"When the spirit of Buddhism is lost or hidden away, people will all let their body hair and nails grow long. Worldly ethics and laws will be forgotten and ignored. Loud noises will come from the sky and the world will shake and move, as though it was on a spinning waterwheel. The walls of the cities, houses and dwellings, will collapse. The medicinal properties of plants will vanish. All but the highest five regions in the world of form and desire, will no longer possess the seven flavors of the tongue or the three good powers of the earth: worldly law, natural law and the Buddhist law. Eventually everything will die. All the positive teachings that lead to freedom will disappear. Flowers and fruits will hardly grow and all become sour. Waterwells, springs and ponds will turn to dust and the earth will buckle and open into dark and ugly rifts. Mountains will burn. The rain dragon will not bring rain so the crops will wither and die. All life will disappear; even grass will not grow. Even the sun and moon will no longer shed their light!
Throughout the four directions, drought and evil omens will prevail. The ten kinds of evil behavior, especially greed, anger and stupidity, will be predominant. People will not honor their fathers or mothers any more than do lower animals. All beings will slowly vanish and their life span will decrease, so too will any enjoyment or pleasure they may once have had in life. Gradually all beings will enter into even lower, more evil life-states.
The evil rulers and priests will destroy the True Law of Buddhism until no one can be born as a human being or a god. The protective deities and godly kings who normally take pity on human beings will abandon them forever and depart to other realms." -- Daijuku Sutra often quoted by Nichiren
And in the Gosho the Daishonin writes:
"This is the time which is meant by the phrase the "Latter days of the Law"; the three powerful enemies have appeared and the eighty myriads of millions of nayutas of bodhisattvas cannot be seen anywhere. It is like a dried up lake, lacking water, a moon on the waning side yet to be full. Clear water reflects the moon's image, if trees are grown, then the birds have a place to nest. For this reason, I, Nichiren am spreading this Sutra in the place of those eighty myriads of bodhisattva. I request that those bodhisattvas offer me their help and bestow upon me their protection." (Excerpt from Nichiren Daishonin's, "Letter to Toki Jonin," October 22, 1271
The Lotus Sutra states:
"When the beings see the kalpa ending,
And being consumed by a great fire,
This land of mine is perfectly safe."
(from Chapter 16, Scripture of the Lotus Blossom of the Fine Dharma (The Lotus Sutra), Trans: by Leon Hurvitz) '
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