Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

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live.thanuka
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Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by live.thanuka »

I am very interested in search Maithree Buddha, because I have seen many articles, and I would like to know more about Future Load Buddha, anybody knows the details, please let me know. Thank you.
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by DNS »

There is not much written about him in the Suttas.

Metteyya (Pali) or Maitreya (Sanskrit) means ‘The Loving One’ or ‘The Friendly One’ and is the name that the Buddha of the next era will be known by (D.III,76).

At present, Metteyya is a bodhisatta abiding in the Tusita heaven, practicing the spiritual qualities that will lead to his enlightenment in the distant future. In most Buddhist iconography Metteyya is depicted as a beautiful young prince with a stupa in his crown.

The Mahayana and some of the Theravada commentaries place the arrival of Metteya at approximately 5,000 years after the passing of Buddha, which would make it somewhere around the year 4517 which is about 2,500 years from now. The early Theravada discourses hold that there is no set date and that it depends upon when the Dhamma disappears from the world and when the conditions are right, which could be that far off or even longer.
https://www.dhammawiki.com/index.php?title=Metteyya
TRobinson465
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by TRobinson465 »

live.thanuka wrote: Sat Sep 03, 2022 8:27 am I am very interested in search Maithreya Buddha, because I have seen many articles, and I would like to know more about Future Load Buddha, anybody knows the details, please let me know. Thank you.
The Future Lord Buddha Maitreya will be born in an wonderful age. The lifespan will be 80,000 years old, and there will be no disease other than old age, greed and hunger. There will only be one nation in the world, ruled by the universal monarch King Sankha. King Sankha will be a wise and benevolent ruler, so wise will the king of the world of Maitreyas time will be that he will even give up his throne and treasures as as a universal monarch to ordain under and follow the Lord Buddha and the Triple gem, the only true treasures of existence.

https://suttacentral.net/dn26/en/sujato ... ript=latin

There are various texts and commentaries about the future Lord Buddha. A pretty detailed translation of the Pali account can be found here.

https://www.lirilumbini.com/images/liri ... tuart.pdf

A few neat summary points.

"His [Lord Maitreya Buddha's] mother will be a brahmin woman by the name of Brahmavatī and his father, with the name Subrahma, will be the advisor of King Saṅkha. Asoka and Brahmadeva will be his two chief disciples. Sīha will be his attendant. His two chief female disciples will be Padumā and Sumanā. The laymen Sudatta and Saṅgha will be [his] chief male supporters, and the two lay disciples, Yasavatī and Saṅghā, will be his two chief female supporters. [His tree of] awakening will be a Nāga tree, [and] his body will be eighty-eight cubits tall. [His] halo of light will extend for twenty-five yojanas, and he will live for 80,000 years.” (pg 168 of the pdf above)

He is a viriya bodhissatva- A Buddha whose main attribute is perserverence, meaning he pursued perfections for as a Bodhisattva for the longest possible time. In contrast our lord Buddha Gautama was a wisdom bodhisattva who pursued perfections for the minimal amount of time.

The wonderful age of Lord Maitreya is said to be due to all of the extra merit he accrued during his time as a viriya bodhisattva. As our Lord Buddha Gotama was still perfect, supreme, peerless, and incomparable among men and gods, just as Lord Maitreya will be, the extra time Lord Maitreya Buddha spent accumulating merit will make the world he is born into wonderful, with no disease, no war (since there is only one nation) and a long lifespan, since the extra merit he accumulated cannot make him any more perfect than any other Buddha, such as Lord Gautama Buddha, and will instead spillover to make the world he is born into magnificent by our standards.

He will be the final Buddha of the Kalpa with the world system being destroyed sometime after the his dispension, afterwards we will not have the opportunity to learn from a perfectly enlightened one for many aeons until the light of another Buddha's enlightement graces a future world system (so don't miss him!!!).

The one who will be reborn as Maitreya was a monk named Ajita (i think) who ordained under our Buddha. Our Buddha predicted that he will become the future Buddha Maitreya and upon hearing this the wise laypeople of the Buddha's assembly made merit and made a resolution that if they cannot enlighten in this life under our Buddha Gautama, that they be reborn in the time of Maitreya Buddha and enlighten under him.

