(and not so commonly) experienced states of mind.
Buddhist cosmology is at once a map of different
realms of existence and a description of all possible ex-
periences. This can be appreciated by considering more
fully the Buddhist understanding of the nature of
karma. Essentially the world we live in is our own cre-
ation: We have created it by our own karma, by our
deeds, words, and thoughts motivated either by greed,
hatred, and delusion or by nonattachment, friendli-
ness, and wisdom. The cosmos is thus a reflection of
our actions, which are in turn the products of our
hearts and minds. For in this fathom-long body with
its mind and consciousness, said the Buddha, lies the
world, its arising, its ceasing, and the way leading to
its ceasing (Samyuttanikayai, 62).
Essentially the states of mind that give rise to
unwholesome actions—strong greed, hatred, and
delusion—lead to rebirth in the unhappy destinies or
realms of misfortune. A life dominated by the mean
spiritedness of greed leads to rebirth as a hungry ghost,
a class of being tormented by unsatisfied hunger; a life
dominated by the mental hell of hatred and anger leads
to rebirth in one of the hell realms where one suffers
terrible pain; while a life dominated by willful igno-
rance of the consequences of one’s behavior leads to
rebirth as an animal, a brute existence ruled by the
need to eat and reproduce. On the other hand, the gen-
erous, friendly, and wise impulses that give rise to
wholesome actions lead to rebirth in the happy realms
as a human being or in one of the six realms of the
gods immediately above the human realm, where be-
ings enjoy increasingly happy and carefree lives. By de-
veloping states of deep peace and contentment through
the practice of calm meditation, and by developing
profound wisdom through insight meditation, one is
reborn as a brahmain a realm of pure form or form-
lessness, which is a reflection of those meditations.
In short, if one lives like an animal, one is liable to
reborn as an animal; if one lives like a human being,
one will be reborn as a human being; if one lives like
a god, one will be reborn as a god. But just as in day-
to-day experience one fails to find any physical or men-
tal condition that is reliable and unchangeable, that can
give permanent satisfaction and happiness, so, even if
one is reborn in the condition of a brahma living
eighty-four thousand eons, the calm and peaceful con-
dition of one’s existence is not ultimately lasting or se-
cure. Just as ordinary happiness is in this sense DUHKHA
(SUFFERING) or unsatisfactory, so too are the lives of
the brahmas,even though they experience no physical
or mental pain.
Nirvana and buddhas
The only escape from this endless round is the direct
understanding of the FOUR NOBLE TRUTHS—suffer-
ing, its cause, its cessation, and the PATHleading to
its cessation—and the attainment of nirvana. Signifi-
cantly nirvana is not included in the thirty-one realms
of rebirth, since these define the conditioned world of
space and time, and nirvana is precisely not a place
where one can be reborn and where one can exist for
a period of time. Nirvana is the unconditioned, the
deathless, beyond space and time, known directly at
the moment of enlightenment. Some beings may find
the path to nirvana by their own efforts and become a
PRATYEKABUDDHA(solitary buddha), but most must
await the appearance in the world of a samyaksambud-
dha(perfectly and fully awakened one), like Gautama,
the buddha of the current age. Such buddhas tread the
ancient path of all buddhas, and can show others the
way to release. Yet they appear in the world only rarely,
though views on precisely how rarely vary. According
to the Theravada, some eons like our present are aus-
picious (bhadda) with a total of five buddhas, of whom
Gautama (Pali, Gotama) was the fourth and Maitreya
(Pali, Metteyya) will be the fifth. Other eons may have
no buddhas at all.
A buddha’s sphere of influence is known as his bud-
dha-field(buddhaksetra) and is not confined to the
particular world system into which he is born. The
Theravada sources (e.g., Visuddhimaggaxiii, 31) dis-
tinguish his (1) field of birth,which extends to the ten
thousand world systems that tremble when he is con-
ceived, born, gains enlightenment, teaches, and attains
final nirvana; (2) field of authority,which extends to
the hundred billion world systems throughout which
the utterance of the great protective discourses (ma-
haparitta) is efficacious; and (3) field of experience,
which potentially extends to infinite numbers of world
systems.Mahayana perspectives
The basic cosmology outlined above with some varia-
tion is assumed by the Mahayana sutras, as well as the
authors of the systematic treatises of Indian Mahayana
Buddhist thought. However, the Mahayana cosmolog-
ical vision increasingly expands its attention beyond
“our” world system and our buddha to include other
buddhas and their spheres of influence. Early Buddhist
writings and the non-Mahayana schools such as the
Theravada and Sarvastivada emphasize the impossi-
bility of the appearance in the world of two buddhas
at the same time (for how could there be two “bests”?).COSMOLOGY