1. Metteyya
The future Buddha, the fifth of this kappa (Bu.xxvii.21).
According to the Cakkavatti Sīhanāda Sutta, he will be born, when human beings
will live to an age of eighty thousand years, in the city of Ketumatī (present
Benares), whose king will be the Cakkavattī Sankha. Sankha will live in the
fairy palace where once dwelt King Mahāpanadā, but later he will give the palace
away and will himself become a follower of Metteyya Buddha (D.iii.75ff).

The Anāgatavamsa (J.P.T.S.1886, pp.42, 46ff., 52; DhSA.415
gives the names of his parents) gives further particulars. Metteyya will be born
in a very eminent brahmin family and his personal name will be Ajita. Metteyya
is evidently the name of his gotta. For eight thousand years he will live the
household life in four palaces Sirivaddha, Vaddhamāna, Siddhattha
and Candaka - his chief wife being Candamukhī
and his son Brahmavaddhana. Having seen the four signs while on his way to the
park, he will be dissatisfied with household life and will spend one week in
practicing austerities. Then he will leave home, travelling in his palace and
accompanied by a fourfold army, at the head of which will be eighty-four
thousand brahmins and eighty four thousand Khattiya maidens. Among his followers
will be Isidatta and Pūrana, two brothers, Jātimitta, Vijaya, Suddhika and
Suddhanā, Sangha and Sanghā, Saddhara, Sudatta, Yasavatī and Visākhā, each with
eighty four thousand companions. Together they will leave the household and
arrive on the same day at the Bodhi tree. After the Enlightenment the Buddha
will preach in Nāgavana and King Sankha will, later, ordain himself under him.
Metteyya's father will be Subrahmā, chaplain to King Sankha, and his mother
Brahmavatī. His chief disciples will be Asoka and Brahmadeva among monks, and
Padumā and Sumanā among nuns. Sīha will be his personal attendant and his chief
patrons Sumana, Sangha, Yasavatī and Sanghā. His Bodhi will be the Nāga tree.
After the Buddha's death, his teachings will continue for one hundred and eighty
thousand years.

According to the Mahāvamsa (Mhv.Xxxii.81f.; see Mil.159),
Kākavannatissa and Vihāramahādevī, father and mother of Dutthagāmani, will be
Metteyya's parents, Dutthagāmani himself will be his chief disciple and
Saddhātissa his second disciple, while Prince Sāli will be his son.

At the present time the future Buddha is living in the
Tusita deva-world (Mhv.Xxxii.73). There is a tradition that Nātha is the name of
the future Buddha in the deva world.

The worship of the Bodhisatta Metteyya seems to have been
popular in ancient Ceylon, and Dhātusena adorned an image of him with all the
equipment of a king and ordained a guard for it within the radius of seven
yojanas (Cv.xxxviii.68).

Dappula I. made a statue in honour of the future Buddha
fifteen cubits high (Cv.xlv.62). It is believed that Metteyya spends his time in
the deva-world, preaching the Dhamma to the assembled gods, and, in emulation of
his example, King Kassapa V. used to recite the Abhidhamma in the assemblies of
the monks (Cv.lii.47). Parakkamabāhu I. had three statues built in honour of
Metteyya (Cv.lxxix.75), while Kittisirirājasīha erected one in the Rajata-vihāra
and another in the cave above it (Cv.c.248,259). It is the wish of all Buddhists
that they meet Metteyya Buddha, listen to his preaching and attain to Nibbāna
under him. See, e.g., J. vi.594; MT. 687; DhSA.430
.
For a complete description of the next Buddha Metteyya See:
The Coming Buddha, Ariya Metteyya. Sayagyi U Chit Tin:
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/Metteyya/arimet00.htm
also published as BPS Wheel 381/383
https://What-Buddha-Said.net/library/Wheels/wh381.pdf


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