Do not succumb to the hyper arrogant "nibbana in this life or bust" mindset that is common in english language Buddhist circles, who heretically and evilly vilify merit making and say things like the next life "doesnt matter" or isnt important. Those who say the next life doenst matter is no different than delusional ppl who think only today matters and not tomorrow, therefore do whatever you want today because tomorrow isnt important. Nibbana in this life or bust Buddhists are just as stupid and arrogantly narcissistic as kids who ditch school to go to rap contests because they "will become rappers when grow up anyways". Make the same wise choices of the Buddha's assembly, make merit diligently and make a resolution that the merit allow you to be reborn in the time of Maitreya Buddha to practice under him if you cannot enlighten in this life. That way if you dont enlighten in this life (and lets face it, most of us wont), you actually have something to fall back on, unlike the idiotic kids who ditched school to go to rap contests, but never actually became rappers.
"Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism" - the 14th Dalai Lama

"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
Pasindu
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by Pasindu »

Do not succumb to the hyper arrogant "nibbana in this life or bust" mindset that is common in english language Buddhist circles, who heretically and evilly vilify merit making and say things like the next life "doesnt matter" or isnt important. Those who say the next life doenst matter is no different than delusional ppl who think only today matters and not tomorrow, therefore do whatever you want today because tomorrow isnt important. Nibbana in this life or bust Buddhists are just as stupid and arrogantly narcissistic as kids who ditch school to go to rap contests because they "will become rappers when grow up anyways". Make the same wise choices of the Buddha's assembly, make merit diligently and make a resolution that the merit allow you to be reborn in the time of Maitreya Buddha to practice under him if you cannot enlighten in this life. That way if you dont enlighten in this life (and lets face it, most of us wont), you actually have something to fall back on, unlike the idiotic kids who ditched school to go to rap contests, but never actually became rappers.
Hey! you have wonderfully summerized the details about Maitri Buddha. :twothumbsup:

However, I can't agree with your advice. What is wrong with putting life in the second place and nirvana first? After all, isn't life itself an attachment? So why not try to rid the greed for life sooner than later. In some ways, what you say make sense. It is never a bad thing to have a safety net. But by the way you say "and lets face it, most of us wont" it sounds like you have prioritize d falling to the safety net over climbing to the top :)
And Also, if your safety net is Maitri Buddha's reign, it is going to be a nasty fall. Let me tell you why.

Buddha adviced an anagami monk who wished to attain enlightenment after he went to suddhawasa brahma world, that sins are like feces and that feces smell whether there is little of it or much, so he should not give up effort.

There is much time until Maitri Buddha reign. We fail to archieve our 5 year plans, how about multi million/billion year plans? Ajitha monk will surely see Lord Maitri Buddha because Lord Gauthama Buddha saw and said it. But what guarantee do we have? And the samsara is unpredictable even for the best of us.

Asitha ascetic laughed and cried when he saw
prince Siddhartha. Laughed because he knew
indeed that a saviour has born, but cried
because he weii be dead by then and be born
in an asanya brahma world, where he can not
hear Buddhas dharma. And he will remain
there for many kalpas and once he is out, even
dharma will be long erased from the world.

Devadatta was related to prince Siddhartha in
queen Yshodhara's side, for a while he lived in
the same temple as Buddha, talked to him, he
was well versed in jhana so much so that his
mental prowess was praised even by
Moggallana thero.
And he had potential to be enlightened. But he
failed and went to Avichi hell, when he get out
of it he will become a Pachcheka Buddha. So
someone with that much opportunity and
talent failed to be enlightened when he is right
next to a Buddha.

The reason Buddha had to endure 6 years of
cruel suffering to find the right path is an insult
he dealt to Kassapa Buddha. (Ghatikara Sutta)
So someone who so aspires Buddhahood and
dedicated to attain it at any cost insulted a
Buddha. What protection do we have?

There is a whole vagga in dhammapada containing Buddhas advices and praises to attain enlightenment that very life.

Chakkupala thero's determination to become enlightened was so much so that he spent the entire 3 months of rainy season without sleeping. Because of this his eyesight hindered, medicine were given to him, but when realized they required sleep to take effect, he rejected the medicine. He went blind, but attained enlightenment. And when he came to see lord Buddha, Buddha only praised him.

