Did the Buddha know the Earth is round?

Yes…, you’re correct, I agree with you, but the selection of parable that using the shape of the unusual stone mountain, which happens to be a spherical symmetrical objects might well be compatible with the facts that the shape of the earth is similar to it and also the age of the planet is also as long as it is depicted, right ?..

I don’t see why the mountain would have to be a sphere? The Buddha could have been referring to the mountains height and base dimensions - like a cone?

A stone mountain without holes or crevices that was one-yojana long, wide and, high would look like this (see below):

cone%202

I have never seen a mountain shaped like a soccer ball. That would be a huge symmetrical boulder - it may roll around and squash things. Mountains don’t do this - do they?

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Most likely this is only a symbolical, it’s true there’s no mountain in the form of a ball, but isn’t the mountain symbolizes something a very vast object ?. this is, again, accurately indicates that ( if we connect it to the existence of planet earth ), what would be symbolized by the mountain is even much enormous in size…

In an empty space or in a state of hanging on the tips of the leaves, liquids substance is tend to form a spherical droplets. The planet Earth was also actually formed from the magma liquid that cools and hardens and then forms the earth’s crust, this magma fluid long before, millions of years ago was gas-shaped. When in the form of magma fluid and hanging in an empty space, it also forming a sphere. This is the mechanism of the law of nature and of course the Buddha must have understood it through his omniscience… :slightly_smiling_face:

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For me this is just a symbolic statement to distinguish Buddha from ordinary people, but if you read the Simsapa Sutta, there are indeed words that imply that way :

Once the Blessed One was staying at Kosambi in the Simsapa forest. Then, picking up a few Simsapa leaves with his hand, he asked the monks, “What do you think, monks : Which Simsapa leaves are more numerous, the one in my hand or those overhead in the Simsapa forest ?”
"The leaves in the hand of the Blessed One are few in number, lord. Those overhead in the forest are far more numerous. "
"In the same way, monks, those things that I have noticed have much more [by what I have taught]. And why have not I taught them ? Because they are not connected with the goal, do not lead to disenchantment, to dispassion, to cessation, to calm, to direct knowledge, to self-awakening, to Unbinding. That is why I have not taught them…

( A quotes from the Simsapa Sutta )

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This stuff about sailing off the edge is a myth.


The earth was known to be round at around the time of the Buddha and Erosthenes calculated it quite accurately about 200 BC.

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These points were made earlier in the thread.

This is another mechanism that might explains, why most of the celestial objects including planets in general, are tend to be round in shape. Since the rotating pattern ( just like a wheel ) is the fundamental mechanism of the Universe, these planets previously were the parts of the mass of nebular gas which being thrown off by this rotating mechanism, in which, the main part of the mass of the nebula, forming the Sun in the center, but the mass which are throwned off then each one rotates and then forms the round planets. This is because, the gravity pulls the mass equally from all sides. Gravity pulls from the center to the edges like the spokes of a bicycle wheel. This makes the overall shape of a planet a sphere, which is a three-dimensional circle. The mechanism might be almost the same as that of the pottery makers, only by the difference that, the rounded pottery are made with the help of hands, but on the planets it is due to the gravitational pressure…

Buddhism says about the rounded shape of the earth. You can see it from this explanation about the continents in Earth which says the first continent is connected to the last continent.

These are the four main continents on earth according to Buddhism which are connected to the next continent as a circle:

1.) Jambudvīpa (Sanskrit) or Jambudīpa (Pāli)
2.) Pūrvavideha or Pubbavideha
3.) Aparagodānīya or Aparagoyāna
4.) Uttarakuru

Jambudvīpa is connected to Pūrvavideha,
Pūrvavideha is connected to Uttarakuru,
Aparagodānīya is connected to Uttarakuru,
Uttarakuru is connected to Jambudvīpa too.

The rounded shape of the earth made the connection between Uttarakuru and Jambudvīpa. So those four continents in Buddhism indirectly says the rounded shape of the Earth.

