Cycles of time
The temporal limits of the universe are equally elusive.
World systems as a whole are not static; they them-
selves go through vast cycles of expansion and con-
traction across vast eons of time. World systems
contract in great clusters of a billion at a time. Most
frequently this contraction is brought about by the de-
structive force of fire, but periodically it is brought
about by water and wind. This fire starts in the lower
realms of the sense-sphere and, having burnt up these,
it invades the form realms; but having burnt up the
realms corresponding to the first dhyana, it stops. The
realms corresponding to the second, third, and fourth
dhyanas and the four formless realms are thus spared
destruction. But when the destruction is wreaked by
water, the three realms corresponding to the second
dhyana are included in the general destruction. The
destruction by wind invades and destroys even the
realms corresponding to the third dhyana. Only the
subtle realms corresponding to the fourth dhyana and
the four formless meditations are never subject to this
universal destruction.
The length of time it takes for the universe to com-
plete one full cycle of expansion and contraction is
known as a mahakalpa(great eon). A mahakalpais made
up of four intermediate eons consisting of the period
of contraction, the period when the world remains
contracted, the period of expansion, and the period
when the world remains expanded. The length of a
great eon is not specified in human years but only by
reference to similes:
Suppose there was a great mountain of rock, seven miles
across and seven miles high, a solid mass without any
cracks. At the end of every hundred years a man might
brush it just once with a fine Benares cloth. That great
mountain of rock would decay and come to an end
sooner than even the eon. So long is an eon. And of eons
of this length not just one has passed, not just a hundred,
not just a thousand, not just a hundred thousand.
(Samyuttanikaya ii, 181–182)The Buddha is said to have declared that samsara’s—
that is, our—beginning was inconceivable and that its
starting point could not be indicated; the mother’s
milk drunk by each of us in the course of our long
journey through samsara is greater by far than the
water in the four great oceans (Samyuttanikayaii,
180–181).
Within this shifting and unstable world of time and
space that is samsara, beings try to make themselves at
ease. The life spans of beings vary. In general, beings who
inhabit the lower realms of existence live shorter, more
precarious, lives, while the gods live longer; at the high-
est realms, gods live vast expanses of time—up to eighty-
four thousand eons. Yet the happiness that beings find
or achieve cannot be true happiness, not permanently
lasting, but merely a relatively longer or shorter tempo-
rary respite. Beings in the lowest hell realms experience
virtually continuous pain and suffering until the results
of the actions that brought them there are exhausted. In
contrast, beings in the higher brahmaworlds experience
an existence entirely free of all overt suffering; but while
their lives may endure for inconceivable lengths of time
in human terms, they must eventually come to an end
once again when the results of the actions that brought
them there are exhausted.Cosmology and psychology
An important principle of the Buddhist cosmological
vision lies in the equivalence of cosmology and PSY-
CHOLOGY, the way in which the various realms of
existence relate rather closely to certain commonlyCOSMOLOGYA Tibetan thang ka(scroll painting) depicting the Wheel of Life.
© Earl and Nazima Kowall/Corbis. Reproduced by permission.