བསྐལ་ཆེན་
A great kalpa (Skt. mahākalpa; Tib. བསྐལ་ཆེན་, Wyl. bskal chen) is the period of time during which the universe passes through the four periods (or medium kalpas) of
- formation (Tib. ཆགས་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. chags pa'i bskal pa),
- duration (Tib. གནས་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. gnas pa'i bskal pa),
- destruction (Tib. འཇིག་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. 'jig pa'i bskal pa) and
- voidness (Tib. སྟོང་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. stong pa'i bskal pa).
bskal chen - mahakalpa [according to the Abhidharmakosha tradition 80 small kalpas, acc to abhidharma-samuccaya = four {bskal chung} in human years dung phyur drug dang bye ba bdun sa ya gcig ‘bum dgu khri gnyis = 671,920,000, or another tradition says ‘khrug phrag bdun [IW]
bskal chen - great aeon/kalpa [acc to Abhidharma-kosha = 80 {bskal chung} acc to abhidharma-samuccaya = four {bskal chung} see {bskal pa chen po} eighty intermediate aeons {bar bskal} and is divided into; {chags pa’i bskal pa nyi shu} = twenty aeons of the formation of the universe {gnas pa’i bskal pa nyi shu} = twenty aeons of its persistence {‘jigs pa’i bskal pa nyi shu} = twenty aeons of its dissolution, {stong pa’i bskal pa nyi shu} = twenty aeons of vacuity)
bskal chen - great aeon. [acc. to Abhidharma-Kosha 80 bskal chung. Acc. to Abhidharma-Samucchaya 4 bskal chung.
See {bskal pa chen po}; great aeon. [acc. to Abhidharma-Kosha 80 {bskal chung}. Acc. to Abhidharma-Samucchaya 4 {bskal chung}.)
See {bskal pa chen po}. a great aeon consists of eight intermediate aeons ( see {bar bskal}.) and is divided into,
1) {chags pa’i bskal pa nyi shu}. twenty aeons of the formation of the universe.
2) {gnas pa’i bskal pa nyi shu}. twenty aeons of its persistence.
3) {‘jigs pa’i bskal pa nyi shu}. twenty aeons of its dissolution.
4) {stong pa’i bskal pa nyi shu}. twenty aeons of vacuity [RY]