whats Buddhist's views on where humans originate?
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol7no1a.htm
Volume 7 no 1
Feature
THE EARTH PEOPLE - Part
1
People often ask, "Why are there human beings
on earth?", "Where did the ancestors of the human race come from?"
or "How did the world come about?" Questions such as these have
plagued mankind since time immemorial. The answers lie in the
Buddhist scriptures and over the next four issues, Venerable
Shen-Kai shall deliberate on them.
The ancestors of the human race came from the Light-sound heaven
(Abhasvara)
In the Ekottaragama Sutra and other Buddhist scriptures, it was
precisely stated that the human race originated from the
Light-sound heaven. Being the most intellectual of all living
things on this earth, the ancestors of the human race could not
possibly have been made from clay by some divine gods; this is a
myth. They could not have been evolved from apes; this is a
fallacy.
People often ask:
Where is the Light-sound heaven?
Why is it called the Light-sound heaven?
How did the human race come from the Light-sound
heaven?
According to Buddhism, the various celestial levels of existence,
in ascending order, are divided into three worlds, namely:
(i) Field of Desires
(ii) Field of Forms
(iii) Field of Formless
(i) Field of Desires:
Within the Field of Desires, there are:
Heaven of Four Heavenly Kings (Catummaharajika)
Thirty-three Heavens (Tavatimsa) - (there are 33 devas in this
heaven comprising 8 devas in each direction of East, West, North
and South together with the centre being that of Sakka. Sakyamuni
Buddha was once the deva-king of this heaven.)
Heaven of Devas Yama
Tusita Heaven
Nirmanarati Heaven
Paranirmitavasavartin Heave
(ii) Field of Forms:
Above the Field of Desires is the Field of Forms where beings
delight in Jhanic bliss achieved by renouncing sense-desires. This
field consists of 4 Dhyana Heavens - the Heaven of 1st Dhyana, the
Heaven of 2nd Dhyana, the Heaven of 3rd Dhyana and the Heaven of
4th Dhyana.
In the Heaven of the 1st Dhyana or Jhana, there are:
- The Heaven of Brahma's Retinue
- The Heaven of Brahma's Ministers
- The Heaven of Maha Brahma (Sakyamuni Buddha was once the heavenly
king of this heaven)
In the Heaven of the 2nd Dhyana, there are:
- The Heaven of Minor Lustre
- The Heaven of Infinite Lustre
- The Heaven of Light-sound or Radiant Lustre
In the Heaven of the 3rd Dhyana, there are:
- The Heaven of Minor Purity
- The Heaven of Infinite Purity
- The Heaven of Extensive Purity
In the Heaven of the 4th Dhyana, there are:
- The Heaven of blessing-arising
- The Heaven of blessing-attached
- The Heaven of vast-reward
- The Heaven of no thought
- The Heaven of no vexation
- The Heaven of no heat
- The Heaven of virtue-view
- The Heaven of virtue-appear
- The Heaven of form ultimate
(iii) Field of Formless:
There are 4 other heavens within this Field of Formless. The
heavens are totally devoid of matter or bodies. These are:
The Sphere of infinite space
The Sphere of boundless consciousness
The Sphere of nothingness and
The Sphere of no thought, no no-thought
From the above three Fields, there are altogether 28 levels of
heavens.
The Light-sound heaven or Radiant Lustre is at the 3rd level of the
Heaven of the 2nd Dhyana or Jhana of the Field of Forms. The beings
of this heaven communicate not through sounds, but they emit pure
radiant lights from their mouths that represent what they wish to
express and the receiving party on seeing the lights is able to
understand what they mean. As lights represent sounds, hence this
heaven is called the Light-sound heaven. It is the most unique and
wonderful level of the three heavens of the 2nd Dhyana and is also
called the "Heaven of Radiant Lustre."
Â… to be continued in the next
issue, Volume 7, Issue No. 2
© Copyright 2002.Jen Chen Buddhism Centre
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol7no2a.htm
Volume 7 no 2
Feature
THE EARTH PEOPLE - Part 2
The Arrival
People
often ask, "Why are there human beings on earth?", "Where did the
ancestors of the human race come from?" or "How did the world come
about?" Questions such as these have plagued mankind since time
immemorial. In the Abhidhamma Patika and other Buddhist scriptures,
it was precisely stated that the human race originated from the
Light-sound heaven.
