kalpa. He confines his teachings to the present kalpa, the duration of which he doesn't arithmetically define, but uses a similitude: A similar similitude is found in the Mountain Pabbata Sutta (SN 15:5) of the Pali Canon: Described in the Vibhanga division of the Abhidhamma Pitaka are sixteen rupa brahma lokas (worlds or planes) and four higher arupa brahma lokas, each attained through the imperfect, medial or perfect performance of the four states of jhana (meditation), granting a duration of life measured in kalpas that exceed the top-most heavenly loka of 9.216 billion years: 1st jhana leads to 3 lowest rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 1/3, 1/2 and 1 kalpa. 2nd jhana leads to 3 higher rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 2, 4 and 8 kalpas. 3rd jhana leads to 3 more higher rupa lokas with respective lifespans of 16, 32 and 64 kalpas. 4th jhana leads to 7 highest rupa lokas with respective lifespans ranging from 500 to 16,000 kalpas, and 4 still higher arupa lokas with respective lifespans of 20,000; 40,000; 60,000 and 84,000 kalpas. At the termination of each kalpa, the lower three rupa brahma lokas, attained through the 1st jhana, and everything below them (six heavens, Earth, etc.) are destroyed by fire (seven suns), only to later again come into being. In one explanation, there are four different lengths of kalpas. A regular kalpa is approximately 16 million years long (16,798,000 years), and a small kalpa is 1000 regular kalpas, or about 16.8 billion years. Further, a medium kalpa is roughly 336 billion years, the equivalent of 20 small kalpas. A great kalpa is four medium kalpas, or about 1.3 trillion years. The Buddha did not give the exact length of the maha-kalpa in terms of years. However, he gave several astounding analogies to understand it. Imagine a huge empty cube at the beginning of a kalpa, approximately 16 miles in each side. Once every 100 years, you insert a tiny mustard seed into the cube. According to the Buddha, the huge cube will be filled even before the kalpa ends. In one instance, when some monks wanted to know how many kalpas had elapsed so far, Buddha gave the below analogy: If you count the total number of sand particles at the depths of the Ganges river, from where it begins to where it ends at the sea, even that number will be