Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (Thirty)

The process of the water element drying up

Original text:又此世。界将欲坏时。有二日出。二日出已。小河泉流。悉皆枯涸。三日出时。无热恼池。所出四河。亦皆干竭。四日出时。大海水减。一踰缮那。或二或三。渐次减至。十踰缮那。或二十踰缮那。次第枯竭。至八十踰缮那。有余水在。或深至一多罗树。或深至胸臆。或深至牛迹。乃至少水。如指面量。当尔之时。大海水中悉皆干燥。净尽无余。

Explanation: When the Saha world is about to be destroyed, two suns will appear. In summer, we can hardly bear even one sun, let alone two. When two suns appear, the small rivers, springs, and ponds will all be dried up by the heat; when three suns appear, the four great rivers flowing out of Lake Anavatapta will also dry up. When four suns appear, the water of the four great oceans will decrease by one yojana (a yojana is an Indian unit of measurement, representing a distance of forty li). The four great oceans refer to the four great oceans beneath our earth, not on our earth; Lake Anavatapta is also not on our earth—both are immeasurably many times larger than our earth.

The seawater on our earth has long since disappeared, and the water of the four great oceans keeps decreasing—by two yojanas, three yojanas, ten yojanas, twenty yojanas, eighty yojanas—until only a little water remains, with a depth of only the height of one tree. It decreases further, until the water is only as deep as a human chest; it decreases further, until the water is only as much as would fill the print of an ox's hoof; finally, only a little water remains, just enough to cover the surface of the fingers of a hand laid flat. The water of the four great oceans, which are immeasurably many times larger than our earth, is scorched by the sun until only as much remains as would fill the print of an ox's hoof, and then even less, just enough to barely cover the fingers, until in the end it is completely dried up, and the earth becomes so dry that not a bit of moisture is left.