562–645
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562–645 , The Chinese monk Dao Cho, second patriarch of Pure Land Buddhism, introduces the term mofa (mappo in Japanese) to indicate the end of the Dharma. This is Mahayana Buddhism’s expression of an apocalyptic future in which the Buddha’s teachings are falsified, reviled, and ultimately lost.
The larger framework sees an initial period in which the true Dharma (shobo) prevails, followed by the era of the false Dharma, and finally by the period of the end of Dharma, when the Buddha’s teachings are not passed on and each individual must practice spiritual cultivation independently.