Buddhist Prophecies
Buddhist Prophecy
The Buddhist teachings describe the
Kalachakra (Wheel of Time), which revolves in cycles like the Hindu yugas.
According to the Maitreyavyankarna ("Prophecy of Maitreya"), Buddha
will incarnate as Lord Maitreya ("The Buddha Who Returns") at the end
of the present cycle after major geological catastrophes have so changed the
face of the planet that he can walk from continent to continent. During his
reign, humanity will attain salvation, and even the gods Fwill be liberated
from their desires.
The last Hindu Avatar explained the job to Bharata Prince Arjuna,
as recorded in the Bhagavad-Gita (4:7-8):
"Whenever there is decay of
righteousness... and there is
exaltation of unrighteousness, then I Myself come forth... for the destruction of evil-doers, for the
sake of firmly establishing righteousness, I am born from age to age."
In the Surangama Sutra, Gautama Buddha told
his disciple Sariputta of the signs that precede the end of the age:
"After my decease, first will occur the
five disappearances.And what are the five disappearances? The disappearance of attainments [to Nirvana],
the disappearance of the method [of doing so], the disappearance of [spiritual]
learning, the disappearance of the symbols [of Buddhism], the disappearance of
the relics...
"Then when the Dispensation of the
perfect Buddha is 5,000 years old, the relics, not receiving reverence and
honor will go to places where they can receive them... This, Sariputta, is
called the disappearance of relics."
Buddha
In another conversation with Ananda, recorded
in the text Vinya Pitaka (II: 253), the Buddha modified this prophecy, reducing
the time by half:
§
"If,
Ananda, women had not retired from the household life to the houseless one,
under the doctrine and discipline announced by the Tathagata [another Buddha],
Dharma would long endure; a thousand years would the good Dharma abide. But since, Ananda, women have now retired
from the household life to the houseless one, under the doctrine and the
discipline announced by the Tathagata, not long Ananada, will Dharma endure;
but five hundred years, Ananda, until the Dharma abide".
The Chinese Buddhist text Abhidharmakosha
(4.12c. III) affords a few more details about this prophecy:
§
"The
monks and stream-attainers will be strong in their union with Dharma for 500
years after the Blessed One's Parinirvana. In the second 500 years they will be
strong in meditation; in the third period of 500 years they will be strong in
erudition. In the fourth 500-year period they will only be occupied with
gift-giving. The final or fifth period of 500 years will see only fighting and
reproving among the monks and followers. The pure Dharma will then become
invisible."
In Chapter 26 of Digha Nikaya, we are told:
§
"At that
period, brethren, there will arise in the world an Exalted One named Maitreya,
Fully Awakened, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of the
worlds, unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods
and men, an Exalted One, a Buddha, even as I am now. He, by himself, will thoroughly know and see, as it were face to
face, this universe, with Its worlds of the spirits, Its Brahmas and Its Maras,
and Its world of recluses and Brahmins, of princes and peoples, even as I now,
by myself, thoroughly know and see them."
Elsewhere, the Buddha said of Maitreya:
§
"Maitreya,
the best of men, will then leave the Tushita heavens, and go for his last
rebirth. As soon as he is born he will
walk seven steps forward, and where he puts down his feet a jewel or a lotus
will spring up. He will raise his eyes
to the ten directions, and will speak these words, 'This is my last birth. There will be no rebirth after this
one. Never will I come back here, but,
all pure, I shall win Nirvana."
In recent years, a claimant calling himself
Maitreya, with headquarters in England, has been offering himself to the world.
He was born in 1944 in Iran, and claims to be a descendant of the Iranian king
Nader Shad. His apologists offer numerous prophetic "proofs" of his
authenticity, but all of them are dubious. In particular, he forgot to walk and
talk at birth, and lotuses fail to sprout in his footsteps.
"Maitreya"
The Gautama Buddha also made this prophecy
concerning the advent of Maitreya:
§
"And the
Blessed One said to Ananda, I am not the first Buddha, nor shall I be the last.
In due time another Buddha will arise in the world, a Holy One, a supremely
enlightened one, endowed with wisdom, auspicious, embracing the Universe, an
incomparable Leader of Men, a Ruler of Devas and mortals. He will reveal to you
the same eternal truths, which I have taught you. He will establish His Law,
glorious in its spirit and in the letter. He will proclaim a righteous life
wholly perfect and pure, such as I now proclaim. His disciples will number many
thousands while mine number many hundreds.’
"Ananda said, ‘How shall we know Him?’
