The Cosmos and Time
In chapter 3 we saw how individual beings transmigrate. According to Buddhism, the cosmos also transmigrates, undergoing drastic changes over long periods of time.
The Thousand-cubed Great-thousand-world
To understand the worldview of Buddhism, it is necessary to comprehend the concept of the thousand-cubed great-thousand-world, or trichiliocosm. We begin by examining what a “single world” consists of. The Chinese translation of the Abhidharmakosa describes its horizontal limits in the expression, “The Iron Mountains [[[Cakravada]]] encircle a single world.”1 A single world thus includes Mount Sumeru, its surrounding mountain ranges and seas, and four landmasses. The vertical boundaries are not as clear, but appear to extend from the circle of wind to Brahma’s world, the First Dhyana heavens of the realm of form. The heaven of the greatest of all the gods is therefore the upper limit of a single world (see figure 21). The higher dhyana practitioners in the realms of form and of formlessness, and the buddhas, are beyond this world, but all the other five (or six) types of beings dwell in the single world. This world also includes one sun, one moon, and the stars. In modern terms, a single world may equal the solar system.
A thousand single worlds are called a “small-thousand-world.” [Small thousand means “one thousand.”) In modern terms, this would be a galaxy. One thousand small-thousand-worlds make a medium-thousand-world. “Medium-thousand” is dvi-sahasra (literally, “2,000”), a term used to mean l,0002, that is, a million worlds. One thousand medium-thousand-worlds make a great-thousand-world. “Great-thousand” (tri-sahasra, literally, “3,000”) denotes 1,000’, that is, one billion worlds. A great-thousand-world is also called a “thousand-cubed great-thousandworld” [tri-sahasra-mahasahasro loka-dhatuh}, or trichiliocosm. These worlds all experience the Buddhist cycle of existence and disappearance together, so they can be called a single unit in terms of destiny.
The upper three Dhyana stages in the realm of form and the stages of the realm of formlessness are not included in the trichiliocosm, but it is incorrect to say that they transcend space and time. The Second, Third, and Fourth Dhyanas’ heavens have physical limits, and the living beings who inhabit them have specific life spans. In contrast, the realm of formlessness is without size, transcending spatial dimensions. It is not, however, beyond the reach of time, and its inhabitants also follow allotted life spans. (In the abode of the infinity of space their life span is twenty thousand great kalpas, in the abode of the infinity of consciousness it is forty thousand great kalpas, in the abode of nothingness it is sixty thousand great kalpas, and in the abode of neither thought nor non-thought, eighty thousand great kalpas.)
The Abhidharmakosa does not mention multiples of the upper three Dhyana stages, but other sutras and commentaries suggest such plurality.2 A small-thousand-world includes one thousand suns and one thousand Brahma heavens, whereas a mediumthousand-world has a million suns, a million Brahma heavens, and also one thousand Second Dhyana heavens. A great-thousand-world has a billion suns, and a billion Brahma heavens, a million Second Dhyana heavens, and a thousand Third Dhyana heavens.
Time. The concept of the trichiliocosm is closely linked with Buddhist theories about time and human destiny. Buddhist thought is generally clouded with pessimism, and this is nowhere more obvious than in its concept of time. The notion of an eternal round of birth and death is an intolerable thought. I will discuss this further, but would first like to introduce some basic units of time and discuss time in terms of daily life.
In ascending order, the basic units of time are:
ksana (V75 second)
tat-ksana; equals 120 ksanas (13/s seconds)
lava; equals 60 tat-ksanas (1 minute 36 seconds) muhurta; equals 30 lavas (48 minutes) aho-ratra', equals 30 muhurtas (24 hours, day) masa; equals 30 aho-ratras (month) samvatsara (year)
Thus a muhurta more or less corresponds to an hour, a lava to a minute, and a tat-ksana to a second. A ksana represents a very tiny unit of time, for which we do not possess any modern unit.
There is another way to explain a ksana’s small size. A ksana is the time it takes “for a dharma to arise when all the causes and conditions have come together,” that is, for a certain existence, thing, or being to emerge when all the conditions are in place.3 Certain chemical compounds, for example, suddenly form when the temperature is right. The Great Commentary graphically describes the brevity of a ksana: “Two adult men stretch tight a big cable of Kasi silk thread. Another adult man severs that cable in one stroke with a strong Chinese blade. The time the blade takes to pass through one thread is sixty-four /cwwu.”'Silk from Kasi seems to have been extremely fine, and the cable would consist of hundreds or thousands of threads. The blade takes perhaps 64,000 ksanas to pass through the whole cable, and that is one stroke by an adult man! You can imagine how brief a unit the ksana is.
Now let us examine units longer than a day. A month consists of thirty aho-ratras (“days and nights”), but there were also six months with only twenty-nine. The Indians knew that a month actually has about twenty-nine and a half days. Modern astronomy has accurately calculated the time of a synodical month (from one full moon to the next) as being an average of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 2.8 seconds.
