Plato's history of Atlantis further detail

Plato's history of Atlantis further detail

1. 600 BC Solon visited the city of Sais and the priests of Egypt
2. He wrote unfinished verse
3. Re Plutarch  his journey was of 10 years duration
4. "I grow in learning as in age"
5. Plato related to Solon
6. Solon described as wisest of the 7 sages
7. Sais connected to the Athens of old
8. Many deluges floods of mankind not just one or a few
9. conflagrations at long intervals--Nile the savior of the remnant of peoples
10. "purging of the earth" shepherds the survivors
11. ignorance of ancient times of the surviving races
12. Classes and casts
13. Priests,artisans,shepherds,husbandmen,hunters, warriors(separated)
14. wisdom imbued and interpenetrated the whole social fabric
15. prophecy and medicine
16. addition of knowledge furthering human health and well being
17. disciples of thje gods
18. Athens predated Egypt by (?) 1000 years
19. histories in Egy corroborate events Ancient Athens puts an end to Atlantis a war of liberation
20. The islands  the center isle described by Plato in the Critias a late and unfinished dialogue
21. Great empire   w/in and out the pillars of Heracles--planned to attack and did so (?) the Athenians (Hellenes)--stood alone agai Atlantis and defeated her  when deserted by her allies
22. single day and night floods and torrents sank Atlantis--sea impassible due to shallow mud
23. 9000 years since this war---Atlantis empire greater than Libya and Asia
24. Descr of Athenians, form of government,use of Hellenic names bny foreigners, t/b used in Solon's unfinished poem

Ignatius Donnelly : Atlantis the Antediluvian World

Ignatius Donnelly : Atlantis the Antediluvian World
http://archive.org/details/atlantis_antediluvian_world_1102_librivox
Here are my most precious notes on the findings of this remarkable book  published in l882 from Chapter 1 the Purpose of the book stating the themes of the book and concur with what I believe in many respects:

Purpose and the 13 propositions of the book:

1. Existence of a large island   is of a truth
2. Plato's description is  veritable history not myth or fable
3. Atlantis the source of all civilizations
4. A populous and mighty nation with overspill of peoples over the face of this globe
5. The true antediluvian world we know as the garden of Eden, Hespserides, the Elysian fields,etc.
6. "Gods of past civilizations" were the 10 kings of Atlantis-mythologies of Greeks and nations were confused accounts given in after ages re mentality of the ancients
7. Mythologies of Egypt and Peru  were remnants of the sun worship of Atlantis
8. Egypt is its oldest colony ( a survival colony)
9. The Bronze or iron age derived from the Atlantaeans
10. Phoenician alphabet derived from them as well and passed to the Mayans
11. Atlantis seat of the Aryan and Semitic peoples
12. Perished in convulsion of nature(?) or a purposive act of heaven?
13. Escapees in rafts and boats -Accounts of the flood legends of the bible and the Sumerians and Akkadians?

If there is truth in the foregoing, then the following follow as necessary corollaries:

• Genesis and the flood accounts are confirmed
• ancient accounts debunking Atlantis as fable prove nothing
• the ancients nearest the past not always the best informed
• ex= the debunking by his contemporaries of his accounts of his travels (Herodotus)
• resurrected esteem held millenia later by the moderns
• Solon's journey and discussion with Egyptian priests are true and not rightly dismissed as fable
• Note the truths behind Pharaoh Necho's expedition.

Esoteric cosmology

Esoteric cosmology


From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search Esoteric cosmology is cosmology that is an intrinsic part of an esoteric or occult system of thought. Esoteric cosmology maps out the universe with planes of existence and consciousness according to a specific worldview usually from a doctrine.


OverviewEsoteric cosmology almost always deals with at least some of the following themes: emanation, involution, spiritual evolution, epigenesis, planes of existence or higher worlds (and their emanation and the connections between them), hierarchies of spiritual beings, cosmic cycles (e.g., cosmic year, Yuga), yogic or spiritual disciplines and techniques of self-transformation, and references to mystical and altered states of consciousness.[1]




Such cosmologies cover many of the same concerns also addressed by religious cosmology and philosophical cosmology, such as the origin, purpose, and destiny of the universe and of consciousness and the nature of existence. For this reason it is sometimes difficult to distinguish where religion or philosophy end and esotericism or occultism begins. However, esoteric cosmology is distinguished from religion in its more sophisticated construction and reliance on intellectual understanding rather than faith, and from philosophy in its emphasis on techniques of psycho-spiritual transformation.



