Mt._Meru.jpg
[Hide] (152.7KB, 928x1172) Reverse Mount Meru or Mount Sumeru
(Skt. sumeruparvata; Tib. རི་རབ་, rirab, Wyl. ri rab) is a mountain square in shape with four sides, larger at the top than at the bottom. It is 80,000 yojanas (450,000 km) high. It lies at the centre of the world. Around it are seven freshwater lakes separated by seven rings of golden mountains. Outside, in a great salty ocean, are the four continents and eight subcontinents (two out at sea, left and right of each of the continents). We humans live on the southern continent called 'Jambudvipa'. This entire world system is surrounded by a ring of iron mountains. The universe is made of many such worlds. For instance, a trichiliocosm is composed of one billion such worlds.
At the top of Mount Meru is the lowest abode of the gods of the Desire Realm (the terraces of the Four Great Kings). In the space above are the five other abodes of the gods of the Desire Realm and those of the gods of the Form Realm. It rests on the universal golden basis. Usually it is said that the pretas live on its sides, in cavities between the limit of the waters down to the golden basis.
Its four sides are made of four different precious substances: the south of lapis-lazuli, the west of ruby, the north of gold and the east of crystal (Tib. shel).[1] Since we are living on the southern continent of Jambudvipa and the southern side of Mount Meru is blue, this explains why the seas around and the sky above us are blue. The shine of the blue lapis-lazuli reflects on the marine waters in front. Upon hitting the surface it reflects and appears in the space above. So rather than there being something blue above us, the space appears blue because of the reflection of the lapis-lazuli of Mount Meru's southern side. Similarly the oceans and the sky are respectively red, yellow and white in the West, North and East directions of Mount Meru.
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Twelve links of dependent origination
(Skt. dvādaśāṅga-pratītyasamutpāda; Tib. རྟེན་འབྲེལ་ཡན་ལག་བཅུ་གཉིས་, tendrel yenlak chunyi, Wyl. rten 'brel yan lag bcu gnyis) also referred to as the twelve nidanas (Skt. nidāna) are:
1 Ignorance (Skt. avidyā; Tib. མ་རིག་པ་, ma rigpa, Wyl. ma rig pa): Fundamental ignorance of the truths and the delusion of mistakenly perceiving the skandhas as a self.
2 Formation (Skt. saṁskāra; Tib. འདུ་བྱེད་, duje, Wyl. 'du byed): As long as there is ignorance there is the formation of karma: positive, negative and neutral. This forms the rebirths in the various realms.
3 Consciousness (Skt. vijñāna; Tib. རྣམ་པར་ཤེས་པ་, nampar shepa, Wyl. rnam par shes pa): Formations cause the consciousness of the next existence. The consciousness which propels one towards the next existence is called the impelling consciousness. And the consciousness that is led to that particular state, once the conditions have come together, is known as the consciousness of the impelled result. These two aspects of consciousness are counted as a single link since together they establish the link between two lives.
4 Name-and-form (Skt. nāma-rūpa; Tib. མིང་དང་གཟུགས་, ming dang zuk, Wyl. ming dang gzugs): The five skandhas. By the power of consciousness one is linked to a womb, and there the body develops: the form and the four ‘name’ skandhas of sensation, perception, formation and consciousness.
5 The six ayatanas (Skt. ṣaḍāyatana; Tib. སྐྱེ་མཆེད་དྲུག་, kyemche druk, Wyl. skye mched drug): The six inner ayatanas of the sense faculties then arise.
6 Contact (Skt. sparśa; Tib. རེག་པ་, rekpa, Wyl. reg pa): The coming together of objects, sense faculty and consciousness is contact.
7 Sensation (Skt. vedanā; Tib. ཚོར་བ་, tsorwa, Wyl. tshor ba): From contact arises sensation: pleasurable, painful and neutral.
8 Craving (Skt. tṛṣṇā; Tib. སྲེད་པ་, sepa, Wyl. sred pa): There then develops a desire not to be separated from pleasurable sensations and to be free from painful sensations.
9 Grasping (Skt. upādāna; Tib. ལེན་པ་, lenpa, Wyl. len pa): As craving increases, it develops into grasping, i.e. actively striving never to be separated from what is pleasurable and to avoid what is painful.
10 Becoming (Skt. bhava; Tib. སྲིད་པ་, sipa, Wyl. srid pa): Through this grasping one acts with body, speech and mind, and creates the karma that determines one’s next existence.
11 Rebirth (Skt. jāti; Tib. སྐྱེ་བ་, kyewa, Wyl. skye ba): Through the power of this becoming, one is reborn in a particular birthplace whenever the necessary conditions are assembled.
12 Old age and death (Skt. jarā-maraṇa; Tib. རྒ་ཤི་, ga shi, Wyl. rga shi): Following rebirth there is a continual process of aging as the aggregates change and develop; and eventually there is death when the aggregates finally cease.
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The Eighteen realms or Eighteen dhatus
(Skt. aṣṭadaśa dhātu; Tib. ཁམས་བཅོ་བརྒྱད་, kham chobgyé, Wyl. khams bco brgyad) or sense-fields, as understood in various Buddhist traditions, signifies vital components of perception and experience, including the six sense organs and the six sense objects alongside corresponding six consciousness. Tibetan Buddhism describes these fields as essential for understanding existential categories in Buddhist philosophy, while Mahayana elaborates on them as conditioned elements integral to sensory experience. In Theravada, the classification helps clarify the nature of experiences, illustrating the interconnectedness of senses, consciousness, and their objects, all lacking inherent existence.
<the six sense objects (Skt. viṣayadhātu; Tib. དམིགས་ཡུལ་གྱི་ཁམས་, Wyl. dmigs yul gyi khams):
visible forms (Skt. rūpa-dhātu)
sounds (Skt. śabda-dhātu)
smells (Skt. gandha-dhātu)
tastes (Skt. rasa-dhātu)
textures (Skt. spraṣṭavya-dhātu)
mental objects (Skt. dharma dhātu)
<six sense faculties (Skt. indriyadhātu; Tib. དབང་པོའི་ཁམས་, Wyl. dbang po'i khams):
eye faculty (Skt. cakṣur-dhātu)
ear faculty (Skt. śrotra-dhātu)
nose faculty (Skt. ghrāṇa-dhātu)
tongue faculty (Skt. jihva-dhātu)
body faculty (Skt. kāya-dhātu)
mental faculty (Skt. mano-dhātu)
<the six sense consciousnesses (Skt. vijñānadhātu; Tib. རྣམ་ཤེས་ཀྱི་ཁམས་, Wyl. rnam shes kyi khams)
eye-consciousness (Skt. cakṣur-vijñanadhātu)
ear-consciousness (Skt. śrotra-vijñanadhātu)
nose-consciousness (Skt. ghrāṇa-vijñanadhātu)
tongue-consciousness (Skt. jihva-vijñanadhātu)
body-consciousness (Skt. kāya-vijñanadhātu)
mind-consciousness (Skt. mano-vijñanadhātu)
According to Abhidharma, the eighteen dhatus are categorized differently, i.e. in relation to the five skandhas.