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

1. formation (Tib. ཆགས་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. chags pa'i bskal pa),
   
2. duration (Tib. གནས་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. gnas pa'i bskal pa),
   
3. destruction (Tib. འཇིག་པའི་བསྐལ་པ་, Wyl. 'jig pa'i bskal pa) and
   
4. 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]

See Also

• Kalpa