A year consists of twelve such months (30 x 6 + 29 x 6 = 354 days). In the Abhidharmakosa, time units finish with “year” isamvatsard}. There is, however, another enormous unit of time that we could add, the kalpa, which is so long that it cannot be calculated in years. (The Chinese transliterated kalpa as kiap and translated it as “great time.” In the Japanese game of Go there is a rule known as kd [[[Japanese]] for kiap\ to prevent stalemates through constant repetition. Without it, the game could continue indefinitely.)
Buddhist writings demonstrate the length of a kalpa by a number of similes. It is at least the time required to take away all the mustard seeds stored in a castle of one cubic yojana (J A cubic kilometers) if only one seed is removed every hundred years. Alternatively, it is at least the time taken to wear away a great rock of one cubic yojana by wiping it with a piece of soft cotton (karpasd} from Kasi once every hundred years. These similes are found in the Miscellaneous Discourses (Samyuktagama, date uncertain, probably 3d century B.C.E.-lst century C.E.). Some sutras substitute the robe of a celestial woman (which is extremely soft) for the piece of Kasi cotton.
This immense amount of time is still short compared with the “great kalpa” (mahakalpd) and the cycle of sixty-four great kalpas. One great kalpa consists of eighty kalpas. (When comparing a kalpa with a great kalpa, we usually call the original kalpa an “intermediate kalpa” [[[antarakalpa]]].) A great kalpa is truly an enormous length of time, and sixty-four are immeasurably longer, of course. This should not occasion surprise, however, for there exists even a vaster amount of time, the asamkhya kalpa, in comparison with which these seem no more than brief moments. Asamkhya has often been mistranslated as “infinite,” but actually it is a number representing 10 to the power of 59. Three asamkhya kalpas, the time deemed necessary to train to become a buddha, is therefore 3 x 1059. Some commentaries say the kalpas spoken of here are great kalpas, and others say they are intermediate kalpas.
Seasonal changes and the calendar. The day, month, and year are closely connected to everyday life, and regulate its rhythms. Buddhist priests used the lunar calendar, which began and ended with the full moon. The first half of the month (Krsnapaksa) was the period from the full moon to the new moon, and the second half (Suklapaksa), the period from the new moon to the full moon. Krsnapaksa (black half), the period of the darkening or waning moon, was the time when there was little moon in the sky (or perhaps the time when the moon rose late at night). Suklapaksa (bright half) was the time when the moon could be seen in the sky during the evening. With the month divided into two halves this way, the priests would count the days as the fourth day of Krsnapaksa or the fifteenth day of Suklapaksa, rather than as the sixteenth or the thirtieth of the month. To be precise, however, there were some months when the first part (Krsnapaksa) had only fourteen days. At such times the month would be a “small” month of twenty-nine days, rather than a “large” month of thirty days. Small and large months alternated. This was a natural result, because the synodical month is about twenty-nine and a half days. The months were named for constellations. Thus if the full moon of a particular month arose in the Pleiades (Krttika) the month was named Karttika.
So far we have seen how the moon’s cycle governed the construction of the calendar. India has seasonal changes, however, which are cyclical and based on the sun’s movement. Buddhists recognized three seasons, calling them the “cold season” (hemantdj, “hot season” igrisma'j, and “rainy season” (yarsap Indians who were not Buddhists, on the other hand, had six seasons, “advancing heat” (vasanta), “great heat” (gnsma), “rainy season” (yarsa), “dry season” or “season of ripening” (saradj, “advancing cold” (hemanta), and “great cold” (sisira).
Let us now examine how the lunar and solar cycles were connected. Hsiian-tsang (600-662 C.E.) mentions that the first season of the year was not the “cold season,” but instead the “hot season.” He adds the divisions of spring, summer, autumn, and winter to the divisions of three or six seasons. This concept of four seasons is vague, however, in view of India’s climate, and it is uncertain whether it was generally used. The information in the relevant passage from Hsiian-tsang’s Records of the Western Regions of the Great T’ang Dynasty is tabulated in figure 22, together with Gregorian calendar months.
It is of interest to see how the Indian months match our own months, which are based on the solar calendar. The Abhidharmakosa says, “The nights lengthen after the ninth day of the latter half of the second month during the rainy season.”5 The second month of the rainy season is the sixth in the table, Bhadrapada. The ninth day of the latter half of the month is the ninth day of Suklapaksa, which means, in our way of counting, the twenty-third day of Bhadrapada. It is not certain whether “lengthening of the nights” refers to the phenomenon that begins in the summer solstice or in the autumn equinox. At any rate, it seems unreasonable to think that the phenomenon begins in Bhadrapada, because in those days, Caitra was the month that contained the spring equinox, as in figure 22.6
There appears to be a considerable discrepancy between the Indian months and our own; the lunar calendar shifts between a half and one month every two or three years. It is only natural that the information in the Abhidharmakosa (5th century C.E.) and Records of the Western Regions (7th century C.E.) should not completely accord with our calendar. Neither work mentions what Buddhists thought about the discrepancies between the solar and lunar calendars, but there is little doubt that intercalary months were inserted when necessary. Three years of twelve months (354 days) would result in a discrepancy of about a month in comparison with the solar calendar. This would mean that Caitra, now at the beginning of the hot season, would in three years be at the end of the cold season.
