4 ms·
Actually, The Buddha we all know about (Siddharta Gotama, affectionately called Sakyamuni, as he belonged to the Sakyan clan) is indeed the Buddha of our curren
by supertofu 4y ago
Actually, The Buddha we all know about (Siddharta Gotama, affectionately called Sakyamuni, as he belonged to the Sakyan clan) is indeed the Buddha of our current world system, but there were Buddhas before him and there will be Buddhas after him -- they will just belong to different world systems. The next Buddha is referred to as Metteyya (Maitreya for the Mahayana folks).
An enlightened person is called an Arahat (Arahant). They are not Buddhas. The Buddha is one person in one world-system who rediscovers the Dhamma (Dharma) after it has been lost. Often a Buddha goes on to teach that Dhamma, but there are certain Buddhas who arise who never teach. These are called Paccekka Buddhas.
- mtalantikite 4y agoI guess it depends on your school of Buddhism and I think your statement is more in line with Theravada. In Vajrayana formulations, though, the goal is Buddhahood in a single lifetime and there are countless Buddhas that are used in practice. For example, in Aityoga [1] you'll often do visualization practice as, say, Tara [2] or Medicine Buddha [3]. Of course, all of it is ultimately considered illusion, as Niguma articulated so well in her dohas [4], but it's all useful for practice. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dzogchen [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Buddhism) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Buddhism) [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaisajyaguru https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhaisajyaguru [4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niguma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niguma