15 Facts About Maitreya

The arrival of Maitreya is prophesied to occur during an era when the teachings of Gautama Buddha have been forgotten by most of the terrestrial world.

Maitreya is the earliest bodhisattva around whom a cult developed and is mentioned in scriptures from the 3rd century CE.

Maitreya has been employed in a millenarian role by many non-Buddhist religions in the past, such as Theosophy, the White Lotus, as well as by modern new religious movements, such as Yiguandao.

Name Maitreya is derived from the Sanskrit word maitri "friendship", which is in turn derived from the noun mitra "friend".

The religious belief of Maitreya apparently developed around the same time as that of Amitabha, as early as the 3rd century CE.

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Maitreya is flanked by his two acolytes, the brothers Asanga and Vasubandhu, who founded the Yogacara tradition.

Once Maitreya becomes a buddha, he will rule over the Ketumati pure land, an earthly paradise sometimes associated with the city of Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, India, and in other descriptions, the Shambhala.

Maitreya's arising would be no different from the arising of Gautama Buddha, as he achieved full enlightenment as a human being and died, entering parinibbana .

In Mahayana schools, Maitreya is traditionally said to have revealed the Five Treatises of Maitreya through Asanga.

Maitreya will be the fifth and future Buddha of the bhadrakalpa, and his arrival will occur after the teachings of Gautama Buddha are no longer practiced.

Scriptures say that Maitreya will attain bodhi in seven days, by virtue of his many lives of preparation for buddhahood similar to those reported in the Jataka tales.

Maitreya will be born to the Brahmanas, Tubrahma and Brahmavadi in Ketumati, which will be ruled by King Sankha, a Chakravarti.

In much of his writing, Nichiren mentions the traditional Buddhist views on Maitreya but explains that the propagation of the Eternal Dharma of the Lotus Sutra was entrusted by Shakyamuni to the Bodhisattvas of earth:.

Name Maitreya means 'Compassionate One' and designates the Votaries of the Lotus Sutra.

Maitreya grows the flower while Shakyamuni cannot, but the usurper steals it while the creator sleeps.