The Origin of the Concept of “Future Buddha”

Safwan Darshams

Most Buddhist traditions agree that the history of Buddhist practice can be considered as a succession of three periods, with varying length of duration.

For example, a prevailing view in Mahayana traditions refers to the Three Stages (or the Three Days) of the Dharma: The Former, Middle and Latter Day (which coincides with the current time we live in):

  • The Former period lasted 500 years after Shakyamuni Buddha’s passing (and in other accounts it lasted 1000 years). It was a time when the sutras were recorded and preserved by monastic practice.

  • The following stage was the Middle period, which stretched over 1000 years, during which various schools steadily developed and branched, with an increased dependency on rituals and focus on formalising the practice.  

  • The Latter period, when the traditional teachings of Shakyamuni Buddha lose their power to benefit people, and it is known as the “period of decline”.  It is described as the time of confusion and conflicts in society resulting in great sufferings among the people.  The duration of this Latter period is debatable among schools - but it is generally viewed as several thousands of years. 

Decline of Buddhism as a condition for a Future Buddha to appear

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Traditional Buddhism (Theravada and most Mahayana schools) teach that this predicted decline and disintegration of the early teachings of the Buddha will inevitably create a spiritual vacuum and hence the necessity to renew Buddism again.  To renew Buddhism would - according to traditional Buddhism - require the emergence of a “new Buddha”.

This view presents the origin of the concept of a new or future Buddha, as - for example - the  Buddha Dharma Education Association  explains:

“Buddhism having disappeared, a new Buddha will appear who will again turn the Wheel of the Law.

This future Buddha is still in the Tusita heaven, in the state of a Bodhisattva”.

 Although Theravada sutras did not specifically teach about the stage of “Bodhisattva”, yet scholars mention the concept of “bodhisattva Maitreya”- as also do various Mahayana schools, such as, for example:

  Tibetan Buddhism:  

“Maitreya is a bodhisattva revered by Buddhists of most schools ….. He is

 currently believed to be functioning in the Tushita heaven,

and will be born on earth ……"

Conflicting beliefs undermining the concept of Future Buddha

The teaching of new Buddha creates various problems for Traditional Buddhism:

  • There is no Bodhisattva practice in Heaven:  In Mahayana Buddhism, the Bodhisattva practice is defined as being “among the people”, and never in “Heaven”.  A Bodhisattva is concerned about relieving the sufferings of people, and the sufferings of people are here, on “Earth”.  Even if it is taken as a metaphor - a Bodhisattva “practicing Buddhism in Heaven” is inconsistent with the true practice of Bodhisattva among the suffering people in the saha world.

  • Conflict with the teaching of Buddhanature:  If the prediction of a “Future Buddha” is not a metaphor, but referring to a “certain disciple of the Buddha” (whose name was Maitreya), then this concept (of signalling out Maitreya as a Future Buddha) is contradictory with the aim of Buddhism itself.  Buddhism is about revealing the Budhanature of all practicing individuals -  not just one of the Buddha’s disciples.  

According to Mahayana tradition - and in particular according to the Lotus Sutra  all people - not only Maitreya - possess a Buddhanature.  If becoming a Buddha is the same as fully revealing one’s inherent Buddhanature - then the concept of only-Maitreya becoming a Buddha is in conflict with the teaching of Buddhanature as a potential existing in all individuals.

  • A new Buddha has no new teachings to convey:  Shakyamuni Buddha was capable of revealing the Dharma, and the Dharma is eternal in its aspects. Buddhist principles and truths (such as Impermanence, Interconnectedness, Dependent Origination, Sunyata, the Law of cause and effect…etc) are beyond time or space, and such principles do not “decline”.  This means that an assumed Future Buddha has nothing new to add to Buddhism. 
Maitreya as a function of Compassion, not a particular person

The Lotus Sutra teaches that the Buddha’s compassion led him to preach gradually through expedient means.  The previously suggested “Future Buddha” was only a provisional concept.

In its chapter 15, the Lotus Sutra explains that Maitreya represents pre-Lotus sutras prediction about the future of Buddhism.  Now in the Lotus Sutra, Maitreya is presented as a “function of protection” to those whom the Buddha entrusted the mission of propagating Buddhism in the future,  In chapter 23, (Medicine King) of the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha declared that Buddhism will never decline - and that it will thrive into the future to benefit all people.

The Buddha called his emissaries of future propagation of Buddhism as

“Bodhisattvas of the Earth” - a clear message of abolishing the concept of “Bodhisattva of Heaven”.

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