吾涅槃后法欲灭时，
五逆浊世魔道兴盛。– 释迦牟尼佛
《佛说法灭尽经》After my Parinirvāṇa, when the Dharma is about to end, in this Five Heinous Transgressions’ and Five Defilements’ Evil Age, demonic paths will flourish.
– Śākyamuni Buddha
(Sūtra In Which The Buddha Speaks Of The Dharma’s Complete End)
According to the Sūtra In Which The Buddha Speaks Of The Dharma’s Complete End《佛说法灭尽经》, Śākyamuni Buddha (释迦牟尼佛) spoke of some 32 signs of this Dharma-Ending Age (末法时期). In this year, 2019 C.E, we are already 1,546 years (15.46%) into this 10,000-year era, with some 8,454 more years to go, during which these signs will increasingly appear.
[1] Demons will become ‘Śramaṇas’ (i.e. ‘monastics’) to ruin and confuse the Buddha’s path. (魔作沙门坏乱吾道) [2] They will wear secular clothes. (著俗衣裳) [3] They will have fond delight for kaṣāya robes of five colours. (乐好袈裟五色之服) [4] They will drink alcohol. (饮酒) [5] They will eat meat. (啖肉) [6] They kill sentient beings with greed for their taste. (杀生贪味) [7] They will be without the mind of loving-kindness. (无有慈心) [8] They will be jealous of one another. (相憎嫉)
[9] Many demonic ‘Bhikṣus’ all together will be jealous [of the virtuous], slandering, propagating ‘evil’ about them, rejecting, dismissing and driving them away, to not be able to attain dwelling. (众魔比丘咸共嫉之诽谤扬恶，摈黜驱遣不令得住）[10] They will personally together after, not cultivate the path’s virtues. (自共于后不修道德) [11] They will leave monasteries empty and desolated, without being restored and managed, in turn then damaged. (寺庙空荒无复修理转就毁坏) [12] They with greed for money and goods gathered together, do not spread to share them, not for creating blessed virtues. (贪财物积聚不散不作福德)
[13] They will sell slave servants for tilling fields and growing crops, burning mountains and forests, harming sentient beings, without having the mind of loving-kindness (贩卖奴婢耕田种植，焚烧山林伤害众生无有慈心) [14] These slaves will be ‘Bhikṣus’, and these servants will be ‘Bhikṣuṇīs’, without having the path’s virtues, lasciviously indulgent, corrupted and disorderly, with males and females without differentiation (奴为比丘，婢为比丘尼，无有道德，婬妷浊乱，男女不别)
[15] They will, for avoiding county officials, ‘relying’ upon the Buddha’s path, seek to become ‘Śramaṇas’, yet not cultivating precepts and rules. (避县官依倚吾道，求作沙门不修戒律) [16] They will, at each month’s half-month, although in name reciting the precepts, weary and lazy, not desire to listen and learn about them. (月半月尽虽名诵戒，厌倦懈怠不欲听闻)
[17] They will copy approximately that before and after, not willing to completely speak them, of sūtras not reciting and practising (抄略前后不肯尽说，经不诵习) [18] Supposing there are those who read them, but they do not know the meaning of their words and lines, yet for forcibly saying what is [assumed], not consulting wise ones, for arrogantly seeking fame, [speaking wrongly]. They will falsely display ‘elegant’ steps [in reply] for glory, hoping for people’s offerings. (设有读者不识字句，为强言是，不谘明者贡高求名，虚显雅步以为荣冀望人供养)
[19] Women will be diligent and constantly create meritorious virtues. (女人精进恒作功德) [20] Men will be lazy and undisciplined, not using Dharma words learnt for practice. (男子懈慢不用法语) [21] They with their own eyes see Śramaṇas, to be like seeing dirty soil, without having the mind of faith. (眼见沙门如视粪土无有信心)
[22] Waters will dry up and not be in harmony, with the five grains not ripening. Epidemics by air will spread with the deaths of many. (水旱不调五穀不熟，疫气流行死亡者众) [23] With the people hardworking yet suffering, county officials scheme to restrain them, not according with moral principles, with all thinking about [personal] joy with confusion. (人民勤苦县官计克，不顺道理皆思乐乱) [24] Evil persons will multiply to be many, like sands’ number within the ocean. Good ones will be extremely few, perhaps with one or two. (恶人转多如海中沙，善者甚少若一若二)
[25] Days and months will turn shorter, and human lifespans will turn to be hastened. At forty years of age, heads’ hair will turn white. (日月转短人命转促，四十头白) [26] Men lasciviously indulgent, with vitality exhausted will have prematurely ended lives, perhaps at sixty years of age. (男子婬妷精尽夭命，或寿六十) [27] As men’s lifespan shorten, women’s lifespan will lengthen, to perhaps seventy, eighty, ninety, or reaching one hundred years of age. (男子寿短女人寿长，七八九十或至百岁)
[28] Great waters will suddenly rise and abruptly end at no fixed times. With common people not believing thus, becoming that which is frequent. (大水忽起卒至无期，世人不信故为有常) [29] Sentient beings of mixed kinds, disregarding the grand or lowly, will sink, drown, float or drift, by fish and turtles eaten. (众生杂类不问豪贱，没溺浮漂鱼鳖食啖) [30] Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas and Arhats, are by many demons driven out, to not be able to participate in assemblies and to meet. (菩萨辟支罗汉，众魔驱逐不预众会)
[31] The Śūraṅgama Sūtra, and the Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra, will be the first sūtras to transform and disappear. The twelve divisions of the sūtras soon after, will also disappear, completely and not reappearing, not further seeing their texts’ words. (首楞严经，般舟三昧，先化灭去。十二部经寻后复灭，尽不复现，不见文字）[32] Śramaṇas’ kaṣāya robes will naturally turn white. (沙门袈裟自然变白)
For notes on these signs’ significance, do read the related article below on the entire sūtra.
众魔比丘命终之后，
精神当堕无择地狱，
五逆罪中。– 释迦牟尼佛
《佛说法灭尽经》After these many demonic ‘Bhikṣus’ lives end, their consciousnesses will fall into uninterrupted hells, for those with the Five Heinous Transgressions within.
– Śākyamuni Buddha
(Sūtra In Which The Buddha Speaks Of The Dharma’s Complete End)
Related Article:
《佛说法灭尽经》
The Sūtra In Which The Buddha Speaks Of The Dharma’s Complete End
https://purelanders.com/2019/06/10/sutra-in-which-the-buddha-speaks-of-the-dharmas-complete-end
