Maitreya, the future Buddha
In Buddhism, Maitreya is the future Buddha, who will appear on earth in a coming world period and renew the teaching. His name (Sanskrit Maitreya, Pali Metteyya) derives from maitri, the Sanskrit word for benevolent loving-kindness, which appears in Pali as metta.
He is the only bodhisattva figure venerated in Theravada Buddhism as well as in the Mahāyāna, and thus occupies a special position within the pan-Buddhist pantheon.
Table of Contents
Canonical Basis
The oldest evidence is found in the Cakkavatti-Sihanada-Sutta (Digha Nikaya 26). The text describes a cycle of decline and renewal of the teaching and announces the appearance of Metteyya at the end of this cycle.
He is described as a universal teacher who will work under ideal social conditions and set the wheel of the teaching in motion anew.
The same motif appears in the Anagatavamsa, a medieval Pali-language chronicle of the future buddhas, as well as more extensively in the Sanskrit text Maitreyavyakarana (around the 4th to 5th century of our era), which survives in Tibetan and Chinese translation.
In the Lotus Sutra (Saddharmapundarika, chapter 1) Maitreya appears as the bodhisattva who leads the assembly to the instruction of Shakyamuni. In the Maitreyasamiti, a Central Asian Tocharian drama of the 8th century, his future activity is dramatized in epic form.
Tuṣita Heaven
According to traditional teaching, Maitreya resides in the Tuṣita heaven, the fourth of the six god-realms of the world of desire. There he waits as a bodhisattva for the moment of his final rebirth. This sojourn in Tuṣita is a religio-historically important motif.
It reflects the conviction that Shakyamuni too, before his incarnation as Siddhartha, dwelt in Tuṣita, and thus emphasizes Maitreya’s special status as legitimate successor. Klaus-Josef Notz (“Buddhismus”, Stuttgart 2002) describes Tuṣita as a cosmological place where the “announcement” of the future Buddha is already settled, without the incarnation having yet taken place.
Iconography
The depiction of Maitreya differs markedly from other buddhas. He often appears not in the full lotus posture, but in the European seated posture (bhadrasana, “royal seat”) with both legs hanging straight down, which conveys his readiness to soon rise and act on earth.
On his head he occasionally wears a stupa, which symbolizes the relics of Shakyamuni and marks his function as preserver of the teaching between the ages.
A second pictorial tradition, dominant in East Asia, shows him as a well-fed, laughing monk with a large belly and a sack. This is Budai, or Hotei, a Chinese figure of the 10th century who was identified with Maitreya.
Edward Conze (“Der Buddhismus”, Stuttgart 1953) marks this fusion as religio-historically revealing, since it shows how Buddhist teaching figures can merge with local folk traditions.
Eschatology and Expectation
Maitreya is the only decidedly eschatological figure in Buddhism. Different traditions give different time spans until his appearance. In the Cakkavatti-Sihanada-Sutta they are countless generations; in later texts, 5,670,000,000 years after the parinirvana of Shakyamuni.
These astronomical figures make clear that Maitreya marks less an acute expectation of salvation than a cosmological constant: the teaching will not be extinguished for good, a new Buddha will come.
In times of crisis, however, acute messianic movements developed from this expectation. In China, from the 6th century onward, uprising movements arose repeatedly that proclaimed an imminent dawn of the Maitreya era.
The White Lotus uprising of the Yuan period (14th century) and several peasant revolts of the Ming period (14th to 17th century) bore explicitly Maitreyan features.
Erik Zürcher, in “The Buddhist Conquest of China” (Leiden 1959), showed that the state response in China at times suppressed the Maitreya cult, because it was classified as socially revolutionary.
Maitreya in India and Central Asia
In India, numerous Maitreya statues survive from Gandhara (1st to 4th century) and the Gupta period (4th to 6th century). The monumental Maitreya sculptures in Bamiyan (Afghanistan), until their destruction in 2001 two of the largest standing Buddha statues in the world, represented Maitreya according to the majority of scholarship, although the identification is disputed.
