Stages of the Great Cycles

In the Aṅguttara Nikāya (Vol. II, p. 142; The Fours, No. 156), the Buddha says: There are four incalculable epochs, Bhikkhus. The four are: the enveloping epoch; the enveloped epoch; the developing epoch; the developed epoch. The epoch, Bhikkhus, during which there is cosmic envelopment is not easy to reckon as so many years or centuries, or tens or hundreds of centuries The enveloping epoch is the period during which the world-system is in decline, the enveloped epoch is that in which it is in the state of dissolution.

The developing epoch is the period of growth when life evolves from lower to higher stages; the developed epoch is that in which evolution has reached its highest peak. Having once been reinstated, while the world-system continues to be in that state it is said to be developed.11 Each of these periods is a fourth part of a great kappa, so it will be seen that every great kappa involves the full development of sentient life followed by its total disappearance from a world-system.

It is perhaps of rueful interest to note that the ancient Buddhist ideas regarding the destruction of worlds tally in important respects with those held by other religious and philosophical systems. Three types of destruction are postulated: by thermo-dynamic action, by liquidation and by atmospheric disturbance. These causes correspond to three of the great primaries of which matter is (in philosophical terms) composed. Earth or solidity alone is excluded as a possible agent of destruction.

The idea is that from time to time there is a disturbance of balance between the primary constituents, and when one or other of them increases to such an extent that it passes the critical point, it gains ascendancy over the others. There are at present in the cosmos planets and stellar systems in a state of combustion, others in liquidation and others in a condition of atmospheric disturbance. All suns are fiery masses, whilst some planets are in the molten stage, others have their surface covered by liquid, and some are enveloped in dense atmospheres of gases noxious to organic life.

As one example of the latter we may take the planet Jupiter in our own system. This member of the solar family is known to be surrounded by dense clouds of ammonia and methane in a state of violent perturbation, with possibly a layer of ice or nothing more than a thick slushy layer, perhaps of ammonia particles, surrounding a rocky core. Saturn also has a stormy and unwholesome atmosphere composed of ammonia, methane and hydrogen.12

They, like so many other bodies unknown to us, are not at present able to sustain highly organised life, but whether they will be able to do so at any future time must depend upon either a radical change in their condition or else a wider range of adaptability in living organisms than we are at present able to conceive. Despite its carbon dioxide and possible formaldehyde clouds, Venus alone in our family of planets seems to offer possibilities of being the cradle of future life. But at present, if the theories of Menzel and Whipper are correct, its actual surface is covered completely by a liquid mantle, a large, continuous ocean.13

I have described the ancient belief that worlds may end by combustion as a rueful one because of the possibility that man might eventually bring it about himself, a possibility which at the time of writing seems to be in the increase. There is, in any case, a clear connection in Buddhist thought between the total kamma of beings taking birth in a given world-system and the fate of that system considered as a physical entity. While universes, like all other phenomena, are subject to the law of dissolution and must after the lapse of ages pass away, the manner of their destruction is in a certain sense determined by the accumulated kamma of the beings inhabiting them.

Perhaps there is a mythological shadowing forth of this truth in the almost worldwide tradition of a great deluge which brought a former epoch to an end. 14 In a universe subject to almost entirely to mechanical laws of growth and decay it is man who is the sole willing and independently acting agent, and as such he plays a unique and decisive role in the process of cause and effect. His actions are capable of disturbing the harmony of nature to a degree that can be catastrophic.

This idea is found not only in Buddhism but in the Taoist 11 Ledi Sayādaw, Niyāma Dīpanī, p. 20 conception of man’s relation to the cosmos, where in fact it occupies a central place. It can be a contributing factor in the destruction of a world-system, either directly or indirectly; but whether it is or not, an end must come in accordance with natural law. On the other hand, the re-formation of the universe after a period of quiescence is brought about by unexpended residual kamma of the beings who formerly lived in it. Thus we find it stated in the Dīgha Nikāya: “Now there comes a time, brethren, when, sooner or later, after the lapse of a long, long period, this world-system passes away.

And when this happens beings have mostly been reborn in the World of Radiance, and there they dwell made of mind, feeding on joy, radiating light from themselves, traversing the air, continuing in glory, and thus they remain for a long period of time.

“Now there comes also a time, brethren, when, sooner or later, this world-system begins to re-evolve. When this happens the Palace of Brahmā appears, but it is empty. And some being or other, either because his span of years has passed or his merit is exhausted, falls from that World of Radiance, and comes to life in the Palace of Brahmā. And there also he lives made of mind, feeding on joy, radiating light from himself traversing the air, continuing in glory; and thus does he remain for a long period of time.”

(Brahmajāla Sutta, tr. by T. W. Rhys Davids)

Every world-system in its complete state comprises thirty planes of existence in addition to that occupied by human life. These planes are spoken of in the popular cosmology of Buddhism as being ranged one above another, with Mt. Meru ascending in their midst, but as we have seen, they have no definite spatial location in reality, but interpenetrate one another on different vibrational frequencies. Nevertheless, it is necessary to map them in ascending order, to make their relationship to one another explicit, just as they are found in the Buddhist treatises on the subject. When this is done, the result is a chart of saṃsāra, showing all the states comprising what it known as the Three Worlds (tiloka), namely the realm of sense-Desire (kāma-loka), the fine-material realm (rūpa-loka) and the non-material realm (or world of Formlessness; arūpa�loka).

