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buddhavacana

A succession of Buddhas

· 12 min read

According to 7D/1 Mahāpadānasutta the Buddha that we know is only the most recent out of a succession of past Buddhas.

The key characteristics of these Buddhas are:

Characteristic Vipassī Sikhī Vessabhū Kakusandha Koṇāgamana Kassapa Gotama (Current Buddha)
Time of Arising 91 aeons ago 31 aeons ago 31 aeons ago (same aeon) Present fortunate aeon Present fortunate aeon Present fortunate aeon Present fortunate aeon
Birth Class Aristocrat Aristocrat Aristocrat Brahmin Brahmin Brahmin Aristocrat
Clan Koṇḍañña Koṇḍañña Koṇḍañña Kassapa Kassapa Kassapa Gotama
Lifespan of beings (years) 80,000 70,000 60,000 40,000 30,000 20,000 Short (100 years or a little more)
Awakening Tree Patala tree White-mango tree Sal tree Sirisa tree Cluster fig tree Banyan tree Peepal tree
Chief Disciples Khaṇḍa & Tissa Abhibhū & Sambhava Soṇa & Uttara Vidhura & Sañjīva Bhiyyosa & Uttara Tissa & Bhāradvāja Sāriputta & Moggallāna
Disciple Gatherings & Sizes 3 (6.8M, 100K, 80K) 3 (100K, 80K, 70K) 3 (80K, 70K, 60K) 1 (40K) 1 (30K) 1 (20K) 1 (1,250)
Chief Attendant Asoka Khemaṅkara Upasanta Buddhija Sotthija Sabbamitta Ānanda
Father King Bandhumā King Aruṇa King Suppatita Brahmin Aggidatta Brahmin Yaññadatta Brahmin Brahmadatta King Suddhodana
Mother Queen Bandhumatī Queen Pabhāvatī Queen Vassavatī Brahmin lady Visākhā Brahmin lady Uttarā Brahmin lady Dhanavatī Queen Māyā
Capital City Bandhumatī Aruṇavatī Anoma Khemavatī (King Khema) Sobhavatī (King Sobha) Varanasi (King Kikī) Kapilavatthu

The clear pattern is that successive Buddhas have existed in an era of declining lifespans and declining size of followers, but they have all followed the same path to understanding.

This is almost certainly a synthetic sutta created some time after the Buddha’s death, in order to link his achievements to a line of previous Buddhas. The regularity and consistency in the description of past Buddhas are too structured for this to be an organic text.

The sutta is followed by a detailed biography of the first Buddha, Vipassī.

The sutta is clearly fanciful, as all the Buddhas seem to be Indians and living in a culture very similar to the most recent Buddha, and yet we know the society that the Buddha lived in has evolved dramatically before and after his lifetime, so the stories of these Buddhas can hardly be credible. We do know the system of castes was not prominent in the Greater Magadha region in Buddha’s time, so could hardly have been dominant in previous eons.

So what can be said about the supposed biography of Vipassī? The narrator obviously very much wanted to write a biography of Gotama Buddha, but lacked any details about his life, so decided to write a completely made-up biography supposed of a former Buddha through the mechanism of remembrance of past lives.

Of course, generations of Buddhists have confused between this supposed biography of Vipassī and the life of Gotama.

What is interesting is that from a soteriology perspective, this sutta claims that Vipassī decided to renounce after encountering an old man, a sick man, and a dead man, thus giving a motive for the quest to understand and end suffering. This sutta also claims that Vipassī discovered the soteriological path through contemplating dependent origination and the 5 khandhas, thus signifying that these represent the core concepts of the understanding. The notion of the 4 realisations is not explicitly stated, but interwoven into the narrative.

The last few paragraphs of 7D/1.11 Bodhisattaabhinivesa conclude with a brief summary of the awakening process:

135. Then indeed, Bhikkhave, this (thought) occurred to Vipassī the Bodhisatta — ‘Indeed, this path for full awakening has been attained by me, namely: with the cessation of phenomenal objects comes the cessation of consciousness; with the cessation of consciousness comes the cessation of phenomenal objects; with the cessation of phenomenal objects comes the cessation of the six sense bases; with the cessation of the six sense bases comes the cessation of contact; with the cessation of contact comes the cessation of feeling; with the cessation of feeling comes the cessation of craving; with the cessation of craving comes the cessation of fuel; with the cessation of fuel comes the cessation of existence; with the cessation of existence comes the cessation of birth; with the cessation of birth, ageing and death, sorrow, lamentation, pain, displeasure and despair cease. Thus is the cessation of this whole mass of suffering’.

136. ‘Cessation, cessation!’: indeed, Bhikkhave, for Vipassī the Bodhisatta, concerning dhammas not heard before, insight arose, knowledge arose, wisdom arose, understanding arose, light arose.

137. Then indeed, Bhikkhave, Vipassī the Bodhisatta, at a later time, dwelt observing the arising and passing away in the five collections of fuel — ‘Thus is form, thus is the origin of form, thus is the cessation of form; thus is feeling, thus is the origin of feeling, thus is the cessation of feeling; thus is apperception, thus is the origin of apperception, thus is the cessation of apperception; thus are mental constructions, thus is the origin of mental constructions, thus is the cessation of mental constructions; thus is consciousness, thus is the origin of consciousness, thus is the cessation of consciousness’, and for him, dwelling observing the arising and passing away in the five collections of fuel, not long after indeed, the mind, not grasping, was liberated from the defilements.