For Buddhist priests, the pure lunar calendar might have been preferred, in order to preserve the rhythm of religious life. The important meeting of members of the order, called uposatha in Pali (upavasatha in Sanskrit), was held regularly at full moon, new moon, and days in the middle of each interval between full and new. Masa (“month”) derives from the Indo-European root ma (“to measure”). For priests, the month was the most convenient measure of time. For farmers, however, the sun would have been the most important indicator.
The very important rainy season retreat (varsika in Sanskrit), however, could not ignore the changing seasons. Religious practitioners remained in one place during the three-month period of heavy rains, which lasted either from Sravana to Asvayuja or from Bhadrapada to Karttika, depending on differences in climate, calendar, and location. In linking the names of the months to the period of the rainy season retreat, Buddhist priests almost certainly calculated the retreat through a system of intercalary months that was common throughout India.
This discussion must seem unexpectedly down-to-earth after the cosmological flights of imagination we have seen in earlier chapters. At times, such realism does appear in the fanciful Buddhist scheme, for Buddhists themselves could not escape the practicalities of daily life.
The Cycle of Increase and Decrease of the Universe
The cycle of four periods. The universe, with its multiple worlds and variety of living beings, eternally repeats a cycle of fourfold change (see figure 23). Each of the four periods lasts twenty intermediate kalpas, so one complete cycle takes eighty intermediate kalpas. The cycle includes the Kalpa of Dissolution Samvartakalpa); the Kalpa of Nothingness (Samvartasthayi-kalpa), during which the world remains dissolved; the Kalpa of Creation (Vivartakalpa); and the Kalpa of Duration of the created world (Vivartasthayikalpa). That the cycle starts with dissolution is a very Indian way of thinking, as is the custom of calculating the month from the full moon.
The Kalpa of Dissolution begins when beings are no longer reborn in the hells. When all living beings disappear from the hells, the hells themselves vanish. The process is repeated in the abodes of hungry spirits and animals. As for human beings, when one person is reborn in a First Dhyana heaven and experiences the joy brought about by abandonment of evil life, that motivates all others to enter samadhi and be reborn there. Likewise, among devas of the First Dhyana heavens, when one of their number is reborn in a Second Dhyana heaven and experiences the joy resulting from samadhi, all the others receive an impetus to enter samadhi and be reborn there. When the karma of living beings that created the world is finally exhausted (because there are no more living beings in the world), seven suns appear and burn up the wind circle, water circle, golden earth layer, Mount Sumeru, the four landmasses, and the Brahma palace at the highest point of the First Dhyana heavens. Beings who escaped, so to speak, to the Second Dhyana heavens can evade this catastrophe.
When the hells and the abodes of the hungry spirits and animals finally disappear, evil ones living in the human world might clap their hands in glee, saying, “Now I can do anything I want to. There is now no longer any place below the human realm to which I can fall.” Similarly, those who entered the hells just before their final dissolution would no doubt rejoice that their period of torment would be very short. Their joy would be premature, however. The Abhidharmakosa says that the inhabitants of hells who have not yet received their full measure of punishment would be transferred by the force of their karma to a hell in another universe.
Next comes the Kalpa of Nothingness, in which the world remains dissolved for twenty intermediate kalpas.
The Kalpa of Creation begins when a tiny wind begins to blow “through the indirect force of the karma of living beings” (who and where these living beings are is not clear). The wind circle forms, then the water circle, the golden earth layer, the soil, the four landmasses, and Mount Sumeru. The palaces and abodes reappear exacdy as they were before, peopled by the rebirth in lower realms of those who had escaped to the Second Dhyana Kali (iron, lasting 432,000 years). This cycle continues infinitely. We are living in the Kali-yuga, the most inferior of the four ages. (According to the Arab scholar and scientist Al-Biruni [973-1048 C.E.], the Kali-yuga began on February 18, 3102 B.C.E.) The ancient Greeks also divided time symbolically into gold, silver, copper, and iron.
The Buddhist idea of the period of the Decay of the Dharma is similar to these philosophies about the ages. According to Buddhist theory, the Buddha’s teachings degenerate over three periods. These are called the period of the True Dharma, when teaching, practice, and attainment of emancipation are all possible; the period of the Counterfeit Dharma, when only teaching and practice of Buddhism remain and emancipation is impossible; and the period of the Decay of the Dharma, when only the Buddhist teachings survive. One theory states that the first period lasted five hundred years after the death of Sakyamuni and the second, one thousand years, whereas the third will continue for ten thousand years. Another theory makes the first and second periods last one thousand years and the third, ten thousand.
