what is the mount sumeru? is that possible it is earth's magnetic field?

absolute

is there any scientific or physicist in here, sorry for my pseudo scientific attitude. according to the sutra mount meru is like a hourglass and unseen by human eyes. it seems more like earth's magnetic field to me here is the link of sumeru http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumeru and the photo of earth's magnetic field http://physics.uoregon.edu/~jimbrau/BrauImNew/Chap07/FG07_19.jpg http://uvs-model.com/pictures/earth_magnetosphere.jpg what do you think? or if you have different point of view, what is the mount sumeru and where is it?

Chaz

I think Mt Meru is largely allegorical. It can apply to practice, but to pursue parallels in science is a waste of time, IMO.

vinlyn

Yes, Chaz! Thank you!

Chaz

vinlyn said:

Yes, Chaz! Thank you!

Thank YOU!

To be honest, I think that at one time The Mt Meru discription may have been used to describe the physical form on the universe, but then, in the world that th Buddha lived in, the physical form of the universe was probably not very important. It's more beneficial to us, today, I think, to view it as allegory

vinlyn

Many cultures, including many Indian groups, have such a thing inside the earth, usually fro which they emerge. It's just an earth-centric belief that is pre-science.

absolute

yeah thanks chaz for your honest answer i daresaid sorry for my pseudoscientific attitude and also i am ashamed of asking question like this and i feel myself as a kind of person who is very superstitious and try to prove things with fairy tails and if science haven't proven something yet the person hope that he or she can find answer from his or her belief and religion:P.actually i do love science, especially in physics, and strict myself that try to don't put myself into chimerical things( superstitious fairy tales), but sometimes life without fantasy seems boring :P

anataman

Don't be ashamed @ absolute you were just enquiring - how do you sift through the myth, superstition science and pseudoscience? You ask a question. If you are diligent you find wisdom. That is what the buddha did! Many questions fail to provide a satisfactory answer, some will provide insight, some will be awesome and some will make you cry or laugh out loud.

BhikkhuJayasara

Im not familiar with this mountain as it seems thAt its from the sutras not the pali, but there are some fascinating stuff in the original texts in relation to science.

The whole world system thing is fascinating, especially when you have people like bhikkhu bodhi saying it seems to be equal to gaxies. Then you have the one sutta that seems to describe a black hole. Its all fun stuff, not really important to the practice, but interesting none the less.

anataman

If it is relevant the earths magnetic field is perceived to be like this:



Not sure it corresponds to any mountain I know

BhikkhuJayasara

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn56/sn56.046.than.html

SN 56.46 PTS: S v 454 CDB ii 1870Andhakara Sutta: Darkness translated from the Pali byThanissaro Bhikkhu

There is, monks, an inter-cosmic[1] void, an unrestrained darkness, a pitch-black darkness, where even the light of the sun & moon — so mighty, so powerful — doesn't reach.

."When this was said, one of the monks said to the Blessed One, "Wow, what a great darkness! What a really great darkness! Is there any darkness greater & more frightening than that?"

"There is, monk, a darkness greater & more frightening than that.""And which darkness, lord, is greater & more frightening than that?""Any brahmans or contemplatives who do not know, as it actually is present, that 'This is stress'; who do not know, as it actually is present, that 'This is the origination of stress'... 'This is the cessation of stress'... 'This is the path of practice leading to the cessation of stress"

absolute

from wiki: According to Vasubandhu's Abhidharmakośabhāṣyam, Sumeru is 80,000 yojanas tall. The exact measure of the yojana is uncertain, but some accounts put it at about 24,000 feet, or approximately 4-1/2 miles, but other accounts put it at about 7-9 miles. It also descends beneath the surface of the surrounding waters to a depth of 80,000 yojanas, being founded upon the basal layer of Earth. Sumeru is often used as a simile for both size and stability in Buddhist texts.
Sumeru is said to be shaped like an hourglass, with a top and base of 80,000 yojanas square, but narrowing in the middle (i.e., at a height of 40,000 yojanas) to 20,000 yojanas square.
Sumeru is the polar center of a mandala-like complex of seas and mountains. The square base of Sumeru is surrounded by a square moat-like ocean, which is in turn surrounded by a ring (or rather square) wall of mountains, which is in turn surrounded by a sea, each diminishing in width and height from the one closer to Sumeru. There are seven seas and seven surrounding mountain-walls, until one comes to the vast outer sea which forms most of the surface of the world, in which the known continents are merely small islands. The known world, which is on the continent of Jambudvipa, is directly south of Sumeru.
it is said that mount sumeru is shape like a hourglass and may be metaphorically said mountain to correspond ancient people's knowledge,
and magnetic field's
anyway just a hypothesis

lobster

Don't confuse rebirth with evolution or Buddhist cosmology with science. Dukkha.
Start there. Overcome it, that is the mountain. Others are mole hills.

Just my little mole hill . . .