Muhammad in Buddhist Scriptures

The Buddhist Prophecy
Extracted from book: Muhammad in Buddhist Scriptures
A. H. Vidyarthi and U. Ali

(From the Burmese source.s.)

The Buddha said to Sariputta:-

     "......................... Our cycle is a happy one. Three leaders
have already lived.
Kakusandha, Konogamana And eke the leader Kasapa. The Buddha supreme am I.
But after me Metteya
comes. While still this happy cycle lasts, Before its tale of years shall
lapse This Buddha
then Metteya. called Supreme, and of all men the chief"

     Buddhism in Translation by Warren. PP 481 -2.


(From Ceylon Sources.)

Ananda "said to the Blessed One.

'Who shall teach us when thou art gone?"'

And the Blessed One replied:-

'I am not the first Buddha who came upon the earth, nor shall I be the
last. In due time anothr
Buddha will arise in the world, a holy one, a supremely enlightened one,
endowed with wisdom in
conduct, auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable leader of men,
a master of angels
and mortals. He will reveal to you the same eternal truths which I have
taught you. He will
preach his religion, glorious in its origin, glorious at the climax, and,
glorious at the goal.
He will proclaim a religious life, wholly perfect a pure, such as I now
proclaim. His disciples
will number many thousand, while mine number many hundred.'

Ananda said, 'How shall we know him?'

The Blessed One replied, 'He will be known
Maitreya.......................'

The Gospel of Buddha by Carus. PP. 217-8

OR

The Buddha said:-

"Monks. in the days when men live 80000 years, there will arise in the
world a Buddha named
Metteyyo (the benevolent one), a holy one (Arahat), a supremely
enlightened one, endowed with
wisdom in conduct; auspicious, knowing the universe, an incomparable
charioteer of men who are
tamed; a master of and mortals; a Blessed Buddha; even as I now have
arisen in the world, a
Buddha with these same qualities endowed. What he has realised by his own
supernal knowledge he
will publish to this universe with its angels, its fiends, and its
archangels, and to the race
of philosophers and brahmins, princes and peoples; even as I now having
all this knowledge do
publish the same unto the same. He will preach his religion, glorious in
its origin, glorious
at the climax, glorious at the goal, in the spirit and the letter. He will
proclaim a religious
life wholly perfect and thoroughly pure, even as I now preach my religion,
and a like life do
proclaim. He will keep up a society numbering many chousand. even as I now
keep up a society of
monks numbering many hundred."

Buddhist and Christian Gospes by Edmunds. Vol II. PP. 160-1.

OR

"At that period, brethren, there will arise in the world an Exalted One
named Metteya, Arahant,
fully Awakened, abounding in wisdom and goodness, happy, with knowledge of
the worlds,
unsurpassed as a guide to mortals willing to be led, a teacher for gods
and men, an Exalted
One, a Buddha even as I am now. He, by himself, will thoroughly see and
know, as it were face
to face, this universe, with its world of the spirits, its Brahamas, and
its Maras, and its
world of recluses and Brahmins, of princes and peoples, even as I now by
myself, thoroughly
know and see them. The truth (the Norm) lovely in its origin, lovely in
its progress, lovely in
its consummation, will he proclaim, both in the spirit and in the letter;
the higher life will
he make known, in all its fulness and all its purity, even as I do now. He
will be accompanied
by a congregation of some thousands of brethren, even as I am now
accompanied by a congregation
of some hundreds of brethren.

Cakkavatti-Sihanada Suttanta. The Mahabodhdi Society Translation.

(From the Chinese-Sanskrit sources.)

