Life on other planets

[Ceisiwr]

Was just wondering if member's here believe that there is life on other planets, sentient and non-sentient?


Personally I do, although I cant know for sure of course

[Mindstar]

You can count me in on the believer side. Maybe in the not too distant future we will know for sure.
A most interesting future seems to lie ahead, lets wait and see...

http://hipknowsys.blogspot.de/2013/12/s ... -2013.html

I´m not much a fan of Deva philosophy but i think for non Buddhists it should be the second best.

[PadmaPhala]

my immediate past life was in a habitable planet orbiting Pleione, in buddhist cosmology it is called deva namanarati.
so yes, due to first hand experience there's life on other planets.

[Mkoll]

my immediate past life was in a habitable planet orbiting Pleione, in buddhist cosmology it is called deva namanarati.
so yes, due to first hand experience there's life on other planets.

[purple planet]

PadmaPhala wrote:my immediate past life was in a habitable planet orbiting Pleione, in buddhist cosmology it is called deva namanarati.
so yes, due to first hand experience there's life on other planets.

when i first heard about the ability to remember past lives and how when you have improved concentration you can do it - it sounded very logical (even though im a skeptical person) and then i assumed its pretty common for people to remember - but while reading for instances this forum i understand its not the case and people can have threads arguing about whether there past lives or not -

so im very interested to hear (and im sure others are too) more details about your past life - when remembered them - how it felt ect ...

[PsychedelicSunSet]

In my opinion, the universe is far to vast for us to be the only life out there.





Metta

[BlackBird]

Supossed attainment revelations and past life rememberance aside:

I read about a mathematical equation to come up with the probability of the number not only of earth like planets, but of intelligent life having had time to evolve upon it, the probability is overwhelmingly in favor of it being so. Just take our galaxy for instance: There are 300 billion stars, and NASA reckons a fifth of them have at least one planet within the goldylocks zone. Now if even only a 10th of those planets actually have any forms of life on them, that's still a gigantic number, and then remember you have to multiply it out by the number of galaxies in the universe, if life evolved here on Earth, its so damn probable that it verges on a near certainty that life exists on other planets, and at least a fraction of that is intelligent. But the galaxy is a very vast place, to say nothing of the universe. We are so infintesimally small, humans could die out many times over and not one other alien civilization could be aware of our existence

Iirc there is mention here and there in the Suttas of other world systems. I've seen the term 'thousand fold world system' being used, and I have always taken this to refer to our galaxy or a portion thereof. Minor discrepancies noted, I do not find science and Dhamma via the suttas to be in any way irreconcilable.

Edit: here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

[pilgrim]

It'll be interesting to know what an advanced civilisation thinks of the Buddha Dhamma. On the other hand, they could be technologically advanced but still worship some weird alien god with 11 heads.

[BlackBird]

It'll be interesting to know what an advanced civilisation thinks of the Buddha Dhamma. On the other hand, they could be technologically advanced but still worship some weird alien god with 11 heads.

I think the Dhamma has probably arisen in other civilizations too at some point in the infinite history of sangsara, after all anicca dukkha and anatta are equally applicable no matter where you are in the universe.

[Mkoll]

And for those who'd like to watch, here is the late, great Carl Sagan from his documentary TV series Cosmos presenting the Drake equation.

phpBB .

Cosmos is somewhat dated but still a lovely introduction to astronomy.

[Spiny Norman]

Was just wondering if member's here believe that there is life on other planets, sentient and non-sentient?

Given the mind-boggling number of solar systems in the universe, I'd say it's a certainty. I'm hoping for a visit soon...

[Spiny Norman]

I read about a mathematical equation to come up with the probability of the number not only of earth like planets, but of intelligent life having had time to evolve upon it, the probability is overwhelmingly in favor of it being so. Just take our galaxy for instance: There are 300 billion stars, and NASA reckons a fifth of them have at least one planet within the goldylocks zone. Now if even only a 10th of those planets actually have any forms of life on them, that's still a gigantic number, and then remember you have to multiply it out by the number of galaxies in the universe, if life evolved here on Earth, its so damn probable that it verges on a near certainty that life exists on other planets, and at least a fraction of that is intelligent.

Yes, that's I wanted to say but was feeling a bit tired.

[ES06]

It'll be interesting to know what an advanced civilisation thinks of the Buddha Dhamma. On the other hand, they could be technologically advanced but still worship some weird alien god with 11 heads.

I think the Dhamma has probably arisen in other civilizations too at some point in the infinite history of sangsara, after all anicca dukkha and anatta are equally applicable no matter where you are in the universe.

That is true, of course. But minds of aliens would also be, well, alien. So, Buddhist practices may not work for them. Or would they understand suffering in the way we do?
However, it would certainly be interesting to know what aliens would think about our religions.

About the question: life is natural phenomenon, so there is no reason to assume that it exists only on one single planet in the universe.

[Mindstar]

However, it would certainly be interesting to know what aliens would think about our religions.

I just want to drop another message, you might find an answer to your question there

http://www.paoweb.com/sn031114.htm

[Jetavan]

And for those who'd like to watch, here is the late, great Carl Sagan from his documentary TV series Cosmos presenting the Drake equation.

phpBB .

Cosmos is somewhat dated but still a lovely introduction to astronomy.

It's been updated.