Kalpa of formation
kalpa of formation
成劫 (Jpn jo-ko )
One of the four kalpas. The period of the first stage in the cycle of formation, continuance, decline, and disintegration that a world is said to undergo repeatedly. In this kalpa, a world takes shape and living beings appear in it. According to The Dharma Analysis Treasury, the power of the karma of living beings first causes a small wind to arise in space. This wind grows and forms the windy circle thought to lie at the base of a world. Upon this windy circle, a watery circle and then a gold circle take shape, and upon them forms the land, with a Mount Sumeru, seas, and mountains. Then living beings begin to appear, first in the heavens, then in the human world, and successively in the lower of the six worlds, until finally beings appear in the hell of incessant suffering. This kalpa, like the other three kalpas of the cycle, lasts for twenty small kalpas. Each small kalpa is said to last nearly sixteen million years.
See also kalpa
