Our Degenerate Age – A Buddhist Prophecy

A man feeling spent after a night of debauchery
Detail from "Marriage a la Mode" by Hogarth (1743)

In many Indo-European religions there is a tradition which predicts the decline of humanity. The Romans spoke of an initial golden age of man, followed by a silver age, bronze age and finally iron age, with each age being less virtuous and less verdant than the last – it was predicted that our kind would finally be wiped out by floods and starvation (see Ovid’s Metamorphoses). In Germanic spirituality there is a tradition that speaks of mankind’s devolution: kinship bonds break down, lasciviousness and violence abound, the weather is harsh and sunbeams turn black (implying volcanic ash clouds?) – this is the age just before the destruction of our world by violence and fire, Ragnarök. It will be followed by the rebirth of a verdurous world when Gods and virtuous folk begin anew (see the Völuspá). In Hinduism it is taught that there are four epochs that characterise the cycle of existence. The first is the most blessed age, with each of the succeeding ages becoming more degenerate than the last, until the cycle begins anew (see the Mahabharata). 

Likewise, in Mahayana Buddhism, which originated in northern India but is now most common in NE Asia, there is a very old and widely accepted prophecy which speaks of the inevitable decline of Buddhism. It describes three ages. The first begins with the life of the Buddha of the Shakya clan, at some point between the 1th-5th century BCE (the exact century of the birth of Shakyamuni Buddha is unknown), and lasted between 500 to 1000 years. This was a golden age of Buddhism, when it was comparatively easy to follow the Buddha’s teachings and achieve enlightenment. The second period represents a time of the weakening of Buddhist spirituality, it also lasts between 500-1000 years. The third age is said to last for 10,000 years. According to Japanese tradition it began in the 11th century CE (which coincides with the Islamic conquest of south Asia; Muslims massacred Buddhist monks and destroyed their monasteries, universities and libraries, thus causing Buddhism to almost disappear from these regions where it had previously flourished: Reat at 76). During this latter age it is said that it will become increasingly difficult for people to follow the Buddha’s teachings, though there will be a period of flourishing before finally becoming obscured and lost. Following this there will be an extremely long period of spiritual darkness, after which a new golden age of Buddhism will eventually emerge, ushered in by the Maitreya Buddha.

I have managed to find three translations of the main sutra prophesising the decline of Buddhism. It is believed to have originally been composed in Sanskrit, then translated into Chinese, whereupon it formulated part of the Chinese Buddhist canon, which was subsequently also adopted in Korea and Japan. Here follows a summary of what is more or less agreed upon between the translations. They are: 

• The Sutra Preached by the Buddha on the Total Extinction of the Dharma (fodian.net)
• Sutra of the Total Annihilation of the Dharma (sutrasmantras.info) 
• The Buddha Speaks of the Ultimate Extinction of the Dharma Sutra (cttbusa.org)

Note that my summary does not strictly follow the sequence of the predictions presented in the sutra, rather I have grouped related points together.

The sutra starts with a description of the Shakyamuni Buddha staying in the kingdom of Kushinagar (in northern India), three months before his death. He gives a teaching to a large assembly of beings in which he states that his teachings will one day disappear, preceded by a degenerate age during which the following will occur.

Monks will no longer be the true custodians of Buddhism

• Slaves, criminals and people of poor character will become monks and nuns, but they will lack virtue, instead they will live licentiously and engage in depravity. Men and women will mix freely together in these communities. 
• Monks will become lazy, sutras will cease to be recited or understood. 
• Arrogant and bumptious people will recite sutras and glorify themselves as fake Buddhists in the hope of attracting offerings and wealth. 
• Monks will wear multi-coloured lay-clothing, use intoxicants, and kill other beings. 
• Monks will lack compassion, bear hatred and be envious.
• Monks will become most interested in material wealth.
• Temples will fall into disrepair and ruin.
• When they die these false monks will suffer rounds of rebirth in hell, hungry ghost and animal realms, and when finally they are born as humans they will be born amongst people who know nothing of Buddhism.

It will still be possible to practice Buddhism

• Bodhisattvas and true Buddhists will exist and they will cultivate virtue and treat all beings with respect; they will take pity on those living in poverty and difficulty. Even so, these Buddhists will not be widely respected.
• They will encourage others to revere and protect sutras and holy images.
• They will be benevolent, kind and peaceful.
• Corrupted monks will slander and ostracise genuine followers of Buddhism.
• These true Buddhists will eventually retreat into the wilderness and there the Gods will protect them and Buddhism will flourish “like an oil lamp that flares brightly for an instant just before it goes out” (cttbusa.org).

Men will tend towards being more degenerate than women

• Women will be more likely to practice Buddhism and be more virtuous than men (this inverts the tendency of the earlier ages of Buddhism when men were more likely to attain enlightenment than women).
• Men in the latter age of Buddhism will tend to be lazy and obsessed with sex.
• Lacking respect for the monks that live in their age, men will rarely even discuss Buddhist teachings, much less believe in them.
• The lifespan of many males will decrease so that they mostly die before they are 60 (and their hair will go grey by the age of 40), while the lifespan of many women will increase to between 70-100 years.

