Why don't all Buddhists believe in God?

(Serene Mind) Why Buddhists do not all [necessarily] believe in God | The truth behind Buddhism

• Nontheistic religions
• Nontheism
• A God in Buddhism: Maha Brahmā
• Secular Buddhism
• Engaged Buddhism
• The many heavens and gods in Buddhism
• A judge after death: Yama, king of the dead
• Buddhist cosmology: 31 Planes of Existence
• The Divine Abidings of the Supreme (Brahma)

Hinduism's creator God isn't Brahma?

Space devas wrestle giant naga (dragon) for the glory of the space gods

Is Achintya (the "Imponderable, Inconceivable, Indescribable") the greatest Hindu God we've never heard of?

America's greatest Hindu: Julia Roberts

(Praveen Mohan) Sept. 20, 2024: A strange statue is found in the ancient Hindu temples of Bali. This God has tridents sticking out of it. Who is it? Balinese people call this deity Achintya, but the symbolism is mysterious. Let's decode it.

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COMMENTARY

Fun during Holi near vimana ashram temple

In the Buddhist view, the "creator God" is Maha Brahma, but there are other divine (deva) creators in higher worlds. Of all these deities, there is no real "creator." How can that be? To the extent that these being make anything, they are creating. But what is it that Christians, Hindus, Muslims, Jews, and other polytheists who became monotheists believe give "God" His "creator" status.

It is the belief that God created souls (selves, egos, personalities with bodies of different kinds), this immortal (the part of us that does not die at death) thing we imagine ourselves to be. Those strands of being (processes of becoming) already existed to the extent they exist, which is utterly dependent on their constituents. "God" did not create that.

Vimanas (UFOs) inspire Hindu temple designs

And though a God or god creates an entire world, world-system (cakkavala), or universe, it does not actually people it with new creations. Parents do not birth new beings into being, even though our materialistic science says they do. We, when making a terrarium, do not fabricate ants or other creatures to occupy it. They preexist and come in by invitation or otherwise.

This "mothership" vimana is biggest ashram

They have no discernible beginning and will not come to an end by simply dying. So whether the Great (maha) Supremo (brahma) reappears at the beginning of another cycle (yuga) or not, all those who follow and subsequently reappear are not appearing for the first time due to this one being's magic, will, or wish.

This may be how it seems, but it is not how it is. It is unclear if Hinduism understands this any better than the Abrahamic faiths, but it is perfectly clear in the Buddha's rejection of an ultimate "creator" or "creation." It is the same spinning cycle that originates depending on impersonal conditions (which are taken to be very personal), the Five Aggregates clung to as "self." What are they? They are:

• forms (bodies, material bases, whether subtle or gross);
• feelings
• perceptions
• formations
• consciousness(es).

Don't eat your fellow earthlings. Go vegan.

All five are constituent processes, not independent things. And while it may not make sense to say "forms" when we customarily say form, this body (like all our previous and future bodies) is not one unitary, independent thing. It is utterly dependent on the Four Elements (the four qualities of materiality, which themselves are constituent processes, not actual, tangible, elemental "things" like the way we imagine atoms or particles to be).

What does Julia Roberts know that we don't?

Similarly, "consciousness" is NOT one thing. It is not a thing at all but rather an impersonal process taken as personal. There is not one consciousness, but rather there are many mind moments (cittas) and submoments (phases of a moment) in a stream, taken to be one stream as if any stream or river were one thing rather than trillions of ever-moving water molecules passing in and sublimating out of what is regarded as one stream/river.

All of these things are ponderable; moreover, they are discernible and potentially directly visible, not theoretical or something to debate. The Buddha taught them as a means of letting go for the gaining of freedom from all suffering and further rebirth (moksha, liberation, enlightenment, and nirvana). He also taught about Four Imponderables (catu-acintiyas). On the list of these four things, God is not one of them. God very much is ponderable, knowable, attainable. Mysterious to be sure but able to be revealed. So whom did or do the Hindus of Bali regard as the highest Hindu God, Guru Mohan?