"In the old days when the Tathagata was living at Rajagriha (Wang-she), on
the
Gridhra-kuta(others think at "Benares") mountain, he spoke thus to the
Bhikshus: 'In future
years, when this country of Jambudvipa shall be at peace and rest, and the
age of men shall
amount to 80000 years, there shall be a Brahman called Maitreya (Sse-che).
His body shall be of
pure gold, bright, glistening and pure. Leaving his home he shall become a
perfect Buddha, and
preach the threefold("Thrice repeated") Law for the benefit of all
creatures. Those who shall
be saved are those who live, in whom the roots of merit have been planted
through my bequeathed
Law. These all conceiving their minds in profound respect for three
precious objects of
wor****p, whether they be already professed disciples or not, whether they
be obedient to the
precepts or not, will be led by the converting power (of his preaching) to
acquire the fruit
(of Bodhi) and final deliverance. Whilst declaring the threefold Law for
the conversion of
those who have been influenced by my bequeathed Law, by this means also
hereafter others will
be converted."

Si-Yu-Ki. Vol. 2. Pp. 46-7.

(From the Tibetan sources)

"It is said up to the time when Phanchhen-rinpochhe (The Great Jewel of
Wisdom) condescends to
be reborn in the land of the P'helings (Westerners) and appearing as the
Spiritual Conqueror
(Chom-den-da), destroys the error and ignorance of ages, it will be of
little use to try to
uproot the misconceptions of P'heling-pa (Europe); her sons will listen to
none."

The Secret Doctrine by Blavatsky. Vol. III. P. 412.

 From the above it is clear that the Buddha Gautama foretold the advent of
a person named
Maitreya, or Metteyya as his successor.

IDENTIFICATION OF MAITREYA.

I.

Some Buddhists consider that the Buddha Maitreya has appeared (Studies in
Japanese Buddhism by
Reischaner. P. 264.):

1. "Wu, the mother of the sixth emperor of the T'ang dynasty in China, was
presented a Sutra
named 'Ta-yun-king, in the year 690. 'It stated that she was Maitreya, the
Buddha that was to
come'." (Chinese Buddhism by J. Edkins. P. 122.)

2. Kings, Yeula and Vijayavirya, were supposed as incarnations of
"Bodhisattva Maitreya." (Life
of Buddha by Rockhill. PP. 237-8.)

3. The Burmese monk, Ledi Sayadaw, "has been proclaiming far and wide the
near coming of
Bodhisattva Maitreya, who, he says, has left the Tusita Heaven, and was in
1914. A. D. on earth
as a boy." (The Coming World Teacher by P. Parki, P. 52.)

In the past(Si-Yu.Ki by Beal. V.I. P.226.) as well as in the
present(Buddhism and Buddhists in
China by Hodous. P.38), Buddhists have pretended to receive written books
of revelation, from
Maitreya. They have even imagined him to come down from heaven for making
the image of the
Buddha Gautama(Si-Yu-Ki Vol.II. PP.121-2.).

The above claims have not received the serious attention of the Buddhist
world and therefore
need comment on our part. The Buddhists. like some of the Theosophists,
await the advent of
Maitreya in future. The Buddhists all over the world have build images of
Maitreya, sometimes
as high as 70 feet or more (Hodous PP. 120-1). The European traveller well
knows the "Laughing
Buddha" Maitreya of the Chinese (Ibid PP. 20-1).

II

WAS SHANKARACHARYA THE BUDDHA MAITREYA?

Some Brahmans consider the Buddha Gautama as the 9th Avatar of Vishnu (The
Essence of Buddhism
by L Narasu. P. 27 Foot Note). Some Brahmans a1ong with the Theosophists
consider that
Shankaracharya was the expected Maitreya:-

"Esoteric teaching is to the effect that Shankaracharya was a Buddha in
all respects, in a new
body........ I have received the information I am now giving from a
Brahman Adwaiti, of
Southern India- not directly from the Tibetan instructor.........Some of
the later incarnations
of Buddha are described differently as overshadowings by the SPIRIT OF
BUDDHA, but in person of
Shankaracharya he reappeared on earth. The object he had in view was to
fill up some gaps and
repair certain errors in his own previous teachings; for there is no
contention in the esoteric
Buddhism that even a Buddha can be absolutely infalliable at every moment
of his career....."
(Esoteric Buddhism by A.P.Sennett. P.149)

Shankaracharya cannot be the Buddha Maitreya, for:

1. he never gave out in his life time that he was the Buddha Maitreya;

2. his life, as will appear later on, does not display the "TEN
PERFECTIONS" (Warren PP.
22-37), a necessary possession for a FULLY ENLIGHTENED BUDDHA;

3. he took up the cause of the Vedas (Satyarath Prakash by Mool Shankar
PP.415-16) against the
Buddhists. Shankaracharya writes: -

     (a) "The Veda.s are the highest authority" (Sankaras Select Works, by
S. Vankataramanan P.
205)
     (b) "There is no authority for knowledge, equal to the Veda." (Ibid
P. 206.)