Examples of esoteric cosmologies can be found in Gnosticism, Neoplatonism, Nagualism, Nagualism (Carlos Castaneda), Tantra (especially Kashmir Shaivism), Kabbalah, Sufism, the teachings of Jacob Boehme, The Urantia Book, the Sant Mat/Surat Shabda Yoga tradition, Theosophy, Anthroposophy, The Cosmic Tradition of Max Theon and his wife, Max Heindel (The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception), elements of the teachings of Sri Aurobindo, Meher Baba, the Fourth Way propounded by Gurdjieff and Ouspensky, PaGaian Cosmology and many current New Age teachings, to give only a few examples.[2]

Gnosticism
Gnostic teachings were contemporary with those of Neoplatonism. Gnosticism is an imprecise label, covering monistic as well as dualistic conceptions. Usually the higher worlds of Light, called the Pleroma or "fullness", are radically distinct from the lower world of Matter. The emanation of the Pleroma and its godheads (called Aeons) is described in detail in the various Gnostic tracts, as is the pre-creation crisis (a cosmic equivalent to the "fall" in Christian thought) from which the material world comes about, and the way that the divine spark can attain salvation.[3]





Kabbalah
Kabbalah combines orthodox Judaic, Neoplatonic, Gnostic, and philosophical (e.g. Aristotlean) themes, to develop an elaborate and highly symbolic cosmology in which God, who is ineffable and unknowable, manifests as ten archetypal sephirot, each with its own Divine attributes, and arranged in a configuration of interrelated paths called the Tree of Life. The original Tree gives rise to further trees, until there are four or (in Lurianic Kabbalah) five worlds or universes (Trees) in all, with the lowest sephira of the lowest world constituting the material cosmos.



This cosmology proved highly popular with occultists, and formed the basis of Western hermetic thought (e.g. the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and subsequent organisations), where it is associated with a form of astral travel called "pathworking".


Neoplatonism]
Although under Plotinus, Neoplatonism began as a school of philosophy, the teachings of later Neoplatonists such as Iamblichus and Proclus incorporate additional details of the emanation process in terms of the dialectical action of the hypostases and further subdivisions from Plotinus' original three hypostases. Each higher hypostasis constitutes a more sublime deific state of existence. There is also a tendency in later neoplatonic thought towards increasing transcendentalism and dualism. Although Plotinus saw spiritual ascent as leading ultimately to the One (The Absolute), in later Neoplatonism the best one can hope for is irridation of the Soul by the Nous above.




Neoplatonic ideas were later taken up by Gnosticism, Kabbalah, Christianity (Pseudo-Dionysius), and, in the 19th century, Theosophy

Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception
Max Heindel presents in his The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception (1909) an evolutionary process of man and the universe, correlating science with religion. This work of esoteric knowledge contains the fundamentals of the Rosicrucian Philosophy and also deals, among other topics, metaphysics and cosmology. The second part of the book contains the scheme of Evolution in general and the Evolution of the Solar System and the Earth in particular, according to Heindel. In the field of cosmology (Cosmogenisis and Anthropogenesis) it teaches about the Worlds, Globes and Periods, Revolutions and Cosmic Nights related to life waves and human development and also the constitution of our solar system and of the Universe: The Supreme Being, the Cosmic Planes and God.


Theosophy & Anthroposophy
H.P. Blavatsky in her Theosophical writings presented a complex cosmology, in terms of a sevenfold series of cosmic planes and subplanes, and a detailed sevenfold system of cycles and sub-cycles of existence.[4] These ideas were adapted by later esotericists like Rudolf Steiner (Anthroposophy), Max Heindel, Alice Bailey, and Ann Ree Colton, and some of these ideas were included in New Age thought.



Max Theon and the "Cosmic Philosophy"
The occultist Max Theon developed a sophisticated cosmology, incorporating Lurianic Kabbalistic and other themes. This describes a number of divine and material worlds, and four or eight "states" (equivalent to the Theosophical Planes), each divided into degrees, each of which are in turn subdivided into sub-degrees. The details of these various occult worlds, their beings, recognisable colours, and so on, were all laid out, but very little of this material has yet been published.