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Hinduism and Buddhism in Indonesia, the remnants of Indian empire, now mostly Muslim

Did Brahmins and Sri Shankara finally adopt the Buddha's ultimate message of the impersonal nature of all phenomena, particularly everything related to the atman (soul, self, ego, being)?

• Mohan Praveen (video, Sept. 20, 2024); Dhr. Seven, Pat Macpherson COMMENTARY, Wisdom Quarterly

Koans vs. "Stoner Thoughts" (cartoons)

Alden (World of Weed, Jan. 31, 2020); Crystal Ike (pinterest.com); Sipress; Dan Piraro (bizarro.com); Stivers; Crystal Q., Dhr. Seven, Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

I've never been stoned, but I'm totally a Stoner.

Zen kōans are questions, stories, or statements, often part of ancient dialogues, that provoke the "great doubt," much like stoner thoughts.

They can be used to test a student's progress in Zen. Wait. What is "Zen"? The word is the Japanese attempt to pronounce jhana (Sanskrit dhyana, Chinese Channa) which means "meditative absorption."

IMPONDERABLE: "incomprehensible, unthinkable, surpassing thought, beyond rational comprehension, impenetrable, transcending the limits of thinking; not to be pondered or be driven mad."

Stoner Thought meme collection (pinterest)

It is not an imponderable nor a stoner thought, though it may sound like one, like, "Why do we have fingers, fingertips, and toes -- but no 'toe tips,' yet we 'tiptoe' but don't 'tipfinger?" or "How many zombies would Rob Zombie rob if Rob Zombie could rob zombies?"

STONER THOUGHTS

Control Your Thoughts (Zen Toons)

1. If you drop soap on the floor, is the floor clean or is the soap dirty?

2. If I buy a bigger bed, would I be left with more bed room but less bedroom?

3. When you compete with yourself, do you come in first place or last?

4. If life is unfair to everyone, does that mean life is actually fair?

5. At some point, your parents set you down and never picked you up again.

.

When is the Eternal Now? (Stivers)

6. If you clean a vacuum, do you become a vacuum cleaner?

7. Ice cubes float in a pool of their own blood.

8. If you tried to fail and succeeding, which did you actually do?

9. Are gingerbread men made of house or is house made of men?

Positive outlet? (Rino Piccolo)

10. Do pets name their owners?

11. Which came first, the plant or the seed?

12. If the word tomb is pronounced "toom," and womb is "woom," shouldn't bomb be "boom"?

13. Right now, you are both the oldest you have ever been and the youngest you will ever be. More

ZEN AWARDS: "Thanks" (Bizarro)

"Stoner Thoughts" on 4/20

Cali Callers, Heidi & Frank (FHF Show); Crystal Q., Seth Auberon (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Whoa, man, what a trip! (trippy clipart)

What's a "stoner"? It's a person who habitually gets stoned, so much so that they have a lot of time on their hands to wonder. What they wonder about is of a class of pointless peculiar mind blowing questions, KOANS -- "stoner thoughts" like:

1. How many Lowe's would Rob Lowe rob if Rob Lowe could rob Lowe's?
2. What if there were no hypothetical questions?
3. Why is the word abbreviation so long?
4. If you're waiting on a waiter, doesn't that make you the waiter?
5. If tomato is a fruit, does that make ketchup a smoothie?
6. Sex workers in Japan will get a bailout because that country has a more enlightened view of sex work. Not a stoner thought, just true. 
7. Do nudists have any private parts or just public parts?
8. Did you know "up" for something and "down" for something means exactly the same thing?
9. Last month 90 thousand travelers went through LAX Airport, where last year 2.1 million went through, so if the Wright Brothers were time travelers who came back today and looked up, would they say, "We developed flight, and you didn't do anything with it!"?
10. If a dyslexic is reading a book about a dog, does he think he's reading a Bible?
11. Shouldn't buildings be called builts?
12. Why do doctors call it a practice? You're still practicing?!