After finding out that Buddha will be gone from the world in 4 months, Thissa thero distanced himself from other monks and reduced talking to them. Monks complained this to Buddha. When asked, Thissa thero said he wanted to attain enlightenment before Buddha is gone. Buddha praised Thissa thero. (Dhammapada. Sukha vagga)

Buddha has adviced to work toward enlightenment as if your head is on fire. When our head is on fire that is your priority. Would you postpone it until another Buddha arrives?

Buddha has adviced many times how rare human life is, and how rare a Buddha is, and how rare having a chance to listen to dharma is and how rare having the ability to understand dharma is. Imagine how many things need to fit just right in order to satisfy all those conditions?

Buddha's final words were to not postpone things because things are unpredictable and changing.

And lastly, do you seriously believe during our long samsara, these kind of thoughts have not occured to us before? How many times do you think we may have thought, "alright, this one is already gone, I'm gonna try the next time", only to miss the next buddha and his reign because we are in hell or a pretha world that entire time?

I do not mean malice, but only wish to present things in a different light. Because there could be householders reading your post, who are genuinely determined to attain a fruit in buddhism in this life by going all in and becoming a monk. But they could be discouraged and decide to wait it out. Which means you would have helped disrupt their salvation, thus gaining yourself serious bad karma due to spreading false view, in turn disrupting your own goal of meeting Maitri Buddha. So I sincerely hope you will change this view.

:candle:
TRobinson465
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by TRobinson465 »

Pasindu wrote: Tue Sep 06, 2022 3:16 pm
Do not succumb to the hyper arrogant "nibbana in this life or bust" mindset that is common in english language Buddhist circles, who heretically and evilly vilify merit making and say things like the next life "doesnt matter" or isnt important. Those who say the next life doenst matter is no different than delusional ppl who think only today matters and not tomorrow, therefore do whatever you want today because tomorrow isnt important. Nibbana in this life or bust Buddhists are just as stupid and arrogantly narcissistic as kids who ditch school to go to rap contests because they "will become rappers when grow up anyways". Make the same wise choices of the Buddha's assembly, make merit diligently and make a resolution that the merit allow you to be reborn in the time of Maitreya Buddha to practice under him if you cannot enlighten in this life. That way if you dont enlighten in this life (and lets face it, most of us wont), you actually have something to fall back on, unlike the idiotic kids who ditched school to go to rap contests, but never actually became rappers.
Hey! you have wonderfully summerized the details about Maitri Buddha. :twothumbsup:

However, I can't agree with your advice. What is wrong with putting life in the second place and nirvana first? After all, isn't life itself an attachment? So why not try to rid the greed for life sooner than later. In some ways, what you say make sense. It is never a bad thing to have a safety net. But by the way you say "and lets face it, most of us wont" it sounds like you have prioritize d falling to the safety net over climbing to the top :)
Putting nirvana first is fine, like i said, the resolution the Buddha's assembly made was that if and only if they cannot enlighten under our lord buddha in this life, that they be able to enlighten under the next lord Buddha. That was a wise decision on the part of the Buddha's assembly. I am not saying dont prioritize climbing to the top, i am saying dont forget the safety net.

Western Buddhists like to have this belief that having a safety net is detrimental to your ability to climb to the top, i would disagree, having the safety net does not impair your ability to reach the top, and even if it did it would be negligible. When you walk the path to enlightenment you accrue merit anyways, so why not direct that merit to your safety net? When you accrue merit and dont attidhana with where it goes, sure you will be born with an easy and lucky life, but you could still be missing the most important part. Just look at all the fortunate and wealthy people today who have no knowledge of the true path. They were likely people who accumulated great merit but squandered it by not directing it toward ensuring they knew path in a future existence.

Lastly, even if the safety net was detrimental to the final goal (and i dont think it is), now is not the time to decide to go without it. Remember Lord Maitreya is the LAST Buddha of our kappa. meaning you will not even have a chance at the final goal for probably aeons if you miss him. If this was the time of Lord Kakusandha Buddha where you have four Buddhas left in the kappa, the decision to forgo the safety net is not as foolish, because you could still run into one of the other 4 buddhas by luck even if you dont make the wishes/resolutions accordingly. Forgoing the safety net is also not as foolish if you were born in the time Lord Gautama Buddha was alive, because your chances of enlightening were much higher learning directly from the Teacher, and even then people in his time opted for having the safety net, as indicated by the story of him giving Monk Ajita his prophecy. Lastly, if you wanted to forgo the safety net out of some deluded belief that it would help you reach the final goal easier, you should do it in Lord Maitreya's era, not ours. Since he is the last Buddha of the kappa, theres not that much of a downside if you dont reach the final goal in his era since there wont be another Buddha for aeons anyways. But missing Maitreya is a huge downside because then you go from getting another chance at the final goal in less than one kappa, to having to wait another few kappas or more to have another chance.
"Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism" - the 14th Dalai Lama

