BUDDHISM-AMAZING FACTS-2

Among the most singular of the claims put forth on behalf of Buddha, we may name the assertion, that though he taught the

same doctrines that former Buddhas had done, all his revelations were the result of his own personal discovery, by

means of intuition, entirely apart from experience, without any instruction from another, and without any aid from tradition, or from any other of the sources by which knowledge is generally

communicated to man. In the interval between one Buddha and another, 'not only does the religion of the preceding Buddhas

become extinct, but the recollection and record of all preceding events are also lost' – Mahawansa XXVIII.

Let us refer Mahapadana Sutta – Deega Nikaya, to know about the far-fetched stories about some of the previous Buddhas .

First Buddha – Vipassi – Lived before 91 KalpaFather King Bandumathie, Mother Queen Bandumathie – Lived in the city of Bandumathie – Lifespan 80,000 years – Attained enlightenment (became a Buddha) under a Palol tree – Qanda

& Tissa theras held the position of closest friends (agasaw) – Asoka thera held the position of chief attendant – Khastriya

caste

Second Buddha – Siqee – Lived before 61 KalpaFather Aruna – Mother Prabavathie – Lived in the city of

Arunawathie – Attained enlightenment under an Atamba tree – Abibu and Sambava held the position of closest friends –

Qemankara held the position of chief attendant – Lifespan 70,000 years – Khastriya caste

Third Buddha – Vessabu – Lived before 31 KalpaFather Suprathetha – Mother Yasomathie – Attained

enlightenment under a Sal tree – Lifespan 60,000 years – Upasantha chief attendant – Sona & Uttara closest friend –

Khastriya caste

Four Buddhas in the present Kalpa

Kakusanda Buddha – Brahmin caste – Father Aggidatta – Mother Visaka – Lived in the city of Qemawathie – Buddhija

chief attendant – Vidhura & Sanjeewa closest friends – Attained enlightenment under a Mahari tree – Lifespan 40,000 years.

Konagamana Buddha – Brahmin caste – Father Yanjadatta – Mother Uttara Devi – Lived in the city of Sobawathie – Attained enlightenment under a Dimbul tree – Lifespan 30,000 – Sottija

chief attendant – Biyosa & Uttara closest friends.Kasyapa Buddha – Brahmin caste – Father Brahmadatta –

Mother Dhanawathie – Lifespan 20,000 – Tissa & Bharathwaja closest friends – Sarvamitra chief attendant

Gautama Buddha last to appear in this Kalpa – Born in the city of Kimbulwath – Father Suddodana – Mother Mahamaya –

Attained enlightenment under an Asathu tree – Ananda chief attendant – Sariyuth & Mugalan closest friends

Every time a Bodisatva is born, following incidents take place:

1.Mother dies after seven days2.Foetus remains in the womb for full ten months3.Delivery of the child takes place in a standing position4.No urine or faecal matter touches the child5.Immediately after the birth of Bodisatva child two streams

of water, one cold and the other warm, begin to flow from the sky to wash the baby.

6.Immediately after the birth of Bodisatva baby, walks seven steps forward and makes the roar of a lion (Sinha naada(

)Source Ref: Mahapadana Sutta – Deega Nikaya – Tri Pitaka(Kalpa

One Kalpa is considered to be one day of Brahma and according to the calculations of this world it is equal to Koti 432

years.1 Koti = 10000000= Million 10000000/1000000 = M 10

432 Koti= M 4320= Billion 4.320= 1 Kalpa91 Kalpa= B 91 X 4.320= B 393.1261 Kalpa= B 61 X 4.320= B 263.5231 Kalpa= B 31 X 4.320= B 133.92

)Source: 'The Wonder that was India' By Dr. A.L. Basham( It is worth noting that according to the modern day scientific

findings, the age of the universe is between 15 to 20 billion years. Accordingly some of the previous Buddhas have lived even before this universe had come into existence. What an

amazing story!