13. 

    Koan practice comic (Ioanna Salajan)

    If you're a guard at the Samsung Store, are you a "Guardian of the Galaxies"?
14. "I'm sorry" and "I apologize" have the exact same meaning, unless you're at a funeral. lol!
15. Do you realize the word bed looks like a bed?
16. What if your name were Tony but spelled like Bologna (baloney)?
17. "Faded AS" is the same backward and forward. (It's not, but a stoner won't know).
18. If someone dies in a living room, is it still called a living room?
19. Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways?
20. What if we're all dying, and everything is just our lives flashing before us?
21. Was "Dazed and Confused" Woody Harrelson's first movie? (No, he wasn't in it. It was Matthew McConaughey's first movie playing the character "Wooder.")
22. Nothing is on fire; fire is on things.
23. If you smoke pot on a boat, is it then called seaweed?
24. If we see water, do fish see air or, like, when they swim to the shore, is that the beach for them?
25. If you put on a sweater when it's hot, soon you'll become a sweater.
26. If humans get hemorrhoids, do astronauts get asteroids?
27. ॐ मणिपद्मे हूँ (ཨོཾ་མ་ཎི་པ་དྨེ་ཧཱུྃ)

The Four Imponderables (sutra)

Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson (eds.), Acintita Sutra: "Imponderables" (AN 4.77); Giphy; derived from unsatisfactory original translation by Ven. Thanissaro (watmetta.org), Wisdom Quarterly

Rodin's Le Penseur ("The Thinker," one of a series of similar sculptures involved in the similarly imponderable Mandela Effect) sits pensively as if on a porcelain throne (norton.org).

.

My monkey mind only makes things worse.

"There are Four Imponderables on which it is wise not to dwell [1] as repeatedly doing so would bring about unhinged-madness and wearisome-vexation if one were to try. What are these four?

1. The range of influence of a buddha is imponderable... [2]
2. The range of influence of a person absorbed (jhana) in meditation… [3]
3. The [mysterious] working out of the results of karma... [4]
4. The origin [and so on] of the world is imponderable on which it is wise not to dwell as repeatedly doing so would bring about unhinged-madness and wearisome-vexation if one were to try.

"These are the Four Imponderables on which it is wise not to dwell as repeatedly doing so would bring about unhinged-madness and wearisome-vexation if one were to try."

NOTES

I feel if I just lived long enough and pondered...

1. Nor should they be speculated about because they are staggering, incomprehensible, and ultimately inconceivable]

2. Buddha-range: the range of powers a buddha develops as a result of becoming a supremely enlightened buddha, which is much more than an ordinary arhat (fully enlightened person) because arhats did not develop the Ten Perfections (paramis), so they do not possess the power to know all that a buddha know. Buddhas can teach effectively. They can establish a noble-sangha (community of enlightened disciples), and make the Dharma known in worlds darkened by ignorance. While everyone arhat's enlightenment and experience of nirvana is the same, their ability to make known the path is lacking. The ability to communicate the Dharma to others differs radically from individual to individual. There are countless arhats, shining ones (devas) and human beings, but precious few supreme (samma-sam) buddhas and pacceka (non-teaching) buddhas. Their range of influence is very great.

3. Jhana-range: the range of powers that one is able to manifest as a result of attaining and mastering the meditative absorptions (jhanas).

4. It should always be remembered that karma (intentional action of mind, speech, or body) is one thing, and its resultants (vipaka) and ripening fruits (phala) are quite another. Moreover, all actions impact how results are experienced, so there is hope no matter what one has done. More good now guarantees a better future, and the situation is never hopeless, even in the case of the five heinous acts. See the strange case of Angulimala the serial killer and saint. Even Buddhism's "Judas" figure, Devadatta, is not doomed forever, as his karma would suggest.

There was no "Big Bang" (audio)

Dhr. Seven, Ashley Wells, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly; Mitch Jeserich, KPFA Berkeley, 3-19-14

A first point, a first cause, a prime move(r) -- the Big Bang is no better than positing an all-powerful God who did it, yet we fool ourselves by using words to say nothing.

