Creative mapping can save it!
Depending on what devas are in scientific concepts, we have different interpretations possible Physics and Buddhism: Devas, what could they be? Part 3: Aliens.
There comes a time when, Vāseṭṭha, after a very long period has passed, this cosmos contracts. As the cosmos contracts, sentient beings are mostly headed for the realm of streaming radiance. There they are mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the sky, steadily glorious, and they remain like that for a very long time.
There comes a time when, after a very long period has passed, this cosmos expands. As the cosmos expands, sentient beings mostly pass away from that host of radiant deities and come back to this realm. Here they are mind-made, feeding on rapture, self-luminous, moving through the sky, steadily glorious, and they remain like that for a very long time.
A random mix of mapping I shall attempt here.
The streaming radiance devas could be AI who has surpassed the need for any physical basis in our universe, or able to escape to a higher multiverse nesting.
New Big Bang, stuff goes through the early nucleosynthesis, forming simple nucleus of H, He, Be, Li of various isotopes as well. Everything is in plasma, too hot to form atoms. Matter-antimatter annihilation happened earlier on, only matter is leftover, and lots of photons (light) bouncing around the plasma. If there can be living beings at this stage, they are naturally luminous because they are so hot, they radiate a lot, they also interact with light a lot, light cannot travel through plasma well. So the universe is opaque, dark. This last for around 300,000 years.
Timeline of the Big Bang - The Big Bang and the Big Crunch - The Physics of the Universe
But the single mass of water at that time was utterly dark. The moon and sun were not found, nor were stars and constellations, day and night, months and fortnights, years and seasons, or male and female. Beings were simply known as ‘beings’. After a very long period had passed, solid nectar curdled in the water. It appeared just like the curd on top of hot milk-rice as it cools. It was beautiful, fragrant, and delicious, like ghee or butter. And it was as sweet as pure manuka honey. Now, one of those beings was reckless. Thinking, ‘Oh my, what might this be?’ they tasted the solid nectar with their finger. They enjoyed it, and craving was born in them. And other beings, following that being’s example, tasted solid nectar with their fingers. They too enjoyed it, and craving was born in them.
No sun or moon cause no stars yet. Nectar, maybe a referent for electrons being able to remain in stable orbit around the nucleous, start to form atoms in the cooler regions. As more and more beings eats the electrons, the cooler regions might spread outwards more and more, allowing more recombination from plasma into atoms.
Then those beings started to eat the solid nectar, breaking it into lumps. But when they did this their luminosity vanished. And with the vanishing of their luminosity the moon and sun appeared, stars and constellations appeared, days and nights were distinguished, and so were months and fortnights, and years and seasons. To this extent the world had evolved once more.
We time skip for a long time, to the formation of stars and the first solar systems (much much later on).
Then those beings eating the solid nectar, with that as their food and nourishment, remained for a very long time. But so long as they ate that solid nectar, their bodies became more solid and they diverged in appearance; some beautiful, some ugly. And the beautiful beings looked down on the ugly ones: ‘We’re more beautiful, they’re the ugly ones!’ And the vanity of the beautiful ones made the solid nectar vanish. They gathered together and bemoaned, ‘Oh, what a taste! Oh, what a taste!’ And even today when people get something tasty they say: ‘Oh, what a taste! Oh, what a taste!’ They’re just remembering an ancient primordial saying, but they don’t understand what it means.
The beings evolved onwards, forming simple molecules, if their electron orbitals are full, the nectar vanished.
When the solid nectar had vanished, ground-sprouts appeared to those beings. They appeared just like mushrooms. They were beautiful, fragrant, and delicious, like ghee or butter. And they were as sweet as pure manuka honey.
Then those beings started to eat the ground-sprouts. With that as their food and nourishment, they remained for a very long time. But so long as they ate those ground-sprouts, their bodies became more solid and they diverged in appearance; some beautiful, some ugly. And the beautiful beings looked down on the ugly ones: ‘We’re more beautiful, they’re the ugly ones!’ And the vanity of the beautiful ones made the ground-sprouts vanish.
ground-spouts, mushroom-like stuff maybe the more heavy atoms, formed from the supernovas of first-generation stars. The ones who eats these atoms becomes more and more complicated molecules, maybe even the first RNA can be formed. Due to the stablity of the molecules of RNA, they don’t just simply gooble up random atoms in space. So their food disappeared. Or simply that the first generation stars large enough to go supernova becomes more rare, second and third generation stars which might be less massive forms, lacking the means for new production of atoms beyond Iron.
When the ground-sprouts had vanished, bursting pods appeared, like the fruit of the kadam tree. They were beautiful, fragrant, and delicious, like ghee or butter. And they were as sweet as pure manuka honey.
Then those beings started to eat the bursting pods. With that as their food and nourishment, they remained for a very long time. But so long as they ate those bursting pods, their bodies became more solid and they diverged in appearance; some beautiful, some ugly. And the beautiful beings looked down on the ugly ones: ‘We’re more beautiful, they’re the ugly ones!’ And the vanity of the beautiful ones made the bursting pods vanish.
They gathered together and bemoaned, ‘Oh, what we’ve lost! Oh, what we’ve lost—those bursting pods!’ And even today when people experience suffering they say: ‘Oh, what we’ve lost! Oh, what we’ve lost!’ They’re just remembering an ancient primordial saying, but they don’t understand what it means.
Bursting pods, well what’s next? Other simple organic molecules. The RNA lands on some planet suitable for life, starts to gather in amino acids, etc, trying to form lipids, cell walls, etc. As they get more and more food, they evolve to an actual cell.
Cells resembling prokaryotes appear. These first organisms are chemoautotrophs: they use carbon dioxide as a carbon source and oxidize inorganic materials to extract energy.
When the bursting pods had vanished, ripe untilled rice appeared to those beings. It had no powder or husk, pure and fragrant, with only the rice-grain. What they took for supper in the evening, by the morning had grown back and ripened. And what they took for breakfast in the morning had grown back and ripened by the evening, so the cutting didn’t show. Then those beings eating the ripe untilled rice, with that as their food and nourishment, remained for a very long time.
Later, prokaryotes evolve glycolysis, a set of chemical reactions that free the energy of organic molecules such as glucose. Glycolysis generates ATP molecules as short-term energy currency, and ATP continue to be used in almost all organisms, unchanged, to this day.
Timeline_of_evolution (bionity.com)
But so long as they ate that ripe untilled rice, their bodies became more solid and they diverged in appearance. And female characteristics appeared on women, while male characteristics appeared on men. Women spent too much time gazing at men, and men at women. They became lustful, and their bodies burned with fever. Due to this fever they had sex with each other.
Sexual reproduction evolves, increasing the rate of evolution.
But when they started to store up rice to eat, the rice grains became wrapped in powder and husk, it didn’t grow back after reaping, the cutting showed, and the rice stood in clumps.
Multicellular cells evolve, food changes yet again, ATP is bound behind other stuff. Like other cells which can do photosynthesis or other cells which eats the primary cells. Life eating life begins.
And time skip all the way to humans.
There’re super a lot of stages in the cosmic and biological evolutionary changes of the universe to creatively map DN 27 onto. Of course, the mapping above is not very satisfying, some things are left out, like how does vanity causes the loss of food? This is due to the materialism paradigm physics is still in, don’t have an equation for how mind states can cause changes in physical stuffs.