Before: This interpretation of the Lotus Sutra takes the text to its extremes, keying in on eschatology. This eschatology connects to the idea of mappō, or the Latter Day of Dharma; this is the belief that we are in “the age of the degeneration of the Buddha’s law.”
After: This interpretation of the Lotus Sutra takes the text to its extremes, keying in on eschatology. This eschatology connects to the idea of mappō, or the Latter Day of Dharma; this is the belief that we are in “the age of the degeneration of the Buddha’s law.” Nichiren predicted that the world was at the precipice of chaos. The best example of this prediction is the time that Nichiren predicted a Mongol invasion of Japan. Decades later, this prediction came to fruition not once, but twice.