The History of Buddhist Thought c21.8

c21.8

We have seen what the conception of the nature of a Buddha was as developed in the suttas (p. 149). The great transformation that took place was that everyone might seek not merely to win salvation, but might aim at becoming a Buddha. Such a person is a bodhisatta (Skt. bodhisattva).¹ The doctrine that Buddhahood is a possible goal for everyone never appears in the suttas, but the term bodhisattva does. There it means the state of a Buddha (Gotama or one of his predecessors) before his enlightenment. We also find in the latest suttas a list of six previous Buddhas, Vipassin (Vipaśyin), Sikhin (Śikhin). Vessabhū (Viśvabhuk or Viśvabhū), Kakusandha (Krakucchanda), Konāgamana (Kanakamuni), and Kassapa (Kāśyapa).¹ These names agree in all the schools, though there is evidently some corruption in the forms. A number of still earlier Buddhas have been added, but they vary in the different schools and appear to be inventions later than the sutta period.² They all contain the name of Dīpankara, the Buddha under whom Gotama first made the vow to attain complete enlightenment. As a part of this doctrine of a succession of Buddhas arose the belief in a future Buddha, Metteyya, or Maitreya.³ Gotama Buddha both in the Dīgha (iii, 76) and in the Mahāvastu (iii, 240) prophesies Metteyya’s future coming. These quasi-historical Buddhas do not play a large part in later doctrine, as they were overshadowed by the bodhisatta-doctrine and the innumerable Buddhas to which this doctrine gave rise.