Part 3 - Vastness of Non-world i. e. Vacant Space

Q. 73. Bhante! What is the size of the non-world?

A. 73. Gautama! The time region or human world (where time sense exists) has a length and breadth of 45,00.000 yojanas, etc., all as stated in the Skandaka story, till its circumference. If ten gods with a great fortune stand all around this time region, and beneath them stand eight Dikkumāris (goddesses of the directions) with sacrificial offerings in their hands in four directions and four sub-directions of the Mānuṣottara Mountain, with their faces turned outwards, and they simultaneously throw out the sacrificial offerings, and if each one of the gods is capable of oatching [catching?] the offering before it touches the ground, if gods with such a superhuman speed, one dashes from one end of the universe, in the four directions, east, west, north and south, and in the four sub-directions, north-east, south-east, north-west and south west, one up and one down, and just then a gāthāpati has a son born to him with a life span of one thousand years, and after this the parents of the boy pass away, the boy himself completes his life-span and passes away, his bones and marrows are dilapidated, even seven generations pass after him and his name and lineage have totally faded out, even after walking for such a long time and that too at a superhuman speed, they cannot reach the end of the space.

Q. 74. Bhante! Is the part of the space already traversed bigger, or is the untraversed part bigger?

A. 74. Gautama! The traversed part is lesser and the untraversed part is bigger, the latter being infinitely larger than the former, or the former infinitely smaller than the latter. Gautama! The space has been stated to be so vast.