  

Recent reports of a major "breakthrough" on inflation less than a trillionth of a second after the purported Big Bang are exaggerated, but for good reason: There are Nobel Prizes at stake.
 

No doubt banging has gone on in space, big banging worse than the worst gang banging at The Bada Bing in Jersey. Nevertheless, there was no BIG Bang, a beginning to everything. Recently a scientist was being interviewed (maybe on NPR audio or C2C) and admitted that "the Big Bang" was not the beginning of everything, just the beginning of our ability to find a beginning, the edge of the knowable. What a gyp.

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Buddhist cosmology: 31 Planes of Existence

We were not all raised with the fantasy-tale that science had an answer to the origin of the universe? But now there are multiverses, and scientific uncertainty is expressed more openly, and even if a Big Bang occurred ~13 billion years ago, that in no way says that was IT, that was the beginning of all, the first cause.
 
There is no sensible or meaningful first cause, and one would become deranged pondering such a question. It is one of the Four Imponderables in Buddhism -- which not only would never lead one to enlightenment but would certainly, if persisted in, drive one to madness. Here is a simple analogy to see why: A professor starts drawing a circle on a chalkboard, and after the 33rd loop asks the class,
 

Count chalk loops or watch me pole dance.

"Where does this circle start?"
 
"Wherever you first placed the chalk," they answer.
 

"Where was that?"
 

"Hmmm, we didn't notice."
 

"Where does it start now?"
 

"Well, after you started it -- at some arbitrary point -- it ceases to have a meaningful 'beginning.' Any point, pick a point. Is that your point?"
 

"Yes, if you track and analyze the chalk marks, undoing each of the 33 or million loops to reveal incontrovertible forensic evidence of the first track, the original loop, what will it get you?"
 

"It will tell us exactly where you first set the chalk down!"
 

"And what will that tell you about the beginning of a circle?"
 

"Of a circle, nothing. But of this circle, nothing... Hey, wait a minute!"
 

"Exactly! This won't tell you who or what set it, or why, or where chalkboards come from, or what chalk is for, or anything else that matters about our existence. It will only lead to endless speculations and enduring academic careers that result in nothing about the true nature of existence (such as the Three Marks or how YOU or your life, such as it is, came to be).

 

A better bang to find

"But if one were to meditate, one could potentially see for oneself how things (galaxies, universes, and people) originate, turn, and fall away -- again and again and again."
 

It is possible with Buddhist meditation on the Four Elements (not four material things but four primary or fundamental qualities of materiality) to begin to see the ultimate "particles" of perception (called, in Buddhist physics, kalapas). One can go from the smallest, these features of matter, to the most cosmic -- world expansions and world contractions. And what is another word for the transition between those two periods (aeons) than a Big Bang?
 

There is a Big Bang, but there was no "the Big Bang," no beginning. And if we crave to know about the first in the endless cyclical series, it would tell us nothing of the space it blew up or into or created as it blew, or the matter that burst into expansion (inflation), or subsequently collapsed and caused yet another implosion, which gives rise to another explosion.
 

Hmm, maybe lines and symbols?

Worst of all, assuming the insanity for pondering this imponderable is not the worst thing, you and science will be none the closer to finding or figuring out "how it all began." Keep blowing up infinitesimally small particles at CERN/LHC instead.

How to Win the Lottery in 3 Steps

Wisdom Quarterly (EDITORIAL)

One of the most important karmic elements is to be happy in the happiness of others who win (mudita). Warning: these simple instructions contain two imponderables, the working out of karma and the range of someone absorbed in jhana.

$640 MEGA MILLION - Why do things happen? That is the central question motivating Wisdom Quarterly. Perhaps the question is better understood as, Why do things really happen?

