English
there is neither heaven nor the path; therefore, he is reborn in hell elsewhere, outside the contracting world-system, and burns. 'But does not the back world-system burn?' 'It burns.' 'Even when it burns, he burns in one place in space,' they say." But after the cessation of rains, after a long period of time, a second sun appears. When it appears, there is no distinction of night, nor distinction of day. One sun rises, one sets; the world is like an unbroken solar heat. And just as there is a sun-deity in the sun-mansion that arose before the time of the eon's arising, so there is none in the sun that destroys the eon. But at the time of the eon's arising, just like other sense-sphere deities, the sun-deity also generates jhana and is reborn in the Brahma world. But the sun's orb continues, becoming more radiant and more powerful. That "having disappeared, another arises," say others. There, when the ordinary sun exists, clouds and smoke plumes exist in the sky. When the sun that destroys the eon exists, the sky becomes clear like a mirror disk, without smoke or clouds. Except for the five great rivers, water in the remaining small rivers and so forth dries up. Then, after the passing of a long period, a third sun appears. By its appearance, even the great rivers dry up. Then, after the passing of a long period, a fourth sun appears. By its appearance, in the Himalayas, the sources of the great rivers, the Sīhappapāta lake, the Mandākinī lake, the Kaṇṇamuṇḍa lake, the Rathakāra lake, the Anotatta lake, the Chaddanta lake, the Kuṇāla lake— these seven great lakes dry up. Then, after the passing of a long period, a fifth sun appears. By its appearance, gradually, not even water the size of a finger joint remains in the great ocean. Then, after the passing of a long period, a sixth sun appears. By its appearance, the entire cosmos becomes one smoke, its moisture consumed by smoke. For by that water element, the earth element, bound here and there, stands compacted. That (water element) by the appearance of the sixth sun goes to destruction. Just as this (cosmos), so too hundreds of thousands of crores of cosmoses. Then, after the passing of a long period, a seventh sun appears. By its appearance, the entire cosmos becomes one flame, along with hundreds of thousands of crores of cosmoses. Mount Sineru peaks, of a hundred yojanas and so forth, crumble and disappear into space itself. That flame of fire rises up and seizes the Cātumahārājika realm. There, having burned the golden mansions, jewel mansions, and gem mansions, it seizes the Tāvatiṃsa realm. By this same method, it seizes up to the first jhāna realm. There, having burned all three Brahmā worlds, it reaches and stands at the Ābhassara realm. That (flame) does not extinguish as long as even a tiny bit of conditioned existence remains. When all conditioned things are exhausted... That fire, like a flame of heated ghee, is extinguished without leaving even ashes. The upper space together with the lower space becomes one great darkness. Thus, when the world-system has remained as one asaṅkhyeyya, one empty space, the deva begins to rain for the establishment of the world. At first, it is like a snowfall in the middle regions. Then, water drops, the size of a grain, the size of a rice grain, the size of a mung bean, a jujube, an āmalaka fruit, an eḷāluka fruit, a kumbhaṇḍa gourd, a calabash, gradually become the size of an ox, two oxen, half a gāvuta, a gāvuta, half a yojana, a yojana, two yojanas… …a hundred yojanas, a thousand yojanas, and fill the interior of a hundred thousand koṭi cakkavāḷas up to the unperished Brahma-world, and then disappear. That water, the wind arising from below and from the sides, makes it dense, like a water drop on a lotus leaf, round and firm. If it is asked, "How does it make such a great mass of water dense?" It is because of the wind's provision of openings. It provides openings here and there for it. As it is thus compressed by the wind, made dense, and diminished, it gradually descends. As the water descends, the Brahma-world appears in the place of the Brahma-world, and the deva-worlds appear in the places of the upper four sense-sphere deva-worlds. However, the residences of the Cātumahārājika and Tāvatiṃsa devas do not appear yet, due to their connection with the earth. But when it descends to the place of the former earth, strong winds arise. They make it breathless, like water in a closed-door dhammakaraṇa machine, and churn it. The sweet water, as it diminishes, brings forth the essence-earth above. The earth settles like a lotus leaf on the surface of the water. It is endowed with color, and endowed with fragrance and taste, like a film on top of waterless rice porridge. Here, it should be known that the place of the Great Bodhi-pallaṅka is the last to perish when the world perishes, and the first to be established when it is established. At that time, the