Buddha taught that he was not a ” god “, but only a man, a truth seeker. But on his death bed Buddha taught that there would be a future Messiah, ” Lord of Mercies”, who would be able to free men of their sins. Buddha said, “…He is the Lord of Mercies, His name shall be called the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. He is all knowing, all wise.
“One of his students asked Buddha, ‘Are you the messiah?’”
This one seems to be doing the rounds at the moment.
One of his students asked Buddha, “Are you the messiah?”
“No”, answered Buddha.
“Then are you a healer?”
“No”, Buddha replied.
“Then are you a teacher?” the student persisted.
“No, I am not a teacher.”
“Then what are you?” asked the student, exasperated.
“I am awake”, Buddha replied
This is an awkward one, because nothing the Buddha says is actually inaccurate. After all, he says “no” a lot and then says he’s awake. None of those things is a misquote. And the dialogue kinda sorta happened, but not in the terms used in the quote — but that’s what makes it suspect, because the Buddha’s words have been put in a new, and inconguous, context.
Here’s a translation of portions of the original sutta:
On seeing him, [Dona] went to him and said, “Master, are you a deva [a god]?”
“No, brahman, I am not a deva.”
“Are you a gandhabba [a kind of low-grade god; a celestial musician]?”
“No…”
“… a yakkha [a kind of protector god, or sometimes a trickster spirit]?”
“No…”
“… a human being?”
“No, brahman, I am not a human being.”
…
“Then what sort of being are you?”
…
“Remember me, brahman, as ‘awakened.’”
I’ve done a lot of truncating here, so that the relevant portions of the sutta and the Fake Buddha Quote can be contrasted more easily.
First, who is this “Dona” who is talking to the Buddha? It’s not a “student” of the Buddha, as is stated in the Fake Buddha Quote. It’s a brahmin priest who has seen the miraculous footprints of the Buddha, complete with wheels of 1000 spokes, and who follows the Buddha to question him.
And then there are the categories used in both the fake quote and the sutta. In the fake quote the first category into which Dona tries to pigeonhole the Buddha is “Messiah.” This is very inappropriate language, and in fact it’s straight from the New Testament, Matthew 11:3.
Dona of course doesn’t ask whether the Buddha is the long-awaited savior of the Jews, or if we are to take the term Messiah in its more popular sense, does he ask if the Buddha is a savior of any sort at all. He merely asks if the Buddha is a divine being.
Dona, of course, is not a Buddhist, so he wouldn’t have had a Buddhist understanding of the term “deva.” Devas (gods) in Buddhism are not immortal or spiritually awakened beings. They live mortal lives, although on a vastly longer timescale than our own. And although they may have greater powers than us, those powers are not in a Buddhist sense spiritual. They have no insight. They are not awakened, as the Buddha is. Dona would not have seen the gods this way. Presumably he would have seen them as immortal and spiritually magnificent beings. So the Buddha rules this out. No, he is not a god. I think we can safely assume that in Dona’s mind the terms deva, gandabbha, yakkha, and human being represent progressively less exalted kinds of beings.
Nor does Dona ask the Buddha if he is a healer or a teacher. He’s simply concerned with whether the Buddha is a divine being or a human being. He doesn’t ask about the Buddha in terms of being a teacher or healer.
Dona finally tries asking the Buddha if he could be described using a non-divine category — a human being. The Buddha denies that he is this.
So while something like this dialogue is recorded in the Buddhist scriptures, the terms have been changed a lot, and so I’m going to regard this as a Fake Buddha Quote.
But let’s take a moment to go back to the sutta. The Buddha not only denies that he is a devine being, but he says in effect that he is indefinable. He’s not even definable as a human being.
Brahman, the āsavas [negative mental states] by which — if they were not abandoned — I would be a deva: Those are abandoned by me, their root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising. The āsavas by which — if they were not abandoned — I would be a gandhabba… a yakkha… a human being: Those are abandoned by me, their root destroyed, made like a palmyra stump, deprived of the conditions of development, not destined for future arising.