In the cave monasteries of Central Asia, from Kucha through Turfan to Dunhuang, Maitreya is a central iconographic program; he stands for the hope of the Buddhist pilgrims for a future rebirth in Tuṣita.
Asanga and the Maitreya Teaching
A tradition significant in the history of philosophy connects the Indian Yogacara teacher Asanga (4th century of our era) directly with Maitreya. According to hagiographic tradition, Asanga is said to have reached the Tuṣita heaven through years of meditation and there received five fundamental teaching texts from Maitreya himself.
These “five texts of Maitreya” (Abhisamayalamkara, Mahayanasutralamkara, Madhyantavibhaga, Dharmadharmatavibhaga, Ratnagotravibhaga) form the canon of the Yogacara and are to this day the basis of monastic training in Tibet.
In religious studies the attribution is disputed; the texts are assigned in Western scholarship to Asanga or to a historical teacher named Maitreyanatha. David Seyfort Ruegg treated this question in detail in “The Literature of the Madhyamaka School” (Wiesbaden 1981) and in subsequent studies.
Maitreya in Modern Buddhism
In the 19th and 20th centuries Maitreya plays a role in several more recent religious movements. Helena Blavatsky‘s Theosophical Society claimed a direct connection to a “Master Maitreya”, an appropriation that is not regarded in academic religious history as a continuation of the Buddhist lineage.
The Vietnamese Cao Dai syncretism integrated Maitreya into a new-religious pantheon. In the West the figure became known from the 1980s onward through Benjamin Creme, who proclaimed an imminent appearance of Maitreya; this claim too is not recognized as canonical by academic Buddhist studies.
Religious-Studies Classification
Maitreya combines two functions that are usually separate in other religions: that of a messianic redeemer and that of a cosmological guarantee for the continuity of the teaching. Anne Lecornu, in “Eschatology in the Buddhist Tradition” (Paris 2007), showed that Buddhist expectation knows no one-time end-time event, but is embedded in cyclical world-ages.
Maitreya is therefore not the “end of history”, but the beginning of a new cycle. This structural difference from the Abrahamic religions is of phenomenological interest in religious studies; it shows how a cyclical cosmology can organize the hope of salvation differently.
Sources and Further Reading
Primary sources: Cakkavatti-Sihanada-Sutta (Digha Nikaya 26); Anagatavamsa; Maitreyavyakarana; Saddharmapundarika Sutra (Lotus Sutra); Maitreyasamiti; “five texts of Maitreya” (Abhisamayalamkara, Mahayanasutralamkara, Madhyantavibhaga, Dharmadharmatavibhaga, Ratnagotravibhaga).
Secondary literature: Edward Conze, “Der Buddhismus”, Stuttgart 1953; Klaus-Josef Notz, “Buddhismus”, Stuttgart 2002; Erik Zürcher, “The Buddhist Conquest of China”, Leiden 1959; David Seyfort Ruegg, “The Literature of the Madhyamaka School”, Wiesbaden 1981; Anne Lecornu, “Eschatology in the Buddhist Tradition”, Paris 2007; Robert Buswell and Donald Lopez, “Princeton Dictionary of Buddhism”, Princeton 2014.
Maitreya in Art History
The depiction of Maitreya belongs to the oldest iconographic programs of Buddhism. Already in the art of Gandhara (1st to 3rd century of our era) Maitreya is clearly identifiable, often by a small stupa symbol on the hair knot and by the position in the rows of buddhas.
In the Mathura art of the Kushana period he appears with the water vessel (kundika), an attribute that points to his pre-Buddhist Brahmanic upbringing.
In Chinese sculpture of the Northern Wei period (386 to 534 of our era), monumental Maitreya statues in the caves of Yungang are a principal element, here in the typical “pensive” pose with the head supported, which later became, especially in Korea and Japan, the canonical Maitreya bodhisattva form.
