The Indic name Maitreya (Pāli: Metteya), referring to the prophesized future Buddha of Jambudvīpa, is traditionally understood to derive from the Sanskrit word maitrī (Pāli: mettā), meaning “loving-kindness,” “goodwill,” or “benevolence.” In addition to its role as an ethical concept, “loving-kindness” is also identified as a unique form of meditative cultivation. It is the first of the four immeasurables or brahmic abodes (Skt. brahmavihāra), a set of meditative practices that confer various worldly benefits, including the potential for rebirth in the Brahma realms.
Despite the prominence of the meditative maitrī in early Buddhism, early discourses about Maitreya in Śrāvakayāna texts—such as the Cakkavatti-Sīhanāda Sutta (DN 26), the Bahubuddhaka Sūtra of the Mahāvastu, and their Chinese parallels—do not explicitly link the figure of Maitreya to the meditative maitrī. Similarly, several popular Mahāyāna texts that focus on the rise of Maitreya, such as the Maitreyavyākāraṇa, three versions of the Maitreyaparipṛcchā found in the so-called Mahāratnakūṭa collection, and the Guan Mile shangsheng jing 觀彌勒上生經 (452), ignore this etymological connection. In other words, the question of why Maitreya is named Maitreya is not directly addressed in these texts. The conspicuous absence seems to support the hypothesis that Maitreya may represent an attempt to Sanskritize *Metrega, a Central Asian word unrelated to maitrī. This hypothesis posits that the cult of Maitreya, which is absent in the earliest layer of Indian Buddhism, may have been influenced by the cult of the ancient Indo-Iranian deity Mithra (Karashima 2019).
As the cult of Maitreya continues to develop in Central Asia, the missing link was once again found. The earliest source linking a previous-life story of Maitreya with the meditative practice of loving-kindness is a jātaka story in the Scripture of the Wise and the Fool (Xianyu jing 賢愚經), which inspired the renowned Tocharian drama Maitreyasamiti. In this narrative, a great king named Dharmaruci witnesses a monk performing miracles through the Maitrī Samādhi. Inspired, Dharmaruci commits to the practice of the Maitrī Samādhi and eventually becomes Maitreya. The etymological connection is further explored in two Mahāyāna texts: the Yiqie zhiguangming xianren cixin yinyuan bushirou jing 一切智光明仙人慈心因緣不食肉經 (T.183) and the Maitreyapraṣṭhāna Sūtra (D 198), each presenting a different jātaka story associating Maitreya with the salvific power of the meditative loving-kindness. The Gaṇḍavyūha reaffirms the claim that Maitreya is called Maitreya because of his expertise in the meditative maitrī. The development of the meditative maitrī saw significant elaboration in the region of Khotan. This advanced form of meditation is documented in the Khotanese anthology titled the Book of Zambasta and a Chinese translation made in 691 (T.306). Around the same time, the Gaṇḍavyūha reaffirms the claim that Maitreya is called Maitreya because of his expertise in the meditative maitrī, and the Buddhāvataṃsaka, which incorporates the Gaṇḍavyūha, eventually helped popularize this explanation in East Asia.
The rhetoric of Maitreya as a meditation virtuoso in these texts conforms to the existing understanding that Maitreya was not conceived as a messianic savior either in India or in Central Asia (Nattier 2010, 36). It also represents the efforts to further develop the meditative maitrī in a post-Śrāvakayāna framework. In Śrāvakayāna traditions, particularly within Sarvāstivāda scholasticism, the meditative maitrī is a worldly (laukika) form of meditation, as it primarily aims to cultivate positive mental states and leads to rebirth in higher realms within the Śrāvakayāna cosmology. In contrast, by associating the meditative maitrī with buddhahood, the meditative maitrī was integrated into the bodhisattva path and is recast as a Mahāyāna practice that transcends the constraints of pre-Mahāyāna cosmology.
Dhammajoti. 2021. Aspects of Meditative Praxis in Sarvāstivāda, Hong Kong: The Buddha-Dharma Centre of Hong Kong.
Karashima Seishi 辛嶋静志. 2019. “Ajita to Miroku” アジタと弥勒. Indogaku bukkyōgaku kenkyū 印度學佛敎學硏究 67.2: 56–63.
Nattier, Jan. (1988) 2010. “The Meanings of Maitreya Myth: A Typological Analysis.” Maitreya, the Future Buddha, edited by Alan Sponberg and Helen Hardacre, 23–47. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Salomon, Richard. 2021. “New Biographies of the Buddha in Gāndhārī (Studies in Gāndhārī Manuscripts 3).” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 44.
This paper examines how Maitreya is narratively connected to maitrī (loving-kindness) as a form of meditative cultivation (bhāvanā). While Maitreya is typically understood in relation to his role as the next Buddha, there is a tradition that utilize past-life narratives to construct a link between Maitreya’s name and the meditative maitrī as the first of the four immeasurables or brahmic abodes. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the paper argues that, in these narratives, Maitreya is conceived as a meditation virtuoso, embodying and extending the practice of maitrī in unique ways. The etymological link can also be seen as a bridge that connects the meditative maitrī in Śrāvakayāna sources and its elaboration in Mahāyāna sources.