Who are the "Noble Ones"?

Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly; G.P. Malalasekera (Dictionary of Pali Terms)

Three noble ones pay homage to an image of the Noble One (Sasin Tipchai/Bugphai/flickr)

 

The noble ones or "noble persons" (ariya-puggala) does not refer to teaching and nonteaching buddhas but to anyone who attains the various stages of enlightenment and liberation. The Buddha may be called the Noble One, but his function was the production of noble ones, of establishing the Teaching, establishing the Monastic Order for intensive practice and the preservation of the Teaching long after his mission.  The grades or stages of enlightenment are not absolutes; there are different ways to distinguish attainments. But for simplicity four are repeatedly mentioned. (According to the Path of Freedom or Vimuttimagga there are more only because the first few are categorized together simply as stream-enterers). For example, one of the extraordinary characteristics of a stream-winner or stream-enterer (sotapanna) is that s/he faces at most seven rebirths and has therefore in this unimaginably long course of "continued wandering on" (= samsara), the Wheel of Rebirth, put a limit on suffering. The next stage, that of the once-returner, faces only one rebirth. Between these two stages, there are actually other stages, but they are all lumped together for simplicity. In fact, there were always at least eight noble ones, but only four are generally spoken of because the Commentary maintains that the difference between each pair is simply a thought-moment. This almost certainly cannot be the case, as indicated by the sutras and spelled out by Bhikkhu Bodhi in the explanatory notes to his famous sutta-pitaka (discourse-collection) translations.

Arch with an ancient Buddha image in Theravada Buddhist Phowintaung, Burma

 

The eight and nine NOBLE ONES are:

(A) The eight noble ones are those who have realized one of the eight stages of enlightenment, that is, the four supermundane paths (maggas) and the four supermundane fruitions (phalas) of these paths.

There are four pairs:

1. One realizing the path of stream-winning (sotāpatti-magga).

2. One realizing the fruition of stream-winning (sotāpatti-phala).

3. One realizing the path of once-returning (sakadāgāmi-magga).

4. One realizing the fruition of once-returning (sakadāgāmi-phala).

5. One realizing the path of non-returning (anāgāmi-magga).

6. One realizing the fruition of non-returning (anāgāmi-phala).

7. One realizing the path of full enlightenment (arahatta-magga).

8. One realizing the fruition of full enlightenment (arahatta-phala).

In sum, there are by this scheme four noble individuals (ariya-puggala): the stream-winner (sotāpanna), the once-returner (sakadāgāmi), the non-returner (anāgāmī), the fully-enlightened (arhat or arahat, arahant).

Here is where the sutras and the Path of Freedom, which is a commentarial work analogous to the more famous Path of Purification (one possibly being an earlier version of the other, both works of the most famous Buddhist commentator Ven. Buddhaghosa, but the earlier version credited to Ven. Upatissa (the original Upatissa being Ven. Sariputra, the Buddha's chief male monastic disciple "foremost in wisdom," analogous to his chief female monastic disciple "foremost in wisdom" Ven. Khema).

Change of Lineage

Sariputra, foremost in wisdom (SashWeer/flickr)

All of unenlightened beings are "ordinary worldings." Most of us are uninstructed ordinary worldlings. But in A.VIII.10 and A.IX.16 the gotrabhū is listed as the ninth noble individual. When one goes from "ordinary worldling" to "noble one," it is extraordinary. The Buddha referred to this liberation process as a "change of lineage." One is completely different now even while seeming to others (or even oneself) exactly the same. It is nearly impossible to tell who is a stream-enterer or fully-enlightened. There are ways for one to tell of oneself, but it is very easy to overestimate one's attainment. It is amazing talking to stream-enterers or reading their descriptions in the sutras and them not being sure. See, for example, the story of Queen Mallika's maid. They are only sure something happened, and they can hardly explain what or how. Logic dictates that ordinarily worldings would be able to tell, but experience proves otherwise. They can recognize each other but by prodding and testing a little, not by some magic intuition. Ajahn Jumnien tells the story of how he met California Vipassana (insight meditation) teacher Ruth Denison (DhammaDena.com) and knew but also how he did not know how far along she was until he tested her. One reason for this is that one retains many of the same characteristics as before the Truth liberated one. The most important thing one can bear in mind in this regard is that ENLIGHTENMENT PERFECTS PERSPECTIVE NOT PERSONALITY.

