Astrology and Buddhism

  The Buddhism which has arisen in India has kept the respect for astrology characteristic of Hinduism. However the motivation for occupations by astrology became other. Buddhists looked for in "science about stars" not an opportunity to reconcile with the life, and on the contrary, the way helping to eliminate sufferings of life, to become perfect and to leave a wheel of regenerations: it is necessary to comprehend laws of the world to learn to overcome them. Buddhist cosmological representations contain a large number of astrological elements. In the Buddhism Hindu ideas of time as a wheel ("Kalachakra" - "time wheel") and the concept of similarity of a microcosm and makrokosm have remained. In Tibetan Buddhism astrology is one of four specializations of monks in datsans.
   In the Buddhism the symbolics of 12 zodiac signs plays an important role. In particular, 12 stages of life of Buddha correspond to zodiac signs. However the concept of the Zodiac has received the most original embodiment in the Buddhist theory of a pratītyasamutpāda (Sanskrit "dependent origin"). This theory claims that the person in the activity is involved in a chain from 12 links by the principle "if is, there is it". These 12 "reasons-consequences" are as follows: This theory claims that the person in the activity is involved in a chain from 12 links by the principle "if is, there is it". These 12 "reasons-consequences" are as follows: Avidyā (ignorance), a Sanskara (tendencies, strong-willed impulses), a Vijñāna (consciousness - reason), a Nāmarūpa (mental and sensual elements), a Ṣaḍāyatana (sense organs), a Sparśa (contact), a Vedanā (feeling - emotion), Taṇhā (desire), Upādāna (grip), Bhava (formation), Jāti (birth), Jarāmaraṇa (old age - death) - the order of sequence can be other. From the psychological point of view, a pratītyasamutpāda treats an origin of individual life, the related suffering: with whatever link of a chain life process (and sufferings) has begun, his reason not in the world, and in a certain relation human "I" to the world. At the same time, proceeding from all-Buddhist idea of identity of a makrokosm and a microcosm, this law explains formation of all other world. It is necessary also to mention one of the main sacral symbols in the Buddhism - the mandala which is also based on astrological symbolics. Difficult geometrical drawing of a mandala is usually interpreted as Universe model, "the map of space", an ideal horoscope. We will note that C.G.Jung emphasized universal character of a mandala as psychospace system which sets the special universal rhythm uniting macrocosm and a microcosm. But respect for astrology is most indicative it was shown in a legend that the wise man astrologer Asita after Buddha's birth has correctly told his fortunes.