See alsoSufi cosmology


Plane (cosmology)

The Urantia Book

Nondual

[edit] References1.^ S. K. Basu Encylopaedic Dictionary of Astrophysics 2007, p. 73

2.^ Tim Voigt The Grand Fantasy of Einstein: The Search for the Theory of the Universe 2010

3.^ Rosemary Guiley The encyclopedia of saints 2001, p. 396

4.^ Virginia Hanson H.P. Blavatsky and the Secret Doctrine 1988

Blavatsky, H.P. (1967). Practical Occultism. ISBN 81-7059-076-0. http://www.theosophical.ca/practicalocc.htm.

Blavatsky, H.P. (1972). The Key to Theosophy. ISBN 0-911500-07-3. http://www.theosociety.org/pasadena/key/key-hp.htm.

Raja Ram Mohan Roy (1999). Vedic Physics. ISBN 0-9684120-0-9. http://books.google.com/books?id=npIKAAAACAAJ&dq=Vedic+Physics.

[edit] External linksPuranic Vaishnava cosmology - planetarium

Planes of Existence - Kheper website

The Thirty-one Planes of Existence - according to Buddhist cosmology

Sant Mat / Surat Shabd Yoga charts

- Sant Ajaib Singh Ji Memorial Site

- Genesis, Planes of Creation, Positive & Negative Powers

The Great Continuum Of Consciousness according to George A. Boyd

The Visible and Invisible Worlds according to Max Heindel & related Diagrams in The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception

Critias' rendition of Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias

http://archive.org/details/critias_1301_librivox

Critias' rendition of Atlantis in Timaeus and Critias
In Plato's myth, Poseidon fell in love with Cleito, the daughter of Evenor and Leucippe, who bore him five pairs of male twins. The eldest of these, Atlas, was made rightful king of the entire island and the ocean (called the Atlantic Ocean in his honor), and was given the mountain of his birth and the surrounding area as his fiefdom. Atlas's twin Gadeirus, or Eumelus in Greek, was given the extremity of the island towards the pillars of Hercules.[8] The other four pairs of twins—Ampheres and Evaemon, Mneseus and Autochthon, Elasippus and Mestor, and Azaes and Diaprepes—were also given "rule over many men, and a large territory."




Poseidon carved the mountain where his love dwelt into a palace and enclosed it with three circular moats of increasing width, varying from one to three stadia and separated by rings of land proportional in size. The Atlanteans then built bridges northward from the mountain, making a route to the rest of the island. They dug a great canal to the sea, and alongside the bridges carved tunnels into the rings of rock so that ships could pass into the city around the mountain; they carved docks from the rock walls of the moats. Every passage to the city was guarded by gates and towers, and a wall surrounded each of the city's rings. The walls were constructed of red, white and black rock quarried from the moats, and were covered with brass, tin and the precious metal orichalcum, respectively.[9]
Athens defeats the Atlantean slave empire which is engulfed by a flood
According to Critias, 9,000 years before his lifetime a war took place between those outside the Pillars of Hercules at the Strait of Gibraltar and those who dwelt within them. The Atlanteans had conquered the parts of Libya within the Pillars of Hercules as far as Egypt and the European continent as far as Tyrrhenia, and subjected its people to slavery. The Athenians led an alliance of resistors against the Atlantean empire, and as the alliance disintegrated, prevailed alone against the empire, liberating the occupied lands.




But at a later time there occurred portentous earthquakes and floods, and one grievous day and night befell them, when the whole body of your warriors was swallowed up by the earth, and the island of Atlantis in like manner was swallowed up by the sea and vanished; wherefore also the ocean at that spot has now become impassable and unsearchable, being blocked up by the shoal mud which the island created as it settled down.[10]    9.^ Critias 116bc


10.^ Timaeus 25c–d, Bury translation
John V Luce (1978). "The Literary Perspective". In Edwin S. Ramage. Atlantis, Fact or Fiction?. Indiana University Press. p. 72. ISBN 0-253-10482-3
Rudberg 1917/2012 ref 13


