The idea of an everlasting Buddha is a notion popularly associated with the Mahayana scripture, the Lotus Sutra. That sutra has the Buddha indicate that he became Awakened countless, immeasurable, inconceivable myriads of trillions of aeons ("kalpas") ago and that his lifetime is "forever existing and immortal". From the human perspective, it seems as though the Buddha has always existed. The sutra itself, however, does not directly employ the phrase "eternal Buddha"; yet similar notions are found in other Mahayana scriptures, notably the Ma ...

See also:

Buddha, Buddha - Eternal Buddha, Buddha - 32 Marks of the Buddha, Buddha - Names of the Buddhas, Buddha - Sources

Read more here: » Buddha: Encyclopedia II - Buddha - Eternal Buddha

All parts of the coconut palm are useful, and the trees have a comparatively high yield (up to 75 "nuts" per year); it therefore has significant economic value. The name for the coconut palm in Sanskrit is kalpa vriksha, which translates as "the tree which provides all the necessities of life". In Malay, the coconut is known as pokok seribu guna, "the tree of a thousand uses". In the Philippines, the coconut is commonly ...

See also:

Coconut, Coconut - Origins and Cultivation, Coconut - The fruit, Coconut - Uses, Coconut - Cultural aspects

Read more here: » Coconut: Encyclopedia II - Coconut - Uses

Attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past

(Jpn.: kuon jitsujo)

Shakyamuni's original attainment of enlightenment in the inconceivably remote past as related in the "Life Span" (sixteenth) chapter of the essential teaching (latter fourteen chapters) of the Lotus Sutra. In this chapter, Shakyamuni discloses that he actually attained enlightenment in the distant past. He then illustrates in rather awe-inspiring detail the cosmic proportions of the time that has elapsed since then, the magnitude of which is abbreviated as "numberless major world system dust particle kalpas." Nothing Shakyamuni had taught until this point challenged people's basic assumption that he had attained enlightenment in his present lifetime after sitting in meditation under the bodhi tree near Gaya, India.

This is the assumption upheld in the theoretical teaching (first fourteen chapters) of the Lotus Sutra and in the other sutras. Through this revelation in the "Life Span" chapter, however, Shakyamuni demolishes the belief that he attained enlightenment for the first time in his present lifetime. The "Life Span" chapter says: "In all the worlds the heavenly and human beings and asuras all believe that the present Shakyamuni Buddha, after leaving the palace of the Shakyas, seated himself in the place of meditation not far from the city of Gaya and there attained supreme perfect enlightenment. But good men, it has been immeasurable, boundless hundreds, thousands, ten thousands, millions of nayutas of kalpas since I in fact attained Buddhahood."

(See also: Attainment of Buddhahood in the remote past, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

A Theosophical definition of Brahma :

Brahma

(Sanskrit) A word of which the root, brih, means "expansion." It stands for the spiritual energy-consciousness side of our solar universe, i.e., our solar system, and the Egg of Brahma is that solar system.

A Day of Brahma or a maha-manvantara is composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years; this period is also called a kalpa. A Night of Brahma, the planetary rest period, which is also called the parinirvanic period, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma make one solar kalpa; or, in other words, seven planetary cycles, each cycle consisting of seven rounds (or seven planetary manvantaras), form one solar manvantara.

One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days, each day being the duration of a planet's life, i.e., of a planetary chain of seven globes. The Life of Brahma (or the life of the universal system) consists of one hundred Divine Years, i.e., 4,320,000,000 years times 36,000 x 2.

The Life of Brahma is half ended: that is, fifty of his years are gone  - a period of 155,520,000,000,000 of our years have passed away since our solar system, with its sun, first began its manvantaric course. There remain, therefore, fifty more such Years of Brahma before the system sinks into rest or pralaya. As only half of the evolutionary journey is accomplished, we are, therefore, at the bottom of the kosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also: Brahma, Mysticism, Body Mind and Soul)

According to Sri Aurobindo, Kali Yuga lasts far less than 432,000 years. The followers of the Purna Yoga believe that the Mother successfully solicited the early termination of the Kali Yuga in 1969, and the abolition of pralaya (normal process of destruction of the universe at the end of a kalpa (Cosmic Cycle of Creation-Destruction)). According to Akilattirattu Ammanai the holy book of Ayyavazhi religion and source of Ayyavazhi mythology, this Kali Yuga is the seventh of the eight yugas. The Asura of this yuga Kaliyan was the sixth-f ...

