Once Upon A Future Lifetime

Studies in a Buddhist Prophecy of Decline

Jan Nattier

Nazan Institute for Religion and Culture

318

1991

9780895819260

General Buddhism

1 total

In this book Jan Nattier explores the origins, permutations, and Implications of Buddhism's conception of it's own inevitable impermanence. In a display of linguistic virtuosity and analytical brilliance, she charts the evolution of a complex set of themes from the beginnings of Buddhism in India, through it's subsequent development there and in Central Asia, and on to East Asia. It is in this last cultural sphere that the idea of mo-fa (Jpn. mappo ), the 'end - period of the Dharma,' became best known, and readers will be stunned by Nattier's radical re-evaluation of the terms and concepts involved.