106 CHAPTER FIVEis attended by a company of hundreds. At present, this bodhisattva is residing
in the Tu~ita heaven (where future Buddhas traditionally spend their penulti-
mate life), awaiting his last birth. The pious might look forward to that event,
dedicating the merit of their current practice to the goal of being reborn as a
human being at that time, when all human beings will gain Awakening. In
order to pass the interlude happily and to be sure of rebirth along with
Maitreya when he comes, they could meanwhile seek rebirth in the Tu~ita
paradise. One recommended way of securing a desired rebirth is to concen-
trate one's thoughts on it at the moment of death. Thus, King DutthagamaQ.i
of Sri Lanka, dying in 80 B.C.E., fixed his last thoughts on Metteyya's heaven
where, the chronicles assure us, he was reborn. Similarly, the Chinese pilgrim
Hsiian-tsang vowed to be reborn in the Tu~ita heaven with Maitreya. Life in
the presence of Maitreya is the Buddhist equivalent of the Christian millen-
mum.
Maitreya, unlike the Buddhas before him, is alive, so he can respond to the
prayers of worshipers. Being compassionate, as his name indicates (its Sanskrit
root means benevolent), he willingly grants help-being a high god in his
present birth, he has the power to do so. His cult thus offers its devotees the
advantages of theism and Buddhism combined.
Just as the Buddha had received occasional revelations and inspirations from
devas, Mahayana masters went into trances and journeyed to the Tu~ita heaven,
where Maitreya revealed Dharma-themes to them. On occasion, he also de-
scended to Earth to divulge texts, which makes it exceedingly difficult to de-
cide whether the Yogacarin texts attributed to Maitreyanatha, "Lord
Maitreya," are the works of a human author who took that name, or are the
outcome of a meditator's visiopary experiences.
Beginning from the time that Gandharan art first appeared, Maitreya was
frequently represented, perhaps as a result of the messianic expectations-
originating probably in present-day Iran-that coursed through India and the
Mediterranean world after 200 B.C.E. Many images and paintings of him sur-
vive in central Asia. He is often shown sitting on his throne in western fash-
ion. In China, he is also known as "the laughing Buddha," an apocryphal
figure who was deemed a preincarnation of Maitreya. Known in Chinese as
Pu-tai Ho-shang (Hemp-bag monk; in Japanese, Hotei), his rotund figure is
often mistaken by westerners for Sakyamuni Buddha when they find images
of him in curio shops. He appears as the savior in the last picture of the ox-
taming series of Ch' an and Zen Buddhism.
5.4.2 ManjusriMaiijusri shares with Maitreya preeminence among the bodhisattvas in the
Mahayana Sutras up to 300 c. E. In the Lotus Sutra he remembers deeds of for-
mer Buddhas that were unknown even to Maitreya. In the Vimalakirti he alone
of all Sakyamuni's disciples has wisdom and eloquence enough to stand up to
that formidable householder, Vimalakirti. In the GatJqavyuha, the last chapter
of the Avatatttsaka Sutra, he counsels the youth Sudhana in his search for Awak-