There are various ways to interpret this. Here’s how I see it. The āsavas are the basis of our clinging and of, therefore, our self-view, which is just one particular form of clinging. The Buddha has no clinging, because the āsavas have been destroyed. Therefore the Buddha does not identify anything (body, mind, etc.) as being “his self.” The Buddha lacks any theory of or idea about his own self, and lives without reference to a self. He doesn’t define himself. In fact it’s because he’s a Buddha that he doesn’t define himself. And so, the Buddha is essentially undefinable. Those of us who are not Buddhas can certainly try to pigeonhole him into one of the categories we use, but these categories don’t match up with how the Buddha sees himself, which is certainly not in terms of any of those categories, or indeed in terms of any category we could imagine.
The Buddha’s view of himself is — and I step out of traditional language here — a direct perception of an indefinable “flow” or “process.” This process is not perceived as being separate from the world, or as being part of a “oneness” with the world.
And so, in the words of another sutta, “you can’t pin down the Tathagata as a truth or reality even in the present life.” In fact this sutta, the Anuradha Sutta, leads us through a socratic dialog in which it’s made clear that the Buddha has no view of a self. In fact this sutta ends with one of the most misinterpreted lines from the whole Buddhist canon:
“Both formerly and now, it is only suffering that I describe, and the cessation of suffering.”
This is often taken to mean that the Buddha only has one purpose, which is to teach suffering and how to end it, but it’s clear from other suttas that what the Buddha is saying is that suffering and the end of suffering can exist, without there being a “self” to experience either suffering or its end.
This is a difficult thing for us to get our heads around, and the Buddha admitted when talking about the same topic to a wantered called Vacchagotta:
“Of course you’re befuddled, Vaccha. Of course you’re confused. Deep, Vaccha, is this phenomenon, hard to see, hard to realize, tranquil, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. For those with other views, other practices, other satisfactions, other aims, other teachers, it is difficult to know.”
Postscript
Those footprints with thousand-spoked wheels! They surely didn’t exist. I suppose some might say that Dona saw these by means of psychic powers, but that’s not a world view that I buy into. I’d suggest that the Buddha’s “footprints” here refer to his impact on those around him. Perhaps Dona had met people who had been affected by the newly awakened Buddha’s personality as he passed by on his wandering, and saw in the reactions of those around him signs of something special. This presentation in terms of the Buddha’s divine footprints is a reminder that the Buddhist scriptures were edited for effect, and that reminds us that there is no such thing as a definitive “Genuine Buddha Quote.”
CHRISTIAN MESSIAH AND THE FUTURE BUDDHA MAITREYA IS THE SAME PERSON?
The Bible predicts that, at the last moment of mankind, after the nation’s restoration of Israel, the Messiah Savior will come to earth. The Eastern Buddhist Scriptures also claim that upon the opening of the Udumbura flower, the future Buddha Maitreya will come to earth. Now, all the prophecies have appeared one after another, whether the Savior of East and West has come already?
Both the Sutra and Bible says, during the last days of mankind, there will be a savior coming to save sentient beings. The Buddhist Sutra thinks there is a future Buddha Maitreya who does save sentient beings, and the Bible will consider the Messiah coming to save the sentient beings. If the Buddhist scriptures and the Bible are credible, there are actually two saviors in this period of time in humanity, unless the Maitreya in the Buddhist scriptures is the Messiah in the Bible.
According to researcher, Professor Qian Wenzhong, from Fudan University in Shanghai, from a thousand years B.C, a vast area of Western Asia, North Africa, Asia Minor, the two rivers there, and Egypt was populated by a belief in the future savior, and the Messiah in the Jesus religion located in Asia is the most represented of this faith in the savior. This faith is already in the Old Testament. The Maitreya faith in India, which has been confirmed in academia, is closely related to this worldwide belief in the Messiah and influences each other. India’s Maitreya faith is an integral part of the faith of the Messiah. In its simplest terms, Maitreya is the future Buddha, the future savior, the root cause of India, and the foundation of a wider world or of the ancient world. It was a part of the prevailing Messianic faith at that time.
