First, the idea of a planet in terms of planets orbiting stars is a modern idea.
But in the old Indian religions Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism they have the idea of many "world systems". I can just speak for Buddhism really. And particularly, Tibetan Buddhism.
So you can't expect the round planets of modern astronomy of course, they thought of the Earth as flat, in these ideas that go back perhaps 2500 years.
They have the idea that ours is one of four continents in a world system centered on Mount Meru the mountain at the centre of the world. Our sky is blue because the side of Mount Meru facing towards us is blue.
Then this is just one of many world systems, all having this arrangement of four continents around a central mountain, which make up the trichilicosm. And (in this cosmology) those world systems have beings just like our one, animals, humans etc.
Also ours is just one "plane of existence". Some beings live in realms of pure thought, where they don't even have bodies as we do - and there are many layers of those realms of pure thought of increasing subtlety.
And we share our world they think with other creatures that see everything differently from us, and we are only dimly aware of them or not at all and many of them also are not that aware of us either. Those are the gods, jealous gods, hungry ghosts, and hell beings.
That's true of all the world systems. They are not uninhabited planets but peopled by humans and other creatures.
Here is an example of a Buddhist sutra -- from the later Mahayana traditions - where a disciple of the Buddha through spiritual powers transports himself to distant world systems, eventually to one inhabited by giants to whom he seems as small as an insect, to test how far the voice of the Buddha can be heard (this is not ordinary sound).
Just to show how they were thinking of humans as living in all those various world systems - they were not just lifeless planets. It gives a general idea of their cosmology.
MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA VISITS ANOTHER WORLD-SYSTEM
So anyway - no way you can make that consistent with modern ideas of cosmology in Western science. And - it's not particularly religious, any more than our ideas of astronomy are religious now.
It's not like you need to have faith in this arrangement of continents and world systems, or their particular ideas about the beings that inhabit them to be a Buddhist for instance, not important at all. It is just how they thought of the world in their traditional cosmology.
But the ideas behind it make it easy to accept the idea of multiple solar systems with different lifeforms and intelligent creatures also on them. Coming from this background, it would be a great surprise if there weren't such.
But in the old Indian religions Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism they have the idea of many "world systems". I can just speak for Buddhism really. And particularly, Tibetan Buddhism.
So you can't expect the round planets of modern astronomy of course, they thought of the Earth as flat, in these ideas that go back perhaps 2500 years.
They have the idea that ours is one of four continents in a world system centered on Mount Meru the mountain at the centre of the world. Our sky is blue because the side of Mount Meru facing towards us is blue.
Then this is just one of many world systems, all having this arrangement of four continents around a central mountain, which make up the trichilicosm. And (in this cosmology) those world systems have beings just like our one, animals, humans etc.
Also ours is just one "plane of existence". Some beings live in realms of pure thought, where they don't even have bodies as we do - and there are many layers of those realms of pure thought of increasing subtlety.
And we share our world they think with other creatures that see everything differently from us, and we are only dimly aware of them or not at all and many of them also are not that aware of us either. Those are the gods, jealous gods, hungry ghosts, and hell beings.
That's true of all the world systems. They are not uninhabited planets but peopled by humans and other creatures.
Here is an example of a Buddhist sutra -- from the later Mahayana traditions - where a disciple of the Buddha through spiritual powers transports himself to distant world systems, eventually to one inhabited by giants to whom he seems as small as an insect, to test how far the voice of the Buddha can be heard (this is not ordinary sound).
Just to show how they were thinking of humans as living in all those various world systems - they were not just lifeless planets. It gives a general idea of their cosmology.
MAHAMAUDGALYAYANA VISITS ANOTHER WORLD-SYSTEM
So anyway - no way you can make that consistent with modern ideas of cosmology in Western science. And - it's not particularly religious, any more than our ideas of astronomy are religious now.
It's not like you need to have faith in this arrangement of continents and world systems, or their particular ideas about the beings that inhabit them to be a Buddhist for instance, not important at all. It is just how they thought of the world in their traditional cosmology.
But the ideas behind it make it easy to accept the idea of multiple solar systems with different lifeforms and intelligent creatures also on them. Coming from this background, it would be a great surprise if there weren't such.
About the Author
Robert Walker
Writer of articles on Mars and Space issues - Software Developer of Tune Smithy, Bounce Metronome etc.Studied at Wolfson College, Oxford
Lives in Isle of Mull
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