經律異相 6.60

6.60

The Buddha said: "When I entrusted the True Dharma to humans and gods, my Dharma was to remain unshaken for a thousand years. I told Śakra and the Four Kings: 'After my nirvāṇa, protect and uphold the True Dharma in your respective lands.' After a thousand years have passed, violent winds and rainstorms will bring many disasters and calamities. The people will suffer famine; all things will be worn down and ruined. Food and drink will lose their flavor, and precious gems will sink and be lost. In the west there will be a king named Pallava; in the north there will be a king named Yavana; in the south there will be a king named Śaka; in the east there will be a king named Tuṣāra. These four kings will all have many followers; they will murder monks and demolish stūpas and monasteries. The four directions will be entirely thrown into chaos. Then all the monks will gather in the Central Realm. The king of the country of Kauśāmbī will be named Mahendrasena. He will father a son whose hands will look as if smeared with blood, and whose body will look like it is clad in armor, possessing great valor and strength. Five hundred ministers will also father sons on the same day, all of whom will have bloody hands and armored bodies. At that time, it will rain blood for one day in the country of Kauśāmbī. Seeing this evil omen, the king will be terrified and will consult a physiognomist. The physiognomist will answer, saying: 'The son born to Your Majesty today will reign as king over Jambudvīpa, will slaughter many people, and will be named Nandana (Hard to Withstand).' As he gradually grows older, the four evil kings will come from the four directions. The king will be greatly distressed and terrified. A heavenly deity will tell him: 'Great King, simply establish Nandana as king, and he will be fully capable of subduing the four great evil kings.' Following the deity's words, the king will abdicate his throne to his son, crown his son's head with the bright jewel from his topknot, assemble the five hundred ministers, and anoint his head with scented water, commanding him to go on campaign. The sons of all the ministers, clad in armor, will follow the king on his punitive expedition, battle with the four evil kings, and slay them completely. He will reign over Jambudvīpa, ruling from the land of Kauśāmbī. The Buddha told the Four Heavenly Kings: In the country of Pāṭaliputra, there will be a brāhmaṇa named Agnidatta, who will be thoroughly versed in the Vedic scriptures and treatises. This brāhmaṇa will take a wife. When his wife becomes pregnant, she will immediately wish to debate with others. He will ask a physiognomist about this, and the physiognomist will answer, saying: 'This child in the womb will be thoroughly versed in all scriptures and treatises.' A son will be born, clearly understanding all scriptures, treatises, and medical recipes, and he will instruct five hundred disciples. He will leave household life in my Dharma to study the path, thoroughly master the Tripiṭaka, be skilled in preaching the Dharma, and with wondrous eloquence gather many followers. In this city of Pāṭaliputra, there will also be a great caravan leader named Sudhana. When his wife becomes pregnant, she will be upright, gentle, and quiet in all her faculties. Then that caravan leader will ask a physiognomist, and the physiognomist will answer, saying: 'The child in the womb is exceedingly wholesome and virtuous.' When the months are fulfilled, she will give birth to a son named Sūrata. As he gradually grows older, he will leave household life in my Dharma to study the path, vigorously practice, and realize the fruit of arhatship. Yet he will be of little learning, with few desires, content, having few acquaintances, and dwelling on Mount Gandhamādana. He will constantly preach the Dharma for King Nandana. When Nandana sees that the late king his father has passed away, he will embrace his father's corpse with both hands, wailing, weeping, and heartbroken with grief. Then that master of the Tripiṭaka will preach the Dharma to the king, and the king's grief will immediately cease. He will give rise to great reverent faith in the Buddha's Dharma, and raise his voice to declare: 'From this day forward, I grant all monks freedom from fear, to enjoy pleasures as they please.' Then he will ask the monks: 'For how many more years did the former four evil kings destroy the Buddha's Dharma?' The monks will answer: 'For twelve years.' The king will think to himself and make a lion's roar: 'For twelve years, I shall make offerings to the five assemblies in abundant variety.' On the day of the offering, heaven will send down a rain of fragrant moisture; throughout Jambudvīpa all crops will flourish, and crowds from all regions will bring offering implements