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Metteyya Buddha

The future Buddha, the fifth of this world-cycle (Bu.xxvii.21).

According to the Cakkavatti Sutta, he will be born when human beings will live to an age of eighty thousand years, in the city of Ketumatī (present Bārāṇasī), whose king will be the Cakkavattī Saṅkha. Saṅkha 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 (D.iii.75 ff).

The Anāgatavaṃsa (J.P.T.S.1886, pp.42, 46 ff., 52; DhSA.415 gives the names of his parents) gives further particulars.

According to the Mahāvaṃsa (Mhv.xxxii.81 f; see Mil.159), Kākavaṇṇatissa and Vihāramahādevī, father and mother of Duṭṭhagāmaṇī, will be Metteyya’s parents, Duṭṭhagāmaṇī himself will be his chief disciple and Duṭṭhagāmaṇī his second disciple, while Prince Duṭṭhagāmaṇī 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 Sri Lanka, 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 leagues (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, teaching 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 teaching and attain to nibbāna under him. See, e.g., J.vi.594; MT. 687; DhSA.430.