釋迦譜 5.34

5.34

The Buddha told Ānanda: "After my parinirvāṇa, when the Dharma is about to perish, in this defiled world of the five inexpiable offenses, the demonic paths will flourish. Demonic śramaṇas will corrupt and disrupt my teaching. Wearing secular clothes, they will delight in fine kāṣāyas and five-colored garments. They will drink wine, roast meat, kill living beings, and crave savory tastes, having no compassion, and envying and hating one another. At that time there will be bodhisattvas who vigorously cultivate virtue, respect and attend to all, and are honored and looked up to by the people. They will transform and teach equanimously, pitying the poor, minding the elderly, and rescuing and nurturing those in destitution and distress. They will constantly employ scriptures and images to lead people to revere and serve them, producing various kinds of merit. Their will and disposition will be gentle and benevolent, causing no harm to people. Sacrificing themselves to help others and sparing no thought for themselves, they will be patient, humane, and harmonious. If there are such persons, all the demonic bhikṣus will envy them, slander them and proclaim their evils, expelling, banishing, and driving them away so that they are not allowed to stay. Thereafter, [the demonic bhikṣus] themselves will not cultivate moral virtue. Monasteries and temples will be empty and desolate, no longer repaired, and increasingly fall into ruin. They will only crave wealth and property, amassing it without dispersing it, and making no merit. They will buy and sell male and female slaves, plow fields and plant crops, burn mountain forests, and harm living beings without any compassion. Male slaves will become bhikṣus and female slaves will become bhikṣuṇīs, devoid of moral virtue. Lascivious and chaotic, men and women will make no distinction [of conduct]. That the teaching grows faint and feeble is entirely due to these sorts. Or else, escaping the magistrates, they will rely on my teaching, seeking to become bhikṣus without cultivating the precepts. On the full moon and new moon, they will merely make a nominal recitation of the precepts, yet they will grow weary and indolent, unwilling to listen. Abridging what precedes and follows, they will refuse to speak it completely, and the scriptures will not be chanted. Even if there are those who read them, they will not understand the words and phrases, yet stubbornly claim they are right; refusing to consult the wise, they will be haughty and pursue fame, strutting gracefully toward the heavens and regarding this as honor and nobility, hoping for offerings from people. When these demonic bhikṣus' lives come to an end, their conscious spirits will fall into the Avīci Hell among the sins of the five inexpiable offenses, and they will undergo rebirth as hungry ghosts and animals without exception. Having traversed these through kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, only when their sins are exhausted will they emerge, to be born in borderlands where there are no Three Jewels. When the Dharma is about to perish, women will be diligent and constantly produce merit, while men will be indolent and arrogant, not adopting the words of the Dharma. They will look upon śramaṇas as though looking upon dung and soil, lacking any faith. The wheel of the Dharma will be utterly submerged. At that time, all the devas will weep tears. Rains and droughts will fall out of balance, the five grains will not ripen, pestilences will spread, and the dead will be numerous. The common people will toil in bitter hardship, exploited and oppressed by magistrates. They will not cultivate principles of righteousness, and all will think of and delight in disorder. Wicked people will become increasingly numerous, while the virtuous will be extremely few. The days and months will grow shorter, and human lifespans will grow briefer: gray-haired at forty, with a lifespan barely reaching sixty. Men will have short lives, while women will have long lives, living seventy, eighty, ninety, or even up to a hundred years. Great floods will suddenly rise and come swiftly with no predictable time, yet people of the world will not believe it, still regarding things as permanent. Sentient beings of various kinds, whether noble or lowly, will drown and drift, devoured by fish and turtles. The bodhisattva bhikṣus will be driven out by the demonic hosts and will not participate in the gatherings. The bodhisattvas will enter the mountains, places of merit, dwelling serenely in self-restraint, taking delight and extending their lifespans. The devas will guard and protect them. When Moonlight appears in the world, they will meet together and jointly revive my teaching for fifty-two years. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra and the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra will be the first to perish and vanish; soon after, the twelve divisions of scriptures will also vanish away, disappearing completely and no longer seen, without a single character remaining visible. The kāṣāyas of the śramaṇas will naturally turn white. After the holy king departs, my Dharma will be completely extinguished. It will be just like an oil lamp about to go out: its light blazes even more brightly, and then it is extinguished. When my Dharma comes to an end, it will also be like the lamp being extinguished. From this time forward, it is difficult to record in detail. Long after this, Maitreya will descend to the world to become a Buddha. The realm under heaven will be peaceful, toxic vapors will be eliminated, the rains will be moistening and harmonious, and the five grains will flourish luxuriantly. Trees will grow huge, and human beings will be eighty spans tall, all living for eighty-four thousand years. Sentient beings who attain deliverance will be beyond measure."