One will come out the other end with right view (samma ditthi) but will keep many of the same quirks, predilections, and predispositions after undergoing an utterly radical change in view about the things that matter (bodhipakkayadhamma). Wisdom itself does the uprooting of ignorance, not an act of will or self or thinking. And this is because full enlightenment does not mean omniscience. It means FULL penetration of only four things -- the Four Noble Truths. Perhaps it also means utter certainty about the Three Marks of Existence and the fact of Dependent Origination, the certainty that nothing comes into being without a cause or with only a single cause. When we ask, in accordance with the first noble truth, "How has this present suffering come into being?" we are investigating causes and conditions. There are at least 12, and of these the weakest -- the one we can do something about -- is craving. There are other deeper reasons, like ignorance (avijja, avidya), but these cannot be remedied directly. Craving can. Craving is not the root of all suffering, as many people say. Ignorance is. But the Buddha singled out craving (tanha, desire) because his insight into the causal links of Dependent Origination led him to realize that it was possible to break the chain at this link. Right view, knowing-and-seeing,

 

Path and Fruition

A permanent and radical change of heart

By "PATH" (magga) or "supermundane path," according to the "Higher Teaching" (Abhidhamma), is simply meant a designation of the moment of entering into one of the four stages of enlightenment -- [glimpsing] nirvana (Pali nibbāna) being the object -- produced by intuitive insight (vipassanā) into the impermanence, unsatisfactoriness, and impersonality of all existence, flashing forth and forever transforming one's life and nature.

By "FRUITION" (phala) is meant those moments of consciousness that follow immediately thereafter as the result of the path, which in certain circumstances may repeat innumerable times during the lifetime.

(I) Through the path of stream-winning one "becomes" free (whereas in realizing the fruition, one "is" free) from the first three fetters (samyojana) that bind ordinary beings to existence in the Sensual Sphere (the lowest of three "spheres" or lokas in a threefold classification of the 31 Planes of Existence in Buddhist cosmology encompassing to the lowest hells, the worlds of humans, animals, ghosts, titans, and lower devas, up to the highest of the six sensual "heavens"; the other two spheres are the Fine-Material or Subtle Sphere and the Immaterial Sphere):

• (1) personality-belief (sakkāya-ditthi),
• (2) skeptical doubt about the path (vicikicchā),
• (3) belief that mere rules or rituals could ever lead one to enlightenment (sīlabbata-parāmāsa; see upādāna).

(II) Through the path of once-returning one becomes nearly free of the fourth and fifth fetters:

• (4) sensuous craving (kāma-cchanda = kāma-rāga),
• (5) ill-will (vyāpāda = dosa, see "roots," mūla).

(III) Through the path of non-returning (anāgāmi-magga) one becomes fully free of the first five or "lower" fetters.

(IV) Through the path of full-enlightenment one further becomes free of the five "higher" fetters as well:

• (6) craving for fine-material existence (rūpa-rāga),
• (7) craving for immaterial existence (arūpa-rāga),
• (8) conceit (māna),
• (9) restlessness (uddhacca),
• (10) ignorance (avijjā).

Tibetan Vajrayana stained glass rainbow emanation (Samye Ling Centre and Monastery)

 

The stereotype sutra text runs as follows:

(I) "After the disappearance of the three fetters, the meditator has won the stream (that leads inevitably to nirvana) and is no longer subject to rebirth in lower worlds (subhuman planes of existence), is firmly established, destined for full enlightenment.