"The Blessed One said, ‘He will be known
as Maitreya.’
In the sacred text Anagatavamsa, the sage
Sariputta asked Buddha Arahant about the future Buddha, and was told:
§
"I am now
the perfect Buddha;
And there will be Maitreya too.
Before this same auspicious aeon
Runs to the end of its years.
The perfect Buddha, Maitreya,
By name, supreme of men."
On another occasion, Sariputta asked after
Maitreya again, and the Buddha replied:
§
"At that
time, the ocean will lose much of its water, and there will be much less of it
than now. In consequence a world-ruler will have no difficulties in passing
across it. India, this island of Jambu, will be quite flat everywhere, it will
measure ten thousand leagues, and all men will have the privilege of living on
it. It will have innumerable inhabitants, who will commit no crimes or evil
deeds, but will take pleasure in doing good... Human beings are then without
any blemishes, moral offenses are unknown among them, and they are full of zest
and joy. Their bodies are very large and their skin has a fine hue. Their
strength is quite extraordinary. Three kinds of illness only are known ---
people must relieve their bowels, they must eat, they must get old...
§
"Maitreya,
the best of men, will then leave the Tushita heavens, and go for his last
rebirth into the womb of that woman [Brahmavati]... As soon as he is born he
will walk seven steps forward, and where he puts down his feet a jewel or a
lotus will spring up. He will raise his eyes to the ten directions, and will
speak these words: 'This is my last birth. There will be no more rebirth after
this one. Never will I come back here, but, all pure, I shall in Nirvana!'...
§
"For
60,000 years Maitreya, the best of men, will preach the true Dharma, which is
compassionate towards all living beings. And when he has disciplined in his
true Dharma hundreds and hundreds of millions of living beings, then that
leader will at last enter Nirvana. And after the great sage has entered
Nirvana, his true Dharma still endured for another 10,000 years..."
The Buddha also described the decline of
religion in the latter days of this age:
§
"How will
it occur? After my decease there will first be five disappearances. What five?
The disappearance of attainment (in the Dispensation), the disappearance of
proper conduct, the disappearance of learning, the disappearance of outward
form, the disappearance of the relics. There will be these five disappearances.
§
"Here
attainment means that for a thousand years only after the Lord's complete
Nirvana will monks be able to practice analytical insights. As time goes on and
on these disciples of mine are non-returners and once-returners and
stream-winners. There will be no disappearance of attainment for these. But
with the extinction of the last stream-winner's life, attainment will have
disappeared....
§
"The
disappearance of proper conduct means that, being unable to practice jhana,
insight, the Ways and the fruits, they will guard no more the four entire
purities of moral habit. As time goes on and on they will only guard the four
offenses entailing defeat. While there are even a hundred or a thousand monks
who guard and bear in mind the four offenses entailing defeat, there will be no
disappearance of proper conduct. With the breaking of moral habit by the last
monk or the extinction of his life, proper conduct will have disappeared...
§
"The
disappearance of learning means that as long as there stand firm the texts with
the commentaries pertaining to the word of the Buddha in the three Pitakas, for
so long there will be no disappearance of learning. As time goes on and on
there will be base-born kings, not Dharma-men; their ministers and so on will
not be Dharma-men, and consequently the inhabitants of the kingdom and so on
will not be Dharma-men. Because they are not Dharma-men it will not rain
properly. Therefore the crops will not flourish well, and in consequence the
donors or requisites to the community of monks will not be able to give them
the requisites. Not receiving the requisites the monks will not receive pupils.
As time goes on and on learning will decay. In this decay the Great Patthana
itself will decay first... While a four-line stanza continues to exist among
men, there will not be a disappearance of learning. When a king who has faith
has had a purse containing a thousand coins placed in a golden casket on an
elephant's back, and has had the drum sounded in the city up to the third time,
to the effect that: 'Whoever knows a stanza uttered by the Buddhas, let him
take these thousand coins together with the royal elephant' --- but yet finding
no one knowing a four-line stanza, the purse containing the thousand coins must
be taken back into the palace again ---
then will be the disappearance of learning...
§
"As time
goes on and on each of the last monks, carrying his robe, bowl, and tooth-pick
like Jin recluses, having taken a bottle-gourd and turned it into a bowl for
almsfood, will wander about with it in his hands, thinking, 'What's the good of
this yellow robe?' and cutting off a small piece of one and sticking it on his
nose or ear or in his hair, he will wander about supporting wife and children
by agriculture, trade and the like. Then he will give a gift to the Southern
community for those of bad moral habit. I say that he will then acquire an
incalculable fruit of the gift. As time goes on and on, thinking: 'What's the
good of this to us?', having thrown away the piece of yellow robe, he will
harry beasts and birds in the forest. At this time the outward form will have
disappeared...
