法苑珠林 8.9

8.9

The exposition states: Now, relying on the single era of the Bhadrakalpa, it is divided into four periods: first, formation; second, duration; third, destruction; and fourth, emptiness. Among these four, the kalpa of formation has already stayed, and destruction and emptiness have not yet arrived. We are presently in the kalpa of duration, and therefore a thousand Buddhas appear. Broadly speaking, three Buddhas have already passed, and now is the fourth, the bequeathed Dharma of the World-Honoured Śākya. Within these four periods, each is divided into twenty antarakalpas, making eighty antarakalpas in total, which together constitute one great kalpa of water, fire, and wind, named the Bhadrakalpa. Among the twenty distinct antarakalpas in the period of duration, according to the Lokasthitābhidharma-śāstra, eleven kalpas belong to the future, and eight kalpas belong to the past. Now Śākyamuni Buddha attained Buddhahood within the ninth kalpa.