In Hindu cosmology, time is divided into four Yugas (Satya, Treta, Dvapara, Kali), with Satya Yuga, the first epoch described as a kind of utopian golden age and Kali Yuga as an age of decline and moral degradation—the one we are said to be living in now. My question is: - Does Buddhism have a similar concept of cyclical ages, especially a notion of a "golden age" vs. an "age of decline"? - If so, how is this described in Buddhist texts?

The wikipedia page for [Buddhist Cosmology](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cosmology#Origins) has a section titled "Origins" in which the following sentence occurs: >No single sūtra sets out the entire structure of the universe, but in several sūtras the Buddha describes other worlds and states of being, and other sūtras describe the origin and destruction of the universe. I am interested in reading these sūtras, in which the Buddha describes other worlds and states of being, but I am not sure what they are. Does anyone know what sūtras the author of the article is referring to?

Has any expert tried to draw correlation between the modern cosmology and the Buddhist cosmology? The modern cosmology talks about other planets, galaxies, black holes and the observable universe. So where does that leave the 31 planes of existence? I have always tried to map where it fits. Do the 31 planes of existence constitute the planes that are on and above planet earth? The Buddhist scripture mentions thousands of Cakkavala or world system, does it imply innumerable number of planets similar to that of earth and each having its own 31 planes of existence? So are these other 'earths' so to speak, in other galaxies or extremely distant from our planet earth? What is going on?

This arose from [a comment](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/50712/how-did-the-original-mental-event-arise-according-to-dharmak%c4%abrtis-argument-for#comment84533_50721) that the Buddhist position on the beginning of such unanswerables is that they are beginningless. Incidentally, in [this answer](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/questions/24173/understanding-beginningless/24175#24175) , it was pointed out that the Pali terms “without discoverable” and “without knowable” were used to indicate that there were no definitive answers instead. My questions are as below: 1. Was this beginningless position a later creation and posited as a response to the question on how it all started? Any reference, if any, is appreciated. 2. Could this position be the result of a desire to defend why the Buddha did not give definitive answers and instead ended up in a pickle too (as pointed out by the linked answer above)? Whether it is *beginningless* or *without discoverable/knowable beginning*, the fact is there is **no definitive answers**. Thus, the same criticism would be leveraged against Buddhism. Some may argue that since Buddhism is not strictly a religion or ideology, such criticisms are irrelevant. However, as a Buddhist, I can’t help but wonder if there is a tenable/reasonable argument that I can adopt when pressed on these matters by outsiders?

Good evening, everyone! I'm curious about the Buddhist worldview and would like answers to these sixteen worldview questions. I rely heavily on James W. Sire's worldview questions from his book *The Universe Next Door*. If anyone is interested and willing, I could also gather your answers to these questions over Zoom or Microsoft Teams. There would be no proselytizing on my end. I'm simply curious. Many thanks for considering my request! 1. What is prime reality? 2. What is the nature of external reality, i.e., the world around us? 3. Are there absolute truths? If so, what is its source? 4. What is Good, and does it have a source? 5. What is Evil, and does it have a source? 6. Where did the universe come from? 7. What is a human being? 8. Why or how is it possible to know anything at all? 9. What is the meaning of human history? 10. What is the human problem? 11. What is the purpose of life? 12. What is the significance of the integration of iconography within Buddhism? 13. How do we know what is right and wrong? 14. Are right and wrong, good and evil, absolute concepts? 15. What happens to a person at death? 16. Will the universe as we know it come to an end? If so, how and why?

