The World of Jambudvipa

The world of Jambudvipa (Sanskrit:  Jambudvīpa; Tibetan: Dzambuling; English: (Rose-Apple Continent')) is one of the four continents, which is situated to the south of Mount Meru. Its shape is trapezoidal, resembling the shape of an axehead. It is the human world in which we live.

“Since this continent is adorned by [a jambu/Jambubriksha] tree, it is known as the 'Continent of Jambu', or Jambudvipa. The jambu tree is presumed by some to be the rose-apple tree (Eugenia jambolana). More recent scholarship suggests that it may be a variety of plum. However, legend says that only one jambu tree exists, which is not visible to ordinary people but only to enlightened beings. 

The Buddhist cosmology divides the bhūmaṇḍala (circle of the earth) into three separate levels: Kāmadhātu (Desire realm), Rūpadhātu (Form realm), and Ārūpyadhātu (Formless realm). In the Kāmadhātu is located Mount Meru (Sumeru), which is said to be surrounded by four island-continents. 

The southernmost island is called Jambudvipa. The other three continents of Buddhist accounts around Sumeru are not accessible to humans from Jambudvīpa. Jambudvīpa is shaped like a triangle with a blunted point facing south, somewhat like the Indian subcontinent. In its centre is a gigantic Jambu tree, from which the continent takes its name, meaning "Jambu Island." 

Jambudipa is one of the four Mahādīpas, or great continents, which are included in the Cakravāla "cosmos" and are ruled by a cakravartin. They are grouped around Mount Sumeru. In Jambudvīpa is Himavā with its eighty-four thousand peaks, its lakes, mountain ranges, etc.

This continent derives its name from the Jambu tree (also called Naga), which grows there; its trunk is fifteen yojanas in girth; its outspreading branches are fifty yojanas in length; its shade is one hundred yojanas in extent; and its height is one hundred yojanas (Vin.i.30; SNA.ii.443; Vsm.i.205f; Sp.i.119, etc.) On account of this tree, Jambudīpa is also known as Jambusanda (SN.vs.552; SNA.i.121). The continent is ten thousand yojanas in extent; of these ten thousand, four thousand are covered by the ocean, three thousand by the Himalayan mountains, and three thousand are inhabited by men (SNA.ii.437; UdA.300). 

Jambudvīpa is the region where humans live and is the only place where a being may become enlightened by being born as a human being. It is in Jambudvīpa that one may receive the gift of Dharma, come to understand the Four Noble Truths, the Noble Eightfold Path, and ultimately realise liberation from the cycle of life and death. Another reference is from the Buddhist text, the Mahāvaṃsa, where the emperor Ashoka's son Mahinda introduces himself to King Devanampiya Tissa of Anuradhapura as from Jambudvipa, referring to what is now the Indian subcontinent. This is described in the Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva Pūrvapraṇidhāna Sūtra in Mahayana Buddhism.

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Aspiration For Bodhichitta

For those in whom the precious Bodhichitta has not arisen

May it arise and not decrease.

But increase further and further.

 

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By this merit, may we then obtain omniscience then.

Having defeated the enemies wrongdoings

May we liberate migratory from the ocean of existence.

With its stormy waves of birth, old age, sickness, and death.

 

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