Ending of Dharma

World is coming to an end! That was a slogan that’s even more powerful than our presidential election. And every now and then we hear religious leaders talking about the impending end. So how does Buddhism talks about this issue especially on the decline of the teachings, the Dharma.

We inevitably hear Buddhist talking about the declines of Buddhism in how many years later. And we all get worried. But is it something factual? The talk by a very learned monk in a recent Dharma talk inspired me to maybe post some factual findings in the Sutta Pitaka.

According to the venerable, Buddha never explicitly states when is the end but tells us what will lead to the decline. A teacher tells a student how his misconduct will lead to failing his exam does not mean he will fail as long as he works hard.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/an/an07/an07.021.than.html

In brief, it just meant that as long as the monks conducts themselves in harmony and pursues their practice, then there is no root for decline.

http://www.basicbuddhism.org/index.cfm?GPID=29

This early account of the Pali canon speaks about how human race will start to degenerate in future with emphasis on humans no longer conducts themselves righteously and thus led to decline of the human race. It is interesting to note that this Sutta will give an account of how Maitreya the next Buddha will come.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn16/sn16.013.than.html

This sutta emphasize that the Dharma will/will not disappear on this human world depending on the conduct of monastic and layperson. It also gave some perspective that Dharma will never end in nature but end for the human that does not conduct themselves well.

This brought about the idea that at the “Dharma-ending age”, Dharma does not disappear but is less practice. Maitreya Buddha came to bring the Dharma back to our awareness only.

http://www.dharma.org/ij/archives/2000b/ss_teaching.htm

This website gave in point form what causes the disappearance of the Dharma. They all stress that the Dharma will end with bad conducts of followers.

Finally, while I did a brief search on the net for information, it is disheartening where people just irresponsibly use the Suttas information, twist it, and make their own prophesies of the end of human. Some even use it to establish their cult or their new world orders. As Buddhist, we should refrain from such and only believe what the Buddha has taught with right views.