Great kalpa
A great kalpa (Skt. mahākalpa; Tib. བསྐལ་ཆེན་, kalchen, Wyl. bskal chen) is the period of time during which a universe passes through the four periods 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).
These four periods can be referred to as intermediary kalpas. Generally, a great kalpa is composed of eighty intermediary kalpas, twenty for each of these four periods.[1]
References
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- ↑ For more details see Kangyur Rinpoche, Treasury of Precious Qualities (Boston & London: Shambhala, 2001), 'Appendix I'.