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====India====

====India====

=====Buddhist=====

=====Buddhist=====

[[Buddhism]] itself generally ignores the question regarding the origin of life. The [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] regarding the origin of life has said "Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it."[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/anguttara/an04-077.html AN IV.77], and in regard to ignoring the question of the origin of life the Buddha has said "And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to [[disenchantment]], dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me."<ref>http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/majjhima/mn-063-tb0.html MN 63</ref>.  The Buddha also compared the question of the origin of life - as well as many other [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] questions - to the parable of the poison arrow: a man is shot with a poison arrow, but before the doctor pulls it out, he wants to know who shot it (arguing the existence of God), where the arrow came from (where the universe and/or God came from) why that person shot it (why God created the universe), etc.  If the man keeps asking these questions before the arrow is pulled out, the Buddha reasoned, he will die before he gets the answers.  Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions like the origin of life, and more concerned with the goal of saving oneself and other beings from suffering by attaining [[Nirvana]] (Enlightenment). However, the esoteric Buddhist teaching, the ''[[Kalachakra]] Tantra'', deals with the formation and functioning of reality. Modern day Buddhists such as the [[Dalai Lama]] don't perceive a conflict between Buddhism and science and consider they are complementary means of understanding the world around us.<ref>[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/09/14/the_buddha_of_suburbia/ Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Ideas / The Buddha of suburbia<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

[[Buddhism]] itself generally ignores the question regarding the origin of life. The [[Gautama Buddha|Buddha]] regarding the origin of life has said "Conjecture about [the origin, etc., of] the world is an unconjecturable that is not to be conjectured about, that would bring madness & vexation to anyone who conjectured about it."[http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/anguttara/an04-077.html AN IV.77], and in regard to ignoring the question of the origin of life the Buddha has said "And why are they undeclared by me? Because they are not connected with the goal, are not fundamental to the holy life. They do not lead to [[disenchantment]], dispassion, cessation, calming, direct knowledge, self-awakening, Unbinding. That's why they are undeclared by me." [http://www.accesstoinsight.org/canon/sutta/majjhima/mn-063-tb0.html MN 63].  The Buddha also compared the question of the origin of life - as well as many other [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] questions - to the parable of the poison arrow: a man is shot with a poison arrow, but before the doctor pulls it out, he wants to know who shot it (arguing the existence of God), where the arrow came from (where the universe and/or God came from) why that person shot it (why God created the universe), etc.  If the man keeps asking these questions before the arrow is pulled out, the Buddha reasoned, he will die before he gets the answers.  Buddhism is less concerned with answering questions like the origin of life, and more concerned with the goal of saving oneself and other beings from suffering by attaining [[Nirvana]] (Enlightenment). However, the esoteric Buddhist teaching, the ''[[Kalachakra]] Tantra'', deals with the formation and functioning of reality. Modern day Buddhists such as the [[Dalai Lama]] don't perceive a conflict between Buddhism and science and consider they are complementary means of understanding the world around us.[http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2003/09/14/the_buddha_of_suburbia/]

In the Buddhist scriptures, there is a story in the [[Digha Nikaya|Dīgha Nikā ya]] about how this world has come about. It is in the 27th Sutta, the Aggañña Sutta, and the Buddha uses it to explain how [[caste]]s have come about, and why one caste is not really any better than the other<ref>M. Walshe: ''The Long Discourses of the Buddha'', p. 407: "''On Knowledge of Beginnings''", Somerville, MASS, 1995.</ref>. At a point in time, this world contracts. When it expands again, beings are being reincarnated in it. All is water, and it is dark, but the beings are luminous. Later, earth is formed on the surface of the water. The beings start to eat from it, because this is tasty earth. Doing this, however, their own light disappears, and sun, moon, days and nights and seasons come into existence. The beings continue eating from the earth. They degenerate further: ugly ones and handsome ones come into existence. On top of that, the handsome ones get a bit arrogant. All of this makes the tasty earth disappear. Nice mushrooms take its place. The degeneration continues: beings become coarser, arrogant, and mushrooms are replaced by plants, and, then, good, ready-to-eat rice. Beings do still get coarser. They also become male or female. Sex is frowned upon, so people build shelter to be discrete. The next step is when people start to gather rice for a few meals at a time. Now, the rice's quality starts to deteriorate, and it does not grow back immediately. Later, people create rice fields with boundaries. This is the origin of theft and crime. To combat this crime, they offer a share of the rice to one of them to be their leader. In the end, all the different castes come about, originating from the same kind of beings.

In the Buddhist scriptures, there is a story in the [[Digha Nikaya|Dīgha Nikā ya]] about how this world has come about. It is in the 27th Sutta, the Aggañña Sutta, and the Buddha uses it to explain how [[caste]]s have come about, and why one caste is not really any better than the other<ref>M. Walshe: ''The Long Discourses of the Buddha'', p. 407: "''On Knowledge of Beginnings''", Somerville, MASS, 1995.</ref>. At a point in time, this world contracts. When it expands again, beings are being reincarnated in it. All is water, and it is dark, but the beings are luminous. Later, earth is formed on the surface of the water. The beings start to eat from it, because this is tasty earth. Doing this, however, their own light disappears, and sun, moon, days and nights and seasons come into existence. The beings continue eating from the earth. They degenerate further: ugly ones and handsome ones come into existence. On top of that, the handsome ones get a bit arrogant. All of this makes the tasty earth disappear. Nice mushrooms take its place. The degeneration continues: beings become coarser, arrogant, and mushrooms are replaced by plants, and, then, good, ready-to-eat rice. Beings do still get coarser. They also become male or female. Sex is frowned upon, so people build shelter to be discrete. The next step is when people start to gather rice for a few meals at a time. Now, the rice's quality starts to deteriorate, and it does not grow back immediately. Later, people create rice fields with boundaries. This is the origin of theft and crime. To combat this crime, they offer a share of the rice to one of them to be their leader. In the end, all the different castes come about, originating from the same kind of beings.