This is followed, after a long period of time, by the appearance of a third sun. Now when one sun is setting, one is at the zenith and the other is setting. The new sun, added to the others, dries up the five great rivers.
After another long period a fourth sun appears and now the great lakes of the Himavā dry up; Lake Anotattā, Sīhapapātā, Rathakārā, Kaṇṇamuṇḍā, Kuṇālā, Chaddantā, and Mandākiniyā.
The fifth sun gradually evaporates the waters of the great oceans until there remain only shallow pools, like “the hoof-prints made by cattle.”
With the sixth sun, the great earth together with Sineru, king of mountains, begins to “smoke, smoulder and fume” (dhūmāyanti saṃdhūmāyanti sampadhūmāyanti). The whole world is filled up with the swirling of oily fumes (AN 7:66).
After yet another long period the seventh and final sun appears and now everything bursts into flame. Mount Sineru and the entire cakkavāḷa is consumed by fire and winds carry the flames upward burning all the saggas of the celestial devas and even the world of the first jhāna brahmās. The fire is so intense that it leaves no ash behind; everything is consumed, the fire does not go out until even the very smallest particles (aṇumatta saṅkhāra) are consumed.173 We now have come back to the empty universe, “one great gloomy darkness.”
The Pali texts are silent about how and from where the additional six suns arise. The Abhidharmakośa says that they arise because of the collective kamma of the beings who had inhabited the world, and can only do so after the world has been emptied of beings. The wind which fans the flames is a “wind of the rūpadhātu”, i.e. the brahmaloka (AK 3:6. p.491). In one of Poussin’s footnotes he cites the Vibhāṣā (a Sanskrit text) as mentioning four theories regarding the suns; that during the life of the world the extra suns remain hidden behind Yugandhara, that the original sun divides into seven, that the one sun simply takes on seven times greater force or that the extra suns exist in a hidden form until the kamma of beings causes them to manifest on the physical plane (AK p. 542, note 497). The third possibility, that a single sun increases in power, is not so different from the modern scientific view about how this solar system will end, with the sun becoming a huge red giant and consuming the inner planets.
The medieval Thai work Traibhūmikathā, “The Three Worlds”, adds a colourful detail. According to that source, it is the oily bodies of the gigantic sea-monsters living in the Sīdantara oceans which, catching fire, provide the fuel for the great conflagration which burns up Mt Sineru and the other great mountain ranges.174
The Buddha spoke the Sattasūriya Sutta with a specific didactic purpose in mind; he wished to make clear to his listeners the impermanence of all phenomena. To his ancient Indian listeners, nothing in the world would have seemed so permanent and stable as Mount Sineru and the great ocean. And yet the time will come when even the great ocean, so inconceivably vast, would dry up so that there would not even be enough water left to wet a finger joint. And Sineru, the massive and mighty “king of mountains” would burn up so completely that not even ash would remain. Throughout the sutta there is the repeated refrain:
Impermanent, oh bhikkhus, are all conditioned things. Unstable, insecure are all conditioned things. It is enough to become disenchanted with all formations, to become dispassionate towards them, to become liberated from them. (AN 7: 66)
2:8 DESTRUCTION BY WATER AND AIR
The canonical suttas mention only this destruction by fire. The commentaries add two other possible endings of a kappa; destruction by water and destruction by air (E.g. AN-a 4:156). The germ of this idea, however, is found in Majjhima Nikāya 28, the Mahāhatthipadopama Sutta (“The Greater Elephant’s Footprint Sutta”). In a portion of that sutta the Buddha discusses the four elements and stressing their impermanent and unreliable nature he says that both the internal elements of one’s body and the external elements of the world may become disturbed. He says there will come a time when the external water element becomes disturbed and the earth element will cease to exist. The commentary explicitly relates this to the āposaṃvaṭṭakāla, the kappa ending by water. The disturbance of the air element manifests in dead calms or ferocious destructive winds and the commentary connects the latter with the vāyosaṃvaṭṭakāla, the kappa ending by air (or wind). That the Buddha was not intending to refer to the world’s end in this sutta is made clear in his description of the disturbance of the external fire element. He says that there comes a time when great fires burn up whole cities and towns and sweep across the countryside until they encounter open water, mountains or other obstacles. The commentary has to admit this does not refer to the tejosaṃvaṭṭakāla, the kappa ending by fire because that fire burns everything and leaves no ash.175
The destruction by water begins with the appearance of a great cloud that ends the kappa (kappavināsaka-mahāmegha). Rain begins to fall from this cloud, at first gently but gradually increasing to a tremendous deluge. This rain is not ordinary water but caustic water (khārudaka) which is highly corrosive. It will be recalled that this is the same kind of water on which the whole cakkavāḷa floats. As this corrosive water rains down upon the worlds it dissolves everything down to the finest particles of matter. The water is held in place as if in a vessel by powerful winds and reaches as high as the Ābhassara brahmā world (the realm of the second jhāna brahmā beings) which is also dissolved. The lowest realm escaping destruction this time is the Subhakiṇha world of the third jhāna brahmās. The waters only subside after everything in all these worlds has been totally destroyed.
