Many Buddhas
By.Rev.Shokai Kanai

Siddhartha Gautama left His parents, lovely wife, and a child in Kapila Palace at the age of 29. He denounced the luxurious life of the kingdom and became a monk with a homeless life. After six years of practice, He attained Enlightenment under a Bodhi tree, then He became the Sakyamuni Buddha. He is the only historical Buddha. The Buddha revealed the truth.

The truth has universality and adequacy. If the Buddha's teachings that were revealed 2,000 years ago did not apply to our daily lives, the teachings would not be true. If the Buddha's teachings that can be applied in only one place are not adequate in other places, the teachings would not be true, either. Because the Buddha Dharma is universal and adequate, Buddhists have respected the teachings and worshipped the Buddha.

Since the truth is universal and adequate, the truth that the Sakyamuni Buddha has revealed must have existed even before His Enlightenment just as gravity must have existed before Newton discovered it. If the truth existed for million, billions, trillions, or an infinite number of years ago, then the truth must have been taught by many different Buddhas in the past. A scripture says there were seven past Buddhas. Amida Buddha of the Nembutsu Sect is one of them. Dainichi Buddha of the Shingon Sect is also one of the seven past Buddhas. Amida Buddha lives in the far west, and Dainichi Buddha lives throughout the universe. Only Sakyamuni Buddha lives in this world where we live.

In Buddhism, we imagine the eternal past and also the eternal Future because there is no beginning and no end in time. Since the Buddha Dharma is universal and adequate, the same truth shall be taught in the Future by a Buddha. That Buddha is in the Tushita Heaven now. He is only Buddha in the Future so far. But there should be more Buddhas because time is limitless.

The Future Buddha is practicing Buddha's teachings in the heaven now. He is not a Buddha yet, therefore he is called Bodhisattva Maitreya. In a broad sense all of us are Bodhisattvas, because we seek Enlightenment and try to help others. We are all candidates to be Buddhas.
March 1, 1988