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Maitreya the Antichrist?
Hello there. This is my 1st post ever. I'm a Christian and I've been wondering if there's evidence/arguments that Maitreya is/is not the Bible's Antichrist.
I want your opinion on this, it is important. Is there a chance that Metteyya (Maitreya) was NOT prophesized by Buddha since he is only mention ONCE in the Tipitaka in a text that looks nothing like the rest? Could it be just something that the writters of the Tipitaka added in (it happens, from what I heard).
----Thanks
I want your opinion on this, it is important. Is there a chance that Metteyya (Maitreya) was NOT prophesized by Buddha since he is only mention ONCE in the Tipitaka in a text that looks nothing like the rest? Could it be just something that the writters of the Tipitaka added in (it happens, from what I heard).
----Thanks
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Comments
No. You are confusing two different bodies of myth. You might as well imagine congruence between Maitreya, King Arthur, Frederick Barbarossa and the Second Coming. They are similar but different.
Depending on how fundamentalist a Christian you are, you may feel that if someone is not with Christ, then they are against Christ (rather GW Bush-esque, but there you go)
Nothing in Buddhism is based upon anything in Christianity because it pre-dates Christianity by half a millenium (granted some Sutras were written in the CE but theoretically they were originally spoken by Shakyamuni.) and in a different part of the world and different culture.
So if you want to look at Buddhist (or Hindu) mythologies, and "prophesies" you will find that they are of course not "Christian". You then have to decide if you think they are therefore anti-christian or not.
I would suggest they are not anti-christian...they are just not Christian.
Your question is a bit like asking a piano player if it is anti-piano to use a pick when playing guitar.
The true Maitreya is the future Buddha, who is prophesied to appear after all remnants of the current dharma have disappeared from the world - not something that will happen anytime soon, since the teachings of Shayamuni Buddha still exist and are flourishing.
His name derives from the word maitri, which means loving-kindness. As stated by Shutoku, many figures not associated with Christianity are considered to be the "anti-Christ." Considering that Maitreya stands for peace, love, and equality, this is a far cry from the qualities of oppression, hate, and terror that the "anti-Christ" would represent.
How about the Bible was complied Many years after Jesus death and Buddhism came about 500 years before Jesus birth, Maitreya was predicted as the Buddha yet to come, judging from Shakyamuni's teachings as he was also a Buddha, I dont think christians have anything to worry about, Buddha only advocated Training the mind in the way to happiness and perfection of morale conduct, All Buddhas do this. And Maitreya will be no exception.
Well said
nice to meet you......
I do hope you will enjoy your stay with us.
350 years ago, Gerrard Winstanley, one of the True Levellers ("Diggers") at St George's Hill, Weybridge, maintained that the Second Coming was not an apocalyptic event somewhere in the distant future but was the rising and 'indwelling' of Christ in the heart of the believer here and now. Remarkably similar to what you say, Kurra. When I read his writings for the first time, decades ago, it changed my understanding of the Gospels entirely.
Thank you, and thank you all so much for replying to my new thread. :rolleyes:
I hope that the "best thread ever" comment did not intend to mock me. I do not know all that much about Buddhism and I am simply willing to learn. I am terribly sorry if I sound dumb at any point but I can't help it.
But, is there a chance that Metteyya was an allegory or even NOT a prophecy of Buddha?
Again, thank you all.
Is that what you want to hear?
I want to hear whether it's true or not.
Remember what Pilate asked Jesus.
I know this thread didn't get a lot of replies, but as you can see none of them have alluded to the possibility of Maitreya's prophecy being falsified. It makes sense to me - there were Buddhas before Shayamuni, and there will be Buddhas after him. The next Buddha of this epoch will be called Maitreya. I've read about Maitreya in more than one text, but I can't recall the sources.
Any people currently claiming to be Maitreya are either severely misguided or criminally deceptive. It was specifically stated that Maitreya will not arrive until thousands of years after the current dharma has disappeared from the world, during an extremely dark period. So if, during your lifetime, someone claims that they are Maitreya (as many before have done, and as some are currently claiming) they are incorrect and you should not regard them as the true Maitreya. Certainly none of us will see the next Buddha in our current lifetime!