The logographer Hellanicus of Lesbos wrote an earlier work titled Atlantis, of which only a few fragments survive. Hellanicus' work appears to have been a genealogical one concerning the daughters of Atlas[11] (Ἀτλαντὶς in Greek means "of Atlas"), but some authors have suggested a possible connection with Plato's island. John V. Luce notes that when he writes about the genealogy of Atlantis's kings, Plato writes in the same style as Hellanicus and suggests a similarity between a fragment of Hellanicus's work and an account in the Critias.[11] Robert Castleden suggests Plato may have borrowed his title from Hellanicus, and that Hellanicus may have based his work on an earlier work on Atlantis.[12]
Gunnar Rudberg suggested that Plato's try to realize his political ideas in the city of Syracuse, Sicily could have heavily inspired the Atlantis account.[13]

Ancient
Some ancient writers viewed Atlantis as fiction while others believed it was real.[14] The philosopher Crantor, a student of Plato's student Xenocrates, is often cited as an example of a writer who thought the story to be historical fact. His work, a commentary on Plato's Timaeus, is lost, but Proclus, a Neoplatonist of the 5th century AD, reports on it.[15] The passage in question has been represented in the modern literature either as claiming that Crantor actually visited Egypt, had conversations with priests, and saw hieroglyphs confirming the story or as claiming that he learned about them from other visitors to Egypt.[16] Proclus wrote:


15    Timaeus 24a: τὰ γράμματα λαβόντες.


16.^ Cameron 2002

17.^ Castleden 2001, p,168



As for the whole of this account of the Atlanteans, some say that it is unadorned history, such as Crantor, the first commentator on Plato. Crantor also says that Plato's contemporaries used to criticize him jokingly for not being the inventor of his Republic but copying the institutions of the Egyptians. Plato took these critics seriously enough to assign to the Egyptians this story about the Athenians and Atlanteans, so as to make them say that the Athenians really once lived according to that system.

The next sentence is often translated "Crantor adds, that this is testified by the prophets of the Egyptians, who assert that these particulars [which are narrated by Plato] are written on pillars which are still preserved." But in the original, the sentence starts not with the name Crantor but with the ambiguous He, and whether this referred to Crantor or to Plato is the subject of considerable debate. Proponents of both Atlantis as a myth and Atlantis as history have argued that the word refers to Crantor.[17]


Alan Cameron argues that it should be interpreted as referring to Plato, and that when Proclus writes that "we must bear in mind concerning this whole feat of the Athenians, that it is neither a mere myth nor unadorned history, although some take it as history and others as myth", he is treating "Crantor's view as mere personal opinion, nothing more; in fact he first quotes and then dismisses it as representing one of the two unacceptable extremes".[18]




Cameron also points out that whether he refers to Plato or to Crantor, the statement does not support conclusions such as Otto Muck's "Crantor came to Sais and saw there in the temple of Neith the column, completely covered with hieroglyphs, on which the history of Atlantis was recorded. Scholars translated it for him, and he testified that their account fully agreed with Plato's account of Atlantis" or J. V. Luce's suggestion that Crantor sent "a special enquiry to Egypt" and that he may simply be referring to Plato's own claims.[18]


_________________________________________________________________________________
Another passage from Proclus' commentary on the Timaeus gives a description of the geography of Atlantis:



That an island of such nature and size once existed is evident from what is said by certain authors who investigated the things around the outer sea. For according to them, there were seven islands in that sea in their time, sacred to Persephone, and also three others of enormous size, one of which was sacred to Hades, another to Ammon, and another one between them to Poseidon, the extent of which was a thousand stadia [200 km]; and the inhabitants of it—they add—preserved the remembrance from their ancestors of the immeasurably large island of Atlantis which had really existed there and which for many ages had reigned over all islands in the Atlantic sea and which itself had like-wise been sacred to Poseidon. Now these things Marcellus has written in his Aethiopica".[19]
_________________________________________________________________________________

Marcellus remains unidentified.




Other ancient historians and philosophers believing in the existence of Atlantis were Strabo and Posidonius.[20]

Critias -Dialogue on Atlantis

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantis

http://archive.org/details/critias_1301_librivox   soundbook

AtlantisFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaJump to: navigation, search For other uses, see Atlantis (disambiguation).




Athanasius Kircher's map of Atlantis, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. From Mundus Subterraneus 1669, published in Amsterdam. The map is oriented with south at the top.Atlantis (in Greek, Ἀτλαντὶς νῆσος, "island of Atlas") is a legendary island first mentioned in Plato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written about 360 BC. According to Plato, Atlantis was a naval power lying "in front of the Pillars of Hercules" that conquered many parts of Western Europe and Africa 9,000 years before the time of Solon, or approximately 9600 BC. After a failed attempt to invade Athens, Atlantis sank into the ocean "in a single day and night of misfortune".

