The Bodhisatta in Theravada Buddhism by Nico Moonen (ebook reader for pc and android .TXT) 📕

    The real meaning of offering one’s life or giving one’s limbs is to use one’s talents and one’s abilities for the sake of others, to be of use to others.

Bodhisatta Metteyya, Maha Bodhi Temple, Buddha-Gaya, India

100,000 aeons before the present aeon there was a sāramanda-kappa. Therein arose the Buddhas Tanhankara, Medhankara, Saranankara and Dīpankara.

After that kappa followed a suñña-kappa empty of Buddhas.

Then there was a sāra-kappa wherein the Buddha Kondañña arose.

The Buddhas Mangala, Sumana, Revata and Sobhita arose thereafter in a sāramanda-kappa.

It was followed by a suñña-kappa, empty of Buddhas.

After the suñña-kappa followed a vara-kappa; therein arose the Buddhas Anomadassin, Paduma and Nārada.

Then again there was a suñña-kappa empty of Buddhas.

Hereafter there was a sāra-kappa wherein the Buddha Padumuttara arose.

30,,000 aeons before the present aeon there was a manda-kappa; therein arose the Buddhas Sumedha and Sujāta.

18,000 aeons before the present aeon there was a vara-kappa. Therein arose the Buddhas Piyadassin, Atthadassin and Dhammadassin.

94 aeons before the present aeon there was a sāra-kappa, wherein the Buddha Siddhattha arose.

92 aeons before the present aeon there was a manda-kappa. Therein arose the Buddhas Tissa and Phussa.

91 aeons before the present aeon there was a sāra-kappa wherein the Buddha Vipassin arose.

31 aeons before the present aeon there was a manda-kappa. Therein arose the Buddhas Sikhin and Vessabhū.

The present aeon is a bhadda-kappa. Herein arose already the Buddhas Kakusandha, Konāgamana, Kassapa and Gotama. And Metteyya will be the next Buddha in this happy aeon.

    There have been limitless and countless noble persons in the world who have fulfilled the perfections and attained Buddhahood. In the future, too, there will be limitless and countless Buddhas. It is not possible to compute the number of future Buddhas.[299] The names of more than 20 Buddhas who lived before the present Buddha Gotama are known (see Survey of Buddhas). But it is only the Buddha Dīpankara who is said to have made a prediction to Sumedha that he would become the Buddha Gotama.[300] It is stated in the Pāli Canon that the other Buddhas confirmed that prediction.[301] Presumably they would also have to confirm the predictions made to other future Buddhas. But this is not recorded in the Pāli Canon.

    Relating future Buddhas there is information in the Dasabodhisattuppattikathā. It is a small book with the birth-stories of the ten Bodhisattas who will be future Buddhas. The book was undoubtedly composed at a time when devotees were craving for cult figures like Bodhisattas. Its compilation might have been in South India in the latter part of the 14th century C.E.[305]

    There are several stories relating to the future Buddha, Metteyya. However they have to be treated with great caution as most of them originated outside the original teaching of the Buddha Gotama as recorded in the Pāli Canon.

    After the disappearance of the teaching of the Buddha Gotama, there will arise another Buddha, Metteyya by name.[306] No definite number of years is given for the period between the Buddha Gotama and the Buddha Metteyya.

    According to the Anāgatavamsa the Buddha Metteyya will arise ten million years later.[307] The Anāgatavamsa is a poem of 142 verses, a history of the ten future Buddhas. It is written by Kassapa of Cola.[308] It can be dated to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century.[309]

    Rudolf Steiner, a theosophist, claimed that the Bodhisatta who will be the future Buddha Metteyya was reborn as Jeshu ben Pandira, one hundred years before the birth of Jesus Christ. He wrote that exactly 5000 years after the enlightenment of the Buddha Gotama the Bodhisatta would be reborn as the Buddha Metteyya.[310]

    According to Ikeda the Bodhisattva Maitreya will appear in the world 5,670,000,000 years after the passing away of the Buddha Gotama.[311] Ikeda did not mention any source for this number.