(II) "After the disappearance of the first three fetters and [a marked] reduction of greed, hatred, and delusion, one will return [at most] only once more [to this world]. And having once more returned to this world, one will put an end to suffering.

(III) "After the disappearance of the first five fetters one appears in a higher world [in superhuman planes of existence, i.e., the Pure Abodes], and there one reaches nirvana without ever returning from that world (to the Sensual Sphere).

(IV) "Through the extinction of all taints or cankers (āsava-kkhaya) one reaches in this very life that deliverance of mind, that deliverance through wisdom, which is freed of the cankers, and which one has directly understood and realized."

• For the various classes of stream-winners and non-returners, see sotāpanna and anāgāmī.

(B) The sevenfold grouping of the noble disciples runs as follows:
(1) the confidence (conviction, faith)-devotee (saddhānusārī),
(2) the confidence-liberated one (saddhāvimutta),
(3) the body-witness (kāya-sakkhī),
(4) the both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta),
(5) the Dharma-devotee (dhammānusārī),
(6) the vision-attainer (ditthippatta),
(7) the wisdom-liberated one (paññā-vimutta).

This group of seven noble disciples is explained in the Path of Purification (Vis.M. XXI, 73):

(1) "One who is filled with resolution (adhimokkha) and, by [systematically] considering the formations as impermanent (anicca), gains the faculty of confidence, who at the moment of the path to stream-winning (A.1) is called a confidence-devotee (saddhānusārī);

(2) One is called a confidence-liberated one (saddhā-vimutta) at the seven higher stages (A. 2-8).

(3) One who is filled with tranquility and, by considering the formations as disappointing (dukkha), gains the faculty of concentration, who in every respect is considered a body-witness (kāya-sakkhī).

(4) One, however, who after reaching the absorptions of the immaterial sphere (Jhanas 5-8) has attained the highest fruition (of full enlightenment), who is a both-ways-liberated one (ubhato-bhāga-vimutta).

(5) One who is filled with wisdom and, by considering the formations as not-self (anattā), gains the faculty of wisdom, who is at the moment of stream-winning a Dharma-devotee (dhammānusārī).

(6) One who at the later stages (A. 2-7) is a vision-attainer (ditthippatta).

(7) One who is  a wisdom-liberated one (paññāvimutta) at the highest stage (A. 8)."

The Buddha's Noble FOURfold Path

Bhikkhu Bodhi (beyondthenet.net), Four Truths; Dhr. Seven (ed.), Wisdom Quarterly

"Eightfold Path? I was into it back when it was the Fourfold Path" (Elephant Journal)

 
An Elephant's Footprint

Elephant at Borobudur (TrevThompson)

The recorded teachings of the Buddha are numerous. But all these diverse teachings fit together into a single unifying frame: the teaching of the Four Noble [or Ennobling] Truths.

The Buddha compared the Four Noble Truths to the footprint of an elephant. Just as the footprint of an elephant can encompass within it the footprints of any other animal -- lions, tigers, wolves, foxes, cats, dogs, and so on -- so all the different teachings of the Buddha fit into the single framework of the Four Noble Truths.

Punk rock Buddha (Saara/Arkiharha/flickr)

The Buddha makes it clear that the FULL realization of the Four Noble Truths precedes the attainment of enlightenment itself, which means touching or glimpsing nirvana, final liberation from all disappointment.

He says that when a teaching-buddha appears in the world, what is taught are the Four Noble Truths. The special purpose of the Dharma is to make known this path to spiritual-nobility, to ultimate truth and liberation from illusions and suffering.

And the special aim of those treading the path to enlightenment is to personally know-and-see (experientially verify) the Four Noble Truths:

1. The truth of disappointment (dukkha, unsatisfactoriness, unhappiness, pain, suffering, misery, the unpleasant),
2. The truth of the origin of disappointment,
3. The truth of the cessation of disappointment,
4. The truth of the path, the [eightfold] way to complete and final liberation from disappointment.

