Buddhism and Cosmology
What
are the consequences of the concept of interdependence on cosmological ideas in
Buddhism? The concept of interdependence implies that the elements of the conventional
reality we are all familiar with do not possess an existence that is permanent
and autonomous. This thing exists because something else exists, that happens
because this has occurred. Nothing can exist by itself and be its own cause.
Everything
depends on everything else. Suppose that there is an entity that exists independently
of all the others. This implies that it is not produced by a cause, that is, either
it has always existed or it does not exist at all. Such an entity will be unchanging
since it cannot act on others and others cannot act on it. The world of phenomena
could not function. Thus interdependence is essential for phenomena to manifest
themselves.
Because the concept of interdependence implies that nothing can
exist by itself and be its own cause, it goes against the idea of a creative principle,
a First Cause or a God that is permanent, all-powerful, that has no other cause
than itself, and which created the universe. In the same vein, Buddhism rejects
the idea that the universe can be born out of nothing - a creation ex-nihilo -
because the universe has to depend on something else to emerge. If the universe
was created, it is because there was a potentiality already present. The coming
into being of the universe is merely the realization of that potentiality. One
can thus interpret the Big Bang as the manifestation of the phenomenal world emerging
from an infinite potentiality already in existence. In a poetic language, Buddhism
speaks about of "particles of space" which carry in them the potentiality
of matter. This is strongly reminiscent of the vacuum filled with energy that
is thought to have given birth the material content of the universe in the modern
Big Bang theory. Material phenomenon and things are not "created" in
the sense that they go from a state of non-existence to one of existence. Rather
they go from an unrealized state to a realized state. Once it has come into existence,
the universe goes through a series of cycles, each composed of 4 stages: birth,
evolution, death and a state where the universe is pure potentiality but has not
manifested yet itself. This cyclic universe has no beginning nor an end. 