In this Part 2 of The Earth People, Venerable Shen-Kai talks about
the first phase of the earth's formation and the arrival of the
"earth people".
The evolving world goes through
four stages, namely:
1. Formation
2. Existence
3. Destruction
4. Void or Emptiness
Each stage has a time span termed a "medium kalpa" [1]. Twenty
"small kalpas" make one "medium kalpa". The four stages, each
termed a "medium kalpa", make up a "great kalpa".
When the world reaches the final phase of the Stage of Destruction,
there will be great fires burning down hell, planet earth, other
stars and their cosmic worlds as well as the various heavens within
the Field of Desires. Prior reaching the heaven of the 1st Jhana of
the Field of Forms, the Devas, Bodhisattvas, Sages and those
sentient beings who have performed great virtuous deeds in the
lower worlds will naturally be saved. They have already been
ascended to the Heaven of Radiant Lustre where they will enjoy
happiness and heavenly bliss.
Following the passing of twenty small kalpas in the Stage of Void
or Emptiness, the world will return to the beginning of a new Stage
of Formation. A big golden heavenly cloud will appear from the
Heaven of Radiant Lustre and heavy rain will fall to drench the
burning worlds. After the floodwater has receded, the various
heavens below the heaven of the 1st Jhana (or Dhyana) will
reappear. The massive forces of swirling on the remaining materials
left over by the receding floodwater will gradually solidify. This
process is accompanied by the reappearance of various planets in
the sky - many are spherical in shape and others, elliptical. This
will, of course, include our earth and the orbiting moon, as well
as all the worlds below including the lowest level of hell. As the
extreme heat energies rotate and concentrate, many suns are formed
- this is what the astronomers called the stars, planets and
satellites. Within each galaxy system, the stars have their orbits
rotating around the sun, planets have their own orbits around the
stars, and satellites around the planets. The revolving stars,
planets and satellites coupled with their own rotations maintain
motions, thus creating day and night. Further, the process produces
day, month, year and the four seasons. However, it is to be noted
that the time scales are different between earth, the various
worlds of existence in heavens and other stellar systems.
For this period, a passage in the Chinese Old Text story
"Qiong-Lin" recorded similar description on the formation of the
world. The text reads:
"When earth was first separated from heaven;
pure light air float to form the sky and the polluted air sink to
form the ground;
the sun, moon and five stars are called the seven-Polis;
the heaven, earth and humans are called the three-lords; and
the sun is the master of the "Yang" [2]
with the moon as the image of the "Yin" [3]
The above description is very close to what the Buddha said.
Further, records from Buddhist scriptures match very well with what
astronomers of today have found. It is in this manner that the
world is returned to the great natural phenomenon of the
universe.
During the first phase of the formation of earth, the earth's crust
covering the ground was not fully solidified. The ground surface
appeared milky in colour. Looking from the celestial plane, the
earth shone brightly and afar. In the heaven of Radiant Lustre,
many of those celestial beings whose blissful life in the heaven
was coming to an end and who by disposition were more restless and
impetuous, on seeing the brightness, and out of curiosity, began to
travel down to the earth. They used their "clairvoyance feats" to
fly down and reached different continents of the earth. They saw
fluid springing out from the ground and they dipped their fingers
in it. They tasted the fluid and found it extremely tasty, sweet
like honey. While the fluid was so tasty, everyone craved for more.
Those who had most, their bodies became rough and heavier. They
began to lose their light illusory physical forms and their bodies
slowly formed into the material body of bone and flesh. The weight
forced them to the ground and they lost their "clairvoyance feats"
and "natural heavenly clothes", and were unable to fly through the
skies to return to the celestial world. They began to lose many of
their intrinsic celestial qualities such as celestial colours,
fragrant scent, brightness, beauty, wisdom and their innate
miraculous quality. In particular, their "clairvoyance eyes" turned
into human eyes; and their "clairvoyance ears" became human ears.
