Tuesday, December 19, 2017

The 16 Future Predictions of the Buddha


During time of the Buddha there was a king named Pasenadi  Kosala.  One night he had dreamed of 16 omens that frightened him. He was worried - not knowing whether the good or bad things he had seen are going to happen or not. King went to Jetavana Monastery & asked the Buddha about the meaning of those 16 dreams.  Buddha explained the meaning of those 16 dreams as follows.

Dream No. 1
          King saw 4 stout oxen came running from all 4 directions.  Furious with anger and grudges, they looked like they wanted to fight until death.  But when they got close to each other they just retreated without crashing at all.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Inauspicious) In the distant future, there will be natural disasters happening everywhere. Rain will not fall in time.  There will be very large clouds coming from 4 directions and it seems that there will be heavy rain. Once all 4 clouds have gotten close to one another, they will retreat without a drop of rain falling to the ground. The results will be draught.  Humans and animals will be famished and die in large quantity.  This type of calamity will occur in the future and can be seen and heard not too long from now.

Dream No. 2
          King saw all kinds of trees, not big enough to be able to bear flowers or fruits but they were full of fruits and flowers to the extent that the branches and limbs nearly could not support them.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Trees) In the distant future, daughters that are too young to have husbands and to be married/ have children and start a family in their young age.  Some have indulged prior to their marriage without shame.  This will not be too long before it can be heard and seen.

Dream No. 3
          King saw a herd of cows and bulls drinking milk from their offspring.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Bovine) in the distant future, parents will depend on the labor of their children. Food and other goods, including money, will be provided by their children.  In that era, parents will have to specially please their children. This type of calamity will occur in the distant future, it will not be long to hear and see it happen.

Dream No. 4
          King saw group of people harnessing young calves to pull their wagons and while strong calves stay behind, young calves are struggling pull their wagons.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Bovine) in the distant future, people will favor young who lack experience, ability, omniscience and circumspection and still do not understand social customs, to govern a country, economy, society.  They allow them to govern the affairs of the country while more experienced are neglected. This type of calamity will occur in the distant future.  It won’t be long and you will hear and see it happen.

Dream No. 5
          King saw a one headed horse with two mouths which can eat grass with both mouths but will not get full no matter how much it eats.        
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Equine) in the distant future.  Judges will extort money from both sides of the parties as bribery for inquisition.  Some cases will get postponed to acquire more money. They will request all kinds of fees for their own satisfaction without mercy or ethics. This type of calamity will occur in the distant future.  It won’t be long and you will hear and see it happen.

Dream No. 6
          King saw a group of rich people bringing extremely expensive golden trays for foxes to defecate and urinate on them.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Golden Tray) in the distant future there will be foolish people claiming to be knowledgeable and trustworthy.  They are well known in society, mature but unreliable and they will propagate that they teach the Buddhas’ teaching.  In reality they teach out of selfishness, desire and lust and try to distort the Buddhas’ teachings. They try to adapt the Buddhas’ teachings, and blend it with their doctrine and declare that my teachings are part of their doctrine which will make most people misunderstand and assume that my teachings can blend with their doctrine and believe that they are one and the same.  There will be more of these things happen in near future; it won’t be long and you will hear and see it happen.

Dream No. 7
          King saw a man weaving ropes on a bench and there is a female fox waiting to bite and eat the rope when it's completed.  Once the rope was completed the fox ate it all up.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (A man weaving rope) in the distant future, women desire having ample wealth, men, roaming in streets and waste their husband’s earnings on food/ dresses, other men. This type of calamity will occur in the future, it will not be long and we will hear and see this. 

Dream No. 8
          King saw large earthen jars and small earthen jars in the same location. People will stand in queue to fill those large earthen jars with water until they overflow but no one care to fill those small earthen jars.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Earthen Jar) in the distant future people will make donations selectively.  Senior monks with higher rank will get attention and people will give too much offerings with expensive goods and food, whereas novices sitting beside those senior monks will not be presented with any offerings at all.  The people will have to work much harder to pay their tax to the rulers without thinking of saving some for them. This type of calamity will occur in the future.  It will not be too long for all to see and hear.

Dream No. 9
          King saw a pond with clear water but the water in the middle of the pond was muddy and dirty. All animals went to the center of the pond to drink but they didn’t care about the clean and cool water at the ponds bank, they just smelt it and passed by it.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Large pond) in the distant future people will be endlessly greedy, they can’t get enough possessions.  Kings will become immoral having no compassion toward fellow citizens and rule the country by being indulge in four extremes (Satara Agati) and means of bribery and corruption. Capitals will not be suitable living places because of an increase of dangers.  The public will migrate to rural areas.  This type of calamity will occur in the future.  It will not be too long for all of us to hear and see.