beings who were reborn first in the Ābhassara Brahma-world, due to the exhaustion of their life-span, or Or, having passed away from there due to the exhaustion of merit, being spontaneously reborn here, they are self-luminous, moving through the air. Having tasted that savory earth, overcome by craving, they begin to consume it greedily. Then their self-luminosity disappears, and there is darkness. Seeing the darkness, they are afraid. Then, dispelling their fear and generating courage, the sun-orb appeared, fully fifty yojanas in size. Seeing it, they are delighted and joyful, thinking, "We have gained light!" "It has arisen, dispelling the fear of us who were afraid, and generating courage. Therefore, let it be the sun!" And so they name it "Sun." Then, when the sun, having made light for the day, set, they were again afraid, thinking, "Even the light we gained is lost to us!" They thought, "Oh, how good it would be if we could gain another light!" As if knowing their thoughts, the moon-orb appeared, forty-nine yojanas in size. Seeing it, they were even more delighted and joyful, thinking, "It has arisen as if knowing our wish. Therefore, let it be the moon!" And so they name it "Moon." Thus, when the moon and sun had appeared, the constellations and star-forms appeared. From then on, day and night became discernible, and in succession, months, half-months, seasons, and years. On the very day the moon and sun appeared, Mount Sineru, the Cakkavāḷa mountains, the Himavanta mountains, islands, and oceans also appeared. And indeed, they appeared neither before nor after, but on the very full moon day of Phagguṇa. How? Just as when millet rice is cooking, bubbles rise all at once, some places become mounds, some low-lying, some level, just so, in the places of mounds, there were mountains; in the low-lying places, oceans; and in the level places, islands. Then, as those beings consumed the savory earth, due to kamma, some became beautiful, and some became ugly. There, the beautiful ones despised the ugly ones... due to their excessive pride, that very savory earth disappeared, earth-scum appeared. Then for them, in the same way, that too disappeared, then creepers appeared. In the same way, that too disappeared, uncultivated rice appeared, without husk, without chaff, fragrant, yielding grains. Then for them, vessels appeared. They placed the rice in the vessels, and placed them on a rock surface. By itself, a flame rose and cooked it. That rice became like a jasmine flower, there was no need for soup or curry with it. Whatever taste they wished to eat, that very taste it became. As they consumed that coarse food, from then on, urine and feces arose. For indeed, the savory earth, the earth-scum, the creepers, these, when consumed, like divine food, having appeased hunger, remained distributing only essence through the channels of taste, due to the subtle nature of the substance, no waste, and due to its subtle nature, it was only fuel for the body. But the cooked rice, when consumed, though increasing essence, due to the coarse nature of the substance, releasing waste, produced urine and feces. Then for their excretion, openings for waste appeared. For the male, maleness, for the female, femaleness appeared. Indeed, due to the power of the preliminary meditative absorptions practiced in previous existences, as long as sensual desire was suppressed by the force of inhibition in the beings' continuums, so long did the male and female faculties, which are the basis for strong sensual desire, not appear. But when, due to its interruption, strong sensual desire found an opportunity, then those faculties, which are its basis, arose in the beings' bodies. Then the woman, the man, and the man, the woman, gazed upon excessively. Due to their excessive gazing, sensual fever arose. Then they engaged in sexual intercourse. Due to their engaging in this unwholesome practice, being blamed and tormented by the wise, for concealing that unwholesome practice Without reason, they made dwellings. Dwelling in those houses, gradually following the example of a certain lazy being, they made stores. From then on, even a grain, even a husk, they surrounded the rice, and the reaped place did not grow again. They assembled and lamented, "Indeed, evil states have appeared among beings! For we were formerly mind-made!" Then they established boundaries. Then a certain being took a share not given by another. Having reproached him twice, on the third occasion, they struck him with hands, clods, and sticks. When such taking of what is not given, quarrels, falsehoods, and punishments arose, they assembled and thought, "Let us now appoint one being, who will rightly blame what should be blamed, censure what should be censured, banish what should be banished. And we will give him a share of our rice." When the beings had thus resolved, in this very eon, this very Blessed One, as a Bodhisatta,