Buddhist cosmology can be divided into two related kinds:
- spatial cosmology, which describes the arrangement of the various worlds within the universe, and
- temporal cosmology, which describes how those worlds come into existence, and how they pass away.
Spatial cosmology can also be divided into two branches.
- The vertical (cakravāḍa) cosmology describes the arrangement of worlds in a vertical pattern, some being higher and some lower.
- By contrast, the horizontal (sahasra) cosmology describes the grouping of these vertical worlds into sets of thousands, millions or billions.