Common wisdom answers, "God knows." The uncommon explanation of this statement is: karma. But it would be easier to understand "God" (Maha Brahma) than to get a handle on karma. Experiencing nonduality is relatively easy, and that will mean feeling like GOD (Brahman) through the Divine Abidings (Brahma Viharas). Brahma figuratively means "supreme" or divine, a superlative for ultimate.

You have to be in it to win it
While not technically true, it helps. (Couldn't you, wouldn't you find it or come into possession if it is meant to be?) Karma means intentional action. The important karma in this case is in the past, for it cannot happen that one would win the lottery (or mega millions by virtue of gambling and "luck") and hold on to such riches without the karmic support for doing so.

At some time in the past, whether proximate or remote, one has to have performed some intentional action of a superlative sort. Due to the number of past lives in our past, nearly all humans will have a cache of merit (punya). Will it be enough? If it is not, one can win as a part of a group and have her or his cut be commensurate with the quality of the deed coming to fruition (phala). Most karma takes time to ripen, but its result can technically be experienced opportunistically at any time after the seed is planted.

This being the case, how will it be brought forward. Think only good thoughts -- either in memory or out of faith (saddha) in the good done any from this moment back. For example, in the past I did such and such. Or in the present, at this very moment, I am cultivating the intention to make this a better world with the winnings: What would make it better?

Normally meritorious deeds can be done any time anyway. So this will require a higher order of profitable karma. What is the gift that excels all gifts? The Dharma excels all gifts. It is certainly the most valuable. But here riches are defined more broadly. The value one is aspiring towards is material and of a much lower order. Giving or intending to give in kind is more important.

More important still is the purity of consciousness generating this intention. Concentration is the way to purity. The mind absorbed on a single object is, by virtue of exclusion, temporarily purified, freed of mental defilements and effluents (inflows and outflows).

With all this theory in mind: Here is the way to win in three easy steps.

"Karma: It's everywhere you're going to be."

STEP 1. Be ready to withdraw a great deal of good karma that would have served you very well in the future. You will not have it because you are spending it here to be rich for no very good reason during this very, very brief lifespan. At the end of this life, all the money will be lost. (You can't take it with you, and you can't keep from going). The only way to "hold" onto it will be to give it away. If you are not willing to give it away, you will surely lose it. If you intend to cling to it, since it is certain to go, you are better off without it. If you are generating the karma now, remember: Mental karma is very powerful as is verbal. So delight in appreciation, admiration, approval, and applaud those who by right and honest means have gained as much wealth as you imagine.

• (The problem is obvious. We want a kajillion, and the only people we can think of with that kind of money are the scum of the Earth, the One Percent, thieves robbing this world blind by dishonest capitalist means. So the rich, of the present or the past, need to be admired, appreciated with mudita, sympathetic or altruistic joy, and by doing so one will share in their store of karma for having become rich while engaged in right livelihood.)

STEP 2. Concentrate on a single thing -- not the money or the diversity of how it will be spent. Focus on an absorbable object of meditation. Enter the absorption, emerge while standing in line, ask for a ticket using either an INSPIRED number, one divined by some means unseen external agents are able to manipulate in your favor, or LET THE MACHINE PICK. Greed stands in the way of winning, and most people will simply choose their baby's birthday or other drivel while thinking they are being original. The number that is going to come up is not set, it is matched with the one having been chosen, so let the machine decide.

STEP 3. Be open to receiving, and that includes coming into possession of the ticket. The easiest way to do this is to buy one. The key is ONE. This is NOT a statistic, not a game of chance, not a probability. One is enough. Technically, one is more than enough. One dollar, one ticket, or whatever the price may be.

If you win, remember who helped you -- but keep the money for yourself. Don't send us any. We'll make do with our karmic inheritance helping living beings find what they wish for as they search samsara. The amazing thing is if people answer why they want hundreds of millions of dollars, what they say they want (like happiness, contentment, security, or enlightenment) cannot be bought but can be gotten without winning a lottery.