Scholars dispute whether and how much Plato's story or account was inspired by older traditions. In Critias, Plato claims that his accounts of ancient Athens and Atlantis stem from a visit to Egypt by the legendary Athenian lawgiver Solon in the 6th century BC. In Egypt, Solon met a priest of Sais, who translated the history of ancient Athens and Atlantis, recorded on papyri in Egyptian hieroglyphs, into Greek. Some scholars argue Plato drew upon memories of past events such as the Thera eruption or the Trojan War, while others insist that he took inspiration from contemporary events like the destruction of Helike in 373 BC[1] or the failed Athenian invasion of Sicily in 415–413 BC.



The possible existence of a genuine Atlantis was discussed throughout classical antiquity, but it was usually rejected and occasionally parodied by later authors. Alan Cameron states: "It is only in modern times that people have taken the Atlantis story seriously; no one did so in antiquity".[2] The Timaeus remained known in a Latin rendition by Calcidius through the Middle Ages, and the allegorical aspect of Atlantis was taken up by Humanists in utopian works of several Renaissance writers, such as Francis Bacon's New Atlantis and Thomas More's Utopia. Atlantis inspires today's literature, from science fiction to comic books to films. Its name has become a byword for any and all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations

Plato's accountFurther information: Timaeus (dialogue) and Critias (dialogue)




A 15th-century Latin translation of Plato's TimaeusPlato's dialogues Timaeus and Critias, written in 360 BC, contain the earliest references to Atlantis. For unknown reasons, Plato never completed Critias. Plato introduced Atlantis in Timaeus:



For it is related in our records how once upon a time your State stayed the course of a mighty host, which, starting from a distant point in the Atlantic ocean, was insolently advancing to attack the whole of Europe, and Asia to boot. For the ocean there was at that time navigable; for in front of the mouth which you Greeks call, as you say, 'the pillars of Heracles,' there lay an island which was larger than Libya and Asia together; and it was possible for the travelers of that time to cross from it to the other islands, and from the islands to the whole of the continent over against them which encompasses that veritable ocean. For all that we have here, lying within the mouth of which we speak, is evidently a haven having a narrow entrance; but that yonder is a real ocean, and the land surrounding it may most rightly be called, in the fullest and truest sense, a continent. Now in this island of Atlantis there existed a confederation of kings, of great and marvelous power, which held sway over all the island, and over many other islands also and parts of the continent.[3]

The four persons appearing in those two dialogues are the politicians Critias and Hermocrates as well as the philosophers Socrates and Timaeus of Locri, although only Critias speaks of Atlantis. In his works Plato makes extensive use of the Socratic dialogues in order to discuss contrary positions within the context of a supposition.



The Timaeus begins with an introduction, followed by an account of the creations and structure of the universe and ancient civilizations. In the introduction, Socrates muses about the perfect society, described in Plato's Republic (c. 380 BC), and wonders if he and his guests might recollect a story which exemplifies such a society. Critias mentions an allegedly historical tale that would make the perfect example, and follows by describing Atlantis as is recorded in the Critias. In his account, ancient Athens seems to represent the "perfect society" and Atlantis its opponent, representing the very antithesis of the "perfect" traits described in the Republic.

Critias
According to Critias, the Hellenic gods of old divided the land so that each god might own a lot; Poseidon was appropriately, and to his liking, bequeathed the island of Atlantis. The island was larger than Ancient Libya and Asia Minor combined,[4][5] but it afterwards was sunk by an earthquake and became an impassable mud shoal, inhibiting travel to any part of the ocean. The Egyptians, Plato asserted, described Atlantis as an island comprising mostly mountains in the northern portions and along the shore, and encompassing a great plain of an oblong shape in the south "extending in one direction three thousand stadia [about 555 km; 345 mi], but across the center inland it was two thousand stadia [about 370 km; 230 mi]." Fifty stadia [9 km; 6 mi] from the coast was a mountain that was low on all sides...broke it off all round about[6]... the central island itself was five stades in diameter [about 0.92 km; 0.57 mi].[7]

Religious Cosmology

BuddhismMain article: Buddhist cosmology


In Buddhism, the universe comes into existence dependent upon the actions (karma) of its inhabitants. Buddhists posit neither an ultimate beginning or final end to the universe, but see the universe as something in flux, passing in and out of existence, parallel to an infinite number of other universes doing the same thing.



