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MAITREYA

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Originally appearing in Volume V17, Page 447 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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MAITREYA , the name of the future See also:

Buddha. In one of the See also:works included in the See also:Pali See also:canon, the Digha See also:Nikaya, a prophecy is put into the Buddha's mouth that after the decay of the See also:religion another Buddha, named 1bletteyya, will arise who will have thousands of followers instead of the hundreds that the See also:historical Buddha had. This is the only mention of the future Buddha in the canon. For some centuries we hear nothing more about him. But when, in the See also:period just before and after the See also:Christian era, some Buddhists began to write in See also:Sanskrit instead of Pali, they composed new works in which Maitreya (the Sanskrit See also:form of Metteyya) is more often mentioned, and details are given as to his birthplace and See also:history. These are entirely devised in See also:imitation of the details of the See also:life of the historical Buddha, and have no See also:independent value. Only the names differ. The document in which the See also:original prophecy occurs was put together at some date during the 1st See also:century after the Buddha's See also:death (see NIKAYA). It is impossible to say whether tradition was, at that See also:time, correct in attributing it to the Buddha. But whoever See also:chose the name (it is a patronymic or See also:family, not a See also:personal name), had no doubt regard to the etymological connexion with the word for " love," which is Metta in Pali. This would only be one of those punning allusions so frequent in See also:Indian literature. See also:Long afterwards, probably in the 6th or 7th century, a reformer in See also:south See also:India, at a time when the incoming See also:flood of ritualism and superstition threatened to overwhelm the See also:simple teaching of the earlier See also:Buddhism, wrote a Pali poem, entitled the Anagata Vanua.

In this he described the See also:

golden See also:age of the future when, in the time of Metteyya, See also:kings, ministers and See also:people would See also:vie one with the other in the See also:maintenance of the original simple See also:doctrine, and in the restoration of the See also:good times of old. The other See also:side also claimed the authority of the future Buddha for their innovations. Statues of Maitreya are found in Buddhist temples, of all sects, at the See also:present See also:day; and the belief in his future See also:advent is universal among Buddhists. (T. W. R.

End of Article: MAITREYA

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