(See the Chart on p. 14). Of these thirty-one abodes, those that constitute the sphere of sense-desire (kāma-loka) are the numbers 1–11 in our chart, including the inferior states, the human world and the lower heavenly planes. Above these the numbers 12—27 are worlds of fine substance, but still having form (rūpa) and differentiation. In all of these worlds, the beings are equipped with both mind and body, with the sole exception of No. 22 where the Brahmās have form only. The reason for this peculiar sphere will be given later. The chart numbers 28 to 31 constitute the non-materials, or formless, worlds inhabited by a highly-developed class of beings that exist solely on the psychical level, as zones of mental energy:

The fine-material realm includes a group of five worlds (the Pure Abodes or Suddhāvāsa; Chart 23—27) which are accessible after death only to those who, before their death, have attained the third of the four stages of Holiness, i.e. that of an anāgāmi, or non-returner. On the expiration of the life-span in that sphere, the anāgāmi passes straight into Parinibbāna, having attained to the state of sainthood in these Pure Abodes, which belong to the Brahmā-worlds.

They are worlds of form because it is not possible to attain enlightenment without the realisation of impermanence, suffering and not-self in the physical as well as the mental constituents of personality. The spheres above them (abodes 29 to 31) are the four non-material, or formless worlds which correspond to the four formless jhānas. They are the planes on which are reborn those who have obtained the mental absorption of the infinity of space, infinity of consciousness, of no-thingness and of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, but who have not transcended them by ultimate realisation and the complete destruction of the elements of attachments. These Brahmās at the end of their life-span are reborn in one of the lower planes.

It is these states that were conceived as being the ultimate goal by the Vedic teachers prior to the Buddha, and are so still by modern Hinduism. They represent the “union with Brahmā” which was attained by Siddhattha Gotama’s first teachers, Ālāra Kālāma and Uddaka Rāmaputta.

The sphere of the sensationless beings (asaññasatta brahmaloka) whose nature consists only of material form without any accompanying mental aggregates (nāmakkhandha), is where ascetics are reborn who on earth have attained in their meditations the temporary subsidence of mental activity, under the mistaken belief that suffering is solely a characteristic of the mental life. After exhaustion of the kamma causing that form of existing, they are reborn again in a lower sphere where both material form and mind exist.

Between some of these worlds of beings and others there is no great physical separation, and in some instances they occupy the same dimensional space, as in the case of the human and animal worlds. Others interpenetrate one another so closely, although their vibrational frequencies are different, that by an adjustment of their mental frequencies beings belonging to one plane are able to manifest on others. It is for this reason that the phenomena of spiritualism are so often confused and baffling. The entities that are contacted during spiritualist séances often belong to worlds lower than the human, more particularly the world of Petas, or unhappy spirits, who by excessive attachment are “earthbound,” until such time as their unwholesome kamma is expended.

When it happens that psychic manifestations from the higher planes appear, it can only be from those worlds that are but very slightly above the human, that is to say, the lower planes of the deva-loka. It is from these comparatively happy realms of existence that spiritualists derive the comfort that the psychic evidence for survival affords them; but the entities reborn on this level have no greater knowledge concerning the ultimate truths of existence than we have ourselves. Often, indeed, their knowledge is less:

The only fact of which they are certain is that they are living in pleasant surroundings and that their happiness is increased by their ability to communicate with the human world. For the most part they seem to be unaware that they must eventually pass away from their present condition to be reborn elsewhere.

In psychic communications there is, however, the recurring theme of transitoriness: the entities are said to pass on to higher realms after a period of supposed preparation. In reality they are frequently reborn as human beings or in some still lower world. From other communications received by psychic mediums it is evident that the state between one human birth and another is not always the “Summerland” which spiritualism, for the consolation of the bereaved, emphasises so strongly.

Communication with the higher realms of being in the fine-material plane is possible only to those who have strenuously cultivated the meditation practises, the “seers” or adepts of developed psychic power. In the ease of the formless worlds a specially high attainment is necessary.

Only those who have cultivated the four jhānas associated with the sphere of infinite space, infinite consciousness, no-thingness and neither-perception-nor non-perception (an indescribably subtle and refined state of consciousness) can make contact with the beings of those realms. To Hinduism this is known as “Union with Brahmā”, and is believed to be the ultimate attainment.

The Buddha who was a Knower of Brahmā in the sense that he had himself made contact with the Brahmā-world, attributes to this faculty on the part of other sages, who had not gone beyond the realm of form, the belief in a Creator-god. The reference to this is to be found in the Brahmajāla and Aggañña Suttas of the Dīgha Nikāya.15 It is written that at the destruction of a world-system, either by fire, water or wind, the realms of existence are demolished from the lowest plane up to the highest Brahmā-world.

At the end of the cycle, the beings from the lower worlds, by attaining the jhānic states, become reborn among the Radiant Gods of the Brahmā-world. From there, after the lapse of the Enveloped Period, they again descend to be reborn in the human world, which has by then been reconstructed by the cyclic process of natural law and has become sufficiently evolved to manifest the higher forms of life once more. The faint memories they then carry with them of their former state of being form the foundation of all the primitive cults of survival and are the starting-point of man’s religious instinct. “Not in entire forgetfulness,

And not in utter nakedness, But trailing clouds of glory do we come From God who is our home “, as Wordsworth wrote in one of those inspirational gashes which relate poetry to the race�memories of mankind.