พระพุทธเจ้าตรัส Multiverse และ Big Bang ก่อนวิทยาศาสตร์ 2500 ปี!?
Summary
Buddhist cosmology describes world systems arising and dissolving in cycles, which can be set beside the Big Bang and the Big Crunch.
The idea of world systems beyond counting can be set beside the multiverse in current physics.
A bhadda-kappa is an aeon with five Buddhas, which the texts describe as exceptionally rare.
Key points
The resemblance is in the shape, not the mechanism
The teaching describes cycles of arising and dissolution without offering a physical cause. Different question.
It should not be read as scientific prediction
The purpose of the teaching is the end of suffering; reading it as an astronomy text mistakes what it is for.
What is striking is the nerve of the scale
Speaking of uncountable world systems in an age that thought the earth was flat is an extraordinary enlargement of scale.
The bhadda-kappa gives the present its weight
If an aeon with Buddhas is genuinely rare, being born while the teaching still stands is not something to waste.