Mahasamnipata Sutra
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The Mahāsaṃnipāta Sutra (Chinese: 大集經, pinyin: Dà Jí Jīng, Japanese: Daijikkyō) is a Buddhist text of Mahayana Buddhism. The meaning in English is the Sutra of the Great Assembly. The sutra was translated into Chinese by Dharmakṣema, beginning in the year 414. The sutra enumerates on the notion of the decline of the Dharma, or decline of the Buddha's teachings, dividing this into three eras, subdivided by 5 five-hundred periods of time:
The Age of True Dharma
The period in which people's minds are fixed on and devoted to liberation/enlightenment
The period devoted to meditation
The Age of Semblance Dharma
The period of devotion to reading and intoning sutras
The period of devotion to erecting stupa and temples
The Age of Dharma Decline
The period where the true Dharma disappears and "devotion to strive and division"
"Great Assembly" great assembly of five hundred bhikshus (phal chen pa, mahdsamghika, The most probable forerunners of Mahayana were the Mahasanghikas (Followers of the Great Assembly), a liberal branch of the Buddhist community.
The sutra also discusses the arising of the aspiration for Enlightenment, similar to the Dasabhumika Sutra and the Lotus Sutra