the Thai Pali-canon translated it as an Indian gooseberry. but anyway, did Buddha talk about the shape of the earth here?
I heard that he said it was like two upturned begging bowls lip to lip. I’m not sure of the EBT references though.
In Majjhima Nikaya 121 (The Lesser Discourse on Emptiness) the expanse of earth is described as flat. There is a progressive spatial theme in the sutta including from earth to space.
Sorry, but i cannot find that sentence, only "so too, ignoring the hilly terrain, inaccessible riverlands, stumps and thorns, and rugged mountain "
In Snp 5.1 which is an introductory verses of Parayanavagga, it was said:
“Atha ko carahi jānāti,
Asmiṃ pathavimaṇḍale ;
Muddhaṃ muddhādhipātañca,
Taṃ me akkhāhi devate”.
In the Bhikkhu Bodhi translation of Snp:
Who, then knows about this thing?
Who on this sphere of earth?
On heads and splitting heads apart,
O deva, tell me this.
The word “pathavimaṇḍale” comes from “pathavi” (earth) and “maṇḍala” (a circle, disk, or round flat surface). Meaning of the word maṇḍala from Pali-English dictionary is:
Maṇḍala
1. circle DN.i.134 (paṭhavi˚, cp. puthavi˚ Snp.990); Vism.143 (˚ṃ karoti to draw a circle, in simile), Vism.174 (tipu˚ & rajata˚ lead- & silver circle, in kasiṇa practice); Vv-a.147 (of a fan = tālapattehi kata˚-vījanī).
2. the disk of the sun or moon; suriya˚; Vv-a.224, Vv-a.271 (divasa-kara˚); canda˚ Vism.174; Pv-a.65.
3. a round, flat surface, e.g. jānu˚ the disk of the knee, i.e. the knee Pv-a.179 naḷāta˚ the (whole of the) forehead DN.i.106; Snp.p.108
4. an enclosed part of space in which something happens, a circus ring; e.g. MN.i.446
Verily, the “pathavimaṇḍala” here refers to the flat circle/round surface (disk) of earth, not globular earth as we know from modern science nowadays.
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I’m referring to Thanissaro’s translation.
Furthermore, a mendicant—ignoring the perception of people and the perception of wilderness—focuses on the oneness dependent on the perception of earth. Their mind becomes eager, confident, settled, and decided in that perception of earth. As a bull’s hide is rid of folds when fully stretched out by a hundred pegs, so too, ignoring the hilly terrain, inaccessible riverlands, stumps and thorns, and rugged mountains, they focus on the oneness dependent on the perception of earth.
I take it as ignoring all of the specific features of the terrain, it’s more the perception of the emptiness of the earth in general, like the rest of the sutta.
“without attending to all the ridges & hollows, the river ravines, the tracts of stumps & thorns, the craggy irregularities of this earth” ?
This is a mistaken perception held generally, the theme of the sutta is expanding material spatial situations, which are at the end transformed into the mental. The similarity between physical space and mental emptiness is a routine progression and teaching strategy in the suttas.
" One perceives the earth-totality above, below, all-around: non-dual,[3] unlimited. One perceives the water-totality… the fire-totality… the wind-totality… the blue-totality… the yellow-totality… the red-totality… the white-totality… the space-totality… the consciousness-totality above, below, all-around: non-dual, unlimited. These are the ten totalities."
—Anguttara Nikaya 10.29