See also:

Kali Yuga, Kali Yuga - Problems that arise, Kali Yuga - Warfare, Kali Yuga - Nobility/respect, Kali Yuga - Changes in the people, Kali Yuga - Changes in men, Kali Yuga - Changes in women, Kali Yuga - Lives of each of the castes, Kali Yuga - Life of the Brahmin, Kali Yuga - Life of the Kshatriya, Kali Yuga - Life of the Vaishya, Kali Yuga - Life of the Shudra, Kali Yuga - Exception, Kali Yuga - Other Views of Kali Yuga

Read more here: » Kali Yuga: Encyclopedia II - Kali Yuga - Other Views of Kali Yuga

KALI YUGA

1/1000 of Kalpa. This age in which we are living is the Kali Yuga, or "Dark Age," and lasts 432,000 years, having begun in 3102 B.C. It is well known, however, that the ancient Indic method of counting years was highly arbitrary from our point of view. Obviously, we have come down to the final days of the Kali Yuga -- 3102 B.C. is the mirror of 2013 A.D., the Mayan end of time.

(See also: KALI YUGA, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Vedanga:

Vedanga: Veda-limb. Six branches of post-Vedic studies revered as auxiliary to the Vedas. Four Vedangas govern correct chanting of the Vedas: 1. Shiksha (phonetics), 2. Çhandas (meter), 3. Nirukta (etymology), 4. Vyakarana (grammar). The two other Vedangas are 5. Jyotisha Vedanga (astronomy-astrology) and 6. Kalpa Vedanga (procedural canon) which includes the Shrauta and Shulba Shastras (ritual codes), Dharma Shastras (social law) and Grihya Shastras (domestic codes).

(See also: Vedanga, Hinduism, Hinduism Dictionary, Sanskrit Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul)

Brahma's Day, Night, Age, Year, Life A Day of Brahma, a cosmic manvantara or out-breathing of Brahma, represents a period where worlds are evolved and pass through their allotted ages of manvantaric existence.

Each Day of Brahma consists of 1,000 aggregates of four yugas or 1,000 mahayugas (great ages). In a smaller sense it is also a mahamanvantara or kalpa of a planetary chain, composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. A Night of Brahma, a cosmic pralaya, inbreathing of Brahma, or planetary paranirvana, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma or seven planetary cycles make one solar kalpa. One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days and Nights, each Day of which is the duration of the imbodiment of a planetary chain, with Nights of equal length.

The Life of Brahma or of the solar system consists of 100 Divine Years (311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years). The current Life of Brahma is about half completed -- a period of about 155,520,000,000,000 of our years having passed away since our solar system first began its mahamanvantara. There remain, therefore, fifty more Years of Brahma before the system sinks into cosmic pralaya. As only half the grand evolutionary period is accomplished, we are at the bottom of the cosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also FOUR

(See also: Brahmas Day, Night, Age, Year, Life, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Paramartha-satya (Sanskrit) [from paramartha sublime comprehension + satya truth, reality]

Absolute or sublime truth or reality; from another standpoint, the path of pure wisdom-knowledge, bringing individual freedom to the adept, in contrast with samvriti-satya (relative truth). When the adept has reached the first stages of paramartha-satya he becomes a jivanmukta (freed monad), delivered thenceforward from the unceasing round of peregrinating reimbodiments until the end of the kalpa. The Tibetan equivalent is dondampaidenpa.

(See also: Paramartha-satya, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Kurma-Purana (Sanskrit) (from kurma tortoise)

One of the 18 principal Hindu Puranas, so named because it deals with the avataric incarnation of Vishnu in the form of a tortoise. The scripture was recited by Janardana (Vishnu) in the regions under the earth to Indradyumna and the rishis in the proximity of Sakra. It tells about the Lakshmi Kalpa, and treats of the objects of life: duty, wealth, pleasure, and liberation.

