September 5, 2024 at 8:16 am
#51819
Keymaster
Regarding the birth of the first few elephants or dinosaurs on Earth in a new eon, it happens as opapatika births. Humans who have degraded their gati are gradually reborn in the animal and other realms, according to the gati they develop. That happens after a very long time (probably around a billion years) when the conditions on Earth have changed so that vegetation has emerged.
- Even now, opapatika births can happen even in the human realm, but they are extremely rare. There is an account in the Tipitaka about at least one such birth.
- See “Four Types of Births in Buddhism.”