We are not alone. We get information from "Others." We are not bound to this planet but are currently traveling far in outer space. When that will be revealed officially is difficult to say. Disclosure is at hand.

 

Bhutan temple shaped like space (Peterwescarey)

Currently our government and the unelected "movers and shakers" of the military-industrial complex (MIC) that runs this and other world powers is deadly serious about maintaining secrecy far above top secret. Yet pieces of the puzzle leak or are planted in the news to facilitate or thwart disclosure and the fact that our view of nearly everything in science has been distorted. 

 

Meanwhile, most of what the world's spiritual traditions say is relegated to the realm of "myth." Mars and the Moon are inhabited or in any case were in the past, so let's move there. Planets travel independent of solar systems. And inhospitable Mercury, so near our Sun, has ice, it was revealed today.

• Super-giant Black Hole baffles scientists

Buddha planet crystals (Evoljo/flickr.com)

Mars, far from being a lifeless mass with too little atmosphere or gravity to support human life, once had a rich atmosphere, water, methane-producing microbes, civilizations, and even today has enormous trees and ravenous beasts. One would do well talking to Richard C. Hoagland, Stewart Swerdlow, and Dr. Steven Greer... rather than relying on the US military, the civilian government, or NASA and its propaganda arm aided and abetted by the money-obsessed mainstream media.

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Zen Wisdom from Other Dimensions (video)

Intelligent-Infinity.com; Wisdom Quarterly

 

Wynn Free has been in conversation with a voice that says it (they) created the universe. Download the free book. How could Free determine if they are who they say? Moreover, how can we can determine it for ourselves? As Free suggests, instead of "believing" anything, let us simply be open to the possibility. As we explore the work, read the material, and listen to conference calls, we will be exposed to a new way of understanding the universe Free calls "Zen wisdom" from other dimensions.
  
Some may have feelings of unusually positive energy or tingling in the body. Is it them making contact? Who better to decide than the one experiencing such positivity? Many on the conference calls have had healings and life-transforming experiences. Here are their testimonials. If this is real, it is an epic event for times predicted by the Mayan Calendar. A good place to start might be watching the short videos on topics and issues concerning the challenges of being human at this time in history from their point of view.
  
The video messages are direct transcripts from the Sources communicating as taken from live public conference calls.  

• The Elohim Group, like Abraham-Hicks (from "The Secret" and Ask And It Is Given fame) and the less well known Galexis, are a group of higher-order beings (brahmas). They make the claim that they are the original creators of the physical universe.
• These are in addition to The Ra Group comprised of billions of graduates from this realm (off the wheel of rebirth by being reborn onto a longer lasting plane that seems unending (but is, according to the Buddha, also impermanent not that the beings there know it). This group act as an interdimensional team helping planetary populations still stuck on the wheel of rebirth (in lower worlds) evolve and graduate. 
• Ra'An is the Source currently answering questions on conference lines, a name they say is a conglomerate of the other two groups.

They channel into this dimension from Free's helpers, Daphne and Terry, women with remarkable past lives. Free's most significant contribution and how Wisdom Quarterly came to know him was not through this "intention" work, channeling, or saving the planet. It was through his work publicizing the rebirth of the great American psychic Edgar Cayce, now reborn as David Wilcock. More

• Wynn's radio show, Mondays, 6:00 pm PST (BBS)
• Earthfile's Linda Moulton Howe in Gobekli Tepe 
• AUDIO: Free and Howe visit Coast to Coast

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Buddhism and Evolution.

While Buddha didn't have much to say about the origins of life and the universe I find the Dharma to be very open to evolution. Evolution says that we evolved from other life forms and are therefore just new models of previous models of life which means that we must have genes and DNA that are similar and we do.

We humans share some 96 percent of genetic material with chimpanzees which affirms my Buddhist belief that we are irrecoverably interconnected and dependent upon other life forms. We are merely different branches on a larger tree. The tree of evolved sentient life on Earth.

As Buddhists we believe in rebirth which in my mind is a form of evolution which are both based upon cause and effect. In Buddhism we know that the consequences of our actions and certain events will stay within our "spiritual DNA" and determine what form "we" will evolve into after this current stage that we find ourselves within. And in corroboration, physics tells us that "matter is neither destroyed or created. it can only be transformed from one form to another". Which backs up the Buddhist, evolutionary teaching of rebirth.

And as a Buddhist I believe that when we die our bodies will blend back into the larger plane of existence and live on in other forms of life such as food for flowers and trees via our ashes or nutrient rich bodies decomposing in the fertile Earth. This enables other forms of life to have the best chance at thriving and continuing the evolution of life on Earth. We come from stardust and will return to stardust as the universe expands outward, reaches a stabilising point, and then reverts its motion back toward a central point resulting in its destruction, (James: the big crunch) this process again to be repeated infinitely. All forms of life depend upon each other for success and evolution. I liken it to a track and field relay event. One runner starts the race and hands a baton off to another runner once he runs his distance and then that runner goes until he goes the distance and passes the baton on to another runner, etc.

Then there is the Buddhist concept of impermanence where nothing lasts forever. We know that 90-99% percent of all life on Earth that ever lived has gone extinct which upholds my relay race example. A certain species of life might exist for awhile (dinosaurs) and then as other beings and events evolve they are eclipsed and a new life form emerges to take their place. So while in Buddhism we believe that humans have the best chance at liberation from suffering we are still nothing more than a link in the long chain of evolving species and forms of life and I take comfort in being nothing greater and nothing less than any other other sentient being.