According to the article, “Meiyeliye and Maitreya,“ (Volume 12 of the Collection of Ji Xianlin) most of the original Buddhist scriptures were “Hu Ben”, which was written in the languages of Central Asia and ancient Xinjiang, were certainly not the normative Indian Sanskrit. Therefore, “Maitreya” was most likely transliterated directly from the Metrak or Maitrak of Tocharian in Xinjiang. This word is related to the Sanskrit maitri (compassion, kindness). Therefore, “Maitreya” is also translated as “Cheshire.” Therefore, as early as in the post-Han and the Three Kingdoms period of China, “Maitreya” and “Cousin” (Bodhisattva) appeared simultaneously in a large amount of Chinese Buddhist scriptures.
Maitreya, called “Maitreya” in Sanskrit, “Metteya” in Pali, and a Chinese speaker has nothing to do with Maitreya’s pronunciation. Master Xuanzang discovered this in translation; he came to the conclusion saying that it was wrongly translated and should be translated as “Meierliye”. However, the Chinese people did not accept the opinion of Xuanzang; instead, they called it Mile Buddha.
While Westerners wait for the Christian Messiah, which from Hebrew is spelt, “Massiah” (sometimes written as “Mashiach”). “Apparent (Messiah)” is translated into Greek by it’s meaning as “anointed” Χριστο or Christos, and it is translated into English as Christ, “Messiah” and “Christ” basically have the same meaning, and the author of the New Testament equates him with the Jewish Messiah. which means “selected by God.” However, by the time of the New Testament, the concept of Christ was narrowed down and became the exclusive name of the Jesus of Nazareth, which later became the meaning of the Savior. Messiah means “the one selected by God;” it’s a title and not a name. It seems like throughout history there were others named Christos, but the true Savior Messiah is the one who comes at the last page of human history.
Both Maitreya and Massiah are near. In fact, the Maitreya from the Tocharian language is the Messiah in the Hebrew, the same word, just that the Messiah is to be read in the West, and Maitreya is read from the east.
Labrang Monastery was founded in the Qing Emperor Kangxi (1709), According to the tour guide’s of the temple answer to visitors’ of the Buddha’s gesture, “This is the Maitreya Buddha turning Falun in the world” He squatted halfway means come to earth and rescue the world with a Falun, Labrang Monastery was originally called Zhaxiqi Temple (auspicious turning temple), its meaning is that the Falun turns auspicious.
A bronze statue of Buddha Shakyamuni is placed in front of the feet of the statue Buddha Maitreya, and the statue is very small. According to the Lama guide explaining to the tourists: “The small Buddha statue in front is the Shakyamuni Buddha and his disciples. The Maitreya behind has the Falun in his hand. He is the most powerful and capable person in the universe. He will bring Falun to save the cosmic beings as well as being the only deliverer of the universe. “It is obvious that the statues highlight the high-level, magical powers of the Maitreya Buddha and the great compassion that has saved the entire human race through the contrast of statues. The temple of Shakyamuni Buddha called the small Golden Temple, and the Maitreya Buddha Hall called the Great Golden Temple.
Labrang Monastery in Gansu is one of the main temples of Tibetan Buddhism. The future Buddha Maitreya in Labrang Monastery is a bronze statue of the Maitreya Buddha.
According to the Buddhist Sutra, Maitreya is the name used when the “King of Kings” comes from the highest point to the earth. The Falun King is another way to call the “king of kings,” which is in reference to the Dharma world. Therefore, Sakyamuni told his disciples during those times, Falun king is also called Maitreya.
Mercy, light, and hope are the spiritual connotations of the Buddha Maitreya in the future, who will be the savior coming from the east.
Labrang Monastery in Gansu is one of the main temples of Tibetan Buddhism. The future Buddha Maitreya in Labrang Monastery is a bronze statue of the Maitreya Buddha.
According to the Buddhist Sutra, Maitreya is the name used when the “King of Kings” comes from the highest point to the earth. The Falun King is another way to call the “king of kings,” which is in reference to the Dharma world. Therefore, Sakyamuni told his disciples during those times, Falun is also called Maitreya.