"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by confusedlayman »

This shows indian population will survive till end of kalpa and india will be world monarch resident and caste system will still be there... astetic culture will be famous
I may be slow learner but im at least learning...
TRobinson465
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by TRobinson465 »

confusedlayman wrote: Wed Sep 07, 2022 7:54 pm This shows indian population will survive till end of kalpa and india will be world monarch resident and caste system will still be there... astetic culture will be famous
Personally i dont really read the fact that Lord Maitreya will be born into a brahmin caste as meaning the caste system as we know if today will still exist. You have to remember for 99.9% of human history and in most of the world today, what family you are born into basically determines the outcome of your life. Even in Egypt and ancient china they had a priest, warrior, merchant, worker class etc. it just wasnt as rigid as India. When i read texts saying Lord Maitreya will be born into a brahmin caste i take it more that he will be born into a family of priests, rather than being born into the very specific and rigid social caste system of India in our time.
"Do not have blind faith, but also no blind criticism" - the 14th Dalai Lama

"The Blessed One has set in motion the unexcelled Wheel of Dhamma that cannot be stopped by brahmins, devas, Maras, Brahmas or anyone in the cosmos." -Dhammacakkappavattana Sutta
live.thanuka
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by live.thanuka »

I believe we do not have fair facts about bodhisattva, and Maithree Buddha, just a few facts exist, but not sure of the true value of that facts. However, do not base your perspective on a few facts, because we do not know so much. Bodhisattva has the power to paint his birth in any Brahmin family, cause he has the power to do anything in this world, so do not predict what he has to be done, he will do what he should be doing, and he will be coming more than 100 Kalps, not years, not even life, so he may find his power to spread the Dharma (Dharma is the knowledge - depth system of the world, how that it works).

Namo Buddha,
Mettha.
All is well.
Last edited by live.thanuka on Fri Sep 16, 2022 10:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
thomasfrank
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by thomasfrank »

When the teachings of Gautama Buddha have entirely deteriorated, Maitreya, the future Buddha currently a quordle bodhisattva living in Tushita heaven, will return to earth to preach the dharma once more.
Akusala
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by Akusala »

Another perspective on the future Buddha Maitreya: it is possible that this is a later addition/development, as argued by Analayo in his recent book "Early Buddhist Oral Tradition", as follows:

Image
Image

Bear in mind, the future Buddha Maitreya plays a very important role in the Mahayana tradition.

I think that if it helps you with your current practice, then by all means believe in it. But, if it makes you procrastinate, for example, I will wait until the Buddha Maitreya comes and will then practice, then the belief is not useful, imo.
Last edited by Akusala on Wed Oct 19, 2022 2:32 am, edited 1 time in total.
live.thanuka
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by live.thanuka »

thomasfrank wrote: Mon Oct 17, 2022 8:18 am When the teachings of Gautama Buddha have entirely deteriorated, Maitreya, the future Buddha currently a quordle bodhisattva living in Tushita heaven, will return to earth to preach the dharma once more.
Who told you Gauthama Buddha's dhamma has entirely deteriorated, remember Dhamma will be expanded for another 2500 years, Maithree Bodhisattva has to come to start the engine, but now the car engine is getting weak, however, the next bodhisattva's work was to turn that engine, and rebuild the engine, and apply into the car which had been changed, and, then drive another 2500 years. That is Bodhisatva's and Load Buddha's powers, that is infinite.
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Re: Do you know Maitreya Buddha? and his two chief disciples?

Post by Red Belly »

A fascinating discussion.

"I think that if it helps you with your current practice, then by all means believe in it. But, if it makes you procrastinate, for example, I will wait until the Buddha Maitreya comes and will then practice, then the belief is not useful, imo."

This is excellent advice, I think!
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