The Buddhist universe consists of a large number of worlds which correspond to different mental states, including passive states of trance, passionless states of purity, and lower states of desire, anger, and fear. The beings in these worlds are all coming into existence or being born, and passing out of existence into other states, or dying. A world comes into existence when the first being in it is born, and ceases to exist, as such, when the last being in it dies. The universe of these worlds also is born and dies, with the death of the last being preceding a universal conflagration that destroys the physical structure of the worlds; then, after an interval, beings begin to be born again and the universe is once again built up. Other universes, however, also exist, and there are higher planes of existence which are never destroyed, though beings that live in them also come into and pass out of existence.



As well as a model of universal origins and destruction, Buddhist cosmology also functions as a model of the mind, with its thoughts coming into existence based on preceding thoughts, and being transformed into other thoughts and other states.

Hebrew BibleFurther information: Biblical cosmology and Genesis creation myth


Biblical cosmology is not explicitly described anywhere in the Old Testament and has to be inferred from various passages. The most significant of these is the Genesis creation myth (the first two chapters of the Book of Genesis, which depict "heaven and earth" (i.e., the cosmos) as the creation of a single uncreated god called Yahweh (elsewhere depicted as the god of Israel - other nations were recognised as having their own national gods). God creates the cosmos by the power of speech (the repeated "Let there be..." phrase in Genesis 1), and the cosmos, once created, is his physical palace, with the Temple in Jerusalem as its earthly copy. Creation takes place over six days, and is an essence a series of acts in which God brings order to the chaos of "uncreated" matter and renders it fit for habitation. The cosmos thus created consists of a flat, circular earth separated from the infinite waters of chaos (water was the essential chaos-element) by a solid transparent dome.

Christianity/modern JudaismSee also: Biblical cosmology, Ex nihilo, and Creationism


Around the time of Jesus or a little earlier, the Greek idea that God had actually created matter replaced the older idea that matter had always existed, but in a chaotic state. This concept, called creatio ex nihilo, is now the accepted orthodoxy of both Judaism and Christianity. Both Christianity and Judaism claim that a single, uncreated God was responsible for the creation of the cosmos
HINDUISM
The Hindu cosmology and timeline is the closest to modern scientific timelines and even more which might indicate that the Big Bang is not the beginning of everything but just the start of the present cycle preceded by an infinite number of universes and to be followed by another infinite number of universes. It also includes an infinite number of universes at one given time.



The Rig Veda questions the origin of the cosmos in: "Neither being (sat) nor non-being was as yet. What was concealed? And where? And in whose protection?…Who really knows? Who can declare it? Whence was it born, and whence came this creation? The devas (demigods) were born later than this world's creation, so who knows from where it came into existence? None can know from where creation has arisen, and whether he has or has not produced it. He who surveys it in the highest heavens, he alone knows-or perhaps does not know." (Rig Veda 10. 129)

The Rig Veda's view of the cosmos also sees one true divine principle self-projecting as the divine word, Vaak, 'birthing' the cosmos that we know, from the monistic Hiranyagarbha or Golden Womb. The Hiranyagarbha is alternatively viewed as Brahma, the creator who was in turn created by God, or as God (Brahman) himself. The universe is considered to constantly expand since creation and disappear into a thin haze after billions of years.[citation needed] An alternate view is that the universe begins to contract after reaching its maximum expansion limits until it disappears into a fraction of a millimeter.[citation needed] The creation begins anew after billions of years (Solar years) of non-existence.




The puranic view asserts that the universe is created, destroyed, and re-created in an eternally repetitive series of cycles. In Hindu cosmology, a universe endures for about 4,320,000,000 years (one day of Brahma, the creator or kalpa) and is then destroyed by fire or water elements. At this point, Brahma rests for one night, just as long as the day. This process, named pralaya (Cataclysm), repeats for 100 Brahma years (311 Trillion, 40 Billion Human Years) that represents Brahma's lifespan. Similarly at a given time there are an infinite number of Brahma's performing the creation of each of these universes that are infinite in number. Brahma is the creator but not necessarily regarded as God in Hinduism. He is mostly regarded as a creation of God / Brahman

We are currently[when?] believed to be in the 51st year of the present Brahma and so about 156 trillion years have elapsed since He was born as Brahma. After Brahma's "death", it is necessary that another 100 Brahma years (311 Trillion, 40 Billion Years) pass until a new Brahma is born and the whole creation begins anew. This process is repeated again and again, forever.




