Welcome home! Please contact lincoln@icrontic.com if you have any difficulty logging in or using the site. New registrations must be manually approved which may take several days. Can't log in? Try clearing your browser's cookies.
Buddhism Math Question
For the sake of getting the essence of my question across I'm going to keep things really simple.
Assumptions:
We are using Buddhism as the framework.
There are two main variables: X and Y
X = souls/consciousness living in this world
Y = souls/consciousness not living in this world....waiting to get in X
lower case letters = souls
T = linear time in years
AT THE BEGINNING OF LIFE ON THIS PLANET
T=1 (we're talking about like billions of years ago)
X = a+b
a and b die
T = 2
X = c+d+e+f
they all die too
T=3
X = you get the point
From my understanding of Buddhism, souls are essentially recycled between X and Y.
two scenarios arise:
As time increases, X gets larger and larger, faster and faster. At some point in time, X will be so big and will be growing so fast that Y can't keep up and the recycling process halts.
Question 1: what happens at this point
The only way recycling never stops is if Y is NOT fixed and grows with X as time goes by.
Question 2: How does Y increase?
I hate using math formulas for a question like this but I realized trying to type it up into words was taking too long.
Assumptions:
We are using Buddhism as the framework.
There are two main variables: X and Y
X = souls/consciousness living in this world
Y = souls/consciousness not living in this world....waiting to get in X
lower case letters = souls
T = linear time in years
AT THE BEGINNING OF LIFE ON THIS PLANET
T=1 (we're talking about like billions of years ago)
X = a+b
a and b die
T = 2
X = c+d+e+f
they all die too
T=3
X = you get the point
From my understanding of Buddhism, souls are essentially recycled between X and Y.
two scenarios arise:
As time increases, X gets larger and larger, faster and faster. At some point in time, X will be so big and will be growing so fast that Y can't keep up and the recycling process halts.
Question 1: what happens at this point
The only way recycling never stops is if Y is NOT fixed and grows with X as time goes by.
Question 2: How does Y increase?
I hate using math formulas for a question like this but I realized trying to type it up into words was taking too long.
0
Comments
So I have no idea what this post is about. P:
Somewhere (probably in the abhidhamma) you might find that the Buddha believed the universe existed in cycles of expansion and contraction and when it expands the number of creatures increases, when it contracts it decreases, the ones that are not in this realm of existence are in another.
The number of beings in existence is not mentioned, but it will come to a point when it will start decreasing in this realm and increasing in the other and vice-versa and so on but it is all pointless to discuss.
BTW this is unverified information, so you might want not take my word as the correct one, just as a pointer.
The universe contains a number of souls equal to some multiple of Avogadro's number. Let's call the multiplier Z and the result Avocado's number. So Z x Avogadro's number = Avocado's number. As the universe contracts, Boyle's Law stipulates that temperature and pressure will increase, so the souls will get hotter, which is to say spicier. As pressure increases, the souls get mushed up, so you have Avocado's number of spicy, mushed up souls. Any soul can be anywhere or everywhere in this spicy Avocado mix, so you can dip a body into the mix and scoop any number of souls, which are shared by all the other bodies that have dipped in the spicy Avocado dip.
It's fortunate that you posed the question in mathematical form, as the use of mathematical concepts allows us to arrive at the correct answer more quickly. In our next post, we will consider the question of whether Hell is exothermic or endothermic. While you're waiting, try the spicy avocado dip.
Firstly, I'm not sure if souls or atman or jiva are buddhist concepts at all.
Secondly, I dont know if recycling of souls ever occurs at all if there is no inclusion of the material body in the equation.
In other schools of thought soul is part of the whole ultimate reality and when the reflection of atman falls on Avidya (ignorance), atman becomes jīva — a living being with a body and senses.
In relation to your question, "how does y increase?" Y does not increase per se, but as an embodied soul it will increase in relation to the causes (avidya = karma) that transforms into effect.
I would like to note that if your equation is really a buddhist equation then it seems that buddhism also takes its root in the Vedas. Maybe scholars of buddhism would like to comment about this.
And also that your equation is not really a buddhist notion as buddhism is known in the west nowadays.
Hi and welcome!
I hope some of the answers you've already received have helped somewhat. Since I have so few math skills I won't even attempt an answer on that score.
In relation to Buddhism though, since there is no 'soul' or everlasting entity of any kind in Buddhist teachings, I'm afraid the question just doesn't make sense.
I guess think this way because of my lack of ability with math. It seems like a particularly difficult achievement to me.
That gives an explanation for the growing population of humans and well a diminishing one would be that people are hopping of the wheel of existance.
In non-algebra, what are you asking?
Your assumption is that death will not come to those who are alive as fast as those who are alive will come into being? Thats what evolutionary bottlenecks are for.
brilliant!
Nice, you are one smart wolf. :^O
so X+Y=C where C is some constant number (the number of "souls" in the universe). I suppose this must be the case according to religious Buddhism, as "souls" (or anything for that matter) are uncreated.
If X gets larger by N, Y gets smaller by N.
If Y gets larger by N, X gets smaller by N.
At that point Y goes to 0, X=C and the process stops until a soul dies and re-incarnates on another planet.
The only way recycling never stops is if Y is NOT fixed and grows with X as time goes by.
Y (or X) can't go above C. When either happens, the other becomes uninhabited.