Mercy, light and hope are the spiritual connotations of the Buddha Maitreya in the future, who will be the savior coming from the east.
The Udumbara flower have been seen blossoming on Buddha statues in a temple of Korea
The Udumbara flower blooms
The Buddhist also records that the Udumbara flower is a sign of good fortune. It states: “The Udumbara flower, the remark of Auspicious. Open once in three thousand years, when it opens the Falun king comes to the human.”
Since 1992, there have been several profound instances that the Holy Udumbara has appeared in the world. The Udumbara flower has no roots, no leaves, no water, and appears without soil. It has left botanists astounded, staggering in amazement nowadays.
The civil statues and prophecy EXPRESS
The Chinese people have retained the shape of the Maitreya, which is a laughing Buddha, having eighteen children playing around the body, with the reference to the eighteen Chinese children to the Chinese character synthetic “Lee” word, and heralding “Maitreya bring the law to the people in doomsday nowadays, which is the human body surnamed is Li.” The legend associated with Maitreya and the eighteen children statues has been handed down from generation to generation to even now.
Korea prophecy: What is a saint, Muzi surname (surnamed Li), born in rabbit year, in April, north of thirty-eight line (Koreas dividing line), under three mountain (Changbai Mountain Gongzhuling) …… The sage is king of the king in Heaven, also called Falun deities, and is a human known as Maitreya when down to the earth.
Liubowen’s also predicted, “When Maitreya through the virtual world to this world in the eyes of Golden Rooster territory in China, misfortune end, dragon meet the tiger, Rabbit years to transit”. With the Muzi surname, it “means that the future Buddha Maitreya, reincarnation in the Year of the Rabbit transit China, where born in Jilin province, the eyes place (Jilin Province) of “Rooster” territory in China,” (“Muzi” (Lee) as surname).
On May 13th, 1951, the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi was born in the city of Changchun located in Jilin Province, China. In the traditional Chinese calendar, it is the Eighth of April; in Buddhist tradition, it is known as “the day of Buddha birthday” . This day is also recognized as the Pentecost in western civilization after the Christian Easter of 50 days. The Christianity Easter represents and symbolizes and celebrates that “the Holy Spirit has come Festival.” “Easter” also means, “Oriental comes from the East” . According to the chinese calendar, this year is rabbit year. In the five elements theory, this is the golden pine wood year.
At this point, people perhaps now understand why the important festivals of Western religion such as “Easter” is also equally valued by the East, which to Eastern people, is call “Oriental Holy Spirit come from the East”. This is why people remain with the traditions of the Easter Bunny (saints is a rabbit) and Easter Egg (related to the land shape of China is Golden Rooster) as a commemoration of ancient customs. Every family places a piece of a sub-word pine tree for Christmas (sub-word means Li in Chinese; the hometown of master Li is the place full of pine tree; the forever green pine tree often used by Chinese people to describe the cultivation must follow the upright way as the upright character of the pine tree; used in western culture as Christmas tree; the third eye is called pineal gland with pine within its name). During Easter, people also celebrate with the Easter Lily flower; Li is the same sound as the name Master Li. Master Li Hongzhi’s hometown in the city of Changchun means “forever spring,” (forever green pine tree) and this implies more people to feel the divine mysticism.
Frenchman Michel de Nostredame prophecies in his book, concentrating and accurately predicting many major events along with famous figures involved, which has occurred around the world in the past century. There is one specific stanza that even references to Falun Dafa founder, Master Li Hongzhi; this is found in the twenty-ninth poem of the second discipline, clearly prophesying a savior to save sentient beings in the doomsday of mankind.
An Asians leave his hometown,
Across the Apennines and arrived in France,
He will cross the sky, sea, and snow
Everyone will be touch and impress by his Scepter.
The prophecy is this, that the founder of Falun Gong, Mr. Li Hongzhi leaves his hometown after the preaching in the Chinese mainland, then to the West, and to the first western country, France. Preaching in many Western countries later, Falun Dafa has spread to the world. Describing founder of Falun Gong, it tells of a human and propagation of cosmic deities Road, having a Scepter using to wake up the world, and within the fourth sentence of the prophetic poem saying, “Everyone will be touched and impressed by his Scepter.” With it being said, the prophecy of that means Falun Dafa is to spread throughout the world, each person will be impressed and touched by him and the universal law (like a scepter) he brings, while the attitude of how they treat Dafa will determine their future.
