Details of Dharma Ending Age(末法) or Kali Yuga
We are currently existing in the phase of Dharma Ending Age or simply called Kali Yuga. Kali Yuga referred to as the “Age of Darkness”, because people are distant away Buddha demise. Very very few people can attain enlightenment. Dharma bull has only one leg upon which to stand, as morality has been greatly reduced.
Most people in this age are materialistic and emphasise predominantly upon physical survival. Relationship with the spiritual realm is governed by superstition and authority. The highest virtue is Dana (Donation). Rulers will become unreasonable, no longer seeing it as their duty to promote spirituality or to protect their subjects, and will begin levying taxes unfairly. These rulers will feud amongst themselves. As a result, people will start migrating to countries where wheat and barley form the staple food source. Greed and wrath will become the most common traits among people, and human beings will openly display animosity towards one another. People will no longer follow reasoning, instead led by emotions. Lust will become socially acceptable, and intercourse will be recognised as the central purpose of existence.
This period will be marked by widespread ignorance of dharma, and virtue will fade to be eventually lost entirely. As a result of their unrighteousness, humans will become shorter in height over the course of Kali Yuga age. Humans will also become weaker physically, mentally and spiritually.
There are 84,000 Dharma methods, any of them also requires the cutting off delusions before you can attain enlightenment. Are those delusions easy to cut off? The first step, breaking the illusion of the body, how many people can achieve it? (Meaning no longer hold that body is mine.)
This world is the evil world of five turbidities where there are so many conflicts and sufferings for beings here. This is the time that’s characterised by unrest strife, famine, pandemic, natural disasters like floods and droughts. These scenes you can read from:
(i) The Sutra of the Total Annihilation of the Dharma（佛說法滅盡經）
(ii) The Great Extensive Collection Sutra（大集經）
(iii) The Infinite Life Sutra（無量壽經）
(iv) Shurangama Sutra（楞嚴經）
(v) Diamond Sutra（金剛經）
(vi) Mahaparinirvana Sutra（大般涅槃經）
(vii) The Sutra of the Descent of Maitreya（佛說彌勒下生經）
Demonic path will flourish as stated in Mahaparinirvana Sutra. The Lord Mara will come to this world to destroy the right Dharma. The Lord Mara is demonic celestial being and he really does not want to see anybody exit the cycle of Samsara, to exit his range of control. Lord Mara wants people to be attached to desire, to lust. Therefore, Lord Mara and his demonic army will mingle into the Sangha to break all the monastic precepts. In future, Sangha will get married, they will have children, they will drink alcohol, they will eat meat. They will not go for alms if they have the options. Eventually, people will look down at the Sangha so Maras can destroy the Sangha. Thus, destroy the community that upholds, practise and spreads the Dharma.
Buddha’s disciples will transformed into all kinds of identities in the world to help share the Dharma but they will never reveal that they are Buddhas/Bodhisattvas except maybe at the time of death if there is a need to give people more faith. If anyone claimed that they are Buddha or they are enlightened, do not believe them as these are demonic beings that try to destroy the right Dharma. Why is that so? Because an enlighten being has no ego, no self. One would not even think that one realises enlightenment. As Buddha stated in Diamond Sutra, “An Arahant would not think he is an Arahant, a Bodhisattva would not think he is a Bodhisattva, a Buddha would not think he is a Buddha, because they have no notion of the self, no notions of the others, no notions of the sentient beings.”
The first sutra that will disappear is the Shurangama Sutra because this is a difficult sutra, it is like an encyclopedia of all the Dharma practices, it is not easy to study. People are not interested in studying it anymore and slowly all the twelve divisions of the sutras, all Buddha’s teachings, will all gradually disappear. The last sutra that will disappear is the Infinite Life Sutra. In the Infinite Life Sutra, Buddha said with his compassionate power he will keep this sutra, to last for an extra hundred years. This is because Infinite Life Sutra talks, about Nianfo to attain rebirth in Amitabha Buddha’s Pureland. The most suitable method for beings to practice and for beings who want to attain liberation in one lifetime, is to Nianfo and to be mindful of the name of Amitabha Buddha and to attain rebirth into Amitabha Buddha’s Pureland. This is the easiest Dharma gate. We bring our karma with us to the pureland and we will realise enlightenment and attain rebirth in the pureland by relying on Amitabha Buddha’s great compassionate power.
After the disappearance of Infinite Life Sutra, for a very very long time, there will be no Buddha’s teachings, no sutras whatsoever for a tremendously long long time. The world will fall into a period of darkness, and people’s lifespan will decrease tremendously. Women will be more diligent than men in terms of cultivation. After all the sutras disappear, what will be left will only be just ‘Namo Amituofo’. For anyone who hear the name of Amitabha Buddha will still be saved if not in one lifetime but future lifetimes due to Amitabha Buddha’s great vows.
After a very very long time, Maitreya Buddha will descend from Tusita heaven and come to our world to teach the Dharma. Currently, Maitreya is staying in the inner court of the Tusita heaven to expound the Dharma. One-lifetime-replacement-bodhisattva (一生補處菩薩) will realise Buddhahood after one lifetime.
Lifespan for beings in the Tusita heaven is 4000 heavenly years. One celestial day equals to 400 human years. Maitreya will come down for 576 million years to expound the Dharma. At that time, the world will be very different, because after the beings degraded so much, some of them realised what they did was wrong and again they will start to cultivate good. Slowly and slowly human lifespans will increase and human beings will also be much better.
In this era, we must rely on Amitabha Buddha, we cannot realise enlightenment by our own self-effort. We need to realise enlightenment to the minimum stage of Arahant in order to exit the cycle of Samsara. Even a Sotapanna cannot exit the cycle of Samsara. Sotapanna is the first level of enlightenment in Theravada Buddhism where they let go of the attachment to the body. How many of us can really let go of the attachment to our body?
What’s the meaning of letting go of our body? As Buddha stated in Diamond Sutra: “If someone sliced your meat off, piece by piece, one by one, and you are not angry because you have no attachment whatsoever to this physical body.” Even this cannot help you exit samsara, there’s still the attachment to lust. How many people can really completely let go of all attachment to sensual desire? Even that, one only attains enlightenment at the level of non-returner (anagami), one is not yet an Arrant. For an Arahant, you need to let go of more attachment to be able to exit the cycle of Samsara. If you have the slightest tiny bit of attachment, you cannot exit the cycle of Samsara. That’s why is so difficult or even impossible to realise enlightenment through our own self-effort during the Dharma-ending Age.
We must realise our capacities. We all have our Buddha nature, but we are very far away from enlightenment, let alone to say Buddhahood. In the Infinite Life Sutra, the Buddha also said there are 100 million bodies who are suffering from regression from Annutarasamyak-Sambodhi from the perfect enlightenment because they have not heard of the Pureland Dharma gate.
In conclusion, we must rely on Amitabha Buddha to deliver us to Pureland to realise enlightenment there. In order to achieve enlightenment, as long as you extent yourself whole-heartedly, you can still make it. Buddha once said, even in a time without the Dharma, there are still people who discover the Dharma on their own. This is called Solitary Realization (獨覺). We can still hear the Dharma (聲聞), listening to the teachings, and use what you can. Even a sentence is helpful.
