India should be a part of China.

[Hexachordia]

末法时代
The End of Law.

As a magus I rarely talked about religious matters, but only sparsely, not only because I believe in the statements in Buddhist prophecies about the Latter Day of Law which is difficult to illustrate, but also I can hardly define my religious position. From this post on I will try to further discuss on the religious problems from my own perspective as an Amunrean magus, alias Photonius. This is not just a philosophical alias also a public alias for open rites. This is the surface on the core of my thinking, like the continent of our planet, I am inviting you to land. Of course, the depth is still hidden will take billions of years to explore. My renovation of Taoism as Shen Guang Tao is like the Moon, the Earth is where I am at.


The Great Teacher T’ien-t’ai states, “In the last five-hundred-year period, the mystic way will spread and benefit humankind far into the future.”2 Does this not describe the time of wide propagation? The Great Teacher Dengyō says, “The Former and Middle Days are almost over, and the Latter Day is near at hand.”3

The Buddha’s intent is difficult to fathom. Indeed, I am unable to grasp it. We may attempt to understand, however, by taking the Hinayana sutras as a point of reference. During the thousand years of the Former Day of the Law, Hinayana was fully endowed with the three elements of teaching, practice, and proof. During the thousand years of the Middle Day, teaching and practice alone remained; proof no longer existed. In the Latter Day of the Law, teaching alone remains; neither practice nor proof exists. On examining this from the standpoint of the Lotus Sutra, we find that in the thousand years of the Former Day of the Law persons who possessed all three had most probably formed ties with the Lotus Sutra during the Buddha’s lifetime. They were born again in the Former Day and were able to obtain the proof of Hinayana through its teaching and practice. Those born in the Middle Day had not developed strong ties to the Lotus Sutra during the Buddha’s lifetime and were therefore unable to attain proof through Hinayana. They turned instead to provisional Mahayana and thus were able to be born in the pure lands of the ten directions. In the Latter Day of the Law, no benefit is derived from either Mahayana or Hinayana. Hinayana retains nothing but its teaching; it has neither practice nor proof. Mahayana still has its teaching and practice, but no longer provides any proof of benefit, either conspicuous or inconspicuous.

I once said that there is no doomsday believes in eastern religions, half right, the truth is, eastern religions are tended to believe in spiritual doomsday, Buddhist prophecies about the 3 phases of law is my central belief in the spiritual destiny. From this point, you can say in my system, creation is also spiritual. Yes, the true devine creation and doomsday are not literally physical but spiritual.

The Latte Day of Law is my doomsady belief, according to Lotus Sutra, LDL means all righteous laws of Buddha and truth become defunct, in some chinese spiritual circles, the implication is even more grim, that the defunct nature of the sacred laws not only means people can not understand and lose interests in them, but also, the devine guiding lights/spirits of these laws will literally die out from our plane of existence. If the latter claim be true, I feel obliged to comment, even such claims be from the very exclusive and strictly minority circles. But this is how I used to deal with such fringe matters, I take every diverse meaning of the important idea sufficiently significant, not calculating from where they might come from.

Now, my teachings about Chaos is forbiddened, so I can not start from this premise, however the theme could be so much relevant and promising as a ground to build many new perspectives about such a topic. But I can forward as many as sacred high grounds dedicated to the whatever challenges, because preaching has never been my intention. Much had been improvised here.

First of all, the question is how to understand the LDL period, one might ask like is there no more hope of being saved? or no devine providence against the evils anymore? According to Mahayana tradition, Maitreya is a buddha who will attain perfection after 5.6 billion years of continued spiritual practice in Tushita heaven after he died as a pupil of Shakyamuni.

Extract from Venerable Yen Pei (1917-1996) `speech in 1958.

Maitreya is the most important Bodhisattva. He will become the next
Buddha after Shakyamuni Buddha, being the first to attain
Buddhahood in this world in future. Therefore, he is also called “The
Next Buddha to Descend to Our World”. It is thus clear that we shall
have close connections with Maitreya Bodhisattva.
According to Buddhist discourses, Shakyamuni Buddha stated that
Maitreya Bodhisattva will attain Buddhahood around 5.6 billion years
later.

In fact, it is Maitreya who will end the age of LDL, but the time of Maitreya`s arrival is not alwasy agreed on with the above date of 5.6 billion years. Some believe in another 1500 or so years, sometimes it is believed by some chinese as having countless avatars. A chinese buddhist monk called 布袋和尚（？--917AD）wrote hymn about Maitreya that remains authoritative in China untill today:

Maitreya true Maitreya,
has appeared billions of times
and taught people of those eras.
But they have not recognized him.

The interpretation of this hymn is the foundation to many modern chinese versions of Maitreya`s arrival, one of them is believing that 布袋和尚/Hotei Monk himself was Maitreya`s apparition and he would keep reincarnatinguntill the appointed time of final salvation which is destined in 5.6 billion years. This is a very optimistic version indeed. If this version to be taken as true, the darkness of LDL would not be totally dark, but the question still remains, that how people can attain truth since Shakyamuni himself denied such a chance. But Shakyamuni did say that the true followers will not be wlecomed and will remain a minority that means, at least true followers will still exist.

Furthermore, the schools of Hinayana and provisional Mahayana established during the Former and Middle p.400Days of the Law cling all the more stubbornly to their doctrines as they enter the Latter Day. Those who espouse Hinayana reject Mahayana, and those who espouse provisional teachings attack the true teaching, until the country is overrun with slanderers of the Law. Those who fall into the evil paths because of their mistaken practice of Buddhism outnumber the dust particles of the land, while those who attain the Buddha way by practicing the correct teaching are fewer than the specks of dirt that can be placed on a fingernail. At such a time, the heavenly gods and benevolent deities abandon the country, and only perverse heavenly beings and perverse demons remain, possessing the minds and bodies of the ruler, his subjects, and monks and nuns, and causing them to curse, revile, and heap shame on the votary of the Lotus Sutra.

