法苑珠林 3.15

3.15

Question: When this fire kalpa arises, it burns completely up to the First Dhyāna. Why then does the treatise say that the King of Mahābrahmā obtains a lifespan of one and a half kalpas? Answer: The statement "one and a half kalpas" is based on accumulating sixty antarakalpas to make one and a half kalpas; it is not based on a mahākalpa. If one speaks based on the mahākalpas of water, fire, and wind, that is still eighty antarakalpas combined to form one kalpa; among the antarakalpas there are twenty fewer, which does not contradict the meaning of his one-and-a-half-kalpa lifespan. How is this known to be so? In the old Kośa it is named "distinct kalpa"; in the Lokasthitābhidharma-śāstra it is named "small kalpa"; in the new Kośa and the new Vibhāṣā it is named "medium kalpa". These three names are different, but their reality is identical, and their duration of time is equal. As stated in the Āgamas: from a human lifespan of 84,000 years, diminishing by one [year] every century down to ten years, and then from ten years increasing again up to 84,000 years—one ascent and one descent, this span of time is named the measure of one medium kalpa (the "distinct" and "small" are also the same). If one relies on the Kośa: when the three calamities run their course from beginning to end for heaven and earth, only then is it named a mahākalpa. Any single calamity of water, fire, or wind must pass through eighty medium kalpas: one medium kalpa of destruction, one medium kalpa of formation, nineteen medium kalpas in which sentient beings progressively abide, twenty medium kalpas of proper abiding, and nineteen medium kalpas of progressive destruction and emptiness. This means that in one medium kalpa, whenever one of fire, water, or wind is encountered, the vessel world is destroyed; in nineteen medium kalpas, whenever famine, epidemic, or weapons are encountered, the world of sentient beings is destroyed. Because of this principle, the Abhidharma states: "This place is the last to abide, and this place is the first to become empty." That sentient beings are the last to abide refers to the lowest Avīci Hell. That this place is the first to become empty, and sentient beings are the first to abide, is variable: with respect to a fire kalpa, it is the First Dhyāna; with respect to a water kalpa, it is the Second Dhyāna; with respect to a wind kalpa, it is the Third Dhyāna. Discarding or taking this into account, within one mahākalpa there are those sixty medium kalpas, together with the twenty distinct kalpas in the empty kalpa, totaling eighty small kalpas to constitute one mahākalpa. Explaining the kalpas is like this; next is showing that there is no contradiction. Now, when it is said that the lifespan of the first heaven of the First Dhyāna, the Brahmapāriṣadya, is half a kalpa, one should know that it speaks based on half a kalpa—twenty medium kalpas—within that one distinct kalpa. That the second heaven, the Brahmapurohita, has a lifespan of one kalpa means that it speaks based on forty medium kalpas of that one distinct kalpa. That the third, Mahābrahmā, has a lifespan of one and a half kalpas: one should know that it is said based on sixty medium kalpas, which is one and a half distinct kalpas. Because of this meaning, they do not contradict one another. The First Dhyāna is like this. Above the Second Dhyāna, one should know that all are clarified in terms of their lifespans based on the mahākalpas of the three calamities, and not based on medium or distinct kalpas. In the Second Dhyāna: the first, the Parīttābha Heaven, has a lifespan of two kalpas; the second, the Apramāṇābha Heaven, has a lifespan of four kalpas; the third, the Ābhāsvara Heaven, has a lifespan of eight kalpas. If one asks, "Since the water calamity reaches up to the Second Dhyāna, why do the devas of the Ābhāsvara obtain a lifespan of eight mahākalpas?", one should know that only after seven fire calamities does a single water calamity arise, reaching up to the Second Dhyāna; thus the Ābhāsvara obtain a lifespan of eight mahākalpas. In the Third Dhyāna: the first, the Parīttaśubha Heaven, has a lifespan of sixteen kalpas; the second, the Apramāṇaśubha Heaven, has a lifespan of thirty-two kalpas; the third, the Śubhakṛtsna Heaven, has a lifespan of sixty-four kalpas. If one asks, "Since the wind calamity reaches up to the Third Dhyāna, why do the devas of the Śubhakṛtsna obtain a lifespan of sixty-four mahākalpas?", this too should be known: only after sixty-three rounds of water and fire calamities does a single wind calamity arise; therefore the Śubhakṛtsna obtain a lifespan of sixty-four kalpas. How is this known to be so? This is as stated in the Abhidharma: after seven fire kalpas arise successively, only then does one water calamity arise; when seven times seven, forty-nine fires arise in this manner, there are seven water calamities, which together make fifty-six kalpas; further, after these fifty-six kalpas, seven fire kalpas arise again; only after these seven fires does a single wind calamity arise, destroying up to the Third Dhyāna; combined with the preceding, this makes sixty-four kalpas. By this principle, the Śubhakṛtsna obtain a lifespan of sixty-four kalpas. Therefore that Abhidharma speaks this verse: