Post #1149

If we follow the evolution of a particular universe (world system) we will see four stages: (1) Emptiness (the era of space particles), (2) Formation, (3) Abiding, and (4) Destruction. At the destruction of one system, the fire, earth, air, and water particles separate and perhaps even fall apart, but space particles remain. This is the stage of Emptiness. When motivated through the accumulated karma of all the sentient beings that existed in the previous world system, the space particles begin the process of forming a new universe from the reformed elements. First air particles coagulate to form wind, which then causes the fire particles to join and create lightning. From this process water particles form rain, and the resulting rainbows herald the joining of earth particles. The order of this "creation" is mirrored in the structure of the world system in the Abhidharma and Kalachakra systems depicted above, with the air disk being the lowest layer of the base of the world, topped in succession by disks of fire, water, and earth. Sentient beings begin to populate all possible realms (e.g. various hell realms, animal, human, and deities). During this stage, humans are granted an "infinite" lifespan (until the end of the age). When this process is complete, the Stage of Formation ends. The Stage of Abiding is subdivided into many eras, in which the lifespan of humans changes. We are currently said to be in a degenerate age, when the lifespan is decreasing and is about 80 years. The Stage of Destruction begins when no more sentient beings are reborn in the hell realms, and the hells begin to empty out (as various beings exhaust the karma that brought them there in the first place). Likewise, all higher realms of existence are emptied out in sequence. Finally the world system is destroyed by a great fire. According to the Abhidharmakosha there are also higher cycles where every 8th destruction is accomplished by a flood, and every 8th of those cycles, by a great wind, leading to a "great cycle of destruction." This process is eternal and without beginning or end, and in a sense defines time itself (as a series of changes of impermanent reality).