Buddhism is a religion that focuses on reaching personal enlightenment and detaching oneself from the endless circle of reincarnation known as Samsara. Buddha’s teachings center around the importance of all things being impermanent and changing, of being detached from worldly desires and material possessions, and of being truly in the Now.
Buddha spoke about his vision of the end of the world known as “The Sermon of the Seven Suns”. According to this vision, the earth will go through seven stages of destruction known as the “seven suns”. Presently we are in the first sun, but after this sun, Buddha said that there will be no more rain and, “All seedlings and vegetation, all plants, grasses, and trees dry up, wither away and cease to be”. Thus the earth’s animals and all life will cease to be in the second sun. In the third sun all rivers dry up and in the fourth sun great lakes cease to be. The fifth sun brings about the drying up of the oceans; “After the appearance of the fifth sun, monks, the water in the great ocean is not the measure of a finger-joint”.
In the sixth sun, great smoke appears on earth coming from mountains (volcanos). Then the seventh sun appears bringing the following;
“This great earth, and Sineru, the monarch of mountains, flare and blaze, and become one mass of flame. And now, from earth and mountains burning and consuming, a spark is carried by the wind and goes as far as the worlds of God; and the peaks of Mount Sineru, burning, consuming, perishing, go down in one vast mass of fire and crumble for an hundred, yea, five hundred leagues. And of this great earth, monks, and Sineru, the monarch of mountains, when consumed and burnt, neither ashes nor soot remains” (The Sermon of the Seven Suns).
According to Buddhism, once we have reached personal enlightenment, we will no longer be reborn. Buddha promised that Nirvana is a state of being free from suffering, greed, anger and hatred. After one reaches Nirvana, one becomes part of the whole and will never be reborn again. If we are indeed nearing the second sun, Buddha would probably recommend that we all start reading up on the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path.
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I do appreciate Lord Buddha’s concepts that go well with modern cosmology. The end of this world by the sun that goes the same way modern astrophysics proposed and the cyclical events of universe that goes pretty much the same way of big crunch, big bang and multiverses scenario.
What scientist predicts is similar to this explanation. The Sun will become a RED Giant in 7.6 Billion years . It will expand up to the Earths orbit. The Earth will be vaporized in the Sun’s outer layers. this is a widely accepted concept in astronomy.The same thing is preached by lord Buddha 2600 years ago in different words.
I had never read this before, thanks for sharing! I follow buddhism closely but this part is new to me. Keep up the wonderful writing!
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