Whether man or woman most people will be debased

• Most people will be ignoble, while virtuous people will be hard to find.
• The human population will explode, and people without virtue will be as numerous as is sand in the sea. 
• Local government leaders will plot and scheme while the mass of humanity, whom they exploit, endure hard lives.
• The bulk of people will hold erroneous views about permanence – believing it to exist, though Buddhism teaches to the contrary (for all things are everchanging).

The natural world will cease to be harmonious

• Mountain forests will be burned and destroyed to make way for huge farms, greatly harming the beings that lived in them.
• Rivers will both flood and dry up and will lose their natural cycles (conceivably due to irrigation and dams).
• There will be droughts and extremes of climate. 
• Crops will fail.
• Disease will kill large numbers of people.
• The Gods will shed tears.

Buddhism as we know it will completely disappear (before being reborn again)

• The Shurangama Sutra* (which is highly esoteric) and the Pratyutpanna-Samadhi Sutra (which describes a spiritual technique involving mental concentration) will be the first to disappear, then the remaining canon will gradually follow until all Buddhist sutras known today vanish completely.
• The robes of monks will turn white (wearing white is traditionally associated with death and mourning in India).
• After a long period (at least several thousand years, if not considerably longer) the Maitreya Buddha will be born in this world, which will now be peaceful, harmonious and verdant, and many living beings will attain enlightenment. 

According to all of this we are now firmly in the age of degeneration. But within this age the sutra speaks of a flourishing of Buddhism, described by one translation thus:

“When my Dharma is destroyed the process will be comparable to an oil lamp which, drawing close to the time it will go out, will shed an even greater radiance and brilliance and then be extinguished [fodian.net].”

So, strangely, in this most degenerate of ages we are well placed to practice Buddhism, even as it becomes a twilight religion. 

*See at buddhasutra.com.

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Appendix

According to some Mahayana lineages (such as Nichiren Buddhism and Zen Buddhism) the Lotus Sutra is the most important of all Buddhist sutras, and it is particularly well suited to our degenerate age. In chapter 14 of the Lotus Sutra it is written:

“Manjushri, after the thus come one has passed into extinction, in the Latter Day of the Law, if a person wishes to preach this sutra, he should abide by … peaceful practices. When he opens his mouth to expound or when he reads the sutra, he should not delight in speaking of the faults of other people or scriptures … Also he should not allow his mind to become filled with resentment or hatred … he is good at cultivating this kind of peaceful mind … 

Manjushri, if a bodhisattva … in the latter age hereafter, when the Law is about to perish, should accept and embrace, read and recite this sutra, he must not harbour a mind marked by jealousy, fawning, or deceit … 

Manjushri, if among these bodhisattvas … there are those who in the latter age hereafter, when the Law is about to perish, succeed in carrying out … peaceful practices, then when they preach this Law they will be free of anxiety and confusion, and will find good fellow students to read and recite this sutra with. They will attract large assemblies of persons who come to listen and assent. After they have listened, they will embrace; after they have embraced, they will recite; after they have recited, they will preach; and after they have preached, they will copy, or will cause others to copy, and will present offerings to the sutra rolls, treating them with reverence, respect, and praise … 

Manjushri, if among these bodhisattvas there are those who in the latter age hereafter, when the Law is about to perish, accept and embrace the Lotus Sutra, toward believers who are still in the household or those who have left the household they should cultivate a mind of great compassion, and toward those who are not bodhisattvas they should also cultivate a mind of great compassion, and should think to themselves: These people have lost much … although these people do not inquire about, do not believe, and do not understand this sutra, when I have attained supreme perfect enlightenment, wherever I may happen to be, I will employ my transcendental powers and the power of wisdom to draw them to me and cause them to abide in this Law.”

While in chapter 17 of the Lotus Sutra it is written:

“In the evil age of the Latter Day of the Law if there is someone who can uphold this sutra, it will be as though he supplied all the alms described above [ie, the kind of offerings that could be made in the first age of Buddhism, such as making offerings at a stupa of flowers, incense, necklaces, robes, and musical instruments, and burn fragrant oil or ghee to light up the area around the stupa]. If someone can uphold this sutra, it will be as though in the presence of the Buddha he should use … sandalwood to build monks’ quarters as an offering, or thirty-two halls as high as eight tala trees, or supply all kinds of superior foods and wonderful clothes and bedding, residences for assemblies of hundreds, thousands, gardens, groves, pools, and lakes, exercise grounds and caves for meditation, all with various kinds of fine adornments. If someone with a believing and understanding mind accepts, upholds, reads, recites, and copies this sutra or causes others to copy it or offers alms to the sutra rolls, scattering flowers, incense, and powdered incense or constantly burning fragrant oil extracted from … flowers, if he offers alms such as these he will gain immeasurable merits, boundless as the open air, and his blessings will also be like this.”

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Sources not elsewhere cited: 

• berkleycenter.georgetown.edu/essays/chinese-canon
• Dictionary of Buddhism | Nichiren Buddhism Library (online)
• Reat, Buddhism: A History, Jain Publishing
• Watson (Ed), The Lotus Sutra, nichirenlibrary.org

Written by M' Sentia Figula (aka Freki), find me at neo polytheist and romanpagan.wordpress.com