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Maitreya?
Love-N-Peace
Veteran
Is Maitreya the future Buddha and will be born when all Buddhism is lost? If that's correct would it be if there are simply no practitioners of Buddhism or because Buddhism not only has no practitioners but has been lost from historical documents? Either way I'm sure we'd all be long, long dead by then. If the human species is alive at all...
All the best,
Nickidoodle Jellybean
All the best,
Nickidoodle Jellybean
0
Comments
Or we will have reincarnated 100 times
When Maitreya appears friend all traces of Shakyamunis teachings will have vanished from the face of the earth, Not even his name will be known.
If (when could still be argued) the human race does die out in some appropriately silly and selfish means, what would happen to the teachings? Taking the premise of rebirth as fact (I'm still not sold on that one), this would imply we all would be stuck in some alternate form - such as a protozoan blob somewhere. Would Maitreya have to learn to communicate compassionately with chemical signals to us goopy beings?
I'm sceptical about rebirth but my minds open to it. As you'll see by my signature one life leads to another
Humans are difficult to exterminate
Even Steven Hawking is now saying we need to start colonising space, When in built survival Habits take over we will certainly find away to keep the species alive.
I doubt many animals would have the apptitude or need to evolve anymore then they are.
<dl><dd>"will lose their doubts, and the torrents of their cravings will be cut off: free from all misery they will manage to cross the ocean of becoming; and, as a result of Maitreya's teachings, they will lead a holy life. No longer will they regard anything as their own, they will have no possession, no gold or silver, no home, no relatives! But they will lead the holy life of chastity under Maitreya's guidance. They will have torn the net of the passions, they will manage to enter into trances, and theirs will be an abundance of joy and happiness, for they will lead a holy life under Maitreya's guidance." (Trans. in Conze 1959:241)</dd></dl>found wikipedia.....
Our planet is plunged into ice ages and the sun expands ever nearer all the time, we're building houses every where, cutting down trees, stopping rivers, draining lakes, polluting the air and ocean. Yellowstone National Park's super volcano could go off at any minute and a meteor could be heading for our planet as we speak. Animals'll always need to evolve
I can see why Buddha left his kid(s
Don't like the sound of that... relatives are important, and chastity isn't natural (sorry monks).
Sorry about that... I'm obsessed with pictures today
Interestingly enough, from my random overheard buddhist discussions, I remember someone saying that the next Buddha (or the one after), would communicate with only smells, or something, as this will be the best way to communicate the dharma to the current 'form' of humans.
It seems rather dubious that the Buddhist teachings would completely vanish before the next Buddha clocks in for his shift. If the teachings are, after all, essentially just expounded explanations of the nature of reality, then someone(thing) is always going to be closer to the 'truth' - even if it's not memorised from a verbal teaching or etched into a bit of moldy bark.
I've always felt that there was something more to just being alive and working till death, ever since I was little, and when I first read about the precepts, it just clicked that here was what I'd been trying to live. If someone as monkey-minded and ignorant as myself has that feeling - surely there will always be a being out there whom will keep the status quo somewhat afloat :rolleyes:
Sniff? S sniff sn snuff snuff snifflesnuff snufflesniff...
The Five Precepts
Do Not Sniff Bad Sniffs
Do Not Be Attached To The Sniff
Do Not Let The Sniff Control You
Do Not Be Deluded By The Sniff
Sniff Correctly To Reach Sniffarna
A Buddha cannot appear while the teachings of another Buddha are extant, because they would already know about them. They would be an arahant, perhaps, but not a Buddha, because a Buddha makes it on their own, without having access to the Dhamma except through their own insight.
LoL!!! I know this is getting a little silly, but speaking of smells... :ot:
On topic: Hindmost; that seems to me that I can conclude that a future Buddha is merely a wiser individual whom had the unfortunate burden of coming up with an entire teaching system all over again. It would also imply that there are likely a few Buddhas running around already, but don't have to work so hard yet!
In which case, assuming there will be an amount of arahant-level people (whee, I'm a level 35 Buddhist!
I'm interested - what's the story about past ages were the teachings were 'lost'? (How can you lose something that's inherent in existence anyway?)