The Mystery of the Number 144 in Ancient Beliefs

The time when the Babylonians used the numbers 12 and 60 as the basis of their calculation system, was a time when humans were still in harmony with all aspects of their lives with all the possibilities that appeared in the world by the will of the heavens.

At that time, calculations were not only used in trading activities, but also, above all, to guide the spiritualistic aspects of humans to stay in sync with the "cycle of time and accompanying events", which is believed to be a pre-determined condition by the Almighty to occur in the world. throughout the life span of the world.

This is the moral foundation that accompanies the development of the wisdom of the ancient world - which is passed down from generation to generation from the most primordial period, namely since the first heavenly messenger appeared on earth.

The "cycle of time and accompanying events" can be said to be the rhythm of the "creation pattern" of the world and its contents. Synchronization of humans with this pattern means their efforts to keep the perception focused on aspects of "the essence of the self" and "the role of being in the world".

At present, we can still see that there are many traces of ancient world wisdom regarding synchronization of world time with the time of the hereafter whose traces are scattered, both in religious traditions and cultural traditions of a nation.

Unfortunately, we no longer know the meaning of the trail as it should be. As if, there is a crossing point in the course of history where humans simply forget the ancient wisdom.

It is possible that the point of intersection is, at a time when humans have advanced enough in terms of calculation, so that the concept of arithmetic that emerged at that time could then become the ideal basis for the development of arithmetic for thousands of years.

But, on the other hand, the spiritual aspect of synchronizing world time with the time of the hereafter has been forgotten. Maybe people at that time had started to see it as irrelevant anymore to be the focus of attention. They put aside the essence of reality and began to dive into the illusory ocean of the world.

They did not consider it a fatal mistake. On the contrary, they see themselves as a visionary reformist group that has significantly contributed to improving the course of human civilization.

Sexagesimal (base 60) In Sumerian and Babylonian tradition

Sexagesimal, also known as base 60 or sexagenary, is a number system with sixty as the base. It dates back to the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, then passed down to ancient Babylon in the 2nd millennium BC.

In its use, people at that time counted up to 12 fingers with just one hand, with the thumb pointing to each finger bone on the four fingers in turn. This traditional counting system is still used in many parts of Asia. We can still find it used by Muslims when counting 33 times the recitation of dhikr.

With one hand counting repeatedly to the number 12, then the other hand displaying the number of iterations, then the sum of 60 and 144 can be obtained.

Historically, apart from being used by the Sumerians and Babylonians, the Sexagesimal system is also known to be used in the Chinese calendar as well as the Mayan calendar.

In the Mayan day calculation system, basic unit names are known, such as: 1 tun which means 360 days; 1 cotton means 7200 days, and 1 baktun means 144,000 days. And of course, the most famous about the Mayan calendar system is about the end of their calendar count which is on 12 / 12 / 2012 according to the Gregorian calendar.