The Buddha's Second Coming: The Maitreya

Wisdom Tellers, Nov. 24, 2023; Eds., Wisdom Quarterly

The Future Buddha: The Tale of Bodhisattva Maitreya

(Wisdom Tellers) Discover the incredible story of Maitreya, the future Buddha known for boundless love and wisdom! Follow his journey towards enlightenment and learn about his teachings that promise hope and kindness. Let's uncover the legacy of this compassionate figure and his impact on the world.

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Messianic Buddhism?

Apocalyptic Buddhists await the Maitreya

Could there really be a Messianic Buddhism? There certainly is. (Tibetan Buddhism, for example, is obsessed with the Future Buddha and not so much interested in the historical one and his Teachings, even though they'll be the same Teachings).

There is a belief in the Buddha's "second coming." Of course, this is an oversimplification because it is not the historical Buddha Shakyamuni returning so much as it is another bodhisattva ("being bent on supreme enlightenment") arising. That buddha's name will be Maitreya, the "Messiah" of sorts, the Buddha-to-come.

In the Pali canon of Theravada Buddhism, pejoratively referred to as Hinayana or "Lesser Vehicle" Buddhism, which it is not, he is known as Metteyya. The last Hinayana tradition was the Sarvastivada, which was destroyed by Mahayana Buddhism.

Ninety percent of the Buddhism in the world today is of the Mahayana sort, with only ten percent being Theravada or "Teaching of the Earliest Enlightened Elders" of the Buddha's time. Theravada is a back to basics revivalism of what the historical person taught, whereas Mahayana is a kind of catholicism or universalist teaching, more Hinduism than Gautama-Buddha-Dharma.