Maitreya is best known as the Buddha of the future, presently residing in the Tuṣita heaven, awaiting his future birth. However, an early Mahāyāna sūtra, the Inquiry of Maitreya (Maitreyaparipṛcchā, Mp), offers a unique perspective by focusing on Maitreya’s bodhisattva path rather than his future Buddhahood. This makes the Mp a rare—possibly unique—source for studying the Maitreya cult. The text survives in four divergent historical translations in Chinese and Tibetan, dating from the late 3rd to the 9th centuries CE. Only a single fragment of the original Sanskrit has been identified. By the 8th century, the Mp was incorporated as a chapter of the Mahāratnakūṭa (Da baoji jing, Dkon mchog brtsegs pa chen po), a subset—or “mini-canon”—within the Mahāyāna canons.
Despite its early Mahāyāna origins, the Mp, like many other sūtras within the Mahāratnakūṭa, is rarely mentioned in later Indian treatises. It nonetheless reflects the Northwestern Indian Buddhist milieu, particularly the tradition of the Bahubuddhakasūtra (Tournier 2017, 2019), which envisions an extended multi-Buddha cosmos. Within this framework, the Mp presents two distinct timelines for the bodhisattva careers of Śākyamuni and Maitreya: Maitreya’s bodhisattva career began 40 kalpas before Śākyamuni’s, yet Śākyamuni attained Buddhahood 9 kalpas earlier due to his self-sacrificial practices. This timing scheme presents an apparent incongruity, one that concerned the Mp's editors and became a central issue they sought to resolve: Why did the tradition have to insist on Maitreya’s earlier vow, rather than simply positioning his aspiration after Śākyamuni’s?
I argue that this incongruous timeline was an inherited tradition the Mp’s editors were compelled to accept, possibly due to the Bahubuddhakasūtra’s portrayal of Maitreya as one of the past Buddhas venerated by Śākyamuni on his bodhisattva path, as already attested in the Gāndhārī *Bahubuddhagasutra. Several other sūtras, including later versions of the Bahubuddhakasūtra and the Karuṇāpuṇḍarīkasūtra (abb. Kr), also grapple with this reversed aspiration sequence. The Mp devotes nearly half of its length to rationalizing these divergent bodhisattva paths, drawing upon three key conceptual frameworks: (1) vyākaraṇa (prophecies) and praṇidhāna (aspirational vows); (2) a distinctive fourfold model of bodhisattva tasks: (i) arraying Buddha fields, (ii) nurturing Buddha fields, (iii) arraying sentient beings, and (iv) nurturing sentient beings; and (3) the principles of compassion and skillful means:
Rather than attributing Śākyamuni’s later generation of his bodhisattva aspiration to any shortcomings—unlike the Fazang jing—the Mp instead frames the difference in terms of distinct aspirational vows. Śākyamuni’s aspirational vow prioritized an urgent and active engagement with the present world out of compassion. Wishing to fulfill his bodhisattva tasks in our defiled and turbulent world, he sought to establish his buddhakṣetra while simultaneously working to save and purify sentient beings. This necessitated a heroic and self-sacrificing path, accelerating his attainment of Buddhahood.
In contrast, Maitreya’s vow embraced a path of patience and skillful means. Rather than striving to purify beings and lands himself, he aspired to be born in a world that was already purified. His journey, though easier in effort, required a prolonged wait, making his path a long one. This contrast between Śākyamuni’s rapid, arduous path and Maitreya’s delayed, effortless approach forms the core of the Mp’s discourse on bodhisattva aspirations, illustrating two divergent yet legitimate modes of attaining Buddhahood.
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Salomon, Richard. 2018. Buddhist Literature of Ancient Gandhara: An Introduction with Selected Translations. Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications.
Silk, J.A. and Gadjin M. Nagao. 2022. “The History of the *Kāśyapaparivarta in Chinese Translations and Its Connection with the Mahāratnakūṭa (Da Baoji jing 大寶積經) Collection.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 142/3: 671–697.
Tournier, Vincent. 2019. “Buddhas of the Past: South Asia.” In: Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism, Vol. II edited by Jonathan A. Silk et al. Leiden: Brill. 95–108.
Tournier, Vincent. 2017. La formation du Mahāvastu et la mise en place des conceptions relatives à la carrière du bodhisattva. Paris: Publications de l'École française d'Extrême-Orient (Collection Monographies, no. 195).
The Inquiry of Maitreya (Maitreyaparipṛcchā, abb. Mp), a chapter within the 49-chapter Mahāratnakūṭa collection, is an early Mahāyāna sūtra that presents a distinctive doctrinal configuration, contrasting the bodhisattva paths of Maitreya and Śākyamuni. The Mp reinterprets and echoes elements from the pre-existing multi-buddha framework, particularly the Bahubuddhakasūtra, to depict divergent trajectories in their bodhisattva careers. Maitreya’s path is characterized as an "Easier Path," emphasizing skillful means yet requiring more kalpas, whereas Śākyamuni's journey is framed as a swifter but more heroic course, marked by greater emphasis on compassion and self-sacrificial efforts. This contrast underscores the fact that Mp is more fittingly regarded as a bodhisattva-sūtra, offering perspectives on bodhisattva practice and bodhisattva path, rather than as a fully developed text on the Maitreya cult, in contrast to what is seen in the Maitreya's Ascend/Descend texts.