Eschatology

====Sermon of the Seven Suns====
In his "Sermon of the Seven Suns" in the [[Pali Canon]], the Buddha describes the ultimate fate of the [[Earth]] in an apocalypse characterized by the consequent appearance of seven [[sun]]s in the sky, each causing progressive ruin until the planet is destroyed:
{{blockquote|All things are impermanent, all aspects of existence are unstable and non-eternal. Beings will become so weary and disgusted with the constituent things that they will seek emancipation from them more quickly. There will come a season, O monks when, after hundreds of thousands of years, rains will cease. All seedlings, all vegetation, all plants, grasses and trees will dry up and cease to be.{{nbsp}}...There comes another season after a great lapse of time when a second sun will appear. Now all brooks and ponds will dry up, vanish, cease to be.|Aňguttara-Nikăya, VII, 6.2 Pali Canon<ref name="Hooper"/>|title=|source=}}

The canon goes on to describe the progressive destruction of each sun. The third sun will dry the [[Ganges River]] and other rivers, whilst the fourth will cause the lakes to evaporate; the fifth will dry the oceans. Later:
{{blockquote|Again after a vast period of time a sixth sun will appear, and it will bake the Earth even as a pot is baked by a potter. All the mountains will reek and send up clouds of smoke. After another great interval a seventh sun will appear and the Earth will blaze with fire until it becomes one mass of flame. The mountains will be consumed, a spark will be carried on the wind and go to the worlds of God.{{nbsp}}...Thus, monks, all things will burn, perish and exist no more except those who have seen the path.|Aňguttara-Nikăya, VII, 6.2 Pali Canon<ref name="Hooper"/>}}

The sermon completes with the Earth immersed into an extensive holocaust. The Pali Canon does not indicate when this will happen relative to Maitreya.<ref name="Hooper"/>