The End of the World Post

By now, most of you have probably hear the declaration from Harold "I've gone" Camping that world is about to end. Guess we'll have to see if he's right, but the track record of all those who came before him shouting about the end times is totally abysmal.

Anyway, some of you might be interested to know that Buddhism has an end of the world sutra, The Sermon of the Seven Suns. Here's a taste of it:

The Blessed One spake thus:

"Impermanent, O monks, are the constituents of existence, unstable, non-eternal: so much so, that this alone is enough to weary and disgust one with all constituent things, and emancipate therefrom. Sineru, monks, the monarch of montains, is eighty-four thousand leagues1 in length and breadth; eighty-four thousand lagues deep in the great ocean, and eighty-four thousand above it.

Now there comes, O monks, a season when, after many years, many hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands of years, it does not rain; and while it rains not, all seedlings and vegetation, all plants, grasses, and trees dry up, wither away and cease to be. Thus, monks, constituent things are impermanent, unstable, non-eternal: so much so, that this alone is enough to weary and disgust one therewith and emancipate therefrom.

And, monks, there comes a season, at vast intervals in the lapse of time, when a second sun appears.

After the appearance of the second sun, monks, the brooks and ponds dry up, vanish away and cease to be. So impermanent are constituent things! And then, monks, there comes a season, at vast intervals in the lapse of time, when a third sun appears; and thereupon the great rivers: to wit, the Ganges, the Jamna, the Rapti, the Gogra, the Mahî,--dry up, vanish away and cease to be.

At length, after another vast period, a fourth sun appears, and thereupon the great lakes, whence those rivers had their rise: namely, Anotatto,2 Lion-leap, Chariot-maker, Keel-bare, Cuckoo, Six-bayed, and Slow-flow, dry up, vanish away, and cease to be.

It goes on a fair bit more, until a seventh sun appears, and everything is completely burned away. Anyone familiar with Buddha's teachings will realize that this is exactly how the dissolution of karmic binds is described. Total liberation from suffering, and passing into nirvana, is said to be when all these binds have been burned away, and one leaves not a single trace.

Perhaps the Buddha also was making some kind of prophecy here about how the world will actually end, but I'd also bet that if anyone asked him directly about such things, he'd probably dismiss such talk as a speculative distraction.