Buddha's dispciple visits another planet

NMADDP

This is an interesting one. It is about MAHĀMAUDGALYĀYANA, a disciple of the Buddha, visits land of the giants.

http://online.sfsu.edu/rone/Buddhism/maudgalyayana.htm

There are alien buddhists out there, and they are giants too .

Citta

A ) You are not required to accept the literal reality of Buddhist cosmology. That cosmology inherited the cosmology of ancient Bharat which includes modern India, Pakistan and Burma...It can have significance in the same way that the Garden of Eden has significance... but it does not make a scientific or historical statement about the universe.
B ) Within the mythos of Buddhist cosmology there is no indication of alien civilisations as we moderns understand the term..these are other realms of the mind.

DairyLama

Citta said:

Within the mythos of Buddhist cosmology there is no indication of alien civilisations as we moderns understand the term..these are other realms of the mind.

There are actually quite a lot of references in the suttas to different world systems, which sound very much like what we would think of as alien civilisations.

Like here for example in SN56.11:
"Thus at that moment, at that instant, at that second, the cry spread as far as the brahmā world, and this ten thousandfold world system shook, quaked, and trembled, and an immeasurable glorious radiance appeared in the world, surpassing the divine majesty of the devas."

Citta

But then you have to look at the Vedic origin of those worlds , the idea of which was borrowed by Buddhism, because that was the conceptual common coinage of the day.
It becomes clear that the Buddha borrowed those concepts and used them to his own ends.
The question of the ontological reality of these realms was not a question that could be asked within the prevailing world view of the time.
It would not have computed.
Furthermore the idea of the devas being outshone etc are also common in the Vedas, and in Jain and Vaisnava scriptures..so either " The Brahma realms " are remarkably vulnerable to events triggered by different and disparate teachers in this realm..or we are dealing with a stock of myths common in the Indian subcontinent and which are poetic and/or address mind states with symbolic language.

DairyLama

Citta said:

But then you have to look at the Vedic origin of those worlds , the idea of which was borrowed by Buddhism, because that was the conceptual common coinage of the day.

Possibly so, but it does appear from the suttas that people believed in other worlds as actual places, in much the same way that we do. So I'm puzzled by your suggestion that they viewed them in a psychological "realms of the mind" way.

Citta

Was that my suggestion...? Are " mind states " explainable entirely by psychology ?

caz

Its amazing how far the mind can travel when you have perfected it

Jeffrey

A story of my teacher when she was a nun in Tibet with a lama and some westerners. The lama was talking about Mt. Meru and how it was at the center of the world. The audience hummed about that and it came forth that the westerners said that it was proved that there was no Mt. Meru at the center. He conferred briefly, "is this true". And then he just went on 'oh ok'. He didn't bat an eye at his cosmology being overturned.

That may just be a story, but it inspires me because he had non-attachment to his belief system. I would like to have that non-attachment going into the changing world where I will be challenged. It did not upset him or make him argue.

Patr

Jeffrey said:

A story of my teacher when she was a nun in Tibet with a lama and some westerners. The lama was talking about Mt. Meru and how it was at the center of the world. The audience hummed about that and it came forth that the westerners said that it was proved that there was no Mt. Meru at the center. He conferred briefly, "is this true". And then he just went on 'oh ok'. He didn't bat an eye at his cosmology being overturned.



So next when Westerners say, " Theres no ghosts, or rebirth or gods or Karma, because it cant be proven" then he might again say "oh ok".

Think the Lama is really wise, just move on, cos they cant be made to comprehend, no end!!

Citta

caz said:

Its amazing how far the mind can travel when
you have perfected it

When you have perfected your mind ? How does that work then ?