The Mahāsaṃnipāta Sutra is a Buddhist text of Mahayana

Mahayana

Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...

 Buddhism. The meaning in English is the Sutra of the Great Assembly. The sutra was translated into Chinese by Dharmakṣema, beginning in the year 414

414

Year 414 was a common year starting on Thursday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Constantius and Constans...

. The sutra enumerates on the notion of the decline of the Dharma

Mappo

The Latter Day of the Law, is one of the Three Ages of Buddhism. Mappō or Mofa , which is also translated as the Age of Dharma Decline, is the "degenerate" Third Age of Buddhism.- Tradition :...

, or decline of the Buddha's teachings, dividing this into three eras, subdivided by 5 five-hundred periods of time:

• The Age of True Dharma
  • The period in which people's minds are fixed on and devoted to liberation/enlightenment
  • The period devoted to meditation
• The Age of Semblance Dharma
  • The period of devotion to reading and intoning [sutras]
  • The period of devotion to erecting stupa
    Stupa
    A stupa is a mound-like structure containing Buddhist relics, typically the remains of Buddha, used by Buddhists as a place of worship....
    
     and temples
• The Age of Dharma Decline
  Mappo
  The Latter Day of the Law, is one of the Three Ages of Buddhism. Mappō or Mofa , which is also translated as the Age of Dharma Decline, is the "degenerate" Third Age of Buddhism.- Tradition :...
  
  
  • The period where the true Dharma disappears and "devotion to strive and division"

The sutra also discusses the arising of the aspiration for Enlightenment, similar to the Dasabhumika Sutra and the Lotus Sutra

Lotus Sutra

The Lotus Sūtra is one of the most popular and influential Mahāyāna sūtras, and the basis on which the Tiantai and Nichiren sects of Buddhism were established.-Title:...

.