Elephant's Footprint sutra (BPS.lk)

The technical Buddhist term dukkha has often been translated as suffering, pain...misery. But dukkha or "disappointment," as used by the Buddha, has a much wider and deeper meaning.

 

It suggests a basic unsatisfactoriness pervading all forms and planes existence, even the most exalted and long lasting, all forms of rebirth, due to the fact that all forms are impermanent (even when they do not seem to be changing in heavenly planes) and without any inner core or substance.

The term dukkha indicates a lack of fulfillment, a lack of perfection, a condition that never measures up to our standards and expectations. Each word in the phrase "Four Noble Truths" is significant. What is the doctor's prescription?

• The Lesser Simile of the Elephant's Footprint (MN 27)
• The Greater Simile of the Elephant's Footprint (MN 28)
• Family Dharma: Elephant's Footprint (Tricycle)
• Chinese Buddhism owe a lot to Gandhara Civilization

Dr. Buddha, Master Physician (Prescription)

Amber Larson, Crystal Quintero (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly; BuddhaNet.net; Molly Hahn

Cats are good friends when they sleep in under the Sun (Molly Hahn/buddhadoodles.com)

 

The Buddha and my cat (Dee McIntosh/flickr)

The Buddha sets out the Four Truths as a formula a doctor would use to deal with a patient, a suffering person.

 

1. The Buddha first establishes the basic affliction, which is determined to be the problem of liability to disappointment and unsatisfactoriness; living beings are in pain.

2. Thereafter, he makes a diagnosis. That is, he explains the cause for this disease. This is the second truth, namely, that craving is part of the problem [explained in full in the 12 causal links of Dependent Origination], and craving is the link we can do something about right here and right now.

Accept what is. Let go of judgment. Remain aware of it. And you will know and see (BD).

 

3. As a third step a good doctor gives a prognosis, the possibility of the cessation of the problem. That is to say, a doctor determines whether a cure is possible. Is there some means of bringing about the end of our affliction, our problem, the pain we are sore from, complaining about, and seeking a cure for? Fortunately for living beings, the Buddha says YES: Suffering can be ended in this very life! We can stop all our suffering.

4. Finally, in the fourth step, perhaps the most important from the standpoint of the ailing patient, the doctor prescribes the course of treatment. The Buddha prescribes a fourth truth: the Noble Eightfold Path, the way to the end of all suffering, the treatment, the actions to take for enlightenment that leads to the goal of nirvana, which the Buddha very specifically defined as the final solution, the antidote, the cure, "the end of all suffering."

Was the Buddha Ukrainian? (video)

Amber Larson, Dhr. Seven, CC Liu, Wisdom Quarterly (archives); English.Pravda.ru

The Buddha was a supremely handsome Central Asian royal with blue eyes, fair/golden complexion, black curly hair, and striking features, from the Solar Dynasty, a warrior-caste "noble" (Aryan or Iranian). See Rhys Davids' Jataka (trans.) with "Story of the Lineage" (MT)

Pres. Putin invades Ukraine to illegally annex Crimea and begin rebuilding USSR Empire

• Celebrating the Buddha's birthday (Vesak) in Russia
• Buddhist Birth-Stories: Jataka (Rhys Davids)
• World-class propaganda Pravda-style: "An American in Crimea: People are pleased with joining Russia"
• [Emperor] Putin marches triumphantly into Crimea today:

 

Buddha, Jesus Christ, and ancient Egyptians were Ukrainians
Pravda.ru, Real Life Stories

Venerated in Burma (oRi0n Fabio/flickr.com)

[The] Buddha, who is widely worshiped in Asia, was of direct relevance to Ukraine, the official publication of the country’s parliament wrote.

Jesus Christ actually lived 3,000 years before his canonical birth and spoke the Coptic language, which is a close language to the ancestors of contemporary Ukrainians...

“It is quite possible that [the] Buddha belonged to the Scythian nation of Budins [who] lived on the territory of ancient Ukraine during the first or the second millennium B.C.