When it is midday on the continent of Jambudvīpa, the sun is setting on the continent of Pūrvavideha in the east and rising above the continent of [Apara]godānīya in the west, while it is midnight on the continent of Uttarakuru in the north. When it is midday in [Apara]godānīya, the sun is setting in Jambudvīpa and rising in Uttarakuru, while it is midnight in [Pūrva]videha. When it is midday in Uttarakuru, the sun is setting in [Apara]godānīya and rising in [Pūrva]videha, while it is midnight in Jambudvīpa. When it is midday in [Pūrva]videha, the sun is setting in Uttarakuru and rising in Jambudvīpa, while it is midnight in [Apara]-godānīya. Here when Jambudvīpa is in the east [at sunrise], [Pūrva]videha is in the west. If Jambudvīpa is in the west [at sunset], [Pūrva]videha is in the east. If [Apara]godānīya is in the west, Uttarakuru is in the east. If Uttarakuru is in the west, [Apara]godānīya is in the east. (Page #: 295-296 https://www.bdkamerica.org/system/files/pdf/dBET_T0001_LengthyDiscourses3_2018.pdf)

Uttarakuru is the highest continent of the three continents [besides Jambudvīpa], this
land surpasses the others and so is called Uttarā, which in the Indian language means “highest.”

  • Suresh
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It’s funny really isn’t it - in the time of the Buddha it was generally accepted that the world was flat but if you claim it now you’re branded an extremist.

Oceans have a floor, js :slight_smile: So core is floor of Earth perhaps?

I think there is a solution that everyone might agree to.

If the Buddha knew the world was round, he didn’t say, because your salvation is not dependent on sacred geography.

How’s that? :smiley_cat:

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What if the Buddha didn’t know about the earth being round?
Would that put in questions everything else we learn about spiritual progress?

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It does!
And it is not a must to explain everything. As the blessed one said, (discussed above). The blessed one is omniscient, there is no doubt about it.

I respectfully have doubt about it. But I guess we see what we want to see.

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I thought that was a Jaina concept (kevala ñana), not something the Tathagatha would claim?
By reading MN14 and MN76 we learn that the claims of omniscience by niganthas were just not true…
The Buddha in EBTs is nevertheless adamant about his fruition of the three supreme knowledges (tevijja), one of which was the enabler of his discovery of the four Noble truths and the associated eightfold path.
:anjal:

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Then the king said to the Buddha,
Atha kho rājā pasenadi kosalo bhagavantaṃ etadavoca:
“I have heard, sir, that the ascetic Gotama says this:
“sutaṃ metaṃ, bhante, samaṇo gotamo evamāha:
‘There is no ascetic or brahmin who will claim to be all-knowing and all-seeing, to know and see everything without exception: that is not possible.’
‘natthi so samaṇo vā brāhmaṇo vā yo sabbaññū sabbadassāvī aparisesaṃ ñāṇadassanaṃ paṭijānissati, netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjatī’ti.
Do those who say this repeat what the Buddha has said, and not misrepresent him with an untruth? Is their explanation in line with the teaching? Are there any legitimate grounds for rebuke and criticism?”
Ye te, bhante, evamāhaṃsu: ‘samaṇo gotamo evamāha—natthi so samaṇo vā brāhmaṇo vā yo sabbaññū sabbadassāvī aparisesaṃ ñāṇadassanaṃ paṭijānissati, netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjatī’ti; kacci te, bhante, bhagavato vuttavādino, na ca bhagavantaṃ abhūtena abbhācikkhanti, dhammassa cānudhammaṃ byākaronti, na ca koci sahadhammiko vādānuvādo gārayhaṃ ṭhānaṃ āgacchatī”ti?

“Great king, those who say this do not repeat what I have said. They misrepresent me with what is false and untrue.”
“Ye te, mahārāja, evamāhaṃsu: ‘samaṇo gotamo evamāha—natthi so samaṇo vā brāhmaṇo vā yo sabbaññū sabbadassāvī aparisesaṃ ñāṇadassanaṃ paṭijānissati, netaṃ ṭhānaṃ vijjatī’ti; na me te vuttavādino, abbhācikkhanti ca pana maṃ te asatā abhūtenā”ti.
(MN 90)

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