Brahma's day is divided in one thousand cycles (Maha Yuga, or the Great Year). Maha Yuga, during which life, including the human race appears and then disappears, has 71 divisions, each made of 14 Manvantara (1000) years. Each Maha Yuga lasts for 4,320,000 years. Manvantara is Manu's cycle, the one who gives birth and governs the human race.



Each Maha Yuga consists of a series of four shorter yugas, or ages. The yugas get progressively worse from a moral point of view as one proceeds from one yuga to another. As a result, each yuga is of shorter duration than the age that preceded it. The current Kali Yuga (Iron Age) began at midnight 17 February / 18 February in 3102 BC in the proleptic Julian calendar.

Space and time are considered to be maya (illusion). What looks like 100 years in the cosmos of Brahma could be thousands of years in other worlds, millions of years in some other worlds and 311 trillion and 40 billion years for our solar system and earth.


IslamMain articles: Islamic cosmology and Sufi Cosmology


Islam preaches that God, or Allah, created the universe, including Earth's physical environment and human beings. The highest goal is to visualize the cosmos as a book of symbols for meditation and contemplation for spiritual upliftment or as a prison from which the human soul must escape to attain true freedom in the spiritual journey to God.[1]



Below here there are some other citations from the Quran on cosmology.



"Do not the Unbelievers see that the heavens and the earth were joined together (as one unit of creation), before we clove them asunder? We made from water every living thing. Will they not then believe?" 21:30 Yusuf Ali translation



"The Day that We roll up the heavens like a scroll rolled up for books (completed),- even as We produced the first creation, so shall We produce a new one: a promise We have undertaken: truly shall We fulfil it." 21:104 Yusuf Ali tra

JainismMain article: Jain cosmology

Jain cosmology considers the loka, or universe, as an uncreated entity, existing since infinity, having no beginning or an end.[2] Jain texts describe the shape of the universe as similar to a man standing with legs apart and arm resting on his waist. This Universe, according to Jainism, is narrow at the top, broad at the middle and once again becomes broad at the bottom.[3]



Mahāpurāṇa of Ācārya Jinasena is famous for this quote: "Some foolish men declare that a creator made the world. The doctrine that the world was created is ill advised and should be rejected. If God created the world, where was he before the creation? If you say he was transcendent then and needed no support, where is he now? How could God have made this world without any raw material? If you say that he made this first, and then the world, you are faced with an endless regression

Chinese mythologyMain articles: Chinese creation myth and Tian

There is a "primordial universe" Wuji (philosophy), and Hongjun Laozu, water or qi.[4][5] It transformed into Taiji and multiplied into everything.[6][7] The Pangu legend tells a formless chaos coalesced into a cosmic egg. Pangu emerged (or woke up) and separated Yin from Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them and pushed up the Sky. After Pangu died, he became everything.

Golden Ratio,Later Influence

Golden Ratio

"For whenever in any three numbers, whether cube or square, there is a mean, which is to the last term what the first term is to it; and again, when the mean is to the first term as the last term is to the mean—then the mean becoming first and last, and the first and last both becoming means, they will all of them of necessity come to be the same, and having become the same with one another will be all one" (31c - 32a); thereby he implies the aesthetically perfect proportion known as Golden ratio or Golden mean


Later influence

Medieval manuscript of Calcidius' Latin Timaeus translation.The Timaeus was translated into Latin by Cicero,[6] and the first part (to 53c) was again translated by Calcidius circa 321 AD. Calcidius' partial translation of the Timaeus was the only Platonic dialogue, and one of the few works of classical natural philosophy, available to Latin readers in the early Middle Ages. Thus it had a strong influence on medieval Neoplatonic cosmology and was commented on particularly by 12th century Christian philosophers of the Chartres School, such as Thierry of Chartres and William of Conches, who interpreting it in the light of the Christian faith understood the dialogue to refer to a creatio ex nihilo.[7]