Some oriental and occidental scholars and the Buddhist divines consider
that the Buddha Gautama
made light of the Vedas: -

     (a) "Empty, forsooth, are these Vedas, and as chaff. There is in them
neither reality, nor
worth nor essential truth". (S. B. E. Vol. XXV. P. 18.) - Nagasena
     (b) Pt. Mool Shanker, more commonly known as Dayananda Saraswati, the
founder of Arya
Samaj, the modern Protestant Hinduism, considers Buddhism "a strong and
fearful Veda and
Shastra denouncing" religion (Satyarath Prakash P. 414.)
     (c) "Buddha discredited the sacrificial system; he censured with
bitter irony the
knowledge of the Vedic scribes as sheer folly." (Buddha P. 172.) -
Oldenberg
     (d) The Buddha Gautama "Scoffed at the Vedas." (Asoka P. 35.) -
Macphail

This view is sup****ted by numerous sayings of Sakya Muni:-

     (a) "Reading the Vedas, making of offerings to priests, or sacrifices
to the gods,
self-mortification by heat or cold, and many such like penances performed
for the sake of
immortality, these do not cleanse the man, not free from delusions."
(Buddhism by Rhys Davids.
P. 131.) - Amagandh( Sutt)
     (b) "Therefore the threefold wisdom of the Brahmans, wise in the
three Vedas, is called a
waterless desert, their threefold wisdom is called a pathless jungle,
their threefold wisdom is
called destruction." (S.B.E,VoLX1. P.185.)
     (c) "Of no value are the Vedas." (Silavimansa quoted in Early History
of the Spread of
Buddhism and the Buddhist Schools by N. Dut. P. 13.)
     (d) "These Veda studies are the wise-acre's toils, The lure which
tempts the victims whom
he spoils. A mirage formed to catch the careless eye, But which the
prudent p***** safely by,
The Vedas have no hidden power to save, The traitor or the coward or the
knave. The Brahmans
all a livelihood require, And so for their gain they made the Vedas. Full
of sentences in
metric forms, Learned by rote and not easily forgot. Their obscurity but
tempts the foolish
mind. Which swallows all 'tis told with impulses blind. Doctrines and
rules, absurd, concocted,
and vain, Coolly imagining wealth and power to gain,................ These
greedy liars
propagate deceit. And fools believe the fiction they repeat." (L. Narasu.
PP. 129-30.) -
BHURIDATTA JATAKA.

Shankaracharya did not give it out in his lifetime that he was a Buddhist
and a reformer of
Buddhism. He was one of those who were antagonistic to Buddhism and
succeeded in destroying or
driving it out from India. (Shankaracharya by Sita Nath Datta.)

Some more reasons we shall give later on.

III

WAS JESUS THE BUDDHA MAITREYA?

For sometime past some learned men of East and West have been advertising
that Jesus was the
Buddha Maitreya:-

     (1) "Will the Buddhists ever learn that this Buddha of the future,
this Maitreya, this
teacher of love, and not of the law, has appeared ?" (Chips from a German
Workshop. Vol. 1. PP.
452-3.) - Max Muller
     (2) "The Christ Metteyyo is yet to come." (The Buddhist and the
Christian Gospels. Vol. 2.
P. 164.)- Edmunds,
     (3) "In later day we know them as Gautama and Maitreya, Buddha and
Christ." (Buddha and
Christ. P. 8.) - C. Jinarajadasa.
     (4) "Maitreya and Christ are one." (The Coming Christ P. 106.) -
Johanna.
     (5) "Lord Maitreya, on the other hand, when he appeared as the
Christ, exhorted his
disciples, 'Love one another as I have loved you.'" (The Coming wor1d
Teacher. P. 23.) - P. Pavri
     (6) "Lord Maitreya took the same course when He visited Palestine
2,000 years ago." (The
Masters and the Path. P. 51.) - Leadbeater.
     (7) "Blavatsky maintains that Jesus shall be Maitreya in his second
advent which is yet to
take place.' (Isis Unveiled. Vol. II. P. 156. Foot Note.)