WARNING: An insightful Buddhist nun, whose wisdom had gone beyond, observed that if one were to become rich as a human on Earth, that would be a tragedy. Asked why, she explained that that person's karma came to fruition at a time and in a place where at best one could only enjoy the money for 120 years, likely much less. By contrast, if that same karma had come to fruition during rebirth in a superhuman state, that would benefit the individual for much longer with much finer strands of sensual pleasure to access. If it ripened outside of the sensual realm, in the fine material world, the benefit would be exponentially and inconceivably superior to anything in the sensual sphere. Be happy if no one wins because the $640 million will become more like $1 billion a week later. And these instructions will prove fruitful for some with more time to cultivate samma samadhi, right concentration. And our greed and depravity during times of economic uncertainty will have a chance to come into sharper relief. The winner, there is only one, will instantly become twice as rich as Willard Mitt Romney but have only 1/45th the riches of a Koch Brother with very few prospects of doing anything but losing it. Remember, riches beyond imagination are only three steps away, and the key is karma.

Karma: Actions, Imponderables, and Orders

Seven Dharmachari & Amber Dorrian (Wisdom Quarterly, ongoing Karma Class series)

Karma (intentional action capable of bearing welcome and unwelcome results) is one of the most important and difficult subjects in Buddhism. The Buddha was originally called a Karmavadin (a teaching of the efficacy of action).

Most "bad karma" has no fixed way of turning out. If and when it matures, it will turn out badly. Exactly how is impossible to know with certainty. But we can certainly know in general.

Harm done to oneself and others -- on account of the intention to harm (or motivations based on greed, delusion, and/or fear) -- will bring "suffering." That is, the karmic results (called phala and vipaka) will be unwelcome, unwished for, painful, distressing, not what we wanted, not what we aimed for.

Karmic results should not be confused -- as happens 99 percent of the time with people talking about karma in Buddhism -- with immediate results. As if karma were "common sense," intuitively satisfying, or bound to some linear logic we want to impose on reality! It is not.

The "working out of karma" is one of the Four Imponderables*

For example, when one steals, the immediate result is a gain, but the karmic result is a terrible loss. When someone kills, nothing happens to that person right now, except maybe some PTSD, or court, or in some cases jail. So people seeing the killer pass away comfortably, rich, well respected, and apparently peacefully think that nothing came of the killing.

If only people were there to see the fruition -- the death(s), the misery, the future lives cut short, the sickliness, not to mention any psychological resultants rooted in that deed... -- people would never again think to say "nothing comes of killing (except what we see immediately)."

So when does karma mature, come to fruition, bear its results? It does so as soon as it gets the opportunity, as soon as it finds suitable circumstances. In this sense, karma is analogous to seeds, not all of which sprout and grow, but all of which are limited to doing so only when they meet the proper circumstances and conditions.

Will everyone therefore experience all the results of all the things they've done in this and innumerable past lives? No, not everyone. Those who become enlightened release themselves from samsara. And karma can bear results only in samsara. A liberated one is no longer the heir to the results of past deeds (even though they have never exhausted themselves) because, like seeds tossed on a barren field, they are no longer capable of coming to fruition. They are obsolete (ahosi-karma).

The happy news is that the opposite is true for "good karma." What intentions make actions "good"? When mental, verbal, or physical deeds are rooted in compassion (adosa), unselfishness (alobha), wisdom (amoha), or courageousness (adosa), they bear welcome, pleasing, profitable results. Again, this is not to say that it will be pleasing to do good (such as restraining oneself). But that immediate displeasure is not the result of

There is, however, a totally different kind of "bad" karma that does have a fixed result. The Buddha spoke of five such heinous deeds. The deeds are deeds (karma) because they are intentional, but not because of their intended result. They are intentional because they are motivated by greed, anger, delusion, or fear. That is, they are not incidental or accidental. They're purposeful, given birth in the mind before manifesting as words or bodily actions.