The fact is, the real truth seers will still exist against the odds of the LDL age, and it is also reasonable to say, they are the split manifests or incomplete manifests of Maitreya before the final salvation. Therefore, a bit similar to christian prophecy that many people will fall to hell, only a few will be saved.

“Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matthew 7:13–14).

If this is happening now, then we can say, the spiritual doomsday is now, our rampant corruption, wars, licentiousness are the sure signs of our decaying spirits and the destined path toward hell. The truth is not found, even they still exist, the true good people are also hidden and vilified and attacked. The terrible thing is that prophecies resound better than any other explanations to our todays reality: nobody trust churches and monasteries anymore--atheists, scientific cults, communism, capitalism, petty cults, pollution, interplanetary travels(ancient religions never talked about such a thing, even they knew how to calculate exact calendars.)

But this is not still the worst, the worst is to know that every single religion of humanity has been equally in the same state of destruction. Maybe the heart of people is destructed not that conduit to heaven? I personally do not believe in final judgement, this is where I depart from Christianity, not only without baptism I can not call myself a christian but also the idea of the Final Judgement. I hate this idea so much that I would choose Hell whereas in Buddhism I would heaven. So the prospect of spiritual doomsday in Buddhism and Christianity are vastly different, the Buddhism shows speckles of light but absolute terror does Christianity. Also ironically, the west is the hub of modern corruption at least propaganda wise--communism, marxism, racism, capitalism, scientific cults...

The ethical discrepancy and religious dishonesty are so obvious in the west but nobody dares to question anymore, however their canons teach a Final Judgement. Therefore the whole international system of church is highly doubtful, since the modern corruption coincides with internationalization of western churches, which were even authorized by their highest pope. Isnt it a collection of defunct dotrines themselves? like what Buddhist prophecies implied that false believes run amok in the LDL age.

The sutra states, “Evil devils, the devils’ people, heavenly beings, dragons, yakshas, kumbhānda demons, and others will seize the advantage.”9 Another part of the sutra details these “others”: “Whether it be a yaksha, or a rākshasa, or a hungry spirit, or a pūtana, or a kritya, or a vetāda, or a skanda, or an umāraka, or an apasmāraka, or a yaksha kritya, or a human kritya . . .”

Isnt it strange to consider, why a church which promotes the Final Judgement would allow liberal sins running rampant across the world? sounds like a belief in fear as religion and corruption as practice and an arbitrary court of justice that could be the very converse to the common belief in virtue, that is, good people go to hell. Why is that? because it is a system that is reversed in truth as the model of human faith. Whereas you will pay more attention to outward affairs as revelations rather than what is really inside your own life. If doomsday happens in a whimper, then it is saying it happens in peoples spirit. In my version, this proverb is not metaphorical but literal. What happens if false doctrines run amok? the real doomsday, when people can not help believing in falsities, in reverse teachings, and even let evils and sins into their own lives as if it is a part of truth; words have no meanings, defunct doctrines revered as supreme, lives wasted. Even if this can be happening, the stars do not need to die out, nor does the Sun or Earth, in a wink of stars, humanity will turn into specks of witches`sulphur.

Why Shakyamuni claimed it will take 5.6 billion years for Maitreya to salvage the world? maybe he knew how great and pervalent the darkness of future will be? in estimation of spiritual darkness not in scientific or economic matters, ancient sages did count the numbers to billions in the Himalayan woods, almost coinciding with the supposed age of the Solar System. Maybe if we live in our scientific way into future counting the years according to our sciences, we will definitely see Maitreya at the appointed date. But will this comfort your mind? by chinese tradition of Hotei Buddha, the one who is willingto see Maitreya will see him anytime, way ahead of science billions of years. This is what I want to say, by darkness, you will see nothing but darkness, numbers compounding numbers, endless numbers of darkness; but by will, light will be immediate, still most people will refuse to see the light.

LDL is mainly a self-induced age of darkness, but it does not mean by self-awakening alone is sufficient, the circumstance decides that people are unable to extricate themselves without devine help, this is why Maitreya has to wait for 5.6 billion years, by endlessly reincarnation to teach, maintaining a light of hope untill that distant future. For most people, it is a long time of hope, but for Maitreya, it is a long trip of light. After all, it is a grand age of great darknesses and wavering lights, the main course of a Universal Civilization, where the darkness starting to come into their limelight and main sway, and the light building new kingdoms, new worlds, generating new offsprings and lifes. This is the start of an Aeternal Order， you can say either it is the beginning of creation, or the end of everything, all up to your determination.

No final judgement, but Final Determination !!

The appearance of Buddha, signified the start of the age of darkness, which officially and formally starts in our time, the dark age is the cause of the true religion, which pivots on the Aeternal Struggle. This is real, testified and prophecized 2500 years ago. There are some sources claim that Maitreya was a mimick of Zoroastrianism, this is also a proof of modern falsity, Buddha`s trail and work have been as clear as the sunlight, he never known to have consulted Zoroastrian documents, neither he refered to those gods. Shakyamuni was a kshyatria, married once and had a child, he was enlightened through meditational processes which have been detailed in ALL buddhist scriptures. What a shameless sacrilege.

The chinese version will come later, this is my first serious teaching of my core belief system, the most original. Welcome to my Planet of Gaia, from the frozen palaces of lunar dusts, to the lands of fertile soils and oceans and atmospheres.

---Photonius