Mahayana Buddhism by Paul Williams

Author:Paul Williams
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-203-42847-4
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Some Bodhisattvas

Maitreya

The truth that the Buddha discovered and taught was not unique to him. It is the true way of things, and ‘whether Tathāgatas arise or do not arise the true way of things remains’. The idea that there were Buddhas previous to Śākyamuni must have originated fairly early, perhaps during the lifetime of the Buddha himself, and it is scarcely a dramatic inference to deduce from this that there will be further Buddhas in the future. Moreover, if there are future Buddhas then the being who is to become the very next Buddha in this world must already exist and be far advanced on his Bodhisattva path. That being is Maitreya (Pali: Metteyya). Maitreya is the only present Bodhisattva with a ‘celestial’ status accepted by both the Mahāyāna and the Mainstream Buddhist traditions.22

A version of the story of Maitreya is contained in a Sanskrit work, the Maitreyavyākaraṇa, the Prediction of Maitreya, which may also have been an important text in establishing a Mahāyāna cult of Maitreya.23 Life under the Buddha Maitreya will take place in a type of Buddhist millennium. This time is commonly (but by no means always) thought to be very far in the distant future. At that time gods, men and other beings will worship Maitreya and

will lose their doubts, and the torrents of their cravings will be cut off: free from all misery they will manage to cross the ocean of becoming; and, as a result of Maitreya’s teachings, they will lead a holy life. No longer will they regard anything as their own, they will have no possessions, no gold or silver, no home, no relatives! But they will lead the holy life of chastity under Maitreya’s guidance. They will have torn the net of the passions, they will manage to enter into the trances, and theirs will be an abundance of joy and happiness; for they will lead a holy life under Maitreya’s guidance.

(Conze 1959: 241)

In a Theravāda context to the present day it is not uncommon to pray to be reborn on this earth at the time when Maitreya descends, there to become a monk and attain enlightenment under his tutelage. Maitreya scriptures were being translated into Chinese from at least the beginning of the fourth century CE24 and subsequently the story of Maitreya provided an impetus for quasi-messianic or millenarian movements in China and further East Asia, associated sometimes with leaders who claimed to be prophets or incarnations of Maitreya. The implication is that through appropriate action now, even revolutionary action, the advent of Maitreya might be dramatically hastened. There were apparently nine such movements in China in the fifth and early sixth centuries alone. Their history was often extremely violent, and Maitreya-inspired movements were significant in the fall of the Chinese Yuan (Mongol) dynasty in the mid-fourteenth century.25 In Japan, the Shingon founder Kūkai (Kōbō Daishi) is supposed still to be in meditation on the top of Mt Kōya awaiting the coming of Maitreya. Following him, other Shingon meditators have

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