Astral Planes, Akashic Records and Buddhism

DublinWriter

Just wondering, would belief in Astral Planes (various levels of existance) be inconsistent with Buddhist doctrine and also belief in the Akashic Records?

Thanks all.

Asiaprod

DublinWriter wrote: »

Just wondering, would belief in Astral Planes (various levels of existance) be inconsistent with Buddhist doctrine and also belief in the Akashic Records?

Thanks all.

Great question and an opportunity to learn something new:)

Just to clarify for those that may not know, the akashic record is an imagined spiritual realm, supposedly holding a record of all events, actions, thoughts and feelings that have ever occurred or will ever occur. Theosophists believe that the akasha is an "astral light" containing occult records which spiritual beings can perceive by their special "astral senses" and "astral bodies". Clairvoyance, spiritual insight, prophecy and many other untestable metaphysical and religious notions are made possible by tapping into the akasha.

I have wondered about this one myself. I always saw it more in terms of relating to or rooted in Hinduism rather that Buddhism. Although, It could well have a part to play in how Karma is recorded. It is not an area I have investigated to any depth as any references I have see to it come from an Occult perspective and my knowledge of the Occult is limited. Sapien, who I have not seen around for a while, reffered to this a long time ago and what was stated was pretty interesting. As a Buddhist, I try to keep an open mind on all things, seeking opportunities to learn more about the wonders that surround us. This is one of those opportunities so I am very interested to hear what others have to say.

I suspect MeditationMom can help us all with this one.

18AD

Maybe this would be of some help:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhist_cosmology

I also stumbled across this:
http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=667738

It mentions the buddhist concept of nature's memory. I can't find anything about that now. I'll have a look after work

All the best.
AD.

MeditationMom

Well, this is quite old -

I just checked what would show up on google under meditationmom and found this invitaion to comment from Asia -

Here is my take on this -

As light travels, all past events still exist as something to see/experience way far away from their point of origin. Just like we still see stars that have long since burned up, from somewhere far away, others may still sees our dinosaurs roam here. In that sense, everything is recorded in light, and happening at the same time.

From a Buddhist perspective - the idea of interconnectedness, then would suggest that we are never separated from all knowledge and all past events. So there is a possibility of tuning into that knowledge.

Since light is a finite entity, with a finite speed and finite characteristics - light is still part of the physical world of time and space. Light defines time and space. Light is not he final truth. There is something beyond the dualism of light and darkness. A very bright darkness that contains all and is somehow us, our true identity.

bogwalrus

if there is an astral plane it is probably something that cannot be perceived in the way we perceive things in the physical world. As in we cannot conceive the feeling of being there as it is too pure. I like that whole idea of Akashic records. I really never thought of a place where there is past future and present "Stored" on a level or plane. I do know that in quantum physics the laws that govern the very small bits of matter (which are different to our perceived physical laws) bubble into our physical world, so i can now imagine from what has been said above that a kind of spiritual realm/plane can bubble into our existence also.

Or something along those lines=)