§
"Then
when the Dispensation of the Perfect Buddha is 5,000 years old, the relics, not
receiving reverence and honor, will go to places where they can receive them.
As time goes on and on there will not be reverence and honour for them in every
place: from the abode of serpents and the deva-world and the Brahma-world,
having gathered together in a space round the great Bo-tree, having made a
Buddha-image, and having performed a 'miracle' like the Twin-miracle, will
teach Dharma. No human being will be found at that place. All the devas of the
10,000 world system, gathered together, will hear Dharma and many thousands of
them will attain to Dharma. And these will cry aloud, saying: 'Behold, devatas,
a week from today our One of the Ten Powers will attain complete Nirvana.' They
will weep, saying: 'Henceforth there will be darkness for us.' Then the relics,
producing the condition of heat, will burn up that image leaving no remainder.
§
"That,
Sariputta, is called the disappearance of the relics."
The Buddhist sage Nichiren (1222-1282) left
these specific notes of the signs of our times:
§
"When, at
a certain future time, the union of the state law and the Buddhist Truth shall
be established, and the harmony between the two completed, both sovereign and
subjects will faithfully adhere to the Great Mysteries. Then the golden age,
such as were the ages under the reign of the sage kings of old, will be
realized in these days of degeneration and corruption, in the time of the
Latter Law. Then the establishment of the Holy See will be completed, by
imperial grant and the edict of the Dictator, at a spot comparable in its
excellence with the Paradise of Vulture Peak. We have only to wait for the
coming of the time. Then the moral law will be achieved in the actual life of
mankind. The Holy See will be the seat where all men of the three countries
[India, China and Japan] and the whole jambudvipa [world] will be initiated
into the mysteries of confession and expiation; and even the great deities,
Brahma and Indra, will come down into the sanctuary and participate in the
initiation."
Nicholas Roerich, who traveled in Asia during
the 1920s, transmitted this Tibetan prophecy of the end of the present era:
§
"First
will begin an unprecedented war of nations. Afterwards brother will rise
against brother. Oceans of blood shall flow. And the people shall cease to
understand one another. They shall forget the meaning of the word teacher. But
just then shall the Teachers appear and in all the corners of the world shall
be heard the true teaching. To this word of truth shall the people be drawn,
but those who are filled with darkness and ignorance shall set obstacles. As a
diamond glows the light in the tower of the Lord of Shambhala. One stone on his
ring is worth more than all the world's treasure. Even those who by accident
help the Teachings of Shambhala will receive in return a hundredfold. Already
many warriors of the truth are reincarnated. Only a few years shall elapse
before everyone shall hear the mighty steps of the Lord of the New Era. And one
can already perceive the unusual manifestations and encounter unusual people.
Already they open the gates of knowledge and ripened fruits are falling from
the trees..."
For many centuries, the mystical tradition of
Agharti (or, Aghartha) and its ruler, the King of the World, has existed in
Tibet and Mongolia. Many people believe Agharti to be a real place, a hidden
civilization located in a series of huge caverns under Tibet and Mongolia, with
secret entrances all over the earth. Whenever the King of the World makes
prophecies, the birds and animals on the surface suddenly become silent.
Hundreds of years ago, the King of the World uttered a prophecy that pertains
to the present state of human society:
§
"Men will
increasingly neglect their souls. The greatest corruption will reign on earth.
Men will become like bloodthirsty animals, thirsting for the blood of their brothers.
The crescent [Islam] will become obscured, and its followers will descend into
lies and perpetual warfare. The crowns of kings will fall.
§
"There
will be terrible war between all the earth's peoples; entire nations will die
--- hunger, crimes unknown to law, formerly unthinkable to the world. The
persecuted will demand the attention of the whole world. The ancient roads will
be filled with multitudes going from one place to another. The greatest and
most beautiful cities will perish by fire. Families will be dispersed; faith
and love will disappear. The world will be emptied.
§
"Within
fifty years there will be only three great nations. Then, within fifty years,
there will be 18 years of war and cataclysms. Then the peoples of Agharti will
leave their subterranean caverns and will appear on the surface of the
earth."
The related prophecy of the idyllic hidden
kingdom of Shambhala states that each of its 32 kings will rule for 100 years.
