The Seven Buddhas before Shakyamuni Buddha

PremaSagar

What were their names ?
What do we know about their physical characteristics, pastimes, and lifespans ?
Are there any sutras available in English that expound on these seven Buddhas ?

vinlyn

The thing that really bothers me about this topic (not that I'm against discussing it) is that we have so little real evidence of the life of "our" Buddha, and yet we are expected to just sort of believe in 7 Buddhas in prehistoric times. To me, topics like this are the real imponderables.

Let me expand just a bit. I have chatted with Buddhists who criticism Mormonism because the Mormons can't demonstrate the actual existence of the Golden Plates. And criticize Christianity because Christians can't actually produce the Ten Commandments or the Arc Of The Covenant. How is that different than us Buddhists not being able to provide actual evidence of the previous 7 Buddhas?

Jeffrey

The thing that really bothers me about this topic (not that I'm against discussing it) is that we have so little real evidence of the life of "our" Buddha, and yet we are expected to just sort of believe in 7 Buddhas in prehistoric times. To me, topics like this are the real imponderables.

Let me expand just a bit. I have chatted with Buddhists who criticism Mormonism because the Mormons can't demonstrate the actual existence of the Golden Plates. And criticize Christianity because Christians can't actually produce the Ten Commandments or the Arc Of The Covenant. How is that different than us Buddhists not being able to provide actual evidence of the previous 7 Buddhas?

@vinylyn I think that the answer is that the buddhists who are criticizing have fewer 'supernatural beliefs'. I haven't heard my sangha to be criticizing?? I think even theravada which seems to have less such supernatural believes in things such as: buddha is always right and psychic powers.

DaltheJigsaw

Awesome thread!:) Thank you! And who said there were 7?

PremaSagar

Awesome thread!:) Thank you! And who said there were 7?

I read in Master Nan Huai-Chin's book titled 'Basic Buddhism' that usually 5 or 7 Buddhas are usually believed to have existed before our teacher Shakyamuni

vinlyn

Of course, if you believe it, then you can't believe in evolution.

federica

Not quite sure why one would discount the other....

vinlyn

Modern humans have only been around for about 200,000 years. Dīpankara supposedly lived on earth for over 100,000 years, and there were supposedly over 20 Buddhas before that, they supposedly had long periods of time between them...seems like you run out of time...unless you're saying the early Buddhas were either not human or predated humankind...which doesn't seem to make much sense.

Or perhaps what little I've read was wrong.

Spaceless

According to scripture, the next to be buddha in jambudvipa is the fifth, Buddha Mairetya

vinlyn

So you see, here we have a problem. One person has read 7. I have read 24. Another has read 4.

Jeffrey

My teacher has taught me that there are an infinite number of buddhas on a clod of dirt.

ThailandTom

Who says they have to be confined to this planet anyway.. The multiverse is quite big you know, I am sure there are other life forms of inttelect that could generate such states of consciouss as that of a buddha

Cinorjer

Yeah, early texts mention seven ancient Buddhas with names and details of their lives, but actually list something like 28 in total and the last five belong to the present age of humanity, something like that. The Buddhas were supposed to all have lived around Nepal and present day India, stood twenty cubits high, had life spans of thousands of years each, performed miracles, etc. Gautama Buddha is also supposed to have had a sacred white elephant appear to his mother to announce his conception, etc.

These religious myths should be studied for what they say about the religion and all religions, not dismissed as obvious fables or used as excuses to digress into arguments about having to believe in a literal interpretation or not. What does it say about people that our deepest beliefs come in common forms that echo throughout different cultures? "There were giants back then, people who were bigger, had longer lives, performed great deads." And the miraculous birth is one of the strongest mythic elements we have.

It tells me the people who studied, taught, and pieced together what we call Buddhism were human, and that our universal search for meaning leaves traces in everything we do. Nothing is created in a vacuum.

caz

Shakyamuni is the 4th founding Buddha of this fortunate aeon.
The first Buddha was Krakucchanda Buddha, the second, Kanakamuni Buddha, and the third, Kasyapa Buddha. The fourth Buddha is our present Sakyamuni Buddha. The fifth Buddha will be Maitreya Buddha.

person

Shakyamuni is the 4th founding Buddha of this fortunate aeon.
The first Buddha was Krakucchanda Buddha, the second, Kanakamuni Buddha, and the third, Kasyapa Buddha. The fourth Buddha is our present Sakyamuni Buddha. The fifth Buddha will be Maitreya Buddha.

This was my understanding too. There are supposed to be 1,000 Buddhas during this fortunate aeon. I'd be curious to find out more about 7 or 28 previous Buddhas.

