If someone attains the jhanas and supernormal powers, can they live for an aeon? If so, will they remain youthful, strong, and healthy for an aeon?
Just so it is clear an ayu kappa is the maximum lifespan of a human at the time. The Buddha could have extended his lifespan to this maximum age - maybe 160 years give or take.
Other types of kappa are considerably longer.
Hello, thank you for responding. Is ayu kappa mentioned in the sutta or is it from the commentary? I’d like to keep an open mind on this particular topic rather than fully believing the commentary. It makes sense why Arahants didn’t live for an eon because they have no need or desire to live that long. I think it might be possible to live at least 200-300 more years even if it’s not possible to live for the full eon. Any meditator who has jhana and could live for this long probably wouldn’t choose to do so because they could just easily be reborn in the Brahma world and live in a Brahma body without any physical discomfort or the need to eat.
It seems that there is no way to extend one’s lifespan beyond biological and kammic limits. Nor is it possible for an arahant to abandon their physical body and continue living in the body of a Brahma.
I believe that if such things were possible, the Buddha would have talked about it, and both he and his great disciples would have done it.
The only way to help beings after one’s own death is by sustaining the presence of the Dhamma and the Sangha in the world.
When I say “live in a Brahma body”, I was more so saying the reason a meditator who hasn’t attained arahatship but have jhanas and the ability to live for an eon would not choose to live as a human for an eon is because they could easily be reborn in the brahma world. A brahma body doesn’t have physical discomfort or pain so it would be better than living as a human. My point was since meditators with jhana can be reborn in the brahma world easily, they wouldn’t use the ability to live for an eon so we wouldn’t know whether such an ability was possible or not.
Anyone who has attained arahatship would not need to extend their lifespan to an eon nor would they want to extend their lifespan to an eon because they don’t have attachment anymore.
From the Commentaries:
Kappam va tittheyya kappavasesam va. Comy. takes kappa not as “world-period” or “aeon,” but as ayu-kappa, “life span,” and explains avasesa (usually “remainder”) by “in excess.”
Comy.: “He may stay alive completing the life span pertaining to men at the given time. (Sub. Comy.: the maximum life span.) Kappavasesa: ‘in excess’ (atireka), i.e., more or less above the hundred years said to be the normally highest life expectation.”
The Life Aeon
A life aeon (āyu-kappa) means a period which is reckoned in accordance with the span of life (āyu) of that period. If the lifespan is 100, a century is a life aeon; if it is 1,000, a millennium is a life aeon.
When the Buddha said (DN 16): “Ānanda, I have developed the four bases of psychic power (iddhi-pada), if I so desire, I can live either a whole period (kappa) or a little more than a period,” the period therein should be taken as a life period (āyu-kappa), which is the duration of the life of people living during that period. It is explained in the commentary to the section on the eights of the Collection of the Numerical Discourses (Aṅguttara-nikāya, AN 8) that when the Buddha made such a declaration he meant to say that he could live 100 years or a little more if he so desired. [1505]
Ven. Mahāsiva, however, said: “The life period (āyu-kappa) here is to be taken as the great aeon (mahā-kappa) called auspicious (bhaddaka).” He said so because he held that the productive deeds (kamma) that cause rebirth in the final existence of a Buddha have the power of prolonging his lifespan for incalculable years and because it is mentioned in the Pāḷi texts that the fruition-attainment that conditions and controls the life-sustaining mental process (āyu-pālaka-phala-samāpatti), which is called the life process (āyu-saṅkhāra), can ward off all dangers. But Ven. Mahāsiva’s view is not accepted by the commentators.
Here is the translation from the Udana Commentary by Peter Masefield
Blind from Birth Chapter 853
The four potency-bases (cattāro iddhipādā): in this connection, the meaning of the word "potency"²³ (iddhi) is the same as that already stated above²⁴.
Has cultivated (bhāvitā): has developed.
Frequently performed them (bahulikatā): repeatedly performed them.
Made them a vehicle²⁵ (yānikatā): made them similar to a vehicle that has been harnessed²⁶.
Made them a basis (vatthukatā): made them similar to a basis in the sense of a foundation²⁷.
Manipulated them (adhiṭṭhitā): resolved they be (such and such) (adhiṭṭhitā).
Built them up all around him (paricitā): built them up (citā) them on all sides (samantato)²⁸, fully developed them.
Fully undertaken them: susamāraddhā, suṭṭhu samāraddhā (resolution of compound), accomplished²⁹ them extremely thoroughly.Having thus talked (of such things) without reference (to a given individual), he once more says “The Tathāgata” and so on, indicating⁵⁰ (such things) referring (to a given individual).
And in this connection, “for the kalpa” (kappaṃ) is for the kalpa (in the sense of) a lifespan (āyukappaṃ).Could remain (tiṭṭheyya): could remain, could continue to live, completing⁵¹ whatever is the measure of lifespan for humans at such times⁵².
Or for what remains after the kalpas (kappavasesaṃ vā): or for that exceeding a hundred years spoken of as "(for a hundred years) or slightly more"⁵⁴ (D ii 4; S i 108).The elder Mahāsiva, however, said:
“There is, indeed, no trumpeting³⁵ on the part of Buddhas concerning that which cannot take place⁵⁶.
For just as he had for ten months suppressed the sensation that had arisen in the hamlet of Beluva and that was to prove fatal³⁷,
so could he, in suppressing samess by repeatedly attaining that³⁹ attainment, have remained for this entire auspicious kalpa⁴⁰.”(324) So why didn’t he remain?
(Since) that spoken of as his clung-to (kamma-generated) body⁴¹ had been overcome⁴² by (the ravages of) broken teeth and so on⁴³;
and (since)⁴⁴ Buddhas, moreover, attain parinibbāna in the fifth⁴⁵ phase of their lifespan,
at a time when they are still dear and charming to the manyfolk, before they have reached a condition in which they have broken teeth and so on.(For) once the chief sāvakas⁴⁶ and the great sāvakas, who had become enlightened through the Buddha⁴⁷, had attained parinibbāna,
he would have remained on all alone⁴⁸, without a retinue, or else with a retinue consisting (only) of child novices,
whereupon he would have invited scorn such as “Oh dear me! Is this the assembly of the Buddhas?”Therefore he didn’t remain.
Yet even when such be said, it cannot be approved of⁴⁹; (for) this alone, viz. “a kalpa (in the sense of) a lifespan”, is the definitive position of the Commentary.A gross sign⁵⁰ (olārike nimitte): that which bluntly causes a perception to arise;
for this blunt means of giving rise to a perception had the aim of having him beg him to stay on for the entire kalpa⁵²,
saying “Let the Lord remain for the kalpa”—that is to say, it was an allegorical⁵³ explanation of his own capability of staying on for the kalpa,
as a result of the majesty associated with his own cultivation of the four potency-bases,
by way of (the statement) commencing “Anyone, Ānanda, who has cultivated the four potency-bases.”Show (obhāse): public statement; and this statement, being public, was a quite straightforward explanation of his expectation, dispensing with (such⁵⁵) roundabout (talk)⁵⁶