MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Maitreya Bodhisattva
Miroku Bosatsu (Sanskrit: Maitreya Bodhisattva), meaning the Friendly One, is the Future Buddha, Shakyamuni's Heir and Buddha-Elect, nominated by the last historical incarnation of Buddhahood as his successor. He enjoys the distinction of being the only Bodhisattva worshipped by both Hinayana and Mahayana followers. Until the cyclic moment arrives, 5670 million years after the Parinirvana of his predecessor, Maitreya waits in the Tushita Heaven (Japanese: Tosotsu-ten), the highest but four of the Six Realms of Desire (Kama-dhatu in Sanskrit), which contains forty-nine abodes. These numbers are obviously symbolical and subject to esoteric interpretation; the noughts, for example, standing for Shunyata, or the Void, at the same time as exoterically they serve to arouse feelings of awe and wonder in the devotee of simple faith.
All Traditions, whether in the Metaphysical or in the religious mode, are forms, and as all forms are finite, it follows that no one Tradition can ever give a totally consistent and exhaustively complete account of Reality, which is Infinite. The Infinite should not be equated with mathematical infinity, which is merely quantitative, whereas the Infinite subsumes all qualities as well as quantities. Inevitably, any one Tradition explains some problems better than others do. Such finite limitations apply a fortiori to all merely human schemes and systems of thought, like philosophy and the sciences. But each Tradition possesses its own unique qualities and virtues, which manifest different aspects and possibilities of the Unmanifest; and by an adequate symbolism based on the analogical correspondence: 'As above, so below', the myths and rituals in co-operation with the sacred arts, crafts, and sciences of every Tradition can suggest and evoke the Universal in the particular. Each Tradition has been granted its central insights, which can reveal certain aspects of that Reality to its own people and epoch, though perhaps not to others. In turn each Tradition suffers from the peripheral blind-spots that show the confines of its particular viewpoint and prevent it from seeing the viewpoints of Traditions that differ too widely from its own.
The messianic significance of Miroku Bosatsu was reinterpreted by Shinran Shonin in a more inward and personal sense, so that every Shin devotee who has reached the Stage beyond Relapse, when Pure Faith has been received from Amida Buddha through his Name, becomes as it were an example of the Divine Exemplar, an image in the inner likeness of Maitreya Bodhisattva. Miroku then really represents the devotee's innate Buddha-nature, or Mind of Pure Faith, awakened from its latent state by the First Call of Amida Buddha, who thus confers on his worshipper a vocation for the Bodhisattva, Career, just as Maitreya, deeply pondering on how to save mankind, has but one more incarnation before attaining Buddhahood, so the Shin devotee, absorbed in the recitation of the Sacred Name, has only to live out his unexhausted karma in this life and then, thanks to Amida's Grand Vow, is assured of posthumous Rebirth in the Western Paradise. But from Jodo, the Pure Land, where he can listen to the preaching of Amida Buddha and so pass into Nirvana, the Shin devotee nevertheless remembers the Bodhisattva's Vow and, again like Miroku, chooses to return to Samsara, the Round of Suffering, in order to work for the welfare and enlightenment of all sentient beings.
The immediate consequence of Amida's transference of merit is that the Faith of his devotee becomes firmly fixed in the Unretrogressive State. At once Mahakaruna, the Great Compassion, begins to manifest its influence in the recipient so that he becomes a human analogy to the Bodhisattva Maitreya, the very embodiment of dispassionate friendship and helpful kindness.