According to buddhism, there exists 31 "planes of existence". > Theravada Buddhist cosmology describes the 31 planes of existence in which rebirth takes place. The order of the planes are found in various discourses of the Gautama Buddha in the Sutta Pitaka. For example, in the Saleyyaka Sutta of the Majjhima Nikaya the Buddha mentioned the planes above the human plane in ascending order.[1] In several sūtras in the Anguttara Nikaya, the Buddha described the causes of rebirth in these planes in the same order. In Buddhism, the devas are not immortal gods that play a creative role in the cosmic process. They are simply elevated beings who had been reborn in the celestial planes as a result of their words, thoughts, and actions. Usually, they are just as much in bondage to delusion and desire as human beings, and as in need of guidance from the Enlightened One. The Buddha is the "teacher of devas and humans (satthadevamanussanam). The devas come to visit the Buddha in the night. The Devatasamyutta and the Devaputtasamyutta of the Samyutta Nikaya gives a record of their conversations. The devaputtas are young devas newly arisen in heavenly planes, and devatas are mature deities. > >There are more than 10,000 crore (100 billion) solar systems in our Galaxy, and more than 10,000 crore (100 billion) galaxies in our Universe. There are many Universes in space. Past and future lives may occur on other planets. The data for the 31 planes of existence in samsara are compiled from the Majjhima Nikaya, Anguttara Nikaya, Samyutta Nikaya, Digha Nikaya, Khuddaka Nikaya, and others. The 31 planes of existence can be perceived by a Buddha's Divine eye (dibbacakkhu) and some of his awakened disciples through the development of jhana meditation. According to the suttas, a Buddha can access all these planes and know all his past lives as well as those of other beings. > > Buddhist cosmology of the Theravada school - Wikipedia Hence the question: **Are these 31 planes of existence actually existing all around us RIGHT HERE where we are (as in 31 'dimensions' per se), or are they belonging in different planets and galaxies far apart from each other? Since 'planes' can also mean 'dimensions' if viewed from such a perspective.** Please verify! Thanks for your patience!

Do they exist in the same terrestrial world as ours, or is there a realm where they exist that is only accessible once you progress up the spiritual ladder?

**This is NOT a duplicate question**. Have seen other similar questions but their questions were very different from what I am about to ask. The modern Cosmology is clear. 13.8 billion years ago, the Universe started to form, then 4.5 billion years ago the Earth was formed, then 3 billion years ago primitive forms of life was created, then 200,000 years ago early humans came to existence, and finally we have modern human civilizations about 5000 years ago. This is in sharp contrast to Buddha's claims of having past lives hundreds of thousands of years ago, millions of years ago, billions of years ago, trillions of years ago, etc when there was either no life or no humans. Buddha already lived close to the formation of human civilization, he couldn't have possibly lived so many lives given in vivid details in Jataka tales and other scriptures when there were no human civilizations or humans to begin with. So, how do Buddhists deal with this? Do they deny science? Do they think that millions of years ago, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, there was Buddha? Do they think when the Universe wasn't even formed trillions of years ago, Buddha lived a life? If you guys accept Science, does that mean Buddha lied all along? Did he just make up those stories to attract more followers?

I happen to come across the description of Cakkavala as per Buddhist Cosmology from the palikanon website in the link here . After going through the information in that link, I have below questions and thought of posting it here to get an answer from the experts here. 1. Where is Mount Sineru located, and can we see it with our eyes? 2. Does a Cakkavala constitute a galaxy or does it imply our observable universe or something else? 3. Are there finite or infinite number of Cakkavala's? 4. This link here mentions that the Buddha is only born in this Cakkavala, my question is why not in other Cakkavala's? 5. Is the physical universe a part of Cakkavala or is it vice versa? I get that these sort of questions are amongst the imponderables, but curious to know. Waiting to hear from the experts.

Are there any instances of people unwillingly capturing photographic evidence of devas/angels? Could the UFO sightings or encounters have been angels or devas(specifically terrestrial devas) all along? Can some one please shed some light on this?

I know its an imponderable or unconjecturable to us putthujjanas, but do any of the 31 realms have corporeal existence or are they states of mind (mind-made) or a mixture of both? For example, does tusita heaven physically exist, or is it purely a state of mind? If tusita does exist physically then how can one get there? Is the earthly plane and the laws of physics also mind-made?

I read the description of Cakkavala in the tipitaka, and it is translated to the term "world system". It is said there are infinite Cakkavala's and light rays emanating from its sun can illuminate the whole Cakkavala, whereas light rays emanated from the Buddha can illuminate all Cakkavala's. Wow!!! And each Cakkavala has a sun, a moon and a mount sineru. I have few questions around this: 1. Does this imply that a Cakkavala is equivalent to a solar system as per the modern cosmology? 2. Why the description of Cakkavala does not take into account other planets in the solar system? 3. Is mount Sineru visible only to those who have advanced mental faculties and have gained the divine eye? Just wondering how come an entire mountain is not visible to us? 4. If mount Sineru was visible to all, then it should be visible to the naked eye from a person living anywhere in India, right?