(See also: Kurma-Purana, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Brahma's Day, Night, Age, Year, Life A Day of Brahma, a cosmic manvantara or out-breathing of Brahma, represents a period where worlds are evolved and pass through their allotted ages of manvantaric existence.

Each Day of Brahma consists of 1,000 aggregates of four yugas or 1,000 mahayugas (great ages). In a smaller sense it is also a mahamanvantara or kalpa of a planetary chain, composed of seven rounds, a period of 4,320,000,000 terrestrial years. A Night of Brahma, a cosmic pralaya, inbreathing of Brahma, or planetary paranirvana, is of equal length.

Seven Days of Brahma or seven planetary cycles make one solar kalpa. One Year of Brahma consists of 360 Divine Days and Nights, each Day of which is the duration of the imbodiment of a planetary chain, with Nights of equal length.

The Life of Brahma or of the solar system consists of 100 Divine Years (311,040,000,000,000 terrestrial years). The current Life of Brahma is about half completed -- a period of about 155,520,000,000,000 of our years having passed away since our solar system first began its mahamanvantara. There remain, therefore, fifty more Years of Brahma before the system sinks into cosmic pralaya. As only half the grand evolutionary period is accomplished, we are at the bottom of the cosmic cycle, i.e., on the lowest plane.

See also FOUR

(See also: Brahmas Day, Night, Age, Year, Life, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Manu Dharma Shastra: (Sanskrit) "Sage Manu's law book."

An encyclopedic treatise of 2,685 verses on Hindu law assembled as early as 600 bce. Among its major features are the support of varna dharma, ashrama dharma, stri dharma and seeing the Self in all beings. Despite its caste-based restrictions, which determine one's life unrelentlingly from birth to death, it remains the source of much of modern Hindu culture and law.

These "Laws of Manu" are the oldest and considered the most authoritative of the greater body of Dharma Shastras. Even during the time of the British Raj in India, law was largely based on these texts. The text is widely available today in several languages. (Buhler's English translation is over 500 pages.)

See: caste, dharma, Dharma Shastras, Kalpa Vedanga.

(See also: Manu Dharma Shastra, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Sowing maturing and harvesting

(Jpn.: shu-juku-datsu)

The three-phase process by which a Buddha leads people to Buddha-hood. In The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra, T'ien-t'ai (538-597) set forth this concept based on the Lotus Sutra, comparing the process of people attaining Buddhahood to the growth of a plant. In the first stage, "sowing," the Buddha plants the seeds of Buddhahood in the lives of the people, just as a gardener sows seeds in the soil. Nichiren (1222- 1282) states in The Essentials for Attaining Buddhahood, "The Buddha is like the sower, and the people like the field". In the second stage, the Buddha nurtures the seeds he has planted by helping the people practice the teaching and leading them gradually to Buddhahood. This stage is compared to the gardener's care for the sprouting and growth of a plant and is called "maturing." In the third and final stage, the Buddha leads the people to reap the harvest of enlightenment, enabling them to attain Buddhahood. This is comparable to the gardener reaping the fruit of a plant and is called "harvesting."

The process of sowing, maturing, and harvesting is described as taking place over countless kalpas. From the viewpoint of the essential teaching (latter half ) of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni first planted the seeds of enlightenment in the lives of his disciples numberless major world system dust particle kalpas in the past. He then nurtured them as the sixteenth son of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence major world system dust particle kalpas in the past and later as the Buddha in India by preaching the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings and the theoretical teaching (first half ) of the Lotus Sutra. He finally brought them to fruition, or enlightenment, with the "Life Span" (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra. Seen from this perspective, Shakyamuni's essential teaching was expounded for the purpose of reaping the harvest of enlightenment and accordingly is called the teaching of the harvest. The pre-Lotus Sutra teachings and the theoretical teaching, through which Shakyamuni nurtured his disciples' capacity for enlightenment, are regarded as the teaching of maturing. As a whole, Nichiren refers to Shakyamuni's teachings as the Buddhism of the harvest.

