Once Upon A Future Time, p106-107Whatever mo-shih (that is, Paścimakāle) may have meant in these texts, it was clearly not a third period occurring after an era of hsiang-fa.
We must return, therefore, to the contexts in which this expression is used to determine its original meaning. Here our task is made easier by the fact that, in the overwhelming majority of cases, the context is quite consistent: the term occurs in the context of a discussion of the merit to be derived from the acceptance, maintenance, and distribution of a given sūtra—that is, the sūtra in which the passage in question appears. A typical example is found in one of the earliest Mahāyāna scriptures, the Lotus Sūtra:
One should always reverentially salute him with joined hands, as if he were the Chief of Jinas or the Self-born, he who in the fearful latter time (Skt. Paścimakāle [sic]) upholds this sūtra [i.e., the Lotus Sūtra of the Extinct [Buddha].
Those who accept the legitimacy of the Lotus Sūtra and uphold its teachings after the death of the Buddha, in other words, are worthy of the reverence of the world.
