TANTRIC BUDDHISM (INCLUDING CHINA AND JAPAN)It will not rain when it should,
And there will be famine ...
At such a time, if you wish for abundant happiness
Pray to Mahakariil)ikaIn a similar vein, we find in a sixteenth century tantric cycle of A valokite8-
vara:10
When the Buddhist religion declines
Meditators will become generals,
The samgha will lose the armor of forbearance,
Monastic establishments will fight and prepare fortifications,
Monks will always carry knives.
The voice of religion will be disrupted and laymen will speak.
They will lose their profound views, but they will be proud.
Monks will addict themselves to witch-women.
For dharma, they will shamelessly sing and dance,
Yellow-backed 'gong-po will take over the kingdom
And carry off all the wealth.
They will banish the Buddha's words,
And the yellow-backed demons' song will be heard far and wide.
They will hanker after illusionary wealth,
And since they wear yellow skins, they will conquer the valleys and
passes.
Seizing the prerogatives of lamas, they will wander around like dogs.
Disciples will break their vows and wander around like foxes.
They will break their vows, behave contrary to the Buddha's words and
not atone.
There will be no practice of the mantrayiina.
Men will plunder and steal things,
Women will have no shame and will not protect their virtue,
Undisciplined monks will break their vows.
Hate between clergy and laity will bum like a fire.
Monks without vows will fight.
The Buddhist doctrine will be cast to the wind ...This period was marked by great swings in political fortune, due to the shift-
ing alliances between princely houses and sectarian groups. This, in tum, led to
both efflorescence and decline in the production of such texts as we have quoted
above. Some who spread the Buddhist doctrine during the sixteenth to the eight-
eenth centuries were forced to do so in the border regions because they them-
selves had been forced out of Central Tibet; others did so out of missionary
fervor, and with political backing. Zhig-po-gling-pa (1524-83), who discovered
the text we have quoted above in the very heart of Lhasa-the Central Cathedral