法苑珠林 3.22

3.22

Question: What is the extent and breadth of the heavens? Answer: As the Vibhāṣā-śāstra states: The summit of Mount Sumeru is eighty-four thousand yojanas in length and breadth on each side. The flat part within it that is habitable is only forty thousand yojanas. The Yāma Heaven is double the preceding forty thousand, its ground being eighty thousand yojanas in length and breadth. Proceeding in this manner up to the heaven of Paranirmitavaśavartin, each successive level doubles the previous one, its ground being six hundred and forty thousand yojanas in length and breadth. The extent of the grounds of the four dhyānas is unfixed; there are two explanations. The first explanation states: The first dhyāna is as extensive as a single four-continent world. The second dhyāna is like a minor chiliocosm. The third dhyāna is like a medium chiliocosm. The fourth dhyāna is as extensive as a great trichiliocosm. The second explanation states: The first dhyāna is like a minor chiliocosm. The second dhyāna is as extensive as a medium chiliocosm. The third dhyāna is as extensive as a great trichiliocosm. The ground of the fourth dhyāna is broad and boundless, its boundaries beyond description. (Evaluating this, the various masters consider the second explanation to be correct.) Question: If the first dhyāna is as extensive as a minor chiliocosm, up to the ground of the fourth dhyāna being boundless, we do not know whether above other great chiliocosms there is collectively a single first-dhyāna Brahmā Heaven up to collectively a single Akaniṣṭha Heaven, or whether above each individual four-continent world there is separately a first-dhyāna Brahmā Heaven up to separately an Akaniṣṭha Heaven? Answer: As the Loutan jing states, above each individual four-continent world there is separately [one of each], all being distinct. Thus it says that within a trichiliocosm there are one billion four-continent worlds, Sumerus, great oceans, Cakravāḍas, and Cāturmahārājakāyika Heavens, up to each stating one billion Akaniṣṭha Heavens. This text is quite clear; there is no need to raise doubts. Furthermore, as the Nyāyānusāra says: “Minor” has the meaning of inferior, because the superior are excluded; just as a dehorned ox, though small parts accumulate into another [whole], does not subsume the other. Question: Since above each individual four-continent world there is each up to an Akaniṣṭha Heaven, do these distinct places not obstruct one another? Answer: Although there are a billion of each dwelling together in one place, they do not impede one another. Just as beams of light mutually interpenetrate and pervade each other without obstruction, they too are like this, because their forms are subtle and exquisite. Therefore a sūtra says: When the devas of the rūpadhātu come down to hear the Dharma, sixty devas sit together on the tip of a single needle, yet they are not cramped and do not obstruct one another at all. Verifying with this text, what cause is there for doubt? (Therefore a metaphorical doctrinal explanation says: The first dhyāna is like a village, the second dhyāna is like a county, the third dhyāna is like a prefecture, and the fourth dhyāna is like a state.)