Dream No. 10
          King saw rice in a pot which was in different states of the cooking process. Cooked in one section and half cooked in another section and totally raw in yet another section.        
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Uncooked) in the distant future most people and deities in the world will become immoral. Rains will not occur in right time, harvest will be destroyed by drought/ rains in certain areas while yielding of good harvest can be seen in areas where rains cycles are balanced just like different sections in a one rice pot.  This type of calamity will occur in the future.  It will not be too long for all of us to hear and see.

Dream No. 11
          King saw a group of people exchanging cores of red sandal wood which is expensive to trade with just a pot of sour milk which is absolutely incomparable in value.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Core of red sandal wood) in the distant future, a group of people will trade my teachings for money. They will publish and sell them to make a living. They will try to make all kinds of business with my teachings to earn money which is incomparable to the value of the teachings. These calamities will occur towards the end of the Buddhist era.  It will not be long and all will certainly hear and witness this.

Dream No. 12
          King saw a dried up hollow bottle gourd sinking into the water which would normally float on the water.  This truly baffled him.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Dried up hollow bottle gourd) in the distant future, good knowledgeable and wise individuals both monks and laymen who deserve praise and admiration in society will be hindered by groups of bullies repeatedly.  Good laymen will not get the chance to work in the countries administration. Those that are knowledgeable, capable and honest will not be elected into the higher government positions and if they will be elected then there will be groups of dishonest people working for their own benefits trying to harass them.  Good and well-disciplined monks, highly educated, which strive for the achievement of Nibbana or work to help the society will be considered as undesirable to them and get no respect from them. Eventually, good monks will fade away and disappear from society.  This type of calamity will occur in the future and it will not be long before all will see and hear.

Dream No. 13
          King saw a solid block of stone as big as a ship floating of the surface of water like an empty bark.  Normally such stone would sink but that block of stone just floated on the surface of water.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Big solid stone) in the distant future, bad people will get praised and be admired in society.  They will have rank and power; they will be popular and dignified.  They will have many subordinates and followers.  If they were laymen they will be well-liked and respected everywhere they go. This type of calamity will occur in the future and it will not be long before all will see and hear.  

Dream No. 14
          King saw a small toad chasing an enormous cobra for a meal.  Once caught, the toad immediately devoured the snake.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (A small toad chasing enormous black cobra once caught she immediately devoured it as if it were a small insect) in the distant future, famous monks with great ability to give rhetoric speeches gain influence and power. They start to play an important role in society, are respected and trusted by people and gain admiration. Men get attached to beautiful sights, sounds, fragrances, flavors, tangible sensations and sensual pleasures. They become possessed by sexual desire and therefore small toads (young women) will see the opportunity to seductively lure with charming words that fascinate the cobras. And then the toad devours the cobra.  In the distance future all will see and hear this for themselves.

Dream No. 15
King saw a crow surrounded by golden swans wherever the crow went, those golden swans will surround it as followers.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Golden swans served a crow) in the distant future, kings will be unskilled in war craft and admire and pay respect to immoral monks as teachers.  The crow is clever and devious in giving gifts in return for the respect of all little swans, small swans, and big swans.  The swans will show how important the crow is by more status and titles. This will happen in the distant future and all will hear and see.

Dream No. 16
King saw a herd of goats hunting tigers and enjoying eating the tiger’s meat.
          Buddha made the prediction that: - (Tigers were afraid of being hunt by goats and disappeared) in the distant future, during the reign’s immoral rulers, immoral people will become partial to those rulers and receive wealth and be satisfied with a monarchy. Moral people will slowly fade away from the society. Immoral supporters who are highly respected, trusted, and praised misuse their power to benefit themselves and their siblings. This type of event will happen in the distant future and we all will hear and see it.

* Almost every above forecast happens in today’s society. These forewarnings were given to the world to acknowledge - not only for King Pasenadi.  We can see it happen in many societies in the world.

May all beings be well and happy & attain the fruit of Nibbana.

Suranda Weediyage
BA, Tripitakachariya, Dip in Pali/ Buddhism (Pali & Buddhist University of Sri Lanka), HNDBF,
surandalk@gmail.com
http://www.thebuddhadhamma.wordpress.com

No comments:

Post a Comment