Maitreya has often been stereotypically portrayed as a future buddha who, by marking the culmination of a reincarnation series, represents salvation or renewal. However, this simplistic portrayal obscures the complexity of this mythical figure found in Indic, Central Asian, and Chinese Buddhist traditions. As a corrective, this panel explores three overlooked dimensions of Maitreya that challenge, complicate, and expand our conventional understanding.
The first paper analyzes the Maitreyaparipṛcchā, contrasting Maitreya’s long yet skillful path to awakening with Śākyamuni’s swift and sacrificial attainment. It argues that this text reconfigures earlier multi-buddha frameworks and offers an alternative bodhisattva ideal. The second paper, by investigating the connection between Maitreya’s name and the meditative cultivation of maitrī (loving-kindness), sheds light on the often-ignored etymological link constructed through past-life narratives. The third paper examines Maitreya in the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi and its Chinese commentary, exploring textual and visual representations of Maitreya in early Tantric Buddhism.
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.
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.
Like other bodhisattvas, Maitreya is a figure in the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi (大日經), a major Mantrayāna text that in 724 was translated by Yixing 一行 (673–727) and Śubhakarasiṃha 善無 畏 (637–735). Yixing subsequently produced a commentary on the text based on the oral teachings of Śubhakarasiṃha. The commentary is unique in that it provides a direct interpretation of both the text and accompanying maṇḍala by a major Indian monk. This paper will first discuss the role of Maitreya in the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi, before moving on to the commentary and extant visual representations of the figure in the related maṇḍala. The symbolic interpretation of Maitreya in these contexts evolved from earlier Mahāyāna and Āgama literatures, but took on new elements. We can better understand the early reworking of established lore in Mantrayāna through examining Maitreya in the Vairocanābhisaṃbodhi as it was transmitted to China.