The Development of Mappō Thought in Japan (II)

Abstract

Mappo ceased to be analyzed in its mere political implications and started to be felt and suffered as an existential problem on a larger scale after the appearance of a short treatise known as Mappo tomyoki 末法燈明記(The candle of the Latter Dharma) at the beginning of the Kamakura era. Traditionally attributed toSaicho (767-822), the Mappo tomyoki has been the object of lively debate among scholars, some of whom defend its au­ thenticity, while others consider it a forgery by a Pure Land believer of the Heian period. Whatever the answer, we know that the first person to men­ tion it in his writings was Honen 法 然 (1133-1212),and that the major thinkers of the Kamakura period, including Eisai, Dogen, Shinran, and Nichiren were greatly influenced by it. The Mappo tomydfa is a defense of the monastic community against the criticism of people denouncing the decline of morality in monks and nuns, behavior, and of emperor Kanmu 桓武 (r. 781-806) who was trying to put an end to such behavior with regulations on the moral code of the Bud­ dhist community of Nara. The author argues that the government, in its criticism, tends to forget that these monks are living in the Last Dharma Aee (mappo) and that, therefore, they cannot apply to themselves rules which were made for and fitted to monks living in the ideal period of the True Doctrine. Since in the Last Age only verbal teachings survive, while practices are non-existent and enlightenment unreachable, precepts also have disappeared and, therefore, to maintain that monks are breaking precepts is meaningless. How can something which is non-existent be broken? For the same reason, precepts cannot be kept. The Mappo tomyoki says on this point: “If there were Dharmas of precepts, there may be the