kalpa; also劫簸; 劫跛;v. 劫. Aeon, age. The period of time between the creation and recreation ofa world or universe; also thekalpas offormation, existence, destruction, and non-existence, which four as acomplete period are calledmahākalpa大劫. Eachgreatkalpais subdivided into fourasaṇkhyeya-kalpas (阿僧企耶 i.e. numberless,incalculable): (1)kalpaof destructionsaṃvarta; (2)kalpaof utter annihilation, or emptykalpa増滅劫; 空劫saṃvarta-siddha; (3)kalpaof formation 成劫vivarta; (4)kalpaofexistence 住劫vivartasiddha; or they may betaken in the order 成住壞空. Each of the fourkalpas is subdivided into twentyantara-kalpas, 小劫 or smallkalpas, so that amahākalpaconsists of eighty smallkalpas. Each smallkalpais divided into a period of 増 increaseand 減 decrease; the increase period is ruled over by the fourcakravartīs in succession, i.e. the four ages of iron,copper, silver, gold, during which the length of human life increases by oneyear every century to 84,000 years, and the length of the human body to 8,400 feet. Then comes thekalpaof decreasedivided into periods of the three woes, pestilence, war, famine, duringwhich the length of human life is gradually reduced to ten years and thehuman body to 1 foot in height. There are other distinctions of thekalpas. A smallkalpaisrepresented as 16,800,000 years, akalpaas 336,000,000 years, and amahākalpaas 1,334,000,000 years. There are many ways of illustrating the length of akalpa, e.g. pass a soft cloth over a solid rock 40liin size once in a hundred years, whenfinally the rock has been thus worn away akalpawill not yet have passed; or a city of 40li, filled with mustard seeds, one being removed everycentury till all have gone, akalpawill notyet have passed. Cf. 成劫.
一劫波 劫的全稱。大智度論卷三八（大二五‧三三九中）：「時中最小者，六十念中之一念，大時名劫。」（參閱「劫」3541）p3545