I am [rereading this answer](https://buddhism.stackexchange.com/a/47512/23920) and I am confused by the quote: >when this exists - that exists. Arising of this leads to arising of that. When this doesn't exist - that doesn't exist. Cessation of this leads to cessation of that. Let's suppose this is true, and let's consider an event X. By the statement, we should be able to find an event Y which caused X. Similarly for Y till ad infinitum. I think it is reasonable to assume that if we have a set of events in the present X_1,X_2,X_3..., when we repeat this process , all of their "root events" will start to become the same because things happen in context of each other. For example, I give my friend 5 dollars, then I also lose 5 dollars, now going back a step would go into the event of how the thought of me giving my friend 5 dollars came into our mind or my mind. Now, we apply extrapolate this idea through all events in the present, then it would be that they're all rooted at a very small set of events. And if one is to yet to apply the claim again, it maybe that all these events are caused by the same event. So, what would be these fundamental events which led the universe into motion according to buddhism?

I've been reading up on cosmology and am curious if Lord Suyama of Yama heaven and Lord Yama as judge of the recently deceased are the same figure. The latter is often said to reside in either the hell or preta realms, but since he is also a vaimanikapreta, I can't help but wonder if his time in the higher planes equates to this third level of heaven. Or are the same names simply coincidence? Any thoughts/sources are much appreciated.

Did the Buddha (Shakamuni) say another Buddha will appear in the future? Which text does that appear in? didn't he say he would not be born again? I recall that's what he said.

One of my physics professors implied that Buddhism is false because, unlike the Abrahamic religions, Buddhism claims a cyclical cosmology. He argued that since the universe is expanding and its expansion is speeding up, the universe cannot be cyclical. I was under the impression that the idea of a cyclical universe was carried over from Hinduism into Buddhism implicitly and that the Buddha never made any claims regarding cosmology. Did the Buddha suggest a cyclical universe?

This question is further to my last question on Nirvana and evolution, and considering the answer ... If we believe the Buddhist cosmology to be true and Nirvana as an *evolutionary* next step, then why is it that very few people actually tread the path to it? Considering the world religious demographics only 7% of worlds population follow Buddhism and of those who call themselves Buddhists maybe just 1% actually want or strive towards Nirvana. Is intense suffering an inevitable step to begin striving towards Nirvana? If Buddhist understanding of the human condition and psychology is true, why do only a limited few humans want or strive towards Nirvana? If Buddhist cosmology is true, why do humans not en masse go on the Buddhist path?

Why in Buddhism plants are not recognized as sentient beings? Can it be immoral to kill a plant? Can a plant be reincarnated as an animal? Is a plant alive? **Edit:** I read somewhere a theory according to which Buddhism did not consider plants as sentient beings, part of saṃsāra, because although they are alive they do not have the 5 khandhas and especially they do not have consciousness (*viññāṇa*) although they have perception (*saññā*). A sunflower perceives the sun and reacts by turning towards it but it is not conscious of its perception, it has no metacognition. I found this idea interesting but I don't know how true it is since Buddhism seems to define consciousness more as what allows discrimination than as what allows metacognition.

https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato How could humans have lived 80 000 years in the past? And how could we live 10 years in the future, with people reaching sexual maturity at five, when life expectancy is constantly increasing?

How can we correlate Buddhist cosmology with astronomical cosmology? Basically I have following questions. 1. Moon is considered 51 yojan in height and 50 is the sun. Sun is self illuminated and heat is the outward. Inner is made of diamond. But with modern physics sun is extremely large star fueled by nuclear reactions. Moreover are stars and planets are small elements or are stars like sun as in astronomy? 2. Is Earth flat or sphere? 3. Where can you find the great Mahameru mountain? In science there's an opinion of center of the Galaxy. But it's an opinion and not a theoretical teaching. 4. Can a loka dathu have one moon and sun each or more? Sun and moon is rotating around great Mahameru Mountain. Then how can we correlate that with moon orbiting around earth and Earth orbiting around sun. 5. Is Jambudweepa mentioned is the entire earth or is a part of Earth? Where can we find the other 4 continents. Since there are lots of opinion based answers on internet, I would like if there is a more theoretical answer. Thank you all. May you all attain Nirvana. Theruvan Saranai.