Early Monastic Buddhism v1.c8.s3.4

v1.c8.s3.4

(A) Ābhassarā. According to the cosmogonic speculations of the Buddhists, as also of some of the Upaniṣadic teachers,² there were in the beginning no beings and the first to appear were the Ābhassarā gods, capable of taking shape at will,³ feeding themselves only with joy (pīti), self-luminous (sayampabhā), moving about in the sky and getting all that they desired.⁴