User:Nilhanu/Kalpa in Buddhism

In Buddhism, the term Kalpa means a unit of measure of a very long time period, so long it cannot be explained by solar years alone. There are several categories of Kalpas or sub-kalpas according to their relative length. Time in Buddhist philosophy goes in an endless cycle in contrast to liner concept in western culture.

In order to understand the Kalpa, one needs to learn about the Asankya as well, which is the largest arithmetical number in Buddhism.

1 Asankya = 1043 = 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Antah Kalpa
There comes a time when the life expectancy of human beings gradually decrease down to just ten years due to their overwhelming mischief, lustfulness and hatred. At the end of that age there will be a mass-extinction of human population executed by three possible ways: plague, war or hunger. Only a handful of people will remain. Having being disappointed by the mischievous actions of their ancestors they will start to build virtue. Accordingly their life expectancy will rise gradually until it reaches Asankya. Because time goes in a cycle, human virtue will begin to fall again until returning back to where they started, just ten years. This total timespan is equavalent to one Anatah Kalpa.