7. The Universe.
Buddhism declares that everything
has causes; that there is no
permanent substratum of
existence. There is general agreement that the only
true
method of explaining any existing thing is to trace one
cause
back to the next, and so on, without the desire
or need to explain the
ultimate cause of all things. The
universe is governed by causality. There
is no chaotic
anarchy and no capricious interference.
The belief in karma and rebirth led to the assumption
of good and bad places
to which people could be born
according to their deeds. The three spheres,
or planes,
are (1) the immaterial plane where pure spirits live,
(2)
the material plane where beings with subtle bodies
live, and (3) the plane
of desire which corresponds to
our natural world, and in which the six
classes of living
beings—gods, men, departed spirits, animals,
demons,
and infernal creatures—live. Zen Buddhism in China
and Japan, however, has been rather indifferent to the
problem of the structure of the universe. Moreover,
Buddhist
intellectuals who have been educated in
modern science, however devout they
may be, do not
believe this traditional cosmology.
Buddhism does not admit God as the creator of the
universe. It asserts that
the universe is without begin-
ning and end,
although one period of the universe
consists of the four periods;
origination, duration, de-
struction, and
annihilation. These succeed one after
another in cyclic change.