While they reign, conditions in the outside world will deteriorate. Men will
fight more and more wars, seek power for its own sake, and materialism will
reign. These modern barbarians will unite under an evil king and conquer the
earth. When they think that nothing is left to conquer, the mystic mist will
evaporate to reveal Shambhala. The huge army of barbarians will attack
Shambhala. King Rudra Cakrin will lead the fight against the invaders, who will
be destroyed in a final great battle.
Mahatma
Ghandhi
Shortly
before he was assassinated, Mahatma Mohandas Ghandhi predicted the future of
the human race to a group of friends and associates:
"Mankind
is approaching hard times, because as soon as the measure of its sins will be
full, it will be called to account by the superior power above us. You may call
this event as you wish: Judgment day, final settlement, or doomsday. It will
come, most likely, very soon. Whoever will survive this settlement will see an
entirely new earthly existence manifested. For a long, very long time the world
war will be crossed out from the dictionary of mankind, perhaps even for all
time. Christmas, the festival of Christianity, will be accepted by all
religions as the true festival of Peace. Blessed be, who will live to see this
epoch!"
In
the summer of 1983, guru Bhagwan Rajneesh Chandra broke a 3-1/2 year period of
silence to announce the impending end of the world. Fortunately, he was wrong,
or at least premature in his scheduling:
"Man
is now living in his most critical moment and it is a crisis of immense
dimensions. Either he will die or a new man will be born... The period of this
crisis will be between 1984 and 1999. During this period there will be floods
which have never been known since the time of Noah, along with earthquakes,
volcanic eruptions, and everything else that is possible through nature. There
will be wars which are bound to end in nuclear explosions... Tokyo, New York,
San Francisco, Los Angeles, Bombay --- all these cities are going to disappear,
and the holocaust is going to be global, so no escape is possible."
Sri
Aurobindo
The
spiritual master Sri Aurobindo was given a vision of the "Great Man",
the coming Messiah, which he transmitted in poetic form:
"To
bring God down to the world on earth we came,
To
change the earthly life to life divine...
A
mutual debt binds man to the Supreme:
His
nature we must put on as He puts ours;
We
are children of God and must be even as He:
His
human portion, we must grow divine.
Our
life is a paradox with God for key.
Since
God has made Earth, earth must make in her God;
What
hides within her breast, she must reveal...
I
know my coming was a wave from God.
For
love must soar beyond the very heavens
And
find it secret sense ineffable;
It
must change its human ways to ways divine,
Yet
keep the sovereignty of earthly bliss.
A
few shall see what none yet understands;
God
shall grow up while the wise men talk and sleep;
For
man shall not know the coming till its hour
And
belief shall not be until the work is done.
God
must be born on Earth and be as man
That
man being human may grow even as God."1
1. Taken from Prophecy –A
History of the Future (Internet Edition) By Robert A Nelson at http://www.rexresearch.com/prophist/phf6asia.htm#buddh
The
Buddha Foretells The Gradual Decline Of Religion
('Anagatavamsa')
Praise
to that Lord, Arahant, perfect Buddha. Thus have I heard: At one time the Lord was staying near
Kapilvatthu in the Banyan monastery on the bank of the river Rohani Then the venerable Sariputta questioned the
Lord about the future. Conqueror: 'The Hero that shall follow you, The
Buddha-of what sort will he be? I want to hear of him in full. Let the Visioned
One describe him.' When he had heard the Elder's speechThe Lord spoke thus:
'I will tell you,
Sariputta,
Listen to my
speech.
In this auspicious
aeon
Three leaders have
there been:
Kakusandha,
Konagamana
And the leader
Kassapa too.
'I am now the
perfect Buddha,
And there will be
Metteyya [i.e., Maitreya] too
Before this same
auspicious aeon
Runs to the end of
its years.
'The perfect
Buddha, Metteyya
By name, supreme of
men.'
(Then
follows a history of the previous existence of Metteyya (Maitreya) . . . and
then the description of the gradual decline of the religion:)
'How
will it occur? After my decease there will first be five disappearances. What five?
The disappearance of attainment (in the Dispensation), the disappearance of
proper conduct, the disappearance of learning, the disappearance of the outward
form, the disappearance of the relics. There will be these five disappearances.
'Here
attainment means that for a thousand years only after the lord's complete
Nirvana will monks be able to practice analytical insights. As time goes on and
on these disciples of mine are nonreturners and once-returners and
stream-winners. There will be no disappearance of attainment for these. But
with the extinction of the last stream-winner's life, attainment will have
disappeared.'This, Sariputta, is the disappearance of attainment.
