Much Ado About Future Buddhas

I was at a fantastic Liaison's meeting yesterday and just before the meeting began, Rinpoche gave a wonderful little explanation about how the Buddhas will manifest on the very same spot and how we can connect with them in our future lives. He said Buddhist thought matches scientific explanations of the Big Bang and the evolution of the Universe.

The descendent of the Bodhi tree Buddha sat under in Bodhgaya

There will be 1,000 Samyaksam Buddhas that will appear in our fortunate eon. The historical Buddha Shakyamuni is the fourth Buddha and Maitreya will be next in line. Samyaksam is just an epithet to mean Buddhas that will manifest the 12 deeds of a fully enlightened Buddha and will appear on the very same spot in Bodhgaya. So sceptics will wonder how does a Buddha manifest on the very same spot because the planet might have exploded by then.

Well, science offers a very intriguing explanation to this point. According to the theory of the Big Bang, the Universe will reach a state where all matter will implode, ending the lives of all stars and planets. Then, it will explode and breathe new life to new stars and planets. Thus, the spot in Bodhgaya would have reconstituted into a new planet again with new life, intelligent life and a future Buddha will manifest on that very spot in the universe.

Why? The very spot had been chosen by the Buddhas and is a very important portal from which they will manifest in the future. So how do we ensure that we will be amongst his very closest students? We create the causes now and that is through our action motivated by our intention. Rinpoche explained that we should do Dharma work sincerely and not consider it work and put our full heart into it. If we do, we create powerful merits and karma necessary and when we do our practice, it will seal our powerful karma and merit to take rebirth amongst the next Buddha's closest disciples. This means we perform our daily Sadhana and maintaining our Guru Samaya is absolutely essential ingredients for all this to manifest. 

All the stars and planets will reappear and we will take rebirth amongst them again (Unless you become fully enlightened by then... Nah, not likely). Imagine an ET version of you and me? We might have antennas instead of ears then. Haha! What about an ET Buddha? Way cool!

Comments

[Eric Siow]

(The very spot had been chosen by the Buddhas and is a very important portal from which they will manifest in the future.) David'' can ask what is the meaning of VERY SPOT?? :)) Thanks.. :))

[David Lai]

Dear Eric, The spot I am talking about is Bodhgaya and that is a small town in India where there is a very old temple built around a Bodhi tree. This tree is the one in the picture above and that is the descendent of the exact tree that Buddha sat under and meditated to become fully enlightened. You are quite new to Buddhism so you wouldn't know but you should read about Buddha's life story.

[Josh Akers]

Very interesting blog post David. I enjoyed it.

[Eric]

Thanks for sharing David'' Really enjoy to Reading your Blog. :)