Deposed Ukrainian [princess] prime minister

“The name of the nation is still preserved in the names of Ukraine’s contemporary settlements -- Seredina-Buda, Buda, and some others,” the newspaper of Ukraine’s Supreme Rada wrote.

Gorgeous Buddha in Asia

“Everything is clear from the ethnic point of view. [The] Buddha was a Scythian Arian [Aryan in Buddhism means "noble one," but is thought to derive from the word for Iran, people from the northwest implicated in ancient "Aryan Invasion" theories about the rise of the Indus River Valley and India], a member of the Budin tribe. The descendants of the tribe still live in the Sumsky and the Chernigov region of Ukraine, as well as on the neighboring lands of Belarus and Russia,” the newspaper said.

Buddhists far to the West and North
Dhr. Seven, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly (COMMENTARY)

• In another part of Russia, Buddhist Siberia (aka "North Asia") -- which long ago began to follow Buddhism from Central Asia (Gandhara and Afghanistan) arriving on the Silk Road and Vajrayana Buddhism that reached it through Mongolia (when Tibet was the head of a Himalayan empire that brought Buddhism to Bangladesh, formerly "East India," on the southern side of the mountain range where the Ganges river ends, according to Ven. Karunananda, Ph.D. -- some place names reflect a more prominent Buddhist past:
• See Sakha Republic/Yakutia (like Saka, Sakka, Shakya), which is situated next to Magadan Oblast.
• The Magha of the Maga people (like Buddhist Magadha of India in standard histories and the more ancient Vedic "Magadha" Kingdom) is the capital city of Alania, a medieval kingdom in the Greater Caucasus.
• It is usual that emigrants name new cities after old ones in reverence of their history. This is all just teasing at loose and tantalizing threads in the tapestry of history, suggestions rather than any definitve proof.
• The Saka (Shakya) -- of formerly-Buddhist Tajikistan -- were a growing, itinerant, "wandering," spreading, shaman/shramana-favoring Scythian tribe of Iranian (Ariyan) origin
• The Buddha was from Afghanistan (ranajitpal.com), not Nepal's Terai region, as standard history claims, nor East India's Orissa (Odisha) as the government of Orissa attempts to promote.
• The "Great Tribe Footholds or Family-Clan Territories" (Maha Janapadas) do not place the Shakyans, who were the Buddha's family, in ancient "Greater India" (Maha Bharat)
• "Noble" (Aryan, Arya, Ariya) originally derived from the word "Iranian" when parts now listed as part of the "geopolitical Middle East" were still in Central Asia
• Who were the Shakyans (aka Sakyā, Sakka, Sākiyā) from beyond northwest of India? (G.P. Malalasekera, Pali Proper Names)
• Sakka (Sakra, Indra), "King of the 'Gods' (Devas)," formerly the Brahmin Maghavā or Magha of Macala  (aka Saint Michael the archangel was the preeminent "god" (deva) of the Buddhists 
• VIDEO: Sakka, "St. Michael," Lord of the 33 Sakka (Magha of Macala), King of the near Earth orbit Devas (Devanam-Indo), is the world's most famous celestial/extraterrestrial Buddhist. As Indra, Indo, Maghavant, and "Saint Michael the Archangel" he appears in...
• VIDEO: Catholic Saint Sakka and Saint Buddha
• VIDEO: "Thor": Sakka, King of the Gods
• "Thor" the Nordic version of Sakka/St. Michael Sakka is regarded as partially enlightened, a "stream enterer," in the first stage of awakening yet still the ruler of the Celestial World of the Thirty-Three (Tavatimsa)
• A Saxon gold hoard in England—Its Scythian originsThe Greeks also called them Scythians (a name for them used by Paul in ... When the Parthian and Scythian tribes migrated into Europe, the Romans... 
• Tomb of Saka/Scythian Princess 
• Saka prrincess tomb found in KazakhstanCentral Asia

*    * * *    *  

Yay, the Buddha's cool and Ukrainian! (FEM)

The “sensationalist” article was written by Valery Bebik, a doctor of Political Sciences, a professor, deputy principal of Ukraine University, and the chairman of the board of the All-Ukrainian Association of Political Sciences.