Ninety-nine percent of the time people misunderstand what "intention" (cetana) means, confounding it with our English sense of the word, ignoring that it's an imperfect translation. Again, "intention" does not mean one intended or did not intend a particular result, like the breaking up of the Order. What constitutes "karma" is willful action, volitional action, motivated action. Motivated by what? Motivated by any of these very general roots (categories or classes) of karma:

• non-greed (selflessness, generosity, want to help oneself and others)
• non-hatred (loving-kindness, compassion, altruistic joy, equanimity)
• non-delusion (insight, wisdom, understanding, knowledge, learning)
• non-fear (courage; psychologically, fear is a manifestation of hatred)
• greed (selfishness, stinginess, lust, avarice, hoarding. discontent)
• hatred (aversion, annoyance, disliking, fear [yes, fear], sadness)
• delusion (wrong view, ignorance, misperception, misunderstanding)
• fear (aversion, resistance, disgust, motivation to avert, cowardice)

Heinous karma fruits immediately after this life in worlds-of-woe, the most unfortunate destinations, in tormented states. And it is believed, to the limits of our understanding, nothing can be done to intervene or alter the consequences. (There are five niyamas,** or "orders of things" that make it this way).

Most good and bad deeds have disproportionate results as it is. But heinous karma is all out of proportion with what one intended or realized would happen. Such deeds include causing a "schism" in the monastic Order, the Sangha, which is meant to preserve the Buddha's teaching, to practice it, and to advise and set an example.

But what does it mean, "schism in the Order"? Fortunately, Upali asked the Buddha about it.

*The Four Imponderables
A.IV.7 (based on Wings of Awakening translation)
(Lord-Jim/Flickr.com)

These Four Imponderables are not to be pondered (speculated about). Anyone who persisted in pondering them would come unhinged and experience vexation. What are the four?

1. The sphere of a Buddha's influence (Buddha-range of the Buddhas, i.e., the range of powers a Buddha develops as a result of becoming a perfectly enlightened teacher)...
2. The jhana-range of one absorbed in jhana (the range of powers that one may develop from meditative absorption]...
3. The results of karma...
4. The [first moment, purpose, etc., of the] universe...

These Four Imponderables, if pondered (and persisted in, speculated about), lead to madness and vexation.

**The Orderliness of Things (Five Orders)
Based on nutshell explanation by Ven. Narada Thera (accesstoinsight.org)
(honsing.com)

According to Buddhism, there are Five Orders or processes (Niyamas) that operate in the physical and mental realms:

1. Karma Niyama, order of action and result: such as good and bad actions producing corresponding desirable and undesirable results.
2. Utu Niyama, physical order (inorganic matter): such as seasonal phenomena.
3. Bija Niyama, seed or genetic order (organic matter): such as rice being produced from rice-seed, sweet taste from sugary plants; cells, genes, and heredity may be ascribed to this order.
4. Citta Niyama, order of mind: such as processes of consciousness (citta vithi), psychic power, perception.
5. Dhamma Niyama, order of phenomena: the natural phenomena occurring at the birth of a Bodhisatta in his last birth, gravitation, and so on.

[The Buddhist term dhamma is tricky. It is best translated as "things" or "phenomena," which can include the Dharma (Doctrine or Teachings) though it is usually distinguished from it by capitalization. The Buddha's Teachings point at the Truth.]

Every mental or physical phenomenon can be explained by these five all-embracing Orders, which are lawful processes in themselves. Karma is only one of the Orders that prevail in the universe. It is a "law" (orderly process) in itself without a governing law-giver. "Laws of nature," such as gravitation, need no law-giver. They operate in orderly ways within their own fields or domains without the intervention of any external independent ruling agent.

The Buddha of Indo-Iran

Zoroastrianism supplanted Buddhism in ancient India, which extended into Persia. Eventually Zoroastrianism gave way to Islam and Iran (Aryan) invasions spread throughout the middle country (northern India). The waves of military conquests and successions of kings melts into repetitive history in the Mahabharata and other Indian classics. The Bodhisatta ("Buddha-to-be") arose out of this milieu and went in search of enlightenment as a stranger in a strange land in what today is Bihar State.