'The
disappearance of proper conduct means that, being unable to Practice jhana,
insight, the Ways and the fruits, they will guard no lore the four entire
purities of moral habit. As time goes on and on they will only guard the four
offences entailing defeat. While there are even a hundred or a thousand monks
who guard and bear in mind the four offences entailing defeat, there will be no
disappearance of proper conduct. With the breaking of moral habit by the last
monk- or on the extinction of his life, proper conduct will have disappeared.'This,
Sariputta, is the disappearance of proper conduct.
'The
disappearance -of learning means that as long as there stand firm the texts
with the commentaries pertaining to the word of the Buddha in the three
Pitakas, for so long there will be no disappearance of learning. As time goes
on and on there will be base-born kings, not Dhamma-men; (dharma) their
ministers and so on will not be Dhamma-men, and consequently the inhabitants of
the kingdom and so on will not be Dhamma-men. Because they are not Dhamma-men
it will not rain properly. Therefore the crops will not flourish well, and in
consequence the donors of requisites to the community of monks will not be able
to give them the requisites. Not receiving the requisites the monks will not
receive pupils. As time goes on and on learning will decay. In this decay the
Great Patthana itself will decay first. In this decay also (there will be)
Yamaka, Kathavatthu, Puggalapannati, Dhatukatha, Vibhanga and Dhammasangani.
When the Abhidhamma Pitaka decays the Suttanta Pitaka will decay. When the
Suttantas decay the Anguttara will decay first. When it decays the Samyutta
Nikaya, the Majjhima Nikaya, the Digha Nikaya and the Khuddaka-Nikaya will
decay. They will simply remember the jataka together with the Vinaya Pitaka.
But only the conscientious (monks) will remember the Vinaya Pitaka. As time
goes on and on, being unable to remember even the jataka, the Vessantara-jataka
will decay first. When that decays the Apannaka-jataka will decay. When the
jatakas decay they will remember only the Vinaya-Pitaka. As time goes on and on
the Vinaya-Pitaka will decay. While a four-line stanza still continues to exist
among men, there will not be a disappearance of learning. When a king who has
faith has had a purse containing a thousand (coins) placed in a golden' casket
on an elephant's back, and has had the drum (of proclamation) sounded in the
city up to the second or third time, to the effect that: "Whoever knows a
stanza uttered by the Buddhas, let him take these thousand coins together with
the royal elephant"-but yet finding no one knowing a four-line stanza, the
purse containing the thousand (coins) must be taken back into the palace
again-then will be the disappearance of learning.'This, Sariputta, is the
disappearance of learning.
'As
time goes on and on each of the last monks, carrying his robe, bowl, and
tooth-pick like Jain recluses, having taken a bottle-gourd and turned it into a
bowl for almsfood, will wander about with it in his forearms or hands or
hanging from a piece of string. As time goes on and on, thinking: 'What's the
good of this yellow robe?" and cutting off a small piece of one and
sticking it on his nose or ear or ill his hair, he will wander about supporting
wife and children by agriculture, trade and the like. Then he will give a gift
to the Southern community for those (of bad moral habit). I say that he will
then acquire an incalculable fruit of the gift. As time goes on and on,
thinking: "What's the good of this to us?", having thrown away the
piece Of yellow robe, he will harry beasts and birds in the forest. At this
time the outward form will have disappeared.'This, Sariputta, is called the
disappearance of the outward form.
'Then
when the Dispensation of the Perfect Buddha is 5,000 years old, the relics, not
receiving reverence and honour, will go to places where they can receive them.
As time goes on and on there will not be reverence and honour for them in every
place. At the time when the Dispensation is falling into (oblivion), all the
relics, coming from every place: from the abode of serpents and the deva-world
and the Brahma-world, having gathered together in the space round the great
Bo-tree, having made a Buddha-image, and having performed a "miracle"
like the Twin-miracle, will teach Dhamma. No human being will be found at that
place. All the devas of the ten-thousand world system, gathered together, will
hear Dhamma and many thousands of them will attain to Dhamma. And these will
cry aloud, saying: "Behold, devatas, a week from today our One of the Ten
Powers will attain complete Nirvana." They will weep, saying:
"Henceforth there will be darkness for us." Then the relics,
producing the condition of heat, will burn up that image leaving no remainder.'This,
Sariputta, is called the disappearance of the relics.'
2. Translation and
explanatory material by Edward Conze, in Conze et al., Buddhist Texts through
the Ages (Oxford: Bruno Cassirer (Publishers) Ltd., 1954).