In the first sermon preached by Buddha at Benares, he says, "Within me, priests, for the attainment of these previously

unknown doctrines, the (divine) eye was developed, knowledge was developed, wisdom was developed, perception was

developed, light was developed". But the claim to exclusive clearness of perception, and extend of knowledge, put forth by

Buddha, is inconsistent with the power he attributed to the Rishis. In the twelve kalpas previous to Gautama, twenty four

Buddhas appeared, and the doctrines of all former Buddhas are the same as those of Gautama. Then, if Kaladewala, and other Rrishis, could see backward forty kalpas, why were they not as

able to tell the doctrines of former Buddhas as Gautama himself? If the tirttaka (sects of religions-non Buddhist)

unbelievers could see the past in the manner that Buddha affirms, how could any of them oppose him, when, from the power to see backward forty kalpas, they must have known

that their predecessors were in error? And if these men, who could receive no aid from Buddha, because they were the

promoters of another system, could see the past, and learn all about it, where was the necessity for Buddha, through

numberless births, to seek the attainment of the Buddhaship, in order that he might teach men the way to nirwana, when

others, according to his own principles, were able to learn all that was required to be known, in order to secure the same consummation? Buddha must be wrong, on one side or the

other, either when he says that his doctrines were "previously unknown", or when he says that his opponents could see

backward "forty kalpas ."

There are other facts that lead us to question the truth of Buddha's statement, as to men's entire ignorance of the

existence and doctrines of the former Buddhas. He tells us that the Vedas were given in the time of Kasyapa Buddha. When we

ask how all knowledge of the former Buddhas was lost, if the Vedas then given were still in existence, though corrupted, we

are told that the oblivion of the past extends only matters connected with Buddhism, which reply is too unsatisfactory to

be marketed. But there are other events that tend to shake our faith in this statement, unless the knowledge that so

extensively prevailed of former Buddhas was the consequence of his own revelations, which it would be difficult to prove, as

the Pitakas give no sanction to such a conjecture. Fa Hian tells

us, in reference to the hill Kakutapeda: "It is here that the great Kiashe (Kasyapa Buddha) is actually present. He perforated the

foot of the hill that he might enter it, and prevented any other from entering in the same way. At a considerable distance

thence, there is a lateral opening, in which is the entire body of Kiashe (Kasyapa Buddha)". The Chinese have this formula:

"Namo Buddaya, Namo Dhammaya, Namo Sangaya, Namo Kasyapaya. Om! Hara, hara, hara. Ho, he, he. Namo Kasyapaya.

Arhate. Samyak-Sambuddaya." In the journals of Fa Hian the references to Kasyapa are so

frequent, as to lead to the conclusion that in the age in which he visited India, this Buddha was regarded with much and

widely-extended reverence. In the temple at Sanchi, there is an inscription which records that a female devotee "caused money

to be given for the lamps of the four Buddhas". It is, therefore, probable that much more was known of the former Buddhas in

the time of Gautama than is acknowledged by the Pitakas of Sri Lanka, who worship no Buddha but the last. That there were

ever any beings in existence with endowments similar to those attributed to the Buddhas, we must again deny, from the

arguments we have previously advanced, but there may have been religious teachers, sages, or philosophers, whose system

was embraced and extended by the son of King Suddodana and Queen Maha Maya. In some instances honours were paid to

these former Buddhas that were denied to Gautama. Fa Hian says: Dewadatta has sectaries who still subsist, these honour the three Buddhas of the past time, Shykiawenfoe (Gautama)

they honour not". From this it appears that the religion founded by Dewadatta, the brother-in-law of Gautama, was yet in

existence eight hundred years after his death. According to the Sri Lankan records, Dewadatta, after endeavouring in vain to

reach Buddha that he might ask and receive forgiveness for his evil deeds, went to the Awichi hell, having previously been

abandoned by all his disciples. But how could his followers have been led to worship the former Buddhas, and refuse to worship Gautama, if all they knew about his predecessors was derived from his own revelations? And if all Dewadatta's disciples left

him prior to his death, how is it that we find his system still followed after the lapse of so many centuries ?