    It is nowhere mentioned in the Pāli Canon that the Buddha Gotama predicted to anybody that he would become the next Buddha or a Buddha in the future. It is mentioned only in the Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta that once there will arise the Buddha Metteyya. It is stated there that in the very distant future the continent of Jambudīpa [= India] will be powerful and prosperous. At that time Vārānasi will be a royal city called Ketumatī. There will arise a king called Sankha, a wheel-turning monarch. And in that time there will arise in the world a fully-enlightened Buddha, named Metteyya. He will be endowed with wisdom and conduct, a Knower of the worlds, an incomparable Trainer of men to be tamed, a Teacher of gods and humans, enlightened and blessed. He will teach the Dhamma in the spirit and in the letter, and proclaim the holy life in its fullness and purity. He will be attended by a company of thousands of monks.[312]

    To become a Mahā Bodhisatta the ten perfections must be developed during at least 100,000 aeons. It is stated that the Buddha Metteyya will be reborn in this auspicious aeon (bhadda kappa).[313] That means the prediction about the Bodhisatta Metteyya must have been made more than 100,000 aeons ago. It is said that he aspired to become a Buddha 16 incalculables (16 asankheyyas) and 100,000 aeons before the present. Now, one aeon is traditionally understood to consist of four incalculables; so, if we take this literally, he must have received his first prediction up to 100,004 aeons before the present aeon and he must have received it before the time of the Buddha Dīpankara.

    The Rasavāhinī is a collection of edifying tales from Sri Lanka. The author of it is Vedeha and the work can be dated in the 13th or 14th century.[314] It states that it was at the feet of the Buddha Muhutta that the Bodhisatta Metteyya first received a prediction that he would attain Buddhahood. Since then he had fulfilled the perfections (pāramī) for 16 lakhs[315] of incalculable aeons. During this time he had worshipped many Buddhas and received predictions from them as well.[316]

    In the Anāgatavamsa it is stated that in this auspicious world cycle, in the future, there will be an Awakened One named Metteyya. At that time there will be a king named Sankha, a Wheel-Turning Monarch of Kusavātī. His royal city will be named Ketumatī. The women will marry at the age of five hundred. One named Ajita will be born, Metteyya, of great power, incomparable. He will be born in a brahman family, with great wealth and possessions. At that time, Metteyya’s mother will be named Brahmavatī, his father Subrahma will be the head priest of king Sankha. Four palaces will have come into being for Ajita. Candamukhī will be his wife. Brahmavaddhana will be his son. He will live in a household for eight thousand years. On one occasion he will go to a park for pleasure to amuse himself. Seeing the danger in sensual pleasures and being wise in accordance with the nature of Bodhisattas, he will see the four signs: an old man, a sick man, a dead man, and a happy wanderer. Having sympathy for all beings, he will go forth seeking the unsurpassed state of peace. He will undertake the practice of exertion for seven days and he will go forth, leaping up into the air with his palace. On the day that the Wise One goes forth in renunciation, on that very day he will approach the dais of the tree of awakening. In the place of the unconquered leaders of men, on that supreme seat of awakening, he will be awakened. He will go to the garden Nāgavana and there he will set in motion the incomparable Wheel of the Doctrine. The Nāga tree will be the awakening tree for that Blessed One. The Buddha’s lifetime will be 80,000 years. Then, in the midst of the venerable order of disciples who will have done what should be done, that Conqueror will blaze out like a mass of fire, and be extinguished. His Teaching will remain for 180,000 years.[317] After that there will be a terrible disappearance of the true Doctrine in the world.[318]

    As we have mentioned above, the Anāgatavamsa is a post-canonical work dated to the end of the fourth or the beginning of the fifth century. It is my opinion that it is a mixture of some Buddhist details and a fairy tale: wish-fulfilling trees (verses 22-26), self-generated rice (verse 27), leaping up with the palace (verse 54).

    In the Dasabodhisattuppattikathā it is said that