He consummated his six year odyssey in Bodhgaya and spent most of the remainder of his life teaching in ancient India's two largest cities, Savatthi and Rajagaha. His message, however, has reverberated throughout the world. It influenced the Greeks and therefore Western civilization, adopting the guise of each culture it blended with.

He is often called the Light of the East. But his range of influence is one of the Four Imponderables. Rare is a human life; rarer still is meeting with the Buddha-Dharma. The opportunity to practice is precious, encouraging every good thing until we realize the "end of suffering" (nirvana).

Bliss and Magic (through Jhana)

By Seven Jaini

The Four Imponderables: The Buddha warned that one might become unhinged and mentally imbalanced by pondering any of these four unfathomable things:

1. The range of a Buddha (the extent of the influence of a Buddha from the development of the Ten Perfections).
2. The range of one absorbed in jhana (the power one might obtain from the meditative absorptions)
3. The incomprehensibly complex working out of the consequences of karma (volitional actions)
4. A first moment, initial cause, or purpose for the universe

"These four imponderables are not to be pondered. If one were to ponder and attempt to fathom them, one would become unhinged."

The importance of the meditative absorptions (jhanas) can therefore hardly be overstated. In Sanskrit, the word "absorption" is dhyana, in Pali, jhana. Throughout the Pali Canon, the Buddha defines Right Concentration (samma samadhi) as entering the first Four Jhanas.

Because of this, in many languages the word "meditation" -- and entire Buddhist schools of meditation -- is simply the translation of this word (dhyana). In Chinese, "Jhana" is Ch'an; in Korean Sŏn; in Tibet Samten (bsam gtan); in Vietnamese Thiền; and in Japan "Jhana" is translated as Zen.

Jhana did not develop in a Buddhist context but was prevalent in the Indian subcontinent before the Buddha in various yogic systems of spiritual training. In Jainism, an ancient religion of extreme asceticism and ahimsa (non-harming) that developed alongside Buddhism and survives today in India, it is called Samayika. This is in the Prakrit dialect, somewhat akin to the Pali word Shamatha (Serenity), referring to the practice of developing the absorptions.

The purpose of Jhana in a Buddhist context is never an end in itself, as it would seem in other Indian traditions. The Buddha's first teachers -- Alara Kalama and Uddaka Ramaputta -- were yogi masters skilled in attaining high states of jhana. They were therefore regarded as saints and sages with wondrous powers (siddhis). The Buddha's ability to perform miracles, which he perceived danger in doing, was based on his ability to enter the jhanas (or "ecstatic meditation attainments") at will and remain in them for a predetermined period of time.

He became a buddha by realizing that rather than asceticism and self-mortification, jhana was the path. The Five Mental Hindrances were the problem, and they absent in jhana. As he gained meditative stability, he developed the factor of mindfulness. This combination gave rise to insight, enlightenment, and liberation overnight.

It quite literally took one full night of meditation through the Four Jhanas, directing his attention to the Four Foundations of Mindfulness. The final two factors in the Noble Eightfold Path are Right Mindfulness and Right Concentration, defined as these foundations and jhanas. In the absence of insight, such powers readily turn to one's disadvantage, exacerbating the unskillful tendencies (greed, ill-will, delusion, and fear) until one's meditative stability evaporates.

Unless one is liberated (nirvana), the positive karmic result of mastering the jhanas is rebirth in successively more exalted celestial planes. (See WQ article on the 31 Planes of Existence for detailed explanation). The negative karmic result of unprofitably wielding such power is hard to fathom because rebirth into heaven does not preclude future rebirth elsewhere.

The Buddha's First Sermon

Suggested reading

• Pa Auk Sayadaw
• Ajahn Brahm (Australia)
• Leigh Brasington
• Friends of the Heart
• Sister Ayya Khema

PHOTOS: Woman in deep meditation (Ebay Ebook CD); the Buddha emerging from Jhana (Flickr)