The Dooms Day of Earth and Origin of Humans

Dr. Tin Htut, Sheffield, UK

( Reference: the Fifteenth discourse of Patthana Desana given by the late Ven. Ashin Zeneka Bivamsa of Amarapura, Burma

The teachings of Lord Buddha, a human philosopher of unexceeding quality who developed omniscience after undergoing ultra purification of mind and body, mentioned that the universe and all life forms, visible and invisible are undergoing a continuous process of arising and dissolution in infinitely large and small scales. There is no ultimate beginning and no ultimate end, but the arising of humans on this earth in a relative sense, can be traced back. The Dooms-Day can also be predicted although it is not the ultimate end. It is only a part of the continuous flux of the natural process that goes on indefinitely.

The composition of infinitely small particles forms a complex physical structure which harbours four mental components of living beings ( perceptive, cognitive, reactive and conscious mind). They are all in a continuous flux of arising and dissolution. Similarly, smaller particles combined into larger particles to form the universe and the reversal of which results in its destruction. This nature of arising and dissolution obeys definite laws which cannot be influenced.

Life forms continue indefinitely by the association of physical and mental components which is the result of four mental taints or defilements, namely: greed (passions for sensuous objects and for a continued existence), ill will (anger and hatred), mental sloth or torpor, and ignorance of the four Noble Truths of nature (Dhamma). These defilements lead to intentional actions which result in equal reactions that occur immediately or delayed for a certain period. When one dies one is instantly reborn as a form of existence which is either of massive suffering (hell) or of moderate (animals and ghosts) or subtle (humans) or of latent suffering (angels and gods), conditioned by the acts and thoughts of that person during his life. Death is the universal suffering in all existences. Even gods who can live for extra-ordinarily long life have to die at a certain stage. There are altogether 31 forms of existence in each universe and an indefinite number of universes exist which are in various stages of arising and dissolution.

Dooms Day

In the dissolution phase, one hundred thousand billion worlds are destroyed due to the contraction of the universe. Additional Suns will appear in the environment of the Earth, which is the habitat of humans, animals, hell beings, ghosts and evil spirits. Heavy rains will be followed by drought and inferno and the earth will be destroyed after seven suns have appeared. This will occur after 64 cycles of development and destruction. During the development stage human life span can last from 10 years to uncountable time(asankheya) which is even longer than the life span of Devas. The life span will become decreased with a decline in the morality and will be reduced to 10 years at a certain stage. Destruction stages can occur with catastrophes such as pandemic diseases, famine and nuclear (weapons of mass destruction) holocaust.

The dissolution phase is a very slow process that will take similar duration as the arising phase, which the earth has already experienced. The six worlds of Deva ('angels') and three worlds of Brahma (lesser gods that attained the first level of spiritual enlightenment, Jhana) will also be destroyed by the process. Seventeen worlds of Brahma (higher gods) will be spared and the majority of humans will be reborn as Brahmas in these realms due to improvement in morality of humans after the persuasion and warning of Devas ('angels') during one hundred thousand years before Earth’s destruction.

Those who are suffering in Hell and in the states of ghosts and evil spirits will have to move to a newer world in the other universe to continue their penalty for their misbehaviour. The universe will then undergo a resting phase ( an equilibrium in the contraction) and then will be followed by the arising or formation phase. The duration of each phase of existence, dissolution, equilibrium and arising will be the same.

Origin of humans

When the world has cooled down and becomes suitable to promote life forms Brahmas (gods and their disciples) will die from the heavens which have survived destruction and will be reborn on earth. Early life forms will have subtle physical bodies and live on high energy and low residue food. They have no excretory organs or genitalia and have no desire for sex. Eventually low residue food will become scarce and they will have to live on higher residue food and the organs for excretion and genitalia will develop. This will result in the development of lust, sex, competition and hatred which are the causes of dead-rebirth cycle.

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