to Kauśāmbī to make offerings to the saṅgha. At that time, the monks will not be diligent in the three kinds of action, but will spend their days in frivolous talk, craving gain and offerings, fond of adorning themselves, dressing in fine garments, deviating from the rules of renunciation, resembling monks in appearance alone. They will be great thieves within the Dharma, tearing down the banner of the True Dharma and raising the pennant of evil Māra; extinguishing the torch of the True Dharma and kindling the fire of defilements; drying up the ocean of the True Dharma, breaking the bridge of the True Dharma, sinking the boat of the True Dharma, and uprooting the tree of the True Dharma. At that time, heavenly beings, dragons, ghosts, spirits, and the like will all conceive ill will toward the monks, detesting and abandoning them, no longer protecting them. With one voice they will cry out: 'Seven days from now, the Buddha's Dharma will be completely extinguished!' Wailing and weeping bitterly, they will say to one another: 'When the day of reciting the precepts arrives, the monks will dispute, and here the Tathāgata's True Dharma will perish.' The upāsakas, hearing the words of the devas, will go together among the assembly to admonish the monks against quarreling. When the fifteenth day arrives for reciting the precepts, the arhat Sūrata on Mount Gandhamādana will survey Jambudvīpa: 'Where is an assembly of monks today where I may go to recite the precepts?' He will immediately go to Kauśāmbī. At that time, the monastic assembly there will number hundreds of thousands, yet only this arhat Sūrata will come [from afar]. There will also be a master of the Tripiṭaka named Śiṣya. This will be the final great assembly of the Tathāgata's disciples. At that time, the karmadāna will distribute the salākā tallies and say to the master of the Tripiṭaka: 'The assembly of monks is assembled; now preach the Prātimokṣa.' Then that elder will answer: 'The Tathāgata's disciples throughout Jambudvīpa have all gathered here, numbering in the hundreds of thousands. In such an assembly, I am the foremost; I am thoroughly versed in the Tripiṭaka yet do not study the Vinaya precepts, so how much less has anyone else studied them? For whom should I now recite the precepts?' Then the arhat Sūrata will stand before the elder, join his palms, and say to the elder: 'Simply recite the Prātimokṣa. The Dharma studied by the great assembly of monks such as Śāriputra and Maudgalyāyana when the Buddha was in the world has now been completely studied by me. Although the Tathāgata has been extinguished for over a thousand years, I have fully preserved all the rules of conduct he established.' When the disciples of the elder hear the monk Sūrata say of himself, 'I have fully preserved the precepts established by the Tathāgata,' intolerance will arise in them. There will be a disciple named Aṅgada who will become extremely enraged. Rising from his seat, he will revile that noble one: 'You are a junior monk, ignorant and foolish, yet you insult my teacher!' He will immediately seize a sharp knife and kill that noble one. At that time, a spirit named Daitimukha will think: 'In the world there is only this one arhat, yet he has been murdered by the disciple of an evil monk!' Holding a vajra pestle, he will strike [the Tripiṭaka master's] head, ending his life. Then the disciples of the arhat, seeing their teacher killed, will be unable to bear their rage and will kill the Tripiṭaka master. At that time, heavenly beings and worldly people will weep with sorrow: 'Alas, how bitter! The Tathāgata's True Dharma has now come to a complete end!' Thereupon this great earth will tremble in six ways; countless sentient beings will wail and weep, scattering in all directions. At that time, the king of Kauśāmbī, hearing that the monks have killed the arhat and the Dharma master of the Tripiṭaka, will be grieved and lament. Those of wrong view will vie with one another to destroy stūpas and shrines and murder monks. From this, the Buddha's Dharma will suddenly become desolate and be extinguished. (From the Saṃyuktāgama.) The Buddha told Ānanda: 'After my nirvāṇa, when the Dharma is about to be extinguished, in the evil world of the five turbidities, the path of Māra will flourish. Māra śramaṇas will corrupt and disrupt my path, wearing secular clothes and decorating themselves with fine kāṣāyas of five colors. They will drink wine, roast meat, kill living beings, and crave savory tastes, devoid of compassion, envying and hating one another. At that time, there will be bodhisattvas who vigorously cultivate virtue, treating all with respect, revered by the people, teaching and transforming impartially, showing pity for the poor and elderly, rescuing and nurturing those in distress and