How the universe was created
Universe is the name that we use to describe the collection of all the things that exist in time and space.
“Time” means the time span in the instantaneous past, the present and the future.
”Space” means the empty space between galaxies. Because if the gravitation pull, there are some limit on distance, direction and shape.
How the universe was created? In general, the universe goes thru the stages of creation and destruction, this is the law of nature. The life expectancy of the universe is divided into four stages: Creation, Sustainment, Destruction, Emptiness.
Each stage also consist of twenty cycles. Thus our universe must undergo 80 cycles (4 × 20 = 80).
In the Shurangama Sutra, it stated that: at the beginning, in the period of “Creation” stage, the great universe empty space was consist of Hydrogen & Helium. When Hydrogen collide with Oxygen, Water was first created in the beginning. As the wind blew, the sun heated up, big mountain slowly formed. At that earlier time, only plants were born, then there were animals to live, and people could survive. Over many years, town was born, then culture and people formed and shaped the nation. During this period of time is called the stage of “Creation”. Our planet earth, and the people were happy, there was no greed, no selfishness, and all humanity was merciful and lived carefree.
In the second stage: the “Sustainment” stage, people gradually developed greed, hatred, and ignorance, giving rise to bad behavior. Murder, theft, adultery, lying, drinking, evils acts. Those people go mad, do ten evil things (refer to ten things not to do in ten commandments). Heaven started not to rain, tree doesn’t yield crops and fruits, causes hunger and thirst. People start to eat roots or tree shoots. Because there’s no food left to eat, the plague arose. Due to starvation and pestilence, the world leads to a military crisis. Rebellion recorded in history, all due to these causes.
This tragedy is related closely to each other. Because the national leader are greedy and wants to invade the territory of another country, so wars arise. Like World War I, World War II, the causes are not outside greed. During war, people do not know where to live. Because of the military conflict, the nations falls into hunger and thirst. Because of hunger and thirst, which produces pestilence. Within this Sustainment stage, there are cycles or mini stages of Creation, Sustainment, Destruction, Emptiness.
When the Sustainment stage has passed, then the stage of “Destruction”. Our Milky Way will gradually destroy.
Over another twenty cycles, our solar system will explode, like “Super Nova”. The planets within our solar system will exploded, crumbled, completely destroyed into dust during the stage of “Emptiness”. Every galaxies, it takes such a long time. To calculated in term of years, the total time of the four stages (Creation, Sustainment, Destruction and Emptiness) is how many years?
Currently we are living in the stage of “Sustainment“. In each stage, there are 20 life cycles. At the present time, we are in the 9th in that 20 cycles. For example, if this galaxy must undergo 80 cycles or 80 years of life, now this galaxy is 29 years old.
To make it easy to understand, we will use the life or the age of normal people to calculate the number. Currently people living in countries without a war live to 75-85 years old. Some living in some part of Middle East are deprived during the war. Those unfortunate individuals lived an average of 35-40 years old. If calculated worldwide, the average human life is around 70 years.
Every 100 years, the human life is reduced by 1 year. After 6000 years, or about 8019, the average human life is only 10 years old. At that time the number of people living on earth will be very small. Only a few people live in one city. At that time, people fells very lonely and isolated, so people start looking for others in nearby cities to make friends. At that time people began to change from selfishness into compassion for each other. At that time, human life span begin to increase. Every 100 years, the human life age increases by one year. Until the average life expectancy of humans is 84000 years.
For every human age that rises to 84,000 years and returns to age 10, that time frame is one small life cycle. So one cycle is about:
((84000 – 10) * 100) + ((84000 -10) * 100) = 16,798,000 years
Every 1000 cycle is a small cycle: 16798000 * 1000 = 16.798 million years
For every 1,000 small cycle, it is called one medium cycle: 16,798,000,000 * 10 = 16,798,000,000,000 years
Every 1,000 medium cycle is a great cycle: 16,798,000,000,000 * 10 = 16,798,000,000,000,000 years
In 4 stages: Creation, Sustainment, Destruction, Emptiness.. Each stage is divided into 20 small stages. So each stage is:
16,798,000,000,000,000 / 80 = 209,975,000,000,000 years
Currently we are living in the 9th stage in the stage of “Sustainment” or the 29th stage. If calculated, the age of the our Milky Way is around
209,975,000,000,000 * 29 = 3,989,525,000,000,000 years
(Note: our planet, earth, is resided within the Milky Way. The above calculation is the number of years of our Milky Way, which is a lot older than our planet earth.)
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The time of a great cycle is 16798 trillion years. The Buddha practiced and attained enlightenment in countless previous great cycles, and we are still stuck in the six reincarnation paths. So how many billion more years are we planning to reincarnate. All we have to do is to reflect back within ourselves while spend some time in meditation, we will be free from reincarnation and can live for countless lifetimes.
How old are you? Actually, you should ask: How many more years do you plan to live? If your doctor says that you only have 24 hours to live, what would you do? Pray to Buddha, Namo Amituofo, to reincarnation in Buddha Land. Or party your last day and let hell decide your next future life.
If we are telling you that your life span is a short as one breath. What would your last words be?
