Discourse on the Sutra of the Father-Son Compendium (18)

The Manifestation of the Three Calamities

When the earth realm is destined to be destroyed, how does this destruction occur? The first is through conflagration by fire. When the fire calamity arrives, it burns all the way up to the First Dhyana Heaven of the Form Realm. Everything below the First Dhyana Heaven is annihilated. The six heavens of the Desire Realm and their celestial palaces vanish, Mount Sumeru ceases to exist, the four great continents disappear, and the Earth is no more. When the world is about to perish, the great fire ignites and consumes the Earth entirely. How does the Earth vanish? First, two suns appear, then three, four, five, six suns, and finally seven suns emerge. Everything below the First Dhyana Heaven is incinerated. With the appearance of two suns, all life on Earth vanishes without a trace—let alone with seven suns. When there is only one sun, we can barely endure the summer heat; with two suns, could life still exist? When seven suns appear, the waters of the four great oceans dry up, the Earth catches fire directly, and is utterly consumed. The fire ascends to the heavens, Mount Sumeru is burned away, the entire six heavens of the Desire Realm are incinerated, and the First Dhyana Heaven is also destroyed. All gold, silver, jewels, and treasures—long since consumed—are gone. Even the seven treasures, harder than gold and jewels, are likewise reduced to ashes.

The second calamity is the flood. After everything below the First Dhyana Heaven has been burned away, torrential rain falls from the heavens. Each raindrop is as large as an elephant, pouring relentlessly for seven days and seven nights. The waters rise all the way to the Second Dhyana Heaven of the Form Realm. The six heavens of the Desire Realm vanish, the First Dhyana Heaven is submerged, and the waters ascend further to the Second Dhyana Heaven, drowning it entirely. Such is the severity of the flood that no celestial beings below the Second Dhyana Heaven can escape it.

The third calamity is the wind disaster. When the great wind blows, it sweeps up to the Third Dhyana Heaven of the Form Realm, obliterating it completely. Had the Earth not already been consumed by fire, it would have been instantly scattered by this gale. The six heavens of the Desire Realm are blown apart, leaving no trace behind. All things—whether composed of the seven treasures or a hundred treasures—are scattered. Nothing, however solid, can endure or remain intact. Such is the immense power of this wind. Only one thing remains untouched by the fire, unsubmerged by the flood, and unscattered by the wind: the Tathagatagarbha.

After the three calamities pass, only the heavens from the Fourth Dhyana and above remain. The Fourth Dhyana comprises four levels, along with the Four Formless Heavens and the heavens of the Formless Realm. These celestial realms remain untouched by the calamities. This is because beings in the Fourth Dhyana and beyond abide in the purity of relinquished thought, free from mental fluctuations, their minds dwelling in a state of tranquility. Thus, no disaster befalls them. In the meditative state of the Third Dhyana, subtle breath remains—and breath is wind. Therefore, beings there still resonate with the wind calamity, which ascends to the Third Dhyana Heaven and destroys it entirely.

When the entire trichiliocosm is utterly scattered and ruined, it becomes perfectly still and empty, destroyed beyond even a trace of dust—utterly annihilated. Thus, it is said that the world is indeed illusory.