user19614: Mappō (a.k.a mòfǎ, mạt pháp) is a term used by the majority of Mahayana Buddhism branches in East and Southeast Asia. It was mentioned in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra, signalling the declination of Buddhism and corruption of society as a whole. The sutra painted a grim picture of Buddhism's future, where monks violate the precepts and preach a perverted version of the Buddha's teaching.
Most of the times where this concept is mentioned, it is to achieve political purposes, e.g to gain legitimacy by demonising other people or sects. This has happened since more than a thousand years ago, in ancient China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and is still going on.
Personally, I found the concept and its details unhelpful since it gives practitioners (especially beginners) the feeling that the world is falling apart. I'd like know why such description is necessary for Buddhists to know, and what is the optimal way to address it?

user21667: "it gives practitioners (especially beginners) the feeling that the world is falling apart", that's totally straight to point: urgency, since it soon breaks for one appart. If a fool nevertheless does not go after right effort, what else could the great Teacher have left behind for him... so what is good householder waiting for not to seek for going forth, now if aware of the danger around?
Fear of the world (of senses), seeing it's hoples bound to corruption, saṃvega, is the very prequisite for Refuge into the Gems, Awakening, and so most skillful if one is able to ser, confirm the 1. Noble Truth in all aspects: Affirming the Truths of the Heart: The Buddhist Teachings on Samvega & Pasada
See also 'future' dangers, and more detail, urgency reasons.

user471: The purpose of the teaching of the degenerate age of Buddhism, is to remind monks and students of the Dhamma that they should be cautious not to be enchanted by the elegant words of contemporary unenlightened self-proclaimed gurus, teachers and prophets, while neglecting the true Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha.
Instead they should reflect: 'We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping & mastering.'

"Monks, there once was a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum
called 'Summoner.' Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasarahas inserted
another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden
body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.
"In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who
won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep,
deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are
being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing
them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering. But
they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works
of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of
outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and
set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as
worth grasping & mastering.
"In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the
Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with
emptiness — will come about.
"Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses
that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning,
transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will
lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these
teachings as worth grasping & mastering.' That's how you should train
yourselves."
SN 20.7


user13709: Tough times are inevitable:

DN26:19.1: There will come a time, mendicants, when these people will have children who live for ten years.
DN26:21.2: During that time they will see each other as beasts.
DN26:21.3: Sharp swords will appear in their hands,
DN26:21.4: with which they’ll take each other’s life, crying, ‘It’s a beast! It’s a beast!’

Yet for some, just as inexorably, prudence and conscience will provide an escape from tough times:

DN26:21.5: But then some of those beings will think,
DN26:21.6: ‘Let us neither be perpetrators nor victims! Why don’t we hide in thick grass, thick jungle, thick trees, inaccessible riverlands, or rugged mountains
and survive on forest roots and fruits?’

From that narrow escape will spring hope, faith and skill:

DN26:21.10.0: 6. The Period of Growth
DN26:21.11: Then those beings will think,
DN26:21.12: ‘It’s because we undertook unskillful things that we suffered such an extensive loss of our relatives.
DN26:21.13: We’d better do what’s skillful.

Today we see signs that remind us of that very perilous decline. Seeing those signs, should we give up and roll down the cliff?
Or should we attend to what we can skillfully do?

DN26:22.1: Then those beings will think,
DN26:22.2: ‘Because of undertaking this skillful thing, our lifespan and beauty are growing.
DN26:22.3: Why don’t we do even more skillful things?

Should we read the full sutta or just stop at the horror?

user16635: First - though it my be a bit of an aside — I don't see mappõ as a 'singular' age. Mappõ is part of the cycles of the karmic world: the metaphorical winter before the spring of the path's perennial rediscovery. Until that long-off day when all beings reach enlightenment, the teachings will degenerate, and from that degeneration they will be discovered again, over and again.
That being said, I think it's wise for anyone on the path to recognize that the teachings are offered within the world, framed by the ignorance and attachments that people in the world bring with them. This is as true of teachers as of students; as I see it, the conflicts born of such inevitable cravings and misunderstandings within different sects and schools bring this degeneration about, as they confront each other over the 'truth' of the teachings. The least awake among us might use the concept of mappõ as a charge to be leveled against other sects or the world at large, with the best intentions, or without. But if we take it instead as an observation into the nature of the world we live in — the collective karma that we are all born into — it can make us more diligent and circumspect in our practice.