The famous Korean Maitreya sculpture National Treasure No. 78 (6th to 7th century) is regarded as one of the most important works of East Asian Buddha art.
Budai and the East Asian Popular Form
The laughing, big-bellied monk who is widespread in Western Asian restaurants as the “lucky Buddha” is iconographically Budai (in Japan Hotei). This Budai was a historical person, a wandering monk of the 9th to 10th century in Zhejiang province. Only posthumously was he identified with Maitreya.
This identification became firmly established in the Chan Buddhism of the Song period; it was unknown in India and in classical Mahāyāna. In East Asia, Budai is placed at the entrance of many temples; his laughter and his open posture are meant to receive the visitors.
The confusion with Shakyamuni in Western contexts is iconographically unfounded, but widespread in cultural history.
Maitreya in the Mongol Empire
An important phase of Maitreya veneration was the Yuan period (1271 to 1368). The Mongol conquerors were predominantly receptive to Tibetan Vajrayana, and some khans had themselves designated as incarnations of Maitreya.
The later novel “Investiture of the Gods” still reflects remnants of this constellation, in which political power was legitimized through identification with the future Buddha.
In Mongolia itself, Maitreya veneration has survived to this day. The Maidari Khural (Maitreya feast day) in summer is one of the most important religious festivals of the Mongolian Buddhists, with processions in which a Maitreya statue is carried around the monastery.
Maitreya in Theravada
In Theravada Buddhism, especially in Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand, Maitreya (Metteyya) holds a less prominent but nonetheless reliable position. He is the only bodhisattva figure recognized in Theravada. The expectation of his appearance at the end of the present dispensation cycle is anchored in the Cakkavatti-Sihanada-Sutta and is mentioned regularly in preaching.
In modern Theravada there is a practice of securing, through especially good karma and deep works of merit, a rebirth in the time of Metteyya, when the conditions for enlightenment will be optimal. This is a form of Buddhist hope of salvation that, in the Theravada context, surprisingly takes on Mahāyāna-like features.
Asanga and the Maitreya-Yogacara Texts
Asanga (around the 4th to 5th century of our era) is regarded as the founder of the Yogacara school. According to hagiographic tradition, he received the five Maitreya teaching texts (the so-called “Five Teaching Texts of Maitreya”) through visions in the Tuṣita heaven.
These are: the Abhisamayalankara (Ornament of Clear Realization), the Mahayanasutralankara (Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sutras), the Madhyantavibhaga (Distinction between the Middle and the Extremes), the Dharmadharmatavibhaga (Distinction between Dharmas and Dharmata) and the Ratnagotravibhaga (Distinction of the Jewel Lineage, also called Uttaratantra).
The historical authorship is disputed. Erich Frauwallner (“Die Philosophie des Buddhismus”, Berlin 1956) argued that at least three of the texts actually came from the hand of Asanga or his brother Vasubandhu, while the Abhisamayalankara should be attributed to another Maitreyanatha.
The Tibetan tradition treats all five as canonical Maitreya works and teaches them as standard curriculum in the great monastic universities.
The Ratnagotravibhaga and the Tathagatagarbha Teaching
The Ratnagotravibhaga is particularly important in religious studies because it systematically sets out the teaching of “Buddha-nature” (tathagatagarbha). The teaching holds that all beings carry within themselves the “seed” of becoming a Buddha.
This thesis became in East Asia the basis of the Tendai, Zen and Hua-yan schools. David Seyfort Ruegg (“La théorie du tathagatagarbha et du gotra”, Paris 1969) is the authoritative study.
It shows that the Tathagatagarbha teaching represents an older layer of the Mahāyāna, which was later reworked through the Cittamatra synthesis of the Yogacara school. The attribution to Maitreya has in this respect a theological function: it lends the teaching the highest authority through direct transmission from the Tuṣita heaven.
Maitreya Uprising Movements in Chinese History
The expectation of the imminent arrival of Maitreya has repeatedly triggered revolutionary movements in China. In the 6th and 7th centuries, sects arose that presented their leaders as Maitreya incarnations.
