Mofa
(Redirected from Decline of the Dharma)
mofa (J. mappō; K. malpŏp 末法). A Chinese term translated as “final dharma”. It refers to the the third and final stage of the three ages of dharma, according to a classification system developed in China during the sixth century, and which is subscribed to by several traditions within East Asian Buddhism.[1][2]
The Digital Dictionary of Buddhism states:
- In the Mahayana Buddhism of East Asia there is a widespread belief in the gradual degeneration of the Buddhaʼs dharma (teachings), which is said to progress through three phases. The first one-thousand year (or, in a variant scheme, five-hundred year) period following the death of the Buddha is said to have been the 'age of the true dharma' 正法, during which time his followers were able to practice in accordance with his teachings and thereby attain awakening. The next one-thousand year period is called the age of the 'semblance dharma' 像法, in which practice of the Dharma continues and things look good on the surface, but spiritual corruption has set in and true attainment no longer occurs.
- The third and final period, ten thousand years in duration, is styled the 'age of the end of the Dharma.' During this final age, which proponents of the theory in medieval China and Japan calculated was upon them, the teachings of Buddhism survive but the actual practice of the Dharma has died out and nobody is able to attain awakening. Belief in the age of the end of the Dharma was rampant in Kamakura period (1185–1333) Japan, when it helped to fuel the rise of Pure Land movements which claimed that trying to attain salvation through oneʼs 'own efforts' 自力 was hopeless in this degenerate age and that one should instead rely on the 'other-power' 他力 of the Buddha Amida.
- Dōgen and Keizan put no stock in theories that denied the value of traditional modes of Buddhist monastic practice, but neither did they entirely reject the notion of three stages in the evolution of the Dharma. One eko text in which the 'age of the end of the Dharma' is mentioned suggests that, in the present degenerate age, it is Dōgen 道眼 and Keizan 瑩山 whom ordinary beings (including their descendants in the Sōtō lineage) should rely on. Another eko text appeals to the arhats to 'turn the age of the end of the Dharma 末法 into the age of the true dharma 正法.[1]
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
末法 mofa, Digital Dictionary of Buddhism (to sign in, see DDB sign-in)
- ↑ Robert E. Buswell Jr., Donald S. Lopez Jr., The Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism (Princeton: 2014), s.v. mofa
Further reading
- Marra, Michele (1988). "The development of mappō thought in Japan (I)", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 15 (1), 25-54. PDF
- Marra, Michele (1988). "The development of mappō thought in Japan (II)", Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 15 (4), 287-305. PDF
- Nattier, Jan (1991). Once Upon a Future Time: Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline, Berkeley, Calif.: Asian Humanities Press
- Stone, Jackie (1985). Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age: "Mappō" Thought in Kamakura Buddhism: PART I, The Eastern Buddhist New Series, 18, (1), 28-56
- Stone, Jackie (1985). Seeking Enlightenment in the Last Age: "Mappō" Thought in Kamakura Buddhism: PART II, The Eastern Buddhist New Series, 18, (2), 35-64
- Zürcher, Eric (1981). Eschatology and Messianism in Early Chinese Buddhism, Leiden: Leyden Studies in Sinology
External links
Three Ages of Buddhism, Wikipedia
