Excerpts from "The Legend of the Great Stupa,"

"As the Kaliyuga progresses towards the final conflagration, life expectancy of man decreases and the weight of darkness becomes more intense, but these remain restraints on the downward path when the Voice of Buddha is heard and the Path of Dharma followed. Towards the end of the era, when the duration of man's life span has been reduced from sixty to fifty years and there has been no respite in man's increasing egoism, these conditions will prevail, portending the ruin to the Great Stupa: householders fill the monasteries and there is fighting before the altar; the temples are used as slaughterhouses. The ascetics of the caves return to the cultivated valleys and the Yogins become traders; thieves own the wealth and cattle; monks become householders while priests and spiritual leaders turn to robbery, brigandage and thievery. Disorder becomes chaos, turning to panic which rages like wildfire. Corrupt and selfish men become leaders ... the images of the Buddhas, the sacred icons, the scroll paintings and the stupas will be desecrated, stolen and bartered at the market price. ...

"When religious duties are forgotten, spirits of darkness, which had been controlled by ritual power, become unloosed and frenzied and govern the mind of whatever being they possess. Spirits of vindictive power possess monks; ... enchanting spirits causing disease possess men; grasping, quarreling spirits possess women; spirits of wantonness possess maidens; spirits of depravity possess nuns; spirits of rebellion and malice possess children; every man, woman and child in the country becomes possessed by uncontrollable forces of darkness. The signs of these times are new and fantastical modes of dressing-traditional styles forgotten; the monks wear fancy robes and the nuns dress up before a mirror. ...

"The Abbot and Master poison their pupil's minds and hearts; ... men become lewd and licentious; women become unchaste; monks ignore their discipline and moral code; ...

"Drunkards preach the Path to Salvation; the advice of sycophants is followed; fraudulent teachers give false initiations; guileful imposters claim pyschic powers; loquacity and eloquence pass as wisdom. The arrogant elevate profanity; ...

"... the guidance of the Secret Guru execrated, the precepts of the Buddha ignored and the advice of Yogis and Sages unsought. ...

"The celestial order, disrupted, loosens plague, famine and war to terrorize terrestial life. The planets run wild, and the stars fall out of their constellations, great burning stars arise bringing unprecedented disaster. No rain falls in season, but out of season; the valleys are flooded. Famine, frost and hail govern many unproductive years."

It gets worse. Because man has lost contact with his true self, rather than seeing these things as karma and signs of falling of the Spiritual Path, the blame goes elsewhere. We sue everybody and don't take accountability. We blame another country for this or that. We blame fluorocarbons, aerosol cans, cars, whatever, when the greatest, most damaging pollution are the thoughts and words that come out of our own heads.

Guru Rinpoche's (Padma Sambhava) disciples were floored when they heard the dire predictions of the future, but he did leave them with one piece of heartening prophecy. The karma that is loosed to slow down man's evil doings eventually disgusts him and awakens him, so that " in his actions and governed by sympathy and compassion towards the sufferers, he will dedicate himself to the restoration of the Great Stupa. He will aspire to the highest human achievement and fulfill his wish to rebuild perfection."

He goes on to describe the reincarnation of a great lama, Pema Khungsten, to restore Buddhism, but if the work is postponed then a great war breaks out and Tibet is over run by Chinese hordes. But then if certain numbers of Yogins, adepts and Boddhisatvas both in embodiment and out, continue to hold the precepts, do the spiritual work, the mantras, etc., then there will be a victory over the forces of darkness.