The destruction by the wind element begins with a wind that ends the kappa (kappavināsanatthaṃ vāta) which begins gently at first, blowing around the fine dust. It gradually gains in strength and ferocity until it is lifting up gigantic boulders and hurling them around. In the last ferocious phase of the great wind the Sinerus of multiple world systems are flung through space smashing each other to bits. This time everything is destroyed up to and including the Subhakiṇha world and the realm of the fourth jhāna brahmās, is the only one to escape destruction (Vism 13: 56 f).
The three modes of world destruction follow a fixed pattern. There are seven mahākappas which end in fire, followed by one which ends in water. This pattern of eight mahākappas is repeated seven times and is then followed by a series of seven more destructions by fire, followed by one destruction through air. Thus, the whole cycle lasts sixty-four mahākappas, which not coincidentally, is the lifespan of a Subhakiṇha brahmā (Vism 13: 65).
2:9 HORIZONTAL EXTENSION OF DESTRUCTION
We have seen that establishing a coherent system for the ordering of the multiple cakkavāḷas under their respective brahmalokas is somewhat problematic. The pattern which is most often cited in the later Pali sources is that of the three Buddha Fields; the Field of Birth consisting of 10,000 cakkavāḷas, the Field of Authority of 100,000 koṭi of worlds, that is to say, one trillion cakkavāḷas and the Field of Scope which is of infinite extent. The Visuddhimagga states that it is the Field of Authority of one trillion worlds which undergoes destruction at the end of each mahākappa.176 However, this simple scheme does not dove-tail at all well with the alignment of the cakkavāḷas under the brahmā worlds. There is a hint of a more complex system. Immediately following the paragraph listing the three kinds of destruction and giving their upper limits in the first, second and third jhāna level brahmalokas, Buddhaghosa then says “In detail, it is always one of the three Buddha-fields that is destroyed. The Buddha-fields are three: the Field of Birth, the Field of Authority, and the Field of Scope” (Vism 13:31). It would work out more neatly with the rest of the cosmological scheme if it were to be understood that the ten thousand worlds of the Field of Birth were those destroyed by fire, that is all the worlds under a single Ābhassara (second jhāna) brahmā world, and the trillion world-systems of a Field of Authority under their single Subhkiṇha world were those destroyed by water leaving the infinity of worlds under the one and only Vehapphala to be destro
yed once every sixty four kappas by wind. Admittedly though, this is forcing something onto the texts that is not explicitly there.177
Nor is the Abhidharmakośa any clearer about this point. In the section describing the division of the universe into “chiliocosms” it is stated that “the destruction and the creation of the universes lasts the same time.” Poussin cites the commentary (Vyākhyā) as clarifying this to mean, “Rather, destruction and creation of the universes of one group take place at the same time” (AK 3:5. p.468–69 & n.464, p.539).
Thus, although there is some uncertainty in interpretation, but we can state the following as definite conclusions by way of summary:
1. The various destructions by fire, water and air all affect multiple world-systems. The horizontal scope is subject to different interpretations but the Visuddhimagga strongly favours the idea that all three of these cycle ending events destroy one trillion cakkavāḷas.