In The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind, Nichiren states: "He Shakyamuni planted the seeds of Buddhahood in their lives in the remote past numberless major world system dust particle kalpas ago and nurtured the seeds through his preaching as the sixteenth son of the Buddha Great Universal Wisdom Excellence major world system dust particle kalpas ago and through the first four flavors of teachings the pre-Lotus Sutra teachings and the theoretical teaching in this life. Then with the essential teaching he brought his followers to the stage of near-perfect enlightenment and finally to that of perfect enlightenment" (369-70). In the same work, Nichiren writes: "The essential teaching of Shakyamuni's lifetime and that revealed at the beginning of the Latter Day are both pure and perfect in that both lead directly to Buddha-hood. Shakyamuni's, however, is the Buddhism of the harvest, and this is the Buddhism of sowing. The core of his teaching is one chapter and two halves, and the core of mine is the five characters of the daimoku alone". Though "one chapter and two halves" indicates that Shakyamuni planted the seeds of Buddhahood in the lives of his followers, the teaching of sowing is "hidden in the depths of the 'Life Span' chapter" of the Lotus Sutra. More specifically, it is hidden in the sentence "Originally I practiced the bodhisattva way."

Nichiren referred to the hidden teaching as "the seed of Buddhahood, that is, the three thousand realms in a single moment of life" in The Object of Devotion for Observing the Mind (365). In The Opening of the Eyes, he writes: "This is the doctrine of original cause and original effect. It reveals that the nine worlds are all present in beginningless Buddha-hood and that Buddhahood is inherent in the beginningless nine worlds. This is the true mutual possession of the Ten Worlds, the true hundred worlds and thousand factors, the true three thousand realms in a single moment of life". This indicates the eternal Mystic Law that enables people to reveal Buddhahood from their beginningless nine worlds. Originally Shakyamuni practiced the bodhisattva way as a common mortal with this Law as his teacher and thus realized and manifested his inherent Buddhahood.

In contrast with Shakyamuni's Buddhism, Nichiren identified his teaching as the Buddhism of sowing and defined the daimoku of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as the teaching for planting the seeds of enlightenment. Because Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the law of the simultaneity of cause and effect, it contains within it all three stages of sowing, maturing, and harvesting. The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra refers to two types of people: those who received the seeds of Buddhahood and have good roots and those who do not. According to Nichiren, people in the Latter Day of the Law never received the seeds of Buddhahood from the Buddha in the past and must therefore first receive the seeds of Buddhahood in their lives. Then they can complete the whole process of maturing and harvesting in this lifetime. Nichiren established the object of devotion called the Gohonzon, embodying in it the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo as a means for people to plant the seeds of Buddha-hood in their lives and reap the fruit of Buddhahood. In Nichiren's teaching, the practice for doing so involves chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo with faith in the Gohonzon.

See: Teacher of the true effect, Teacher of the true cause

(See also: Sowing maturing and harvesting, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Seven Eternities Seven kosmic aeons or vastly long periods of duration, becoming time to human thought; and each such kosmic aeon is an eternity [from Latin aeternitas from aetas age, time period, a space of time]

which the Latins looked upon as a generalizing term for an aeon (cosmic age). "The Seven Eternities meant are the seven periods, or a period answering in duration to the seven periods, of a Manvantara, and extending throughout a Maha-Kalpa or the 'Great Age' -- 100 years of Brahma -- making a total of 311,040,000,000,000 of years" (SD 1:36). The expression applies both to the mahakalpa and to the solar pralaya.

(See also: Seven Eternities, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Madhu (Sanskrit) An asura; in the Mahabharata and the Puranas, Madhu and Kaitabha sprang from the ear of Vishnu while he was asleep at the end of a kalpa.

Brahma was also lying asleep on the lotus springing from Vishnu's navel, and the two asuras were on the point of slaying Brahma, when Vishnu awoke and slew them -- hence he was called Kaitabhajit and Madhusudana.