peril, constantly using scriptures and images to have people serve them and perform all kinds of merit. Gentle and wholesome by nature, they will not harm others; giving up their bodies to aid living beings, they will not spare themselves, patient and benevolent. If there are such persons, the multitude of Māra monks will all become jealous of them, slandering them, proclaiming their faults, expelling and driving them away so that they cannot remain. Afterward, they themselves will not cultivate morality and virtue; temples and shrines will be left empty and desolate, no longer repaired, gradually falling into ruin. They will only crave wealth and property, hoarding it without dispersing it, performing no merit; they will buy and sell male and female slaves, plow fields, plant crops, burn mountain forests, and harm living beings, devoid of compassion. Male slaves will become monks and female slaves will become nuns, devoid of morality and virtue, lewd, licentious, and chaotic, with no separation between men and women. That the path becomes diminished and diluted will be entirely due to this sort of people. Or to escape the authorities, they will rely on my path, seeking to become monks without observing the precepts. In the middle and end of the month, they will nominally recite the precepts, but being weary and indolent, they will not want to listen, abridging beginning and end, refusing to recite them fully. They will not chant or read the scriptures, and if there are those who read them, they will not understand the words and sentences, obstinately insisting they are right without consulting those who are enlightened; arrogant and seeking fame, they will sigh at the heavens and calculate the stars, regarding it as honorable and noble, expecting offerings from others. After these Māra monks die, their spirits will fall into the Non-beneficial Hell (Avīci); among the retributions for the five heinous crimes, they will experience every realm of hungry ghosts and animals. After passing through kalpas numerous as the sands of the Ganges and their sins are exhausted, they will be born in a frontier country where there are no Three Jewels. When the Dharma is about to be extinguished, women will be diligent and constantly perform meritorious deeds, while men will be indolent and disregard the words of the Dharma. Seeing śramaṇas as though looking at dung and dirt, they will lack faith. When the wheel of the Dharma is extinguished, the devas will weep tears; water and drought will be unseasonable, and the five grains will not ripen. Plagues and epidemics will spread, and those who die will be numerous. The people will toil bitterly, the authorities will oppress and exploit them, they will not cultivate principles, and all will think of and delight in chaos. Evil people will become more numerous, and good people very few. The sun and moon will become swifter, and human lifespan shorter: at forty their hair will turn white, and life will barely reach sixty. Men's lifespan will be short, while women's lifespan will be long, reaching seventy, eighty, ninety, or even a hundred years. Great floods will suddenly arise, arriving unexpectedly without warning; worldly people will not believe it, still regarding things as permanent. Sentient beings of various kinds, whether noble or base, will sink, drown, and float, eaten by fish and turtles. Bodhisattvas and monks will be driven out by the multitude of Māras, not participating in assemblies. The bodhisattvas will enter the mountains to places of merit, calm, self-restrained, finding joy therein; their lifespans will be lengthened, protected by the devas. When Candraprahā (Moonlight) appears in the world, they will meet together, and jointly revive my path for fifty-two years. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra and the Pratyutpanna Samādhi will be the first to disappear; the twelve divisions of scriptures will soon after also disappear completely, no longer appearing, with no written characters to be seen. The kāṣāyas of śramaṇas will naturally turn white. After the holy king departs, my Dharma will be completely extinguished. It is like an oil lamp about to go out, whose light blazes even brighter, and then is extinguished. When my Dharma comes to an end, it will likewise be like a lamp going out. From this time forward, it will be difficult to maintain order. Long after this, Maitreya will descend into the world to become a Buddha. The world will be at peace, toxic vapors will be eliminated, rains will fall harmoniously, the five grains will flourish luxuriantly, trees will grow tall, and people will be eighty cubits tall, all with a lifespan of eighty-four thousand years. The sentient beings who obtain deliverance will be beyond count.' (From the Sūtra on the Extinction of the Dharma.)