2. The vertical extent of the destructions is agreed among all sources. The destruction by fire burns everything up to and including the first jhāna brahmaloka. The destruction by water dissolves all of this plus the second jhāna or Ābhassara level. The destruction by wind pulverizes everything up to and including the third jhāna level brahmaloka, the Subhakiṇha world. In all cases nothing at all of the affected realms remains.
3. The Vehapphala or fourth jhāna level brahmaloka escapes all these destructions and serves as the last refuge into which beings may be reborn.
This last point raises an important doctrinal question; does this mean that the persistence of the Vehapphala realm somehow violates the Buddhist law of impermanence (anicca)? The Visuddhimagga does not address this question but the Abhidharmakośa provides an answer. According to that text, the Vehapphala level does not properly constitute a “sphere” but is composed of individual abodes of beings which arise and fall away with those beings (AK 3:6. p 495).
The Visuddhimagga and the Abhidharmakośa provide two quite different explanations for the causes of the specific destructions. According to the Visuddhimagga the universe is destroyed on account of the three unskilful roots (akusalamūla), the root defilements of desire (rāga), ill-will (dosa) and confusion (mohā). In a kappa which is to end by fire the defilement of greed is predominant among beings. In one ended by water, it is ill-will and when confusion predominates, the world will end by wind.178 The Abhidharmakośa provides a quite different scheme which relates the cycles of destruction to the jhāna factors involved in the highest world destroyed. The highest world destroyed by fire is the first jhāna brahmaloka and the “vice” (i.e. the coarsest factor remaining) in first jhāna is vitakka-vicāra or thought formation “which burns the mind and is similar to fire.” The destruction by water reaches up to the second jhāna level of the Ābhassara beings and the coarsest factor remaining in that jhāna is pīti (“rapture” or “joy”) “which being associated with physical well-being renders the body soft and flabby; it is similar to water.” The destruction by wind reaches up to the third jhāna world of the Subhakiṇha brahmās. The third jhāna has in and out breathing as its “vice”, which is a form of wind.179 (The physical breath is supposed to cease in fourth jhāna) (AK 6:3, p. 924). This explanation very neatly expresses a parallelism between the microcosm of the meditator moving through the jhānas and the macrocosm of worlds evolving and coming to periodic destruction.180
2:10 THE BUDDHAS IN COSMIC TIME
The Theravāda tradition has always emphasized the extreme rarity of Buddhahood. We have already looked at the rarity of a Buddha in cosmic space; there can only ever be one Buddha at a time in the ten thousand worlds of a Field of Birth, or in another interpretation, in the entire infinite cosmos. The Buddhas are equally rare in cosmic time. There are six kinds of mahākappa according to the number of Buddhas who appear during its duration. These are designated as follows in the Buddhavaṃsa Commentary:
Suññakappa—An “empty” aeon in which no Buddha arises.
Sārakappa—An aeon in which only one Buddha arises. Sāra means “pith or essence” and is used, for example, of heart-wood.
Maṇḍakappa—An aeon with two Buddhas. Maṇḍa means “cream of”, as in the choicest part of anything, or literally the “cream” of milk.
Varakappa—An aeon with three Buddhas. Vara is “excellent or noble.”
Sāramaṇḍakappa—An aeon with four Buddhas. Sāramaṇḍa combines sāra and maṇḍa meaning something like “the best of the best.”
Bhaddakappa—An aeon during which five Buddhas arise. Bhadda means “auspicious or lucky” and this often translated as a “fortunate aeon.” The kappa we are currently living in is a bhaddakappa (DN-a 14).
(Note that within a mahākappa, if there are to be more than one Buddha they arise in separate anatarakappas).
Of these, the bhaddakappa is by far the rarest. Most kappas are empty of Buddhas. To illustrate the rarity of a Buddha’s appearance in the world, consider the history of the Buddhas before Gotama. Many kappas ago, the Buddha Gotama of our historical period was a brahmin named Sumedha and it was in that lifetime that he first made his aspiration (abhinīhāra) for Buddhahood before the Buddha Dīpaṅkara. That was during a sāramaṇḍakappa, and Dīpaṅkara was the last of four Buddhas. This was followed by an incalculable number (asaṅkheyya) of suññakappas devoid of Buddhas.181 Then there was a kappa in which a single Buddha, Kondañña, arose. This was in turn followed by “many” more empty aeons before a sāramaṇḍakappa with four Buddhas. Then again many more empty aeons before a varakappa of three Buddhas.
