ninth period of decrease in the kalpa of continuance ［住劫第九の減］ ( jūkō-daiku-no-gen): The period in Buddhist cosmology during which Shakyamuni Buddha is said to have been born. It is the ninth period of decrease in the human life span in the kalpa of continuance. The kalpa of continuance, one of the four kalpas, is the period in which living beings exist and conduct their life-activities. The kalpa of continuance consists of twenty small kalpas. In the beginning of the first small kalpa, the human life span is immeasurable and gradually decreases to 10 years. This first small kalpa is the first kalpa of decrease. In the second small kalpa, the human life span increases from 10 to 80,000 years, and then decreases from 80,000 to 10 years. The first half of the second small kalpa is the first kalpa of increase, and the latter half is the second kalpa of decrease. Each of the following seventeen small kalpas follows the same pattern as the second. The last, or twentieth, small kalpa is the kalpa of increase; in it the human life span increases from 10 years to 80,000 years. It is said that Shakyamuni appeared in the kalpa of continuance, in the ninth kalpa, or period, of decrease, when the life span of human beings was 100 years long. See also kalpa.