Sutra Time Capsules

[camerata]

I came across this snippet of info by accident: The Japanese of the first millenium believed that the "degenerate age" of Buddhism (mappo) would begin in the year 1052. One of the effects of this belief was that pious people started burying sutras in mounds in the area south of Nara for the benefit of future generations and as an offering to Maitreya - the Buddha-to-be - who would return in 5.67 billion years. Some of these sutra time capsules have since been recovered and put on display in museums. Interesting way to make merit.

[chownah]

Sometime in the distant future after enough time has passed the last few believers will open a time capsule which will contain the scripture of the Buddha predicting the loss of his teachings and those few believers will come to the conclusion that the Buddha was wrong on this prediction, and thus he was not infallible, and so their house of cards faith will tumble and the Buddha's teachings will be forgotten.

So as you can see, these time capsules might be the vehicle by which the Buddha will lose all credibility and thus will be forgotten.

Chownah

[camerata]

I'm sure that even now there are a lot of Buddhists who don't think the Buddha was infallible in everything. I have always thought that it was a very astute and rational observation that the teachings would probably fade away at some point and that eventually a new Buddha would arise. Over billions of years the statistical probability of a philosophy being forgotten or corrupted beyond recognition must be quite high. I don't think it takes an omniscient being to figure this out.

[ozymandious]

Bahh time travel paradoxes always screw with my head:huh:

sorry i don't have anything deep to contribute