If there were previous Buddhas I don't think it would have been possible for more than one to have lived on this planet. The old cosmology Buddha taught was that the world had a large mountain in the middle (mount Meru) surrounded by 4 continents and 8 subcontinents. The continent Buddha lived on was the southern one. Obviously this can't be taken literally. Buddha wasn't a geography teacher, I'm not sure why he mentioned it at all, but for people living in India at the time living on a continent south of a giant mountain would make sense. Anyway, I'm just saying its not really possible to take something like this %100 literally in the face of modern scientific knowledge.

vinlyn

Thank you, Person...but as you can see, some here are taking it literally.

DaltheJigsaw

Awesome thread!:) Thank you! And who said there were 7?

I read in Master Nan Huai-Chin's book titled 'Basic Buddhism' that usually 5 or 7 Buddhas are usually believed to have existed before our teacher Shakyamuni

Oh, thank you! Interesting!

DaltheJigsaw

So you see, here we have a problem. One person has read 7. I have read 24. Another has read 4.

I ready many, many and many! No real number.

I_AM_THAT

The real answer is to contemplate the Buddha that is within...

vinlyn

The real answer is to contemplate the Buddha that is within...

Yes, and that's challenging enough.

As one monk in Thailand told me: "Easy to learn about Buddhism. Buy a book. Difficult to learn about yourself."

I_AM_THAT

As a teacher talked to her students about the path; she stated how she had the deepest respect for anyone who truly took on this path of self awareness and spirituality. Since this will be the hardest thing they would ever do in this life, and yet the most rewarding.

All the answers to life's questions can be found within... Just have to be brave enough to open those doors.

Arthurbodhi

Hi.
I read somewhere that the previous buddhas are very similar in name and number with the jainism saints, Tirthankaras.

Maybe some sincretism?

You know something about it?

PS: sorry for my poor english, also I'm new to this forum so blessing to all

Spaceless

The seven buddhas and five buddhas as in question are probably mentioned in the Vajrayana's himalayana art to be -

Seven Supreme Buddhas : Buddha Vipashyin; Shikhin; Vishvabhu; Krakuchanda; Kanakamuni; Kashyapa and Shakamuni. Each individual buddha has its profounding vows of inherent meritoracy to liberate living beings.

The five Buddhas are likely to be mistaken as five symbolic buddhas - Buddha Vairocana; Amitabha; Akshobhya; Ratnasambhava and Amoghasiddhi. Each has its profounding liberative bliss - for instance Akshobhya
Akshobhya, Buddha (Tibetan: mi kyu pa, sang gye): a principal buddha within Vajrayana Buddhism residing in the eastern quarter of a mandala and a minor buddha within the sutra tradition of Mahayana Buddhism.

"Arising in the eastern direction is Akshobhya on an elephant, lotus and moon throne; with a body blue in colour the right hand is placed in the mudra of pressing down." (Dragpa Gyaltsen, 1147-1216).

Occupying a central role in Vajrayana Buddhism, Akshobhya, by some accounts, is Lord of the 2nd of the Five Buddha Families of tantra and found throughout all 4 tantra classifications most notably in the anuttarayoga class. Akshobhya is also mentioned in several Mahayana sutras, the Vimalakirti Nirdesa being the most famous. It was in Abhirati, the pureland of Akshobhya, attainable only by 8th level bodhisattvas, where the famous Tibetan yogi Milarepa and the scholar Sakya Pandita are said to have obtained complete buddhahood.

Akshobhya, meaning unshakeable, is one of many Buddhas found in Mahayana and Vajrayana Buddhism. He is described in the Mahayana Sutras of Northern Buddhism and in the Tantra literature. Although a relatively minor figure in the Sutras Akshobhya is of major importance in the Tantras occupying a central role in Vajrayana Buddhism at all levels.
Be love, be peace and be liberatively bliss :cool:

Jason

There are seven sammasambuddhas mentioned in the earlier texts: Vipassi, Sikhi, Vessabhu, Kakusandha, Konagamana, Kassapa, and Gotama. Later texts added more, however. The Buddhavamsa, for example, lists twenty-eight, the seven listed above plus twenty-one more preceding Vipassi: Tanhankara, Medhankara, Saranankara, Dipankara, Kondanna, Mangala, Sumana, Revata, Sobhita, Anomadassi, Paduma, Narada, Padumuttara, Sumedha, Sujata, Piyadassi, Atthadassi, Dhammadassi, Siddhattha, Tissa, and Phussa (details are only given about twenty-five of them, however). Apparently, the Lalitavistara has a list of fifty-four, while the Mahavastu lists more than a hundred; although I don't have either list.