They became unable to remember their past lives. They lost their
special ability to read the minds of others. They were unable to
communicate by radiant light from their mouths and they needed to
depend on sounds from the movements of their tongues. While without
sufficient languages and vocabulary, they needed sign language to
assist them to fully communicate with each other. They became
ordinary human beings on earth. After running out of the tasty
fluid, they resorted to feed on thick weedy plants, then hard crops
from the wild. At that time, the life span of human being was long
and there was no disease or sickness. Later, they learned to plant
crops and vegetables. During the period of feeding from nature,
those who were greedy in feeding themselves acquired darker skin
colours, ranging from brown to black. Others who did not feed as
much and those who arrived later had lighter skin colour, ranging
from fair to yellow. As time went on, together with the influence
by climatic conditions of different regions (equatorial, temperate
and cold regions), various skin coloured races of people were
formed.
Â… to be continued in the next
issue, Volume 7, Issue No. 3
Note:
[1] Kalpa:
1 small kalpa = 16.8 million years
20 small kalpas = 1 medium kalpa = 336 million years
80 small kalpas = 4 medium kalpas = 1 great kalpa = 1.344 billion
years
[2] Yang:
Chinese philosophy; the masculine or positive principle in
nature
[3] Yin:
Chinese philosophy; the feminine or negative principle in
nature
© Copyright 2002.Jen Chen Buddhism Centre
http://www.jenchen.org.sg/vol7no3a.htm
Volume 7 no 3
Feature
THE EARTH PEOPLE - Part
3
From Celestial Beings to Human Beings
The Ekottaragama Sutra and other Buddhist scriptures have stated
that the human race originated from the Light-sound heaven. How do
they become the human race of today? What will happen to this earth
eventually? Venerable Shen-Kai answers these questions and more, in
this concluding serial of The Earth People. In addition we learn
that the earth, as with all phenomena in the universe, is subject
to the four stages of formation, existence, destruction and
emptiness. There is no beginning and no end, and the best way for
us to live is to emulate the spirit and virtuous deeds of the
Bodhisattvas.
In the early days, small groups of people lived in scattered
places; each group used its own language for communication. The
physical separation between the groups and the lack of efficient
means of transportation resulted in the creation of hundreds and
thousands of different languages. These people were the ancestors
of the many different races in the world today.
The early inhabitants, after losing their “celestial clothing”,
moved around naked. While they played, their emotions on love and
relationship arose resulting in sexual desires. They began to feel
shy and shameful. At that time, grass and other plants were grown
on earth and they used leaves as clothes, partly to cover their
naked bodies and partly to protect themselves from the cold.
From the perspective of the other worlds, the earthÂ’s light had
turned green, separating the seas and the land. The devas from
other celestial worlds dared not come anymore. The human beings on
earth began to live as husbands and wives. They raised children.
They lived in caves and later, they learned to build dwelling
houses. With improved conditions, the population grew. The
six-sensory organs of the human being (eyes, ears, nose, tongue,
body and mind) began to differentiate and this resulted in
affliction and vexation. The innate bright and innocent celestial
nature disappeared, and in their places arose greed, anger,
ignoranceÂ….thereby formed the basis of Asura sentient beings. The
Devas, Human and Asura are beings of the three good realms. With
the arising of the evil deeds of killing, stealing, sexual
misconductÂ… resulting in the sentient beings in the three evil
realms of animal, ghost and hell. Together, these formed the
transmigration process in the six realms of existence. With this,
all sentient beings have four modes of birth, namely,
i. Womb-born beings
(jalabuja);
ii. Egg-born beings (andaja);
iii. Moisture-born beings (samsedaja);
iv. Gaseous form-born beings (opapatika).
and thousands and millions of different life forms.
These constitute the corresponding living spheres of the seas,
land, sky and motion.
The thinking of humanity and their lives changed from simple to
complex states. Some portions of the human race turned from the
barbaric stage to a civilised world. Some portions of primitive man
that fed on raw flesh and blood of birds and beasts gradually
changed to civilisation. The introduction of farming and trading is
the beginning of agriculture and commerce sectors. Some lived on
making of farming tools, cooking utensils and production of
building materials, this was the beginning of industry. In order to
administer peace and justice arising from arguments and fights
caused by greed, anger, ignorance, killing, stealing and sexual
misconduct, virtuous and upright people were elected to maintain
law and order, and to manage the affairs of people in the society.
From these came education, social ethic and democratic government.
The advent of languages created written texts which led to the
flourishing of modern civilisation. The barbaric era ended.
Communities moved from small tribal groups into big societies, from
societies to countries, and from the competitive nature between
countries, and they further evolved through scientific progress
into the atomic age and the cosmic age.