According to Buddhist sutras, chakravartin has thirty-two phases like any other Buddha, 7 treasure, and is the ideal king, not using the force but rotation of d Dharma wheel with justice in order to dominate the world. Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, so long as they continue to give mercy to people, who practice it, may be destined to have chance to meet chakravartin. But sometimes God has really come, and humans are not awakened, not knowing and still hesitating.
Falun in Ancient Greek culture, exhibit in Louvre.
The world lost in the illusion have not awaken yet.
In the Bible, from the book of John 1:10-11 – “In the world, the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him, he comes to his own place but people don’t receive him.” The Bible also says, the Savior came into the world to save people, people of the world do not think he is the Savior, and he must first suffer many things, including denigration by the people who do not know the truth.
The prophecy marked the month and year of this major event as well: “July 1999, for the king of Angola Ruia resurrection, horror king come to the earth…”
July 1999 was indeed a particular and certain day because a labeled anti-Christ person, Jiang Zemin, former head of China, launched a comprehensive, ongoing crackdown and persecution against Falun Dafa practitioners. During this time, the reign of terror, defamatory rumors, and tribulations in Central China, etched brutally by the Chinese Communist Party led by Jiang Zemin, had people confused so they obeyed him and followed suit. In the Christian Bible, of the Book of Revelations, it says” account for the lambs and the beast of the final battle between good and evil – Armageddon CPC defy the universe”. Truthfulness, Compassion, and Forbearance is mentioned strongly in this and is similar to Nostradamus’s: “Dharma in this evil contest has been bogged down in the quagmire” and this is from the Tang Dynasty by Tui Bei Tu’s “ninety-nine National Cheng Kung wrong”.
Ultimately to God
“The Book of Changa Sutra” (Volume 18): “When the holy king of the law wheel was born … all the kings of the east meet the king, holding all the treasures to show their return.”
Biblical Book of Revelations (7: 9-10): “Then after I looked, and saw many people, from all nations, nations, peoples, and all parties stand in front of the presence of the the throne, in white, with palm branches in hand, shouted with a loud voice, saying, wish the grace of salvation belong to our God, who sits on the throne…”
Although going through great tribulations, to the end, all human beings must return to God, and from all quarters of the earth, all countries and all ethnic groups. The Buddhist scriptures and the Bible at this point is the same in description.
After the Savior comes to save sentient beings, the world ushers in a new heaven, new earth and new humanity.
“Maitreya Sutra”: “The land salty Fusheng, no punishment without disaster Eritrean; men and women, etc., are all good people .The earth are no spikes, only grass……Naturally fragrant rice, delicious and all adequate .The tree grows the clothes…… full of flowers and fruits……all the life has eight thousand years old, without suffering, full of happiness “.
Bible, Isaiah (65: 19-20): “There shall be no more heard of the voice of crying and wailing, of which there will be no death of the infant……for a hundred years old are still children…… ” And continues in Isaiah 65: 23-25:” They will not work in vain, be produced, nor suffer a disaster….declares the LORD.” The Book of Revelation 22:2 describes how the new heaven and the new earth are written: “the tree of life grow on this side or the other side of the river, with twelve different kinds of fruits, have fruits every month, and the leaves of the tree can heal the nations.”
Thus, after this battle of good and evil, it is a blessing to be able to stay or be alive during the time for the one who protects the moral Dharma. They, the people, who have followed this moral dharma law wheel, will enjoy long-lasting lives with no punishment, no hunger, be able to partake in delicious portions of fruit, and have peaceful co-existence without struggle. From then, humankind enters a new era.