After another unspecified series of empty kappas we come to a time one hundred thousand kappas before our own. From here on the sources provide us with a detailed history with specific numbers and names. We can summarize this in the following table:
Analyzing these numbers it would seem that in one hundred thousand kappas there have been only eight during which Buddhas arose, and this following a series of empty aeons said to be “incalculable.” Combining this with the idea that when a Buddha does arise, he is unique in at least ten thousand world-systems, we begin to appreciate the extreme rarity of this accomplishment. The chance of being born into any given world at a time when a Buddha’s teachings are extant is very small.
PART THREE—THE WORLD OF BEINGS
CHAPTER ONE - THE HUMAN REALM
3:1:1 KĀMĀVACARA—THE PLANE OF SENSE DESIRE
All of reality may be divided into four levels or planes; the kāmabhūmi (“ plane of sense desire”), the rūpabhūmi (“plane of form”), the arūpabhūmi (“formless plane”) and the lokuttara (“supramundane”) (Abhidh-s 1:3). The last, the supramundane, is not a plane of existence like the others; it is nibbāna, the unconditioned and unmanifested. It transcends ordinary existence and is not part of the cosmos. That cosmos, the abode of all the various kinds and levels of sentient beings, therefore, is divided into three planes only. The plane of sense desire is the most variegated and complex. It includes the lower realms of niraya, the petaloka and the animal realm. The asuras, too, can be considered among these unfortunate existences.182 The plane of sense desire also includes a range of existences classified as fortunate, beginning with the human realm and including all the devas of the earth and sky and those of the six saggas. The plane of form is the realm of the brahmā beings, divided into sixteen levels. The most refined and subtlest plane, the formless plane, is the abode of the formless or mind-only beings.
All the beings of the plane of sense desire are characterized by mental processes informed by the five physical senses through which they relate to the outer world. The impulses that dominate their mental life and bodily actions are a desire to obtain pleasant sense experiences and to avoid unpleasant ones. Although sense-desire consciousness is the default level for beings born into this plane of existence, it is possible for them to experience mind-moments classified as belonging to higher planes, as for instance when a human meditator enters jhāna and experiences consciousness at the level of the plane
of form. Nevertheless, the tyranny of sense-desire is the ordinary operating mode of beings living here, in the kāmabhūmi. We will examine all the various levels of being within this plane, but let us begin our tour of the cosmos close to home, with the human realm.
3:1:2 MANUSSALOKA—THE HUMAN REALM
The realm of human beings (manussa) is an appropriate place to begin with, not only because most of the readers of this book are presumably human beings, but because it may also be considered in an important sense as the centre of the cosmos. Below are the realms of suffering and above are the heavenly worlds of pleasure and bliss. Here, in the human realm, there is a balance of pleasure and pain. This means that full awakening is most readily attained here; there is (for at least some humans) neither so much pain that the being is overwhelmed into helplessness, nor so much pleasure that he or she is unable to discern a problem with saṃsāric existence. Furthermore, it is always in the human realm that Buddhas arise, the highest development of any kind within the entire cosmos. Although the lifespans of humans are very brief and their pleasures paltry compared to that of the deva worlds, still the wisest of the devas wish for a human rebirth and the chance it affords for spiritual liberation.183
We can easily take our human existence for granted, but understood in the context of the entire cosmos it is an exceedingly rare and fortunate position to be in. It is a general rule of the cosmos that the lower realms are greatly more populous than the higher ones. The Buddha said that if the number of human beings were represented by the dirt under his fingernail, the number of beings in niraya would be equivalent to all the dirt on the great earth (SN 56:97). If a being once falls into the lower realms, his chance of regaining a human state is compared to the chances of a blind turtle in the great ocean, who comes to the surface once every hundred years, of putting his head by chance through a yoke floating on the surface of the sea (SN 56:47 & MN 129).
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