Mr. Bebik published a number of his articles in the official newspaper of the Ukrainian Parliament before. He wrote his previous articles for the paper to “prove” the remarkable role of the Ukrainian civilization, which endowed the world with spiritual enlightenment, outstanding prophets, philosophers, and leaders.

In 2008-2009, the Ukrainian professor shared his amazing observations of ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the ethnic origin of Jesus Christ.

Hey, Obi, you don't tell me who to invade, and I won't tell you who to kill with your drones! Like with Libya, I said don't take out Kaddafi. - Hey, Vlad, relax! Don't make me sic McCain on ya. - You get that Munchkin out of Ukraine, you "lame duck," you would-be dictator. You and Merkel, stay out of my affairs! - Man, you crazy, Putty! I can't talk to you no mo'.

 

Blue-eyed reclining Buddha, final-nirvana (W)

“The name of Egypt’s major temple, Het-ka-Ptah, sounds very much like Ukrainian words hata and ptaha (“house” and “bird”). The pictures on the Egyptian pyramids show that Egyptian queens were blonde women with blue eyes, just like many Ukrainian women. One should also pay attention to the fact that the trident, which is currently the minor national emblem of Ukraine, can often be seen there too,” the [social] “scientist” wrote.

“We have already outlined the facts that placed in question the official church version of the ethnic origin and the biblical dates of the life of Jesus Christ and the historical epoch, in which the basis of Christianity was formed.

It looks like Christ actually lived 3,000 years before his canonical birth and spoke the Coptic language, which is a close language to the ancestors of contemporary Ukrainians,” The Voice of Ukraine wrote. More

• Discuss article on Pravda Forum or here at WQ
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The Western Paradise (as Afghanistan)

Dhr. Seven, Ven. Chandananda Thero, Amber Larson, Wisdom Quarterly

The Buddha and Shakyans were from the "Middle Country," skirting borders East and West

The "West," the rich Silk Route crossroads of the ancient Shakyan territory (janapada headed by Kapilavastu), now Bamiyan, Afghanistan (Afghanistan Matters, Netherlands)

  

Chinese Mahayana Buddhists often speak of the "Great Western Paradise," a Pure Land (suddhavasa, "Pure Abode"), a mythical Atzlan or faraway Afghan land. They are likely referring to rebirth in the space-deva-worlds of the Four Great Sky Kings. But why the Western World? Was King Virūpakkha, Regent of the Dragons (nagas), who sits facing east, particularly inviting? Or was it the historical fact that the Dharma had come from the West -- from India, considered the "holy land" by Chinese Buddhists, who were cloistered in their great walled empire? Did it refer to a future when everyone would want to "go west" for economic advantage? We suggest that because the Buddha came from the West (Northwest India, Gandhara, Afghanistan), as seen from the East and Far East, it was to the West that one would naturally want to go.

The Buddha (SDhammika/Barakat)

The Buddha came from the West.

What is the meaning of this shocking statement? Surely, the Buddha came from the East! That is, indeed, true. But at that time the "West" was the lands and cultures west of India, which is what we now call the Sacred East.

The river that divided the once great empire of India (Maha Bharat) was not the Ganges, which runs southeast down from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal (now "Bangladesh" as a result of Partition in 1947).

The Sindhu of the Indus and Hindus (W)

The Indus/Sindhu river (fed by the now defunct Saraswati river, whose historical existence has now been confirmed by satellite data) came down from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea to create a natural boundary between "West" and "East" in the Indian imagination. Siddhartha came from West to East and began teaching near the holy Indian city of Varanasi (Benares) on the Ganges.

