The Loss of the Doctrine

In the Candragarbha-paripṛcchā, the Buddha predicts the gradual decay of his Doctrine across successive 500-year epochs. Spiritual practice weakens as kings, citizens, and monks abandon genuine internal realization for hypocritical outward show and worldly wealth. As protective deities depart, famine, plagues, and relentless warfare consume the land, punctuated only briefly by fleeting periods of temporal relief brought by surviving righteous practitioners.