How the Buddha became a Christian saint
https://theconversation.com/how-the-buddha-became-a-christian-saint-142285
From the 11th century onwards, the Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat enjoyed a popularity in the medieval West attained perhaps by no other legend. It was available in over 60 versions in the main languages of Europe, the Christian East and Africa. It was most familiar to English leaders from its inclusion in William Caxton’s 1483 translation of the Golden Legend.
Little did European readers know that the story they loved of the life of Saint Josaphat was in fact that of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism.
The ascetic life
According to the legend, there reigned in India a king called Abenner, immersed in the pleasures of the world. When the king had a son, Josaphat, an astrologer predicted he would forsake the world. To forestall this outcome, the king ordered a city to be built for his son from which were excluded poverty, disease, old age and death.
But Josaphat made journeys outside of the city where he encountered, on one occasion, a blind man and a horribly deformed one and, on another occasion, an old man weighed down by illness. He realised the impermanence of all things:
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No longer is there any sweetness in this transitory life now that I have seen these things […] Gradual and sudden death are in league together.
While experiencing this spiritual crisis, the sage Barlaam from Sri Lanka reached Josaphat and told him of the rejection of worldly pursuits and the acceptance of the Christian ideal of the ascetic life. Prince Josaphat was converted to Christianity and began to practise the ideal of the spiritual life of poverty, simplicity and devotion to God.
To forestall his quest, his father surrounded him with seductive maidens who “tantalised him with every kind of temptation with which they sought to arouse his appetites”.
Josaphat resisted them all.
After the death of his father, Josaphat remained determined to continue his ascetic life and abdicated the throne. He journeyed to Sri Lanka in search of Barlaam. After a quest lasting two years, Josaphat found Barlaam living in the mountains and joined him there in a life of asceticism until his death.
A great saint
Barlaam and Josaphat were included in the calendars of saints in both the Western and Eastern churches. By the 10th century, they were included in the calendars of the Eastern churches, and by the end of the 13th century in those of the Catholic church.
In the book we know as The Travels of Marco Polo, published around the year 1300, Marco gave the West its first account of the life of the Buddha. He declared that — were the Buddha a Christian — “he would have been a great saint […] for the good life and pure which he led”.
Read more: Netflix ‘Chinese Game of Thrones’ charts the life of Marco Polo – so who was he?
In 1446, an astute editor of the Travels noticed the similarity. “This is like the life of Saint Iosaphat”, he declared.
It was, however, only in the 19th century the West became aware of Buddhism as a religion in its own right. As a result of editing and translating of the Buddhist scriptures (dating from the first century BCE) from the 1830s onwards, reliable information about the life of the founder of Buddhism began to grow in the West.
Then the West came to know the story of the young Indian prince, Gautama, whose father – fearful his son would forsake the world – kept him secluded in his palace. Like Josaphat, Gautama eventually encountered old age, disease and death. And, like Josaphat, he left the palace to live an ascetic life in quest of the meaning of suffering.
After many trials, Gautama sat beneath the Bodhi tree and finally attained enlightenment, thereby becoming a Buddha.
Only in 1869 did this new-found knowledge in the West about the life of the Buddha lead inescapably to the realisation that, in his guise as Saint Josaphat, the Buddha had been a saint in Christendom for some 900 years.
Intimate connections
How did the story of the Buddha become that of Josaphat? The process was long and complicated. Essentially, the story of the Buddha that began in India in the Sanskrit language travelled east to China, then west along the Silk Road where it was influenced by the asceticism of the religion of the Manichees.
It was then transposed into Arabic, Greek and Latin. From these Latin versions it would be translated into various European languages.
Years before the West knew anything about the Buddha, his life and the ascetic ideal which it symbolised were a positive force in the spiritual life of Christians.
The Legend of Barlaam and Josaphat demonstrates powerfully the intimate connections between Buddhism and Christianity in their commitment to the ascetic, meditative and mystical religious life.
Few Christian saints have a better claim to that title than the Buddha.
In an era where the Buddhist spirituality of “mindfulness” is very much on the Western agenda, we need to be mindful of the long and positive history of the influence of Buddhism on the West. Through the story of Barlaam and Josaphat, Buddhist spirituality has played a significant role in our Western heritage for the last one thousand years.