The Harivansa relates that the bodies of the asuras were cast into the sea and produced an immense amount of marrow, out of which Narayana formed the earth. Krishna also killed a demon named Madhu.

As an adjective, delicious, sweet.

(See also: Madhu, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Occultism, Occultism Dictionary)

Teacher of the true effect

(Jpn.: honga-myo-no-kyoshu)

In Nichiren's teachings, Shakyamuni Buddha. In the "Life Span" (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni reveals the true effect, the Buddhahood he attained numberless major world system dust particle kalpas ago. He alludes to the cause of that enlightenment only with the words "Originally I practiced the bodhisattva way," and does not clarify the teaching or Law that he practiced to attain Buddhahood.

Shakyamuni Buddha is called the teacher of the true effect because he revealed his original enlightenment as a result already achieved-as an effect-and did not specify its cause. Nichiren defined the true cause that enabled Shakyamuni and all other Buddhas to attain enlightenment as the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo; he is therefore called the teacher of the true cause.

(See also: Teacher of the true effect, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Teacher of the true cause

(Jpn.: honnin-myo-no-kyoshu)

In Nichiren's teachings, the Buddha who expounds the fundamental Law, or the true cause, that enables all people to attain Buddhahood.

In the "Life Span" (sixteenth) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni reveals the true effect, or the Buddhahood that he attained numberless major world system dust particle kalpas ago. He does not, however, fully clarify the true cause of, i.e., the practice that led to, his enlightenment. Hence, he is called the teacher of the true effect. In contrast, Nichiren taught that Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is the Law implicit in the "Life Span" chapter and is the cause of enlightenment for all people. Because he clarified the true cause for attaining Buddhahood, he is called the teacher of the true cause, and his Buddhism, the Buddhism of the true cause, or the Buddhism of sowing that implants the seeds of enlightenment in the lives of those who practice it.

(See also: Teacher of the true cause, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

The Mallas are frequently mentioned in Buddhist and Jain works. They were a powerful people dwelling in Eastern India. Panduputra Bhimasena is said to have conquered the chief of the Mallas in course of his expedition of Eastern India. Mahabharata mention Mallas along with the Angas, Vangas, and Kalingas as eastern tribes. The Mallas were republican people with their dominion consisting of nine territories (Kalpa Sutra; Nirayavali Sutra), one of each of the nine confederated clans. Two of these confederations...one with Kusinara (modern Kasi ...

See also:

Mahajanapadas, Mahajanapadas - Overview, Mahajanapadas - Kasi, Mahajanapadas - Kosala, Mahajanapadas - Anga, Mahajanapadas - Magadha, Mahajanapadas - Vajji or Vriji, Mahajanapadas - Malla, Mahajanapadas - Chedi or Cheti, Mahajanapadas - Vamsa or Vatsa, Mahajanapadas - Kuru, Mahajanapadas - Panchala, Mahajanapadas - Machcha or Matsya, Mahajanapadas - Surasena, Mahajanapadas - Assaka or Ashmaka, Mahajanapadas - Avanti, Mahajanapadas - Gandhara, Mahajanapadas - Kamboja

Read more here: » Mahajanapadas: Encyclopedia II - Mahajanapadas - Malla

Yuga (Sanskrit). A 1,000th part of a Kalpa. An age of the World of which there are four, and the series of which proceed in succession during the manvantaric cycle. Each Yuga is preceded by a period called in the Puranas Sandhya, twilight, or transition period, and is followed by another period of like duration called Sandhyansa, "portion of twilight". Each is equal to one-tenth of the Yuga. The group of four Yugas is first computed by the divine years, or " years of the gods" - each such year being equal to 360 years of mortal men. Thus we have, in "divine" years:

