In this post, we explore Citta’s role in the expansion of the universe.
In the 1920s, Edwin Hubble was among the first to recognize that the universe contains galaxies beyond the Milky Way. He helped astronomers realize that we live in an expanding universe in which galaxies are moving apart. Furthermore, “on March 15, 1929, Hubble published his observation that the farthest galaxies are moving away faster than the closest ones.” In other words, the universe is not only expanding, but the expansion is also accelerating. By being the first to observe that the universe’s expansion is accelerating, Hubble occupies a “special place in the history of astronomy.”
As the NASA image shows, scientists believe the universe consists of two categories: a dark realm and another realm composed of atomic matter. Furthermore, the dark realm comprises 71.4% dark energy and 24% dark matter. The remaining 4.6% belongs to the atomic slice.
According to NASA, “dark matter and dark energy are mysterious substances that affect and shape the cosmos, and scientists are still trying to figure them out.” Furthermore, dark energy is, “in physical cosmology and astronomy, an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. Its primary effect is to drive the accelerating expansion of the universe.”
Our discussion of the expansion of the universe includes only dark energy, as the Buddha never talks of any mysterious matter that he cannot perceive directly.
Our discussion of the expansion of the universe is limited to dark energy, as the Buddha never speaks of any mysterious matter that he cannot perceive directly. It also takes a crooked path through what the Buddha teaches about Nirvana.
Nirvana (Chinese: 涅槃), according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, is “in Sanskrit, ‘extinction,’ the earliest and most common term describing the soteriological goal of Buddhism.”
According to The Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen, debates persist over what exactly Nirvana extinguishes, both within and between Hinayana and Mahāyāna Buddhism. Additionally, Buddhists in the West and the East also differ. However, we do not discuss the controversial aspect of Nirvana. Instead, we will let Buddha’s own words guide us on the meaning of Nirvana.
According to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, Buddha says the following about Nirvana:
“There is that plane where there is neither earth, water, fire, nor air, neither the sphere of infinite space…nor the sphere of neither perception nor nonperception, neither this world nor another, nor both together, neither the sun nor the moon.“
Here, O monks, I say that there is no coming or going, no staying, no passing away or arising. It is not something fixed; it moves not on; it is not based on anything. This is indeed the end of suffering.”
By separating the “there” from the “here” of Nirvana, Buddha confirms that Nirvana has two levels.
A) The “There” of Nirvana
The first thing to understand about the “there” of Nirvana is that, by calling the “there” of Nirvana “there,” Buddha indicates that it is not the level of Nirvana he is in.
In Buddhism, earth, water, fire, and air are collectively known as the four great elements. Known in Romanized Sanskrit as mahabhuta (Chinese: 四大), they are, according to The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism, “in Sanskrit and Pali, the ‘great elements;’ or ‘major elementary qualities’ of which the physical world of materiality is composed.”
By saying that these four great elements do not exist in the “there” of Nirvana, Buddha gives the reason why the “there‘ of Nirvana has “neither this world nor another, nor both together, neither the sun nor the moon.” To put it simply, the material universe does not exist in the “there” of Nirvana.
As discussed in Post 1, the universe vanished from Adyashahti upon his enlightenment. In other words, the “there” of Nirvana, where the material universe does not exist, is the realm of the enlightened.
The “Sphere of infinite space” and the “sphere of neither perception nor nonperception” are the names of two of the highest celestial realms within the twenty-eight celestial realms. Furthermore, the twenty-eight celestial realms are the highest destinations of the Six Destinations of reincarnation (Chinese: 六趣). By excluding these two highest realms of reincarnation from the “there” of Nirvana, Buddha indicates that the lower destinations of reincarnation are also absent from the “there” of Nirvana. Since only the enlightened are liberated from reincarnation, this reaffirms that the “there” of Nirvana is for enlightened beings.
B) The “Here” of Nirvana
By calling the “here” of Nirvana “here,” Buddha makes clear that the “here” of Nirvana is the higher level of Nirvana that he, as a Tathāgata, inhabits. Indeed, the sentence, “This is indeed the end of suffering,” indicates the finality of the Buddhist path.
That the “here” of Nirvana is the final step in the Buddhist path can also be understood from the Buddha’s descriptions of the “here” of Nirvana as having “no coming or going; no staying, no passing away or arising.” As discussed in Post 21, only those who have achieved the “ultimate wisdom that is free from the subject-object distinction (Romanized Sanskrit: grahyagrahakavikalpa; Chinese: 所取能取分別).” Furthermore, as discussed in the same post, achieving the “ultimate wisdom that is free from the subject-object distinction” means understanding “things as they are” and becoming a Tathāgata, such as our historical Shakyamuni Buddha.
So, now that we understand the two levels of Nirvana and who they are for, how can we understand the meaning of the remaining descriptions of the “here” of Nirvana as a place that “is not something fixed; it moves not on” that requires a Tathāgata to realize?
Let’s have science help us.
In this video lecture, “A Universe From Nothing,” Dr. Lawrence Krauss explains that Edwin Hubble discovered that the universe is expanding. When Hubble looked at the sky, he saw that other galaxies were moving away from him, indicating an expanding universe. At the same time, Hubble felt he was at the center of the universe because he was not moving while all other galaxies were moving away from him.
Dr. Krause then used a graphic presentation, starting about 9 minutes into the video, to show that this is true for any observer anywhere in the universe. In other words, wherever an individual stands in the universe, the place he is standing on always feels like the center of the universe and “moving not on.” At the same time, however, he sees all other galaxies as “not something fixed” because they are all moving away from him. In other words, the description “not something fixed; it moves not on” describes what scientists call the expansion of the universe.
Since scientists think dark energy drives the universe’s expansion, and Buddha realized that the driver of the universe’s expansion is the Ultimate Reality, it follows that dark energy and the Citta are equivalent.
From the Buddhist perspective, it is only reasonable that the universe cannot expand itself. As discussed when discussing the Five Aggregates, the universe is observer-dependent. Indeed, while observers can observe, they certainly cannot expand what they are watching at the same time.
However, equating dark energy with Citta solves one of the most intractable problems in physics known as the Cosmological Constant Problem. We will discuss that problem in a future post.
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