While researching this post, however, I found the following counterpoint:

While Cooper certainly makes a valid point in stating that Buddhism has never had the problems with Darwinism that monotheism has, it does not thereby follow that one can easily harmonize the two. Buddhism certainly does talk about evolution, but never at the level of populations. Buddhist notions of evolution involve the movement of an individual karmic stream through samsara, taking on different bodies in different environments according to regular laws of cause and conditioning. The process carries no certainty of progress from lower to higher or from simple to complex, and the overall context of this is the idea of rebirth, a topic that Cooper leaves out of an otherwise fairly complete account of basic Buddhist theory and practice.

James: While I do recognize that the scientific communities understanding of evolution and the Buddhist understanding are not exactly on the same page, I think in general they are in agreement. It is not entirely accurate in my view to say (as the counterpoint postulates) Buddhist evolution is only about the individual karmic stream as Buddhism teaches that there is no such thing really as an individual. As well as teaching that there is such a concept as collective karma.

Buddhism's teaching of interconnection and interdependence do harmonize with evolution of populations. I would argue that we (as "individuals") are slightly different, (depending on karma) single cell populations of a larger "being" that is evolving both on the micro level (individuals/sentient beings/populations) but also at the macro level (existence itself). It is difficult from my point of view to separate one sentient being from another therefore I believe that it can be argued that in a way, all life evolves together. The counterpoint goes on to say that the Buddhist idea of evolution carries no certainty of progress from simple to complex.

Yet I beg to differ as in Buddhism, beings go through "lower" stages of consciousness in births (animals for example) until we secure a human birth which is the vehicle to evolve into an enlightened being. There is regression yes, as a human might act in a way that would see them reborn as, oh I don't know, a slug or something. So, yes this process may seem haphazard but I think most Buddhists would be in agreement that eventually all beings will realize liberation from suffering and realize enlightenment. Thus, in the end it is basically a process of going from "lower" to "higher" to use such blunt, dualistic terms. Besides, there is no certainty of progress in purely science based evolution either. Suppose a massive comet hits Earth and destroys not only all life but our atmosphere and all water, not much life could progress from that point. The same goes for the day when our galaxy collides with the Andromeda Galaxy, not much will survive that disruption of sentient evolution!!

True there is not a linear advancement so to speak but the science only view of evolution isn't pure linear advancement either. It is more like a tree where a branch will grow out from the trunk of the tree in a spin off of the tree but might die out eventually. The main form of the tree (the trunk), however, keeps growing and evolving. It's not simply a matter of going from point A to point B. It's more like A branches off into A1 and A2 where A1 might die off but A2 survives to reach point B where it branches off again into B1, B2 and maybe a B3. And so forth and so on.

I think I'll stop here. I've probably confused you all but if I have try reading it again, maybe it will make sense the second time. If it never makes sense then no worries, it's just another branch dying out and something else will come along later that does make sense. :)

~Peace to all beings~

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The Limitless Sky of Pure Being.

This journey that we find ourselves upon is like floating through the limitless sky. Sometimes it is blue as the bluest eyes as far as one can see and other times there are amazing sights to see such as rainbows but the sky behind them remains the same. other times it is cloudy blocking out the sun but the sun is always there, just above the clouds.

Sometimes it is black with little twinkling stars that shine at us as if especially for us but they do not belong to anyone or anything, they just are. Nor do they remain motionless although it may seem to our limited mind to be thus, they are in motion perhaps subtle motion in orbits but constantly changing position just as all things change. Our own planet twirls around in constant patterns much like ones mind follows habitual patterns. Even our giant galaxy is in flux.

Despite all this knowledge learned through science it is all empty of any inherent form or definition. In the final analysis, we really know only a tiny dust particle resting upon a pin head worth of information about the mysterious Universe. This information is nothing more than symbols that our limited minds use to try and explain our place in the Universe.

Yet try as hard as we might our place is forever in motion rotating other planets and galaxies that in turn rotate around us. We are constantly chasing the mysteries of the Universe that will always be a step ahead of our minds because mind can not perceive the totality of the vastness of Pure Being. It is like what the Native Americans say is, "Chasing the wind." It is nice to understand some of the physics of our Universe and I am indeed partly a man of science and appreciate Buddhisms embrace of science. However, sometimes science can become an obsession and an attachment to the ego that forever chases which often ends up frustrating us and creating despair and feelings of isolation.

Each moment we breath we are constantly arriving at a new present moment in this limitless sky of emptiness pregnant with beauty and joy. Sometimes we only see the dark clouds and turn around thinking that we can never make it through them. We perceive them as impenetrable obstacles that will surely crush us into a million pieces. However once we let go of our perceptions and begin to move toward them we realize that even the largest, darkest cloud (painful emotions, stress, etc.) can be penetrated and we emerge out the other side to continue on our journey. Yes passing through these clouds can be bumpy and scary at times but with a mind concentrated upon the true nature of that cloud we can realize right understanding. We can see that these clouds/obstacles are mostly made of nothing and can fade away into the limitless sky as quickly as they formed.

Perhaps some of these clouds knock us around enough that our bodies do break apart (cancer, heart attacks, etc.) and die but that is merely the end of the body, not the end of the Universe which our energy will always be apart of. We came from star dust and will return to star dust. Just like planets are born and die only to be reborn again somewhere else within the limitless Universe, so too then there is a good chance that we too will be reborn in one form or another.

Perhaps that will take the form of a gas that creates a new planet to sustain sentient beings or perhaps we will take the form of a rock, a mineral to benefits other sentient beings. Still too we could be reborn again as a sentient being living in some form not recognizable by humans off on a distant planet from Earth. The possibilities that exist within this great project of the Universe and beyond into the indescribable parinirvania are limitless.

Nothing to be or not be, this is the Self.

PHOTO CREDIT: "Light of the Dharma" by Anya Langmead. Her other works are brilliant and just as beautiful. I hope to buy a print one day. Check out the rest of her stunning work here.

~Peace to all beings~

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