We shall refute this view at length, but here only in brief:-

     (1) From the study of the four Gospels we can say that Jesus in his
lifetime never gave it
out that he was the Buddha Maitreya.
     (2) The character of Jesus does not display "TEN PERFECTIONS" We
shall discuss this in
details.
     (3) The cardinal doctrine of Christianity is that Jesus was
"betrayed" into the hands of
his enemies who hanged him, and he died upon the cross. The four Gospels
are unanimous on the
point (Matt. 27: 27; Mark F5: 37; Lu 23: 46; John P 1: 30.). Even Jesus is
made to testify to
this view (Luke 23:43). The Christian world must abandon this doctrine
first before the
Buddhists can consider the advertised claim for being the Buddha Maitreya,
for the Buddha
Gautama said: -

         "This, O Bhikkhus, is an impossible thing, one that cannot occur
that one should
deprive a Tathagata of life by violence. The Tathagatas, O Bhikkhus. are
extinguished (in
death) in due and natural course (Vinaya Text by Max Muller Part III. PP.
246-7.)".

The view of Blavatsky that Jesus shall be Maitreya in his second advent,
is untenable. If Jesus
at all returns to the world again, he cannot put forward the claim of
being this Maitreya for,

     (a) "The same Jesus"(Acts 1:11), "the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven"(I
Thes.4:16), "coming in the clouds of heaven with great power and
glory."(Matt. 24: 30).
Contrary to this the Buddhist prophecy demands that this Maitreya must be
born on earth (THE
LIFE AND TEACHINGS OF BUDDHA by A. Dharampal P. 82) and of human parents
who must be different
from Joseph and Mary. (M. B. J. May and June 1928. P. 280.)
     (b) "Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death bath no
more dominion over
him," (Romans. 6: 9; Matt. 28: 20) whereas according to the 'Buddhist
prophecy Maitreya Buddha
must die in due course of time (Warren P. 485; Maitreya Samiti by Laumann
Vol. 1. P. 22).

Hence neither the 'Christian nor the Buddhist scriptures sup****t the view
of Blavatsky that
Jesus shall be Maitreya Buddha in his second advent. And "the scripture
can not be bróken."
(John. 10: 35.)

IV

EQUIVALENTS OF MAITREYA

The person whose advent the Buddha Gautama prophesied bears different
names in different
languages. In Pali his name is Metteyya, in Sanskrit, Maitreya, in
Burmese, "Aremideia" (THE
LEGEND OF GAUDAMA by Bigandet. Vol. I. P. 11. Foot Note.), in Chinese,
"Mei-ta-li-ye" (Si-Yu-Ki
Vol. 1. P. XXIX), or "Milie Pusa" (BUDDHIST CHINA by Johnston P. 367.), or
"Mili Fo" (Edkins
P.208), or "Tzu****h" (Yuan Chwang Vol. I. P. 239 by T. Watters), in
Tibetan, "Byams-pa" (Pr.
'Jampa' or 'Champa' Lamaism by Waddell P.355) or "Mahitreja" (THE RELIGION
OF TIBET AND THE
TRUE RELIGION by Frauson P. 38), and in Japanese, "Miroku." (Reischauer
PP. 264-5.)

