法苑珠林 8.16

8.16

As the *Dīrghāgama* says: Ninety-one kalpas ago, a buddha appeared in the world named Vipaśyin, when human lifespan was eighty thousand years. Further, thirty-one kalpas ago, a buddha appeared in the world named Śikhin, when human lifespan was seventy thousand years. Further, thirty-one kalpas ago, a buddha appeared in the world named Viśvabhū, when human lifespan was sixty thousand years. Further, in the past Bhadrakalpa, a buddha appeared in the world named Krakucchanda, when human lifespan was fifty thousand years. Also in the Bhadrakalpa, a buddha appeared in the world named Kanakamuni, when human lifespan was forty thousand years. Also in the Bhadrakalpa, a buddha appeared in the world named Kāśyapa, when human lifespan was twenty thousand years. Now I have appeared in the world when human lifespan is one hundred years, rarely longer and mostly shorter. According to the *Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra* and the *Kātyāyanīputra-śāstra*, Śākyamuni was due to appear when human lifespan was ten thousand years, but observing sentient beings, from ten thousand years down there were no faculties ready to be saved; only when they reached one hundred years were sentient beings urgently pressed by suffering and the kalpa was approaching its decline, so he appeared in the world. Thus the treatise says: 'At the end of a kalpa, a buddha arises in the world; at the beginning of a kalpa, a cakravartin appears.' The two differ, as explained below in the section on the cakravartin.