三彌勒經疏 1.35

1.35

Question: How is it known that a Buddha appears in a kalpa of destruction? Answer: The Karuṇāpuṇḍarīkasūtra says: 'After Rucika Buddha enters parinirvāṇa, the true Dharma and the Bhadrakalpa will simultaneously be extinguished completely.' Since it says that the true Dharma and the Bhadrakalpa are simultaneously extinguished, we therefore know that a Buddha appears in the kalpa of destruction. Some say this is not so: because the treatises state that Buddhas appear during the decreasing periods of a kalpa, and because both the kalpas of formation and destruction have no decreasing stage, one should say that the twenty kalpas of abiding are called one great kalpa. Some say this is also so: that is, if one says that Buddhas appear during the decreasing period taking the treatises as proof, then according to those treatises Buddhas do not appear when [the lifespan] has decreased below one hundred years. If so, for Rucika Buddha's twenty-kalpa abiding, one should say that the duration of the nine hundred and ninety-nine Buddhas' abiding in the world is equal to those increases and decreases as the measure of one kalpa or half a kalpa; therefore, Rucika's [lifespan] is also half a kalpa, so as to equal the lifespans of all the Buddhas.