The English equivalent of Metteyya: -

     (1) "Teacher of love." - Max Muller (CHIPS FROM A GERMAN WORKSHOP.
Vol. I. P. 452).
     (2) "Lord of love." - A Dharampal (THE LiFE AND TEACHINGS OF BUDDHA.
P.83).
     (3) "He whose name is kindness" - Carus (THE GOSPEL OF BUDDHA. P.
218.).
     (4)"Buddha of kindness" - Rhys Davids (BUDDHISM. P. 180).
     (5)"Universal love," or "Benevolence." - L. Narasu (ESSENCE OF
BUDDHISM. P. 101; 105).
     (6) "Buddha of brotherly love." - Lillie (BUDDHISM IN CHRISTENDOM. P.
VII).
     (7) Buddha of "Friendliness." - Fausboll (SUTTA NIPATA. P. 205).
     (8) "Loving and compassionate." - Monier Williams. (BUDDHISM. P.
181.)
     (9) "Love or mercifulness." - S. Beal (THE CHINESE DHAMMAPADA. P.
69.)
     (10) "Compassionate" or of "Family of mercy" - Getty (GODS OF
NORTHERN BUDDHISM. P. 20;68).
     (11) "The merciful." - Herbert Baynes (THE WAY OF BUDDHA. P. 15).
     (12) "Merciful one." - Joseph Edkins (CHINESE BUDDHISM. P. 240).
     (13) "Quality of a friend; friendly; benevolent; kind; love, amity,
sympathy, active
interest in others." - William Steade (THE PALl DICTIONARY).

         RAHMAT IS THE ARABIC EQUIVALENT 0F MAITREYA. Benevolence, loving
kindness,
friendliness, compassion, mercy or mercifulness, all words of similar
im****t are all expressed
by the Arabic word Rahmat. The Arabic English lexicon by Edward William
Lane gives some of the
following equivalents of Rahmat:- "Mercy, pity, compassion, tenderness of
heart; inclination
requiring the exercise of favour, and beneficence; pardon and
forgiveness."

         Badger's English Arabic Lexicon includes "Goodness and
providence".

         "Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim are both derived from Rahmat, signifying
tenderness requiring
the exercise of beneficience (Raghib Imam) and thus comprising the idea of
love and mercy.
Ar-Rahman and Ar-Rahim are both active participle nouns of different
measures. denoting
intensiveness of significance, the former being of the measure fa'lan, and
indicating the
greatest preponderance of the quality of mercy, and the latter being of
the measure fa'il and
being expressive of a constant repetition and manifestation of the
ahribute. (A. H.) The two
words have been explained by the holy prophet himself. He is re****ted to
have said. 'Ar-Rahman
is the Beneficent God whose love and mercy are manifested in the creation
of this world, and
Ar-Rahim is the Merciful God whose love and mercy are manifested in the
state that comes
after'. (A . H.) i.e., in the consequence of the deeds of men. Thus the
attribute of mercy in
Ar-Rahman is manifested before man comes in existence in the creation of
things that are
necessary for his life here, and therefore without his having deserved
them, while the same
attribute in Ar-Rahim is manifested when man has done something to deserve
it. Thus the former
is expressive of the utmost degree of the love and generosity, the latter
of unbounded and
constant favour and mercy. Lexicologists agree in holding that the former
includes both the
believer and the unbeliever for its object, while the latter
particularises more the believer.
(LL. R. gh. L.A. T.A.) Hence I render Ar-Rahman as meaning the Beneficient
God because the idea
of doing good is predominent in it, though I must admit that the English
language lacks an
equivalent of Ar-Rahman even making an approach to giving expression to
all comprehensive love
and goodness manifested in that word......" (Mohammed Ali's translation of
the Koran, Foot Note 3.)

         Metteyya is from Metta. The Metta Sutta runs thus:- "As a mother
at the risk of her
life watches over her own child, so let every one cultivate a boundless
friend (friendly) mind
towards all beings." (The Maha Bodhi Society translation.)

         "The Merciful......it expresses the universal atiribute of mercy
which the Almighty
extends to all men, the wicked and the good, believers and the
un-believers. This is a noble
thought." (The Muslim Doctrine of God by S.M.Zwemer D.D. PP. 35-6.)

         Thus Rahmat fully expresses the significauce of the word
Metteyya. Sale translates
Rahmat as "Mercy." (The Koran. Chapter 2l P.326.)

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