Graduate School of Buddhist Studies Fo Guang University=佛光大學佛教學系
關鍵詞
Buddhist eschatology; decline of Dharma; Buddhist prophecy; Mappō, mo-fa; Ananda’s
摘要
The Sūtra on the Seven Dreams of ?nanda is a little-known text which ?nanda experienced a series of seven symbolic dreams. Of the seven, six dreams are symbols of the Buddhist eschatology which illustrates the fall of Buddhism in terms of: 1. The internal conflict among the monastic 2. The deprival of leadership in Buddhism 3. The laity would be more diligent in cultivation than the monastic 4. The monastic order would only care about their livelihood 5. Evil-views would harm Buddhist teachings 6. The destruction of Buddhism by Buddhists themselves, not by others What are the Buddhist eschatology concepts based on the Sūtra on the Seven Dreams of ?nanda? Though Buddhist eschatology is being researched by various scholars, there is no existing analytical study which covers the Buddhist eschatology concepts based on the Sūtra on the Seven Dreams of ?nanda and mapping of the symbolic dreams mentioned in the Sūtra to the real events in our modern history which is indeed in the “dharma degenerating age”. The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed analytical study of the Sūtra on the Seven Dreams of ?nanda. Many of these dreams suggest Buddhist Eschatology in various aspects. It attempts to show the development of the Buddhist eschatology and its concept in this Sūtra and what the symbolic dreams of Buddhist Eschatology mentioned in the Sūtra represent and how this Sūtra complements or contrasts the Buddhist Eschatology concepts of others. Also, as there is no official full English translation available, this paper presents an English translation based on my hermeneutics.
