The second of the six deva-worlds, the first being the Cātummahārājika world. Tāvatimsa stands at the top of Mount Sineru (or Sudassana, sometimes identified with the sacred Himalayan Mount Kailash).
Sakka is king of both worlds, but lives in Tāvatimsa. Originally it was the abode of the Asuras (drunken demigods). But when Māgha was reborn [spontaneously after his human life where he had made much merit] as Sakka, King of the Devas, and dwelt with his companions in Tāvatimsa, he disliked the idea of sharing his realm with the Asuras.
And having made them intoxicated (with a kind of alcohol that gave rise to their name), he hurled them down to the foot of Sineru, where the Asurabhavana was later established. (This is analaogous to the Christian myth of Lucifer and other rebel angels being thrown out of heaven and their subsequent fury and willingness to attack the gates of heaven and raze it to the clouds).
,
Fallen (ejected) Asuras angrily plotting to reclaim their place among devas.
,
The chief difference between these two worlds seems to have been that the Pāricchattaka tree grew in Tāvatimsa, and the Cittapātali tree in Asurabhavana. In order that the Asuras should not enter Tāvatimsa, Sakka had five walls built around it, and these were guarded by Nāgas, Supannas, Kumbhandas, Yakkhas, and Cātummahārājika Devas (J.i.201ff; also DhA.i.272f). The entrance to Tāvatimsa was by way of the Cittakūtadvārakotthaka, on either side of which statues of Indra (Indapatimā) kept guard (J.vi.97).
The whole kingdom was ten thousand leagues in extent (DhA.i.273) and contained more than one thousand pāsādas (J.vi.279). The chief features of Tāvatimsa were its parks -- the Phārusaka, Cittalatā, Missaka, and Nandana -- the Vejayanta-pāsāda, the Pāricchatta tree, the elephant-king Erāvana, and Sudhammā, the "Assembly Hall of Truth" (J.vi.278; MA.i.183; cp. Mtu.i.32). Mention is also made of a park called Nandā (J.i.204).
Besides the Pāricchataka (or Pārijāta) flower, which is described as a Kovilāra (A.iv.117), the divine Kakkāru flower also grew in Tāvatimsa (J.iii.87). In the Cittalatāvana grows the Āsāvatī creeper, which blossoms once every thousand years (J.iii.250f).
It is the custom of all Awakened Ones (buddhas) to spend the Rainy Season following the performance of the Yamakapātihāriya in Tāvatimsa. Gautama Buddha went there to preach the Abhidharma to his mother, born there as a devaputta ("son of god").
Where is Heaven?
.
The distance of sixty-eight thousand leagues from the earth to Tāvatimsa the Buddha covered in three strides, placing his foot once on Yugandhara, and again on Mt. Sineru. The Buddha spent three months in Tāvatimsa, preaching all the time, seated on Sakka's throne, the Pandukambalasilāsana, at the foot of the Pāricchattaka tree.
Eighty crores of angels (devas) attained to a knowledge of the Truth (suggesting they became Stream-entrants). This was in the seventh year after his enlightenment (J.iv.265; DhA.iii.216f; BuA. p.3). It seems to have been the frequent custom of ascetics, possessed of psychic powers (iddhi), to spend the afternoon in Tāvatimsa (e.g., Nārada, J.vi.392; Kāladevala, J.i.54).
Moggallāna, who was the male disciple foremost in supernatural powers, paid numerous visits to Tāvatimsa, where he learned from those dwelling there stories of their past deeds that he might repeat them to people on earth for their edification (VvA. p.4). More>>
No comments:
Post a Comment