It's possible, and to be honest with you, we really don't give it much thought.
When something is open to wonderment and speculation, the most advisable thing - no matter what we practice, or follow - is to accept that some things cannot be tested or verified, and should simply be left as they are...
The important thing for any Buddhist, is merely to apply what they know for themselves, and practice diligently.
The same can be said for any calling.
As an ex-Catholic myself, I left the speculation alone, and when I came to Buddhism, I did the same thing.
The Buddha exhorts us to test all teachings until we are satisfied of three things:
There is an answer, there is no answer, there may be an answer, but we probably will never be around to find out whether it is so or not.
In all three cases, just go with it, and carry on.....
It may seem important, but it is not. Just study and practice to achieve freedom from suffering and ignore irrelevancies.
I actually think the title to this thread is one of the best I have ever seen, its funny and provocative.
And the question itself shows some pretty unique thinking on your part.
So, I'll say it again.
Best thread ever.
Hey thanks!
Hello Kurra. I'm sorry but I'm not familliar with Mount Sumeru and the human spine...
That's okay, it's a complex and offtopic subject that eventually leads to theories of mantra. (ranging from the profound to batshit crazy) If you want, you could take it as allegorical for now.
And the beast in Revelation, the character that most Christians equate with a prophesied future Anti-Christ has already lived and died. The passages in Revelation referring to the beast were not too subtle references to the Emperor Nero, arguably the greatest enemy Christians have ever had.
So, despite the fact that Maitreya is from an unrelated tradition and doesn't have any of the attributes of the beast from revelation, or a false prophet, he can't be the Anti-Christ as the Anti-Christ isn't a prophesied figure but a man who died nearly 2,000 years ago.
caz isn't your avatar an image of the Buddha Maitreya?
Certainly is
Well now you've gone and changed to a different one
Who the? Oh, it's you! Have you got a new wig or something
All examples of nostalgic pain projected into an idyllic future. Once we deal with the nonsense that informs the nostalgia, the 'once-and-future king' disappears. Ceasing to cling to what is to come, we have much more chance to open the eyes of our minds to the View (rigpa/vidya).
The View of things as they truly are is yet another aspect of commonality with the Gospel message that the Basileia ('kingdom') is here, now, to be perceived 'within us'.
With the important difference that the Buddha is dead and gone, never to return (the view of some re the "Buddha Boy" notwithstanding). Maitreya would be a different "person".
Still the same person friend
Notice the Crown adorning stupa and the Turning the wheel of Dharma Mudra, With the Holy Dharma wheel arising from one flower and the precious long necked vase from the other, This is unmistakably Maitreya
Same Wig Different colour
The subtext is the same: a saviour arises when everything is terrible, in this case the Dharma having been lost.
Of course we also have the paradoxical statements that the Buddha made about the Tathagata and death.
I don't know about those. Can you "enlighten" me?
Because I see human existence as analogous to the existence of a wave in the middle of an ocean, I see the cessation of a human's existence as analogous to the subsuming of a wave back into the ocean, once its energy has expired. The human and their energy (or life, if you like) is subsumed back into nature, whence it sprang, back into the universe. That is why I think that, when the last petal of the lotus has been peeled back, we find at its heart ... nothing. So, for me, the Buddha is gone forever, notwithstanding his refusal to answer the question of what happens to a tathagata after death.
The Buddha may have passed into parinirvana, but his teachings, his dharma body remains.
Siddhartha is gone forever, but the Buddha lives in everyone of us.
Love and Light,
Nidish
from: Anuradha Sutta SN 22.86
Nidish,
I did not use the word 'myth' to mean a hoax.
The rest is just navel fluff.....
Oh that's what that thing is, I thought it was just a cyst.
I think Ajahn Chah said this.
The last line of The Heart Sutra is "Gate Gate Paaragate Paarasamgate Bodhi Svaaha" which translates - "Gone, Gone, gone to the other shore; Gone completely to the other shore. Svaha"... I guess you can understand from the above... It is gone completely to the other shore... But not "Out" of existence... It is still there, but it is also not there...