劫波

(sa) kalpa; also劫簸; 劫跛; v. 劫. Aeon, age. The period of time between the creation and recreation of a world or universe; also the (sa) kalpas of formation, existence, destruction, and non-existence, which four as a complete period are called (sa) mahākalpa 大劫. Each great (sa) kalpa is subdivided into four (sa) asaṇkhyeya-kalpas (阿僧企耶 i.e. numberless, incalculable):

(1) (sa) kalpa of destruction (sa) saṃvarta;

(2)(sa) kalpaof utter annihilation, or empty (sa) kalpa 増滅劫; 空劫 (sa) saṃvarta-siddha;

(3) (sa) kalpa of formation 成劫 (sa) vivarta;

(4) (sa) kalpa of existence 住劫 (sa) vivartasiddha; or they may be taken in the order 成住壤空.

Each of the four (sa) kalpas is subdivided into twenty (sa) antara-kalpas, 小劫 or small (sa) kalpas, so that a (sa) mahākalpaconsists of eighty small (sa) kalpas. Each small (sa) kalpa is divided into a period of 増 increase and 減 decrease; the increase period is ruled over by the four (sa) cakravartīs in succession, i.e. the four ages of iron, copper, silver, gold, during which the length of human life increases by one year every century to 84,000 years, and the length of the human body to 8,400 feet. Then comes the (sa) kalpa of decrease divided into periods of the three woes, pestilence, war, famine, during which the length of human life is gradually reduced to ten years and the human body to 1 foot in height. There are other distinctions of the (sa) kalpas. A small (sa) kalpa is represented as 16,800,000 years, a (sa) kalpa as 336,000,000 years, and a (sa) mahākalpa as 1,334,000,000 years. There are many ways of illustrating the length of a (sa) kalpa, e.g. pass a soft cloth over a solid rock 40 (zh) li in size once in a hundred years, when finally the rock has been thus worn away a (sa) kalpa will not yet have passed; or a city of 40 (zh) li, filled with mustard seeds, one being removed every century till all have gone, a (sa) kalpa will not yet have passed. Cf. 成劫.