84000 Glossary of Terms

Our trilingual glossary combining entries from all of our publications into one useful resource, giving translations and definitions of thousands of terms, people, places, and texts from the Buddhist canon.

བྱམས་པ། | Glossary of Terms

  • བྱམས་པ།

  • མཻཏྲེ་ཡ།
  • byams pa
  • maitre ya
  • maitreya
  • ajita
  • maitraka
  • Note: this data is still being sorted
  • Person
Publications: 92

The bodhisattva Maitreya is an important figure in many Buddhist traditions, where he is unanimously regarded as the buddha of the future era. He is said to currently reside in the heaven of Tuṣita, as Śākyamuni’s regent, where he awaits the proper time to take his final rebirth and become the fifth buddha in the Fortunate Eon, reestablishing the Dharma in this world after the teachings of the current buddha have disappeared. Within the Mahāyāna sūtras, Maitreya is elevated to the same status as other central bodhisattvas such as Mañjuśrī and Avalokiteśvara, and his name appears frequently in sūtras, either as the Buddha’s interlocutor or as a teacher of the Dharma. Maitreya literally means “Loving One.” He is also known as Ajita, meaning “Invincible.”

For more information on Maitreya, see, for example, the introduction to Maitreya’s Setting Out (Toh 198).

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha, the fifth buddha in the Bhadra kalpa. In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple sent to pay his respects by his teacher; the Buddha gives him the gift a of a robe and prophesies that he will be the next buddha, while his companion Ajita will be the next cakravartin. As a bodhisattva he has both these names.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

Bodhisattva who embodies the quality of loving kindness; the next buddha following Śākyamuni.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • 彌勒
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya AS
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • 彌勒
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The name of the next buddha, “The Benevolent One,” who now abides in Tuṣita heaven as a bodhisattva, awaiting the proper time to take his final rebirth.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha, the fifth buddha in the current eon. In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple sent by his teacher to pay his respects to the Buddha, who gives him the gift of a robe and prophesies that he will be the next buddha, and that his companion Ajita will be the next cakravartin. As a bodhisattva, he has both these names. In Karuṇāpuṇḍarīkasūtra (Toh 112), the Buddha Ratnagarbha prophesies that Vimalavaiśayana, the fourth of the thousand young Vedapāṭhaka pupils of Samudrareṇu, will be the Buddha Maitreya.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • 彌勒
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

Bodhisattva of loving kindness who will become the next buddha to follow Śākyamuni. As a future buddha, he is the 5th buddha in the first list, 5th in the second list, and 5th in the third list.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
This is an addendum to the general definition from the 84000 Glossary:

One of the bodhisattvas attending this teaching in Śrāvastī, at Jeta Grove.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

A great bodhisattva, also named in this text by his epithet Ajita.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha, the fifth buddha in the Bhadraka eon. In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple sent to pay his respects by his teacher, and the Buddha gives him the gift of a robe and prophesies he will be the next Buddha, while his companion Ajita will be the next cakravartin. As a bodhisattva he has both of these names. In The White Lotus of Compassion Sūtra, the Buddha Ratnagarbha prophesies that Vimalavaiśayana, the fourth of the thousand young Veda-reciting pupils of Samudrareṇu, will be the Buddha Maitreya.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha, the fifth buddha in the fortunate eon. In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple Maitreya Tiṣya, sent to pay his respects by his teacher. The Buddha gives him the gift of a robe and prophesies he will be the next Buddha, while his companion Ajita will be the next cakravartin. As a bodhisattva in the Mahāyāna, he has both these names.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • ajita
  • maitraka
Definition in this text:

The bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha, the fifth buddha in the Good Eon. In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple sent to pay his respects by his teacher, and the Buddha gives him the gift of a robe and prophesies that he will be the next buddha, and that his companion Ajita will be the next cakravartin. As a bodhisattva, he has both these names. In the White Lotus of Compassion Sūtra, Buddha Ratnagarbha prophesies that Vimalavaiśayana, the fourth of the thousand young Vedapāṭhaka pupils of Samudrareṇu, will be Buddha Maitreya.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
This is an addendum to the general definition from the 84000 Glossary:

One of the bodhisattvas who attends the Buddha’s teachings in this text.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • 彌勒
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

A bodhisattva present throughout the sūtra, prophesied as one birth away from buddhahood and designated by Śākyamuni as the next buddha in the succession of one thousand buddhas of our era. According to tradition, he resides in the Tuṣita heaven preparing for his descent to earth at the appropriate time which, according to Buddhist belief, will occur in 4456 A.D.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

One of the eight main bodhisattvas, the heart sons of the Buddha.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

In Sanskrit, “The Benevolent One”; the name of the next buddha, who currently resides in Tuṣita heaven as a bodhisattva awaiting the proper time to take his final rebirth.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • 彌勒
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

In Sanskrit “The Benevolent One”; the name of the bodhisattva who became Śākyamuni’s regent and is prophesied to be the next buddha, the fifth buddha in the fortunate eon. In early Buddhism he appears as the human disciple Maitreya Tiṣya, sent to pay his respects by his teacher. The Buddha gives him the gift of a robe and prophesies he will be the next buddha, while his companion Ajita will be the next universal monarch. As one of the eight great bodhisattvas in the Mahāyāna, he has both these names. He is said to currently reside in the Tuṣita heaven awaiting the proper time to take his final rebirth.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The name of a bodhisattva. Maitreya is considered to currently reside in Tuṣita and awaits rebirth in the human realm as the next Buddha of the current eon.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • 彌勒
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

One of the sixteen great bodhisattvas. The content of the list varies from text to text.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya AD
  • 慈氏
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

The future buddha, he resides in Tuṣita heaven until his rebirth as the fifth of the thousand buddhas to appear in this eon.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
Definition in this text:

An important bodhisattva in the Mahāyāna pantheon who is considered to currently reside in Tuṣita and awaits rebirth in the human realm as the next buddha of the current age.

  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • མཻཏྲེ་ཡ།
  • byams pa
  • maitre ya
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya
  • Maitreya
  • བྱམས་པ།
  • byams pa
  • maitreya