法苑珠林 98.53

98.53

As the Benevolent Kings Sūtra says: In the future world of the five corruptions, bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, the fourfold assembly of disciples, the eight classes of devas and nāgas, all divine kings, rulers, ministers, crown princes, and royal princes will presume upon their noble status to destroy my Dharma. They will openly enact regulations forbidding my disciples, the bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs, from making images of the Buddha or stūpas of the Buddha. They will establish directors to regulate the assemblies and register the saṃgha in administrative rosters, with bhikṣus standing on the ground while white-robed laity sit high. Soldiers and slaves will become bhikṣus and receive particular invitations, while spiritual friends among the bhikṣus will act with one accord, and closely bonded bhikṣus will hold vegetarian feasts for them, seeking blessings after the manner of non-Buddhists—none of which is my Dharma. You should know that at that time the saddharma will soon perish. Great King, in the age of the Dharma's end, there will be bhikṣus, the fourfold disciples, kings, and ministers who will each commit unrighteous deeds, arbitrarily instituting major regulations against the Buddhadharma and the saṃgha, committing various offenses, and binding bhikṣus contrary to the Dharma and vinaya just like the laws for prison inmates. At that time, the disappearance of the Dharma will not be far off. Great King, in future ages after my parinirvāṇa, the fourfold disciples, minor kings, crown princes, and royal princes—who should be the ones maintaining and protecting the Three Jewels—will instead destroy the Three Jewels, just as the worms within a lion's body devour the lion's own flesh, and not external non-Buddhists. Each harming my Buddhadharma will incur great guilt. As the true teaching decays and the people lack righteous conduct, gradually committing evil, their life spans will decrease by the day down to a hundred years. When people destroy the Buddha's teaching, there will no longer be filial sons, the six relations will be at discord, the devas will not give protection, pestilences and evil ghosts will arrive daily to cause harm, and ominous disasters will follow one after another in linked misfortune across the realm. At death they will enter the hells, hungry ghosts, and animals; if born as humans, they will suffer the retribution of being soldiers or slaves, just like an echo or a shadow, or like someone writing at night where the fire is extinguished but the characters remain. The retributions of the tridhātu are likewise. Great King, in future ages all kings, crown princes, royal princes, and fourfold disciples will arbitrarily register the Buddha's disciples and impose precepts upon them, just like the laws for the white-robed laity and the laws for soldiers and slaves. If my disciples, the bhikṣus and bhikṣuṇīs, are registered on rosters and commandeered by officials, they are by no means my disciples; this is the law of soldiers and slaves. To establish monastic superintendents to control the saṃgha, preside over the saṃgha registries, and have higher and lower saṃgha directors mutually control and bind one another is just like the laws for prisoners and the laws for soldiers and slaves. At that time, the Buddhadharma will not last long.