MAP: Indus Valley Civilization

His extended family, however, got the message and began an almost simultaneous practice of the Dharma. His former wife (called Yasodhara, Bimba-devi, Rahula-mata) was already following as best she could eventually to become the fiercest enlightened disputant Bhadda kaccānā; his son (Rahula) would be the youngest to ordain; his cousins became great disciples; his father (Suddhodana) the king became enlightened; his mothers (Maya and Pajapati) were both helped, one in space, one on Earth, the latter becoming the world's first Buddhist nun; his half-sister (Sundari Nanda) and half-brother (Nanda) becoming enlightened disciples; his close cousin (Ananda) becoming his longtime attendant memorizing the sutras for all posterity; and other Shakyan princes and princesses also ordaining, creating a great need for massive Buddhist temple monastic complexes exactly like those found in Afghan archeological sites like Bamiyan, massive Mes Aynak ("Copper Well"), Tepe Narenj (near Kabul). 

The very first Buddhist temple complexes were likely built in Afghanistan and Indo-Pakistan (previously called Gandhara on the northwestern frontier of anything still called "India" at the time).

Moving over the western expanse beyond the remains of India (Afghanistan Matters/flickr)

 

The lands influenced by Vedic India extend back in time to the Indus Valley Civilization. They were to become India, Persia (particularly Seistan-Baluchistan), ancient Greek/Hellenized Bactria (the Greco-Bactrian Kingdom), and other empires (Shakyan, Sogdiana, Seleucid, etc.), what is now Central Asia and, by our American reckoning, parts of the geopolitical Middle East (Kurdistan, Iran, Afghanistan, a future-Pashtun'istan, and Hazar-istan in Buddhist Bamiyan, etc.), and lands formerly within the Soviet sphere of influence -- Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and China (Uygur Xinjiang), and Pakistan/Baltistan (a country which didn't exist except as a state in India until 1947's Partition of India by the British). 

Gandhara-style Buddha

Imagining Kapilavastu or the Shakyan janapada (territory) in Nepal or India, as we customarily do, obscures the real and more amazing history of Buddhism. It conceals facts brought to light by ancient textual (e.g., the oldest Buddhist texts being from Gandhara/Afghanistan) and modern archeological evidence (e.g., the oldest Buddhist monasteries and art being from Gandhara/Afghanistan) and by critically reviewing haphazard and politically-influenced history concocted by early British and German Orientalists. 

(See Ranajit Pal, who makes the stronger claim that evidence for Nepal was intentionally falsified).

• Map of Greco-Bactria, fusion of ancient Greece in India
• The oldest Buddhist art: Greco-Buddhist Gandharan style
• What is the "Middle Country" from which buddhas come?

Chronicle-To-Be

The Sinhalese recension of the Anagatavamsa, translated into English for the first time, is one of several texts forming a genre of Buddhist apocalyptic literature.

It was generated by the [messianic] cult of Maitreya in South and Southeast Asia.

 

The marvels of Mes Aynak to be lost

It is a prophetic text revealing a rich religious imagination focused on the advent of the next-Buddha (not a "second coming" but a new person to fill the post) in a time when those who have long persevered in the religious quest will gain an opportunity to realize the highest spiritual attainment. More

Looking "West" from Mes Aynak ("Copper Well") stupa, a Buddhist burial mound encased in stone, Afghanistan, west of India (ranajitpal.com)

Looking farther "West" to the beyond to Eurasia, the Caucasus, and Europe after the vast expanses of Central Asia, ruins of Mes Aynak or "Copper Well" mine and Buddhist monastic complex archeological site (livescience.com).

Classical Buddhist art in San Francisco (photos)

Boonlieng Wongchaowart (photog); Wisdom Quarterly; Asian Art Museum of S.F.

The Buddha (levitating) alongside celestial space-devas and possibly from left to right: the Buddha's four chief disciples, the nun Khema, the monks Sariputra and Maha Moggallana, and the nun Uppalavanna (Boonlieng/flickr.com)

The future Buddha Maitreya (boonlieng/flickr.com)