19614: <p>Mappō (a.k.a mòfǎ, mạt pháp) is a term used by the majority of Mahayana Buddhism branches in East and Southeast Asia. It was mentioned in the Mahayana Mahaparinirvaṇa Sutra, signalling the declination of Buddhism and corruption of society as a whole. The sutra painted a grim picture of Buddhism's future, where monks violate the precepts and preach a perverted version of the Buddha's teaching.</p>
<p>Most of the times where this concept is mentioned, it is to achieve political purposes, e.g to gain legitimacy by demonising other people or sects. This has happened since more than a thousand years ago, in ancient China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, and is still going on.</p>
<p>Personally, I found the concept and its details unhelpful since it gives practitioners (especially beginners) the feeling that the world is falling apart. I'd like know why such description is necessary for Buddhists to know, and what is the optimal way to address it?</p>
 21667: <p>&quot;it gives practitioners (especially beginners) the feeling that the world is falling apart&quot;, that's totally straight to point: urgency, since it soon breaks for one appart. If a fool nevertheless does not go after right effort, what else could the great Teacher have left behind for him... so what is good householder waiting for not to seek for going forth, now if aware of the danger around?</p>
<p>Fear of the world (of senses), seeing it's hoples bound to corruption, saṃvega, is the very prequisite for Refuge into the Gems, Awakening, and so most skillful if one is able to ser, confirm the 1. Noble Truth in all aspects: <a href="https://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/lib/authors/thanissaro/affirming_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Affirming the Truths of the Heart: The Buddhist Teachings on Samvega &amp; Pasada</a></p>
<p>See also <a href="https://zugangzureinsicht.org/html/tipitaka/an/an05/an05.080.than_en.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">'future' dangers</a>, and more detail, urgency reasons.</p>
 471: <p>The purpose of the teaching of the degenerate age of Buddhism, is to remind monks and students of the Dhamma that they should be cautious not to be enchanted by the elegant words of contemporary unenlightened self-proclaimed gurus, teachers and prophets, while neglecting the true Dhamma, the teachings of the Buddha.</p>
<p>Instead they should reflect: '<em>We will listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these teachings as worth grasping &amp; mastering.</em>'</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&quot;Monks, there once was a time when the Dasarahas had a large drum
called 'Summoner.' Whenever Summoner was split, the Dasarahas inserted
another peg in it, until the time came when Summoner's original wooden
body had disappeared and only a conglomeration of pegs remained.</p>
<p>&quot;In the same way, in the course of the future there will be monks who
won't listen when discourses that are words of the Tathagata — deep,
deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with emptiness — are
being recited. They won't lend ear, won't set their hearts on knowing
them, won't regard these teachings as worth grasping or mastering. But
they will listen when discourses that are literary works — the works
of poets, elegant in sound, elegant in rhetoric, the work of
outsiders, words of disciples — are recited. They will lend ear and
set their hearts on knowing them. They will regard these teachings as
worth grasping &amp; mastering.</p>
<p>&quot;In this way the disappearance of the discourses that are words of the
Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning, transcendent, connected with
emptiness — will come about.</p>
<p>&quot;Thus you should train yourselves: 'We will listen when discourses
that are words of the Tathagata — deep, deep in their meaning,
transcendent, connected with emptiness — are being recited. We will
lend ear, will set our hearts on knowing them, will regard these
teachings as worth grasping &amp; mastering.' That's how you should train
yourselves.&quot;</p>
<p><a href="https://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn20/sn20.007.than.html" rel="nofollow noreferrer">SN 20.7</a></p>
</blockquote>
 13709: <p>Tough times are inevitable:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:19.1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:19.1</a>: There will come a time, mendicants, when these people will have children who live for ten years.<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.2</a>: During that time they will see each other as beasts.<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.3</a>: Sharp swords will appear in their hands,<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.4" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.4</a>: with which they’ll take each other’s life, crying, ‘It’s a beast! It’s a beast!’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Yet for some, just as inexorably, prudence and conscience will provide an <em>escape from tough times</em>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.5" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.5</a>: But then some of those beings will think,<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.6" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.6</a>: ‘Let us neither be perpetrators nor victims! Why don’t we hide in thick grass, thick jungle, thick trees, inaccessible riverlands, or rugged mountains
and survive on forest roots and fruits?’</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From that narrow escape will spring hope, faith and skill:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.10.0" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.10.0</a>: 6. The Period of Growth<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.11" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.11</a>: Then those beings will think,<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.12" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.12</a>: ‘It’s because we undertook unskillful things that we suffered such an extensive loss of our relatives.<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:21.13" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:21.13</a>: We’d better do what’s skillful.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Today we see signs that remind us of that very perilous decline. Seeing those signs, should we give up and roll down the cliff?</p>
<p>Or should we attend to what we can skillfully do?</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:22.1" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:22.1</a>: Then those beings will think,<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:22.2" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:22.2</a>: ‘Because of undertaking this skillful thing, our lifespan and beauty are growing.<br />
<a href="https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato#dn26:22.3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">DN26:22.3</a>: Why don’t we do even more skillful things?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Should we read the full sutta or just stop at the horror?</p>
 16635: <p>First - though it my be a bit of an aside — I don't see mappõ as a 'singular' age. Mappõ is part of the cycles of the karmic world: the metaphorical winter before the spring of the path's perennial rediscovery. Until that long-off day when all beings reach enlightenment, the teachings <em>will</em> degenerate, and from that degeneration they <em>will</em> be discovered again, over and again.</p>
<p>That being said, I think it's wise for anyone on the path to recognize that the teachings are offered within the world, framed by the ignorance and attachments that people in the world bring with them. This is as true of teachers as of students; as I see it, the conflicts born of such inevitable cravings and misunderstandings within different sects and schools bring this degeneration about, as they confront each other over the 'truth' of the teachings. The least awake among us might use the concept of mappõ as a charge to be leveled against other sects or the world at large, with the best intentions, or without. But if we take it instead as an observation into the nature of the world we live in — the collective karma that we are all born into — it can make us more diligent and circumspect in our practice.</p>
