THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE
ULTIMATE EXTINCTION OF THE DHARMA SUTRA
From the Seng Yu Lu
Translator anonymous.
Appended to the Sung Annals.
English translation
by Bhiksu Heng Sure
Edited by Bhiksuni Heng Yin
Thus have I heard.
At one time the Buddha was in the state of Kushinagara. The
Tathagata was to enter Nirvana within three months and the Bhiksus
and Bodhisattvas as well as a great multitude of beings had come to
pay homage to the Buddha and to bow in reverence. The World-honored
One was tranquil and silent. He spoke not a word and his light did
not appear. Worthy Ananda bowed and asked the Buddha,
"O Bhagavan,
heretofore whenever you spoke the Dharma, awesome lights would
naturally appear. Yet today among this great assembly there is no
such radiance. There must be a good cause for this and we wish to
hear the Bhagavan's explanation."
The Buddha remained
silent and did not answer until the request had been repeated three
times. He then told Ananda,
"After I enter
Nirvana, when the Dharma is about to perish, during the Evil Age of
the Five Turbidities, the way of demons will flourish. Demonic
beings will become Shramanas; they will pervert and destroy my
teachings. Wearing the garb of laypersons they will prefer handsome
clothes and their precept sashes will be made of multi-colored
cloth. They will use intoxicants, eat meat, kill other beings and
they will indulge in their desire for flavorful food. They will
lack compassion and they will bear hatred and jealousy even among
themselves.
At that time there
will also be Bodhisattvas, Pratyeka Buddhas, and Arhats who will
reverently and diligently cultivate immaculate virtue. They will be
respected by all people and their teachings will be fair and
egalitarian. These cultivators (of the Way) will take pity on the
poor, they will be mindful of the aged and they will save and give
counsel to those people they find in difficult circumstances. They
will at all times exhort others to worship and to protect sutras
and images (of the Buddha). They will do meritorious deeds, be
resolute and kind and never harm others. They will forsake their
bodies for others' benefit. They will hold no great regard for
themselves but will be patient, yielding, humane and
peaceful.
If such people
exist, the hordes of demonic Bhiksus will be jealous of them. The
demons will harass them, slander and defame them, expel I them from
their midst and degrade them. They will ostracize the good monks
from the (monastic) community. Thereafter these demons will not
cultivate the way-virtue. Their temples and monastic buildings will
be vacant and overgrown with weeds. For want of care and
maintenance their way-places will drift into ruin and oblivion. The
demon is Bhiksus will only be greedy for wealth and will amass
great heaps of goods. They will refuse to distribute any of it or
to use it to gain blessings and virtue.
At this time, the
evil monks will buy and sell slaves to till their fields and to
slash and burn the mountain forests. They will do harm to living
creatures and they will feel not the least bit of compassion. These
slaves will themselves become Bhiksus and maidservants will become
Bhiksunis. Totally lacking in way virtue, these people
will run amok, indulging in licentious behavior. In their turbid
confusion they will fail to separate the men from the women (in the
monastic communities). From this generation on, the Way will be
weakened. Fugitives from the law will seek refuge in my Way,
wishing to be Sramanas but failing to observe the moral
regulations. The precepts will continue to be recited twice a
month, but in name alone. Being lazy and lax, no one will want to
listen any longer. These evil Sramanas will be unwilling to recite
the sutras in their entirety and they will make abbreviations at
the beginning and at the end of the texts as they please. Soon the
practice of reciting sutras will stop altogether. Even if there are
people who recite texts they will be unlettered, unqualified men
who will insist, nonetheless, that they are correct. Bumptious,
arrogant, and vain, these men will seek fame and glory. They will
display elegant airs in the hope of attracting offerings from other
people.
When the lives of
these demonic Bhiksus come to an end their essential spirits will
fall into the Avici Hells. Having committed the Five Evil Sins,
they will suffer successive rebirths as hungry ghosts and as
animals. They will know all such states of woe as they pass on
through aeons as numerous as the sands on the banks of the Ganges
River. When their offenses are accounted for they will be reborn in
a borderland where the Triple Jewel is unknown.
When the Dharma is
about to disappear, women will become vigorous and will at all
times do deeds of virtue. Men will grow lax and will no longer
speak of the Dharma. Those genuine Sramanas they see will be looked
upon as dung and no one will have faith in them. When the Dharma is
about to perish, all the Gods will begin to weep. Rivers will dry
up and the five grains will not ripen. Epidemic diseases will
frequently take the lives of multitudes of people. The masses will
toil and suffer while the local officials will plot and scheme. No
one will adhere to principles. Instead, all people will take
delight in the ensuing chaos. Evil people will be ever more
numerous like the sands of the ocean-bed. Good persons will be hard
to find; at most there will be one or two. As the aeon comes to a
close, the revolution of the Sun and the Moon will grow short and
the lifespan of men will decrease. Their hair will turn white at
the age of forty years. Because of excessive licentious behavior
they will quickly exhaust their seminal fluids and will die at a
young age, usually before sixty years. As the lifespan of males
decreases, that of females will increase to seventy, eighty,
ninety, or one hundred years.
The great rivers
will rise up in disharmony with their natural cycles, yet people
will not take notice or feel concern. Extremes of climate will soon
be taken for granted. Beings of all races will mix together at
random, without regard for the noble and the mean. They will
alternately sink and float like feeding aquatic
creatures.
Then there will be
Bodhisattvas, Pratyeka Buddhas and Arhats who will gather together
in an unprecedented assembly because they will all have been
harried and pursued by the hordes of demons. They will no longer
dwell in the assemblies but the Three Vehicles will retreat to the
wilderness. In a tranquil place they will find shelter, happiness,
and long life. Gods will protect them and the moon will shine down
upon them. The Three Vehicles will have an opportunity to meet
together and the Way will flourish. However, within fifty-two years
the Surangama Sutra and the Pratyutpanna Samadhi will be
the first to change and then to disappear. The twelve divisions of
the canon will gradually follow until they vanish completely, never
to appear again. Its words and texts will be totally unknown ever
after. The precept sashes of sramanas will turn white of
themselves. When my Dharma disappears it will be just like an oil
lamp, which flares, brightly for an instant just before it goes
out. So too, will the Dharma flare and die. After this time it is
difficult to speak with certainty of what will follow.
So it will remain
for the next ten million years. When Maitreya is about to appear in
the world to become the next Buddha, the planet will be entirely
peaceful. Evil vapors will have dissipated, rain will be ample and
regular, and crops will grow abundantly. Trees will grow to a great
height and men will grow to be eighty feet tall. The average
lifespan will extend to 84,000 years. It will be impossible to
count all the beings who will be taken across to
liberation."
Worthy Ananda
addressed the Buddha, "What should we call this Sutra and how shall
we uphold it?"
The Buddha said,
"Ananda, this sutra is called The Ultimate Extinction of the
Dharma. Tell everyone to propagate it widely; the merit of
your actions will be measureless, beyond reckoning."
When the four-fold
assembly of disciples heard this Sutra they grieved and wept. Each
of them resolved to attain the true path of the Supreme Sage. Then
bowing to the Buddha, they departed.
End of THE BUDDHA SPEAKS THE ULTIMATE EXTINCTION OF THE DHARMA
SUTRA
Notes are available at the link.