1. Krita or Satya Yuga - - - 4,000

Sandhya - - - - 400

Sandhyansa - - - - 400

4,800

2. Treta Yuga - - - - 3,000

Sandhya - - - - 300

Sandhyansa - - - - 300

3,600

3. Dwapara Yuga - - - 2,000

Sandhya - - - - 200

Sandhyansa - - - - 200

2,400

4. Kali Yuga - - - - 1,000

Sandhya - - - - 100

Sandhyansa - - - - 100

1,200

Total 12,000

This rendered in years of mortals equals:

4800 X 360 = 1,728,000

3600 X 360 = 1,296,000

2400 X 360 = 864,000

1200 X 360 = 432,000

Total 4,320,000

The above is called a Mahayuga or Manvantara. 2,000 such Mahayugas, or a period of 8,640,000 years, make a Kalpa the latter being only a "day and a night", or twenty-four hours, of Brahma. Thus an "age of Brahma", or one hundred of his divine years, must equal 311,040,000,000,000 of our mortal years. The old Mazdeans or Magi (the modern Parsis) had the same calculation, though the Orientalists do not seem to perceive it, for even the Parsi Moheds themselves have forgotten it. But their "Sovereign time of the Long Period" (Zervan Daregha Hvadata) lasts 12,000 years, and these are the 12,000 divine years of a Mahayuga as shown above, whereas the Zervan Akarana (Limitless Time), mentioned by Zarathustra, is the Kala, out of space and time, of Parabrahm.

(See also: Yuga, Theosophy, Spirituality, Body mind and Soul, Spiritual Dictionary, )

Dharma Shastra: (Sanskrit) "Religious law book."

A term referring to all or any of numerous codes of Hindu civil and social law composed by various authors. The best known and most respected are those by Manu and Yajnavalkya, thought to have been composed as early as 600 bce.

The Dharma Shastras, along with the Artha Shastras, are the codes of Hindu law, parallel to the Muslim Sharia, the Jewish Talmud, each of which provides guidelines for kings, ministers, judicial systems and law enforcement agencies. These spiritualparliamentary codes differ from British and American law, which separate religion from politics. (Contemporary British law is influenced by Anglican Christian thought, just as American democracy was, and is, profoundly affected by the philosophy of its non-Christian, Deistic founders.)

The Dharma Shastras also speak of much more, including creation, initiation, the stages of life, daily rites, duties of husband and wife, caste, Vedic study, penances and transmigration. The Dharma Shastras are part of the Smriti literature, included in the Kalpa Vedanga, and are widely available today in many languages.

See: Deism, Manu Dharma Shastras.

(See also: Dharma Shastra, Hinduism, Body Mind and Soul)

Life Span of the Thus Come One chapter

(Jpn.: Nyorai-juryo-hon)

Abbreviated as the "Life Span" chapter. The sixteenth chapter of the Lotus Sutra, in which Shakyamuni Buddha reveals that he originally attained enlightenment in the far distant past rather than in his present life in India as his listeners generally thought.

The chapter title "The Life Span of the Thus Come One" means the duration of Shakyamuni's life as a Buddha, that is, how much time has passed since he originally attained Buddhahood. T'ien-t'ai (538-597) of China ranks it as the key chapter of the essential teaching, or the latter fourteen chapters of the sutra.

The chapter opens with three exhortations and four entreaties, in which the Buddha three times admonishes the multitude to believe and understand his truthful words, and the assembly four times begs him to preach. Shakyamuni then says, "You must listen carefully and hear of the Thus Come One's secret and his transcendental powers." He proceeds to explain that, while all heavenly and human beings and asuras believe that he first attained enlightenment in his present lifetime under the bodhi tree, it has actually been an incalculable length of time since he attained enlightenment. He then offers a dramatic description of the magnitude of this immeasurably long period. He describes taking a vast number of worlds, grinding them to dust, and then traversing the universe, dropping a particle each time one passes an equally vast number of worlds. Having exhausted all the dust particles, one takes all the worlds traversed, whether they have received a dust particle or not, and grinds them to dust. Then Shakyamuni says: "Let one particle represent one kalpa. The time that has passed since I attained Buddhahood surpasses this by a hundred, a thousand, ten thousand, a million nayuta asamkhya kalpas."

