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Dear Members,
I have been contemplating the lifespans of different Buddhas as mentioned in the texts and noticed a significant contrast between them. For instance :
Buddha Human Lifespan Dīpankara Buddha 100, 000 years Kondañña Buddha 100, 000 years Mangala Buddha 90, 000 years Sumana Buddha 90, 000 years Revata Buddha 60, 000 years Sobhita Buddha 90, 000 years Anomadassi Buddha 100, 000 years Paduma Buddha 100, 000 years Nārada Buddha 90, 000 years Padumuttara Buddha 100, 000 years Sumedha Buddha 90, 000 years …
Kakusanda Buddha 40, 000 years Konāgamana Buddha 30, 000 years Kāssapa Buddha 20, 000 years Gautama Buddha 100 years Source: chronicle of buddhas
This raised a few questions :- Why was Gautama Buddha’s lifespan significantly shorter compared to the other Buddhas?
- Why did Gautama Buddha choose to be born in a time when the human lifespan was naturally shorter? If so, was there a specific reason for this choice?
- Wouldn’t it have been more beneficial for Gautama Buddha to wait until the human lifespan was longer, potentially allowing more time to teach and spread the Dhamma?
Could you all please help me out please.
Thank you in advance for your responses. :)1 user thanked author for this post.
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Getting answers to the questions you raised requires understanding the following:
1. Suppose a Deva dies and is born a human; when that human dies, he/she is reborn a Brahma. The human existence between Deva and Brahma existences is called “human bhava;“ it can last thousands or even millions of years. During that whole time, the essential part of the human is a subtle, invisible body called “manomaya kaya” or “gandhabba.” Thus, human existence is maintained by the gandhabba. It is born simultaneously with the death of the Deva, and at its death, a Brahma is born in this example.
- Within that human bhava, the human gandhabba can enter a womb and be born with a physical body (like ours); that birth with a physical and dense human body is called “jāti.” (Thus, many jāti can occur within a bhava, each time born with a different physical body.) The lifetime of that dense human body can vary from about ten years to about 100,000 years. That depends on the physical environment. Some physical environments can sustain a physical, dense human body for 100,000 years, and when the conditions are bad, it can be as low as tens of years.
- The change in environment is not linear. For example, even though a dense human body these days lasts about 100 years, it will decrease to about 10 years and then increase again to about 20,000 years (as I remember) before the next Buddha (Buddha Maitreya) appears.
- The “Mahāpadāna Sutta (DN 14)“ is another reference for those lifetimes during various Buddhas. The difference between bhava and jāti is discussed in “Bhava and Jāti – States of Existence and Births Therein.”
2. You asked: “Why did Gautama Buddha choose to be born in a time when the human lifespan was naturally shorter?”
- A Buddha (more correctly, a Bodhisatta) does not have control over when he attains Buddhahood. He may be born when the physical lifetime is long or short. Such things are “dhammatā,” which happen according to nature.
- That answers your third question, too.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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We can kind of blame Ananda for that, as he fumbled when Buddha gave Ananada a hint. I’m saying blame in a “joking” manner, of course.
“The Realized One has developed and cultivated the four bases of psychic power, made them a vehicle and a basis, kept them up, consolidated them, and properly implemented them. If he wished, the Realized One could live on for the eon or what’s left of the eon.”
“Ānanda, the misdeed is yours alone, the mistake is yours alone. For even though the Realized One dropped such an obvious hint, such a clear sign, you didn’t beg me to remain for the eon, or what’s left of it. If you had begged me, I would have refused you twice, but consented on the third time. Therefore, Ānanda, the misdeed is yours alone, the mistake is yours alone.”
Buddha would live for that long or longer but nobody asked for that where there was time to ask.
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@Christian: Can you provide the reference for your quote? Which sutta is it?
- It appears to be a (bad) translation issue.
- Please provide the link to the specific translation you quoted. Some have translated correctly.
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Let me put a link to the quote in the sutta:
The English translation there is: “The Realized One has developed and cultivated the four bases of psychic power, made them a vehicle and a basis, kept them up, consolidated them, and properly implemented them. If he wished, the Realized One could live for the proper lifespan or what’s left of it.”
What you quoted in your original comment was: ““The Realized One has developed and cultivated the four bases of psychic power, made them a vehicle and a basis, kept them up, consolidated them, and properly implemented them. If he wished, the Realized One could live on for the eon or what’s left of the eon.”
- So, the actual translation does not say eon.
Now the Pali verse is: “Tathāgatassa kho, ānanda, cattāro iddhipādā bhāvitā bahulīkatā yānīkatā vatthukatā anuṭṭhitā paricitā susamāraddhā. Ākaṅkhamāno, ānanda, tathāgato kappaṁ vā tiṭṭheyya kappāvasesaṁ vā”ti.”
- Kappa means a lifetime. It is incorrect to translate kappa as an “eon.”
An eon is a “mahā kappa” not a “kappa.”
- As I pointed out in my comment above, the lifetime of a human (kappa) during the time of the Buddha was similar to today, about 100 years.
- At the time of that conversation with Ven. Ananda, Buddha was about 80 years old. He told Ven. Ananda that he could live for another 20 years or so because he had cultivated “cattāro iddhipāda.”
- Even a Buddha would not be able to live for a mahā kappa, which is several billion years!
- The English translations in both links are fine. They say either “lifespan” or “kappa” indicating a lifetime of about 100 years. You seem to have misinterpreted it as a mahā kappa.
- I would say this is a common mistake many people make.
Please make it a habit to quote a reference properly. That will save a lot of time for others.
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