bskal pa

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bskal pa

According to the traditional Abhidharma understanding of cyclical time, a great eon (mahākalpa) is divided into eighty lesser or intervening eons. In the course of one great eon, the external universe and its sentient life takes form and later disappears. During the first twenty of the lesser eons, the universe is in the process of creation and expansion (vivartakalpa); during the next twenty it remains created; during the third twenty, it is in the process of destruction or contraction (samvartakalpa); and during the last quarter of the cycle, it remains in a state of destruction.

The Indian concept of an eon of millions of years, sometimes equivalent to the time when a world appears, exists, and disappears. There are also the intermediate eons during the existence of a world, and the longest, which is called asamkhyeya (literally, "incalculable," even though the number of its years is calculated).

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