Commentaries on this chapter refer to this cosmically immense period as "numberless major world system dust particle kalpas." In the essential teaching of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni thus refutes the view that he attained enlightenment for the first time in this life in India and reveals his original attainment of enlightenment in the remote past. T'ien-t'ai refers to this in The Words and Phrases of the Lotus Sutra and The Profound Meaning of the Lotus Sutra as "opening the near and revealing the distant," "casting off the transient and revealing the true," and "opening the transient and revealing the true." Here, "the transient" means Shakyamuni's transient status, and "the true" means his true identity. From his original attainment of Buddhahood, Shakyamuni declares, he has constantly been here in this saha world preaching the Law, appearing as many different Buddhas and using various means to save living beings. Though he says that he enters nirvana, he merely uses his death as a means to arouse in people the desire to seek a Buddha. He then illustrates this idea with the parable of the skilled physician and his sick children. In the parable, the children of a skilled physician have accidentally swallowed poison. Having lost their senses, they refuse the medicine their father offers them as an antidote. The father then goes off to a remote place and sends a message informing his children he has died. Shocked to their senses, the children take the medicine their father has left for them and are cured. The Buddha is compared to the father in this parable, living beings to the children who have drunk poison, and the Buddha's entry into nirvana to the father's report of his own death-an expedient means to arouse in people the aspiration for enlightenment. The chapter concludes with a verse section, which restates the important teachings of the preceding prose section.

In Profound Meaning, T'ien-t'ai interprets the "Life Span" chapter as revealing the three mystic principles of the true cause (the cause for Shakyamuni's original attainment of enlightenment), the true effect (his original enlightenment), and the true land (the place where the Buddha lives and teaches). He interprets the passage "Originally I practiced the bodhisattva way ... " as indicating the stage of non-regression, or the eleventh of the fifty-two stages of bodhisattva practice, which he explained as the true cause that enabled Shakyamuni to attain Buddhahood. In answer to the question of what Shakyamuni practiced in order to reach the stage of non-regression, Nichiren (1222-1282) identified it as the Law of Nam-myoho-renge-kyo.

(See also: Life Span of the Thus Come One chapter, Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment, Buddhism Enlightenment Dictionary)

Round In connection with a planetary chain, when the life-wave of any planet passes through the seven root-races of one of its globes, this is called a globe-round. But the life-wave also passes in turn through the seven or twelve globes, beginning with globe A, and after an interglobal rest, passes to globe B, on the next lower subplane, then to globe C in similar manner, and following it, to globe D, which is on the lowest plane for that planetary chain. Rising then it in like manner passes through the three higher globes, E, F, and G. The circuit of these seven or twelve globes is called a planetary round, after which there is a planetary or chain-nirvana before the second round begins, which is made on a more advanced degree of evolution than was the first round.

Seven planetary rounds equal one kalpa, manvantara, or Day of Brahma. When seven planetary rounds (49 globe-rounds) have been thus accomplished, there ensues a still higher nirvana than that occurring between globes G and A after each planetary round. This higher nirvana is coincident with what is called a pralaya of that planetary chain, which lasts until a new planetary chain forms, containing the same hosts of living beings as on the preceding chain.

When seven such planetary chains with their various kalpas or manvantaras and pralayas have passed away, this sevenfold grand cycle is one solar manvantara, and then the solar system sinks into the solar or cosmic pralaya.

There are outer rounds and inner rounds. An inner round comprises the passage of the life-wave in any one planetary chain once from globe A to G, or from the first globe to the twelfth, and this takes place seven or twelve times in a planetary manvantara. The outer round comprises the passage of the entirety of a life-wave of a planetary chain along the circulations of the solar system, from one of the seven sacred planets to another, and in a specific serial order; and this seven or twelve times. Outer round can refer to two different events: the grand outer round, during which the spiritual monad makes a stay of varying length in each planetary chain; and the minor or small outer round, which is the post-mortem journey of the monad, after the death of an individual, to each of the planetary chains, but in this latter case its stay in each chain is relatively short.

See also INNER ROUND; OUTER ROUND

(See also: Round, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)