108 



BUDHISM 



the first world in this last series, namely, the efc3^?_^C33}539 

 asannyasatta Brahma world. In this the duration of life 

 is 500 calpas, but there is only corporeal existence without 

 consciousness: they have neither sensation/ perception, 

 thought nor knowledge;. but are as beings in a dreamless,, 

 profound sleep. The whole of the inhabitants of the Brahma 

 worlds are entirely free from sensual pleasures or desires: 

 they are not subject to the laws of gravitation, but move at 

 pleasure through the atmosphere without obstruction, and 

 their pleasures and pursuits are all intellectual and pure, 

 resembling perhaps what St. Paul meant when he spake of 

 "spiritual bodies." 



In the four Ar up a worlds completing the series, there are 

 no organised bodies, but the inhabitants possess sensation, 

 perception, reasoning, and knowledge or consciousness. I 

 do not clearly understand the nature of the existence or 

 modes of Operation in these worlds, and therefore cannot 

 attempt to explain them. The term of life is stated to be 

 20,000,-40,000—60,000 and 84,000 calpas. This last is 

 the longest possible duration of the existence of any Being. 



I have before stated that at the end of a calpa the three 

 lowest of the Brahma worlds, the six heavens, the earth, 

 and all below the earth will be entirely destroyed. The 

 next destruction is to be by fire, and the mode in which 

 this is to be effected is thus stated by Budha in his dis- 

 course on the ascent of seven suns, contained in the Angut- 

 tara Nikaya : "Bikhus, Seneru (or Maha Mem) the King 

 of Mountains, is in length 84,000 yoduns, in breadth 84,000 

 yoduns, beneath the great sea 84,000 yoduns, and above 

 the sea 84,000 yoduns. A time will come when for many 

 hundreds, thousands, and hundred thousands of years no 