Particularly well known is the uprising movement of Faqing (515 of our era), who called himself a “newborn Buddha” and fought against the Northern Wei dynasty. In the Mongol empire of the Yuan period (13th to 14th century) the movement of the White Lotus (Bailianjiao) arose, which linked Maitreya expectation with political resistance.
From this movement grew the Red Turban uprising, which brought the Ming dynasty to power in 1368. Hubert Seiwert (“Popular Religious Movements and Heterodox Sects in Chinese History”, Leiden 2003) traces this political function of Maitreya eschatology as a continuous phenomenon of Chinese religious history.
The Ming dynasty itself suppressed the movements that had brought it forth, because it knew their explosive force.
Maitreya in Korea
In Korea, Maitreya (Miruk) developed an independent tradition. The Hwarang warriors of the Silla period (4th to 10th century) were identified as appearances of Maitreya.
The tradition reports that the Hwarang youth is regarded as an earthly manifestation of the bodhisattva. Huge stone Maitreya statues such as the Miruk-Bul at the temple Beopju-sa (33 meters high, modern, replacing an older statue) testify to its enduring significance.
In the Joseon period (1392 to 1910), Maitreya veneration concentrated on the common people and stood in tension with the state-bearing Confucian elite. Robert Buswell has, in several studies, brought out the distinctive Korean form of the Maitreya cult in comparison with the Chinese and Japanese tradition.
The Maitreya Sutras of the Chinese Canon
The Chinese Buddhist canon (Taisho-Tripitaka) contains six Maitreya sutras. Three of them describe Maitreya’s birth and enlightenment as the future Buddha (Maitreya-Vyakarana); three others describe rebirth in the Tuṣita heaven.
The best-known text is the “Sutra on the Birth of Maitreya in the Tuṣita Heaven” (Mile shangsheng jing), translated by Juqu Jingsheng in the 5th century.
The complementary text “Sutra on the Birth of Maitreya in this World” (Mile xiasheng jing) describes his return. These two texts form a liturgical pair and are recited together in temples on special Maitreya days.
The translation history has been reconstructed in detail by Jan Nattier (“Once Upon a Future Time”, Berkeley 1991). It points to a layering of the theology of expectation, which combines older and younger holdings.
The Maitreya Statue of Bamiyan
The Buddha statues of Bamiyan (Afghanistan, 6th century of our era), blown up by the Taliban in March 2001, were long identified as depictions of Buddha Shakyamuni.
More recent research, for instance by Deborah Klimburg-Salter (“The Kingdom of Bamiyan”, Naples 1989), suggests that the larger statue (53 meters) showed the Buddha Vairocana, but the smaller one (35 meters) Maitreya.
This identification rests on iconographic details that had become visible beneath the whitewash, as well as on Chinese travel accounts of the pilgrim Xuanzang (7th century), who expressly described the statues. With the destruction, one of the central archaeological testimonies of Central Asian Maitreya veneration was lost.
Frequently Asked Questions
Has Maitreya already been born? According to traditional teaching, no. He resides in the Tuṣita heaven and waits for the appearance in our world. Different schools give time spans of between several thousand and several billion years until then.
How does the iconographic Maitreya differ from other buddhas? Often by the European seated posture with both legs hanging down, by a stupa on the head or by a water vessel (kundika) in the hand. In the East Asian context, by the identification with the fat, laughing Budai.
What relationship does Maitreya have with Asanga? The Yogacara teacher Asanga (4th century) is said, according to tradition, to have encountered Maitreya in the Tuṣita heaven and received from him five fundamental teaching texts. Historical-critical scholarship, however, attributes these texts to Asanga himself or to a teacher named Maitreyanatha.
Were there Maitreya movements in China? Several times. From the 6th century onward, peasant uprisings arose that proclaimed an imminent dawn of Maitreya. The White Lotus uprising of the Yuan and Ming periods was the best-known movement of this kind.
