Fóshuō Mílè lái shí jīng 佛說彌勒來時經
Sūtra Spoken by the Buddha at the Time of Maitreya’s Coming Translator unknown (失譯)
About the work
The Mílè lái shí jīng is a brief anonymous text describing the future coming of Maitreya. Unlike the other canonical Maitreya sūtras, it begins unusually with Śāriputra rather than Upāli or an assembly petition initiating the discourse. The Buddha describes the ideal future world: the continent Jāmbudvīpa expanding dramatically, five kinds of produce growing spontaneously, a cakravartin king Sēngluó 僧羅, a capital Jītóumò 雞頭末 with jeweled walls and twelve gates, and Maitreya’s birth in a brahmin family with the 32 great marks. Enlightenment occurs under the dragon-flower tree on the eighth day of the fourth month. The terse style and archaic vocabulary suggest an early composition. The Taishō notes the translator is unknown (失譯), catalogued under Eastern Jìn records.
Prefaces
No preface or translator colophon; the text is brief (less than one Taishō column). The Taishō annotation 失譯人名附東晉錄 places it in the Eastern Jìn (317–420) bibliographic records.
Abstract
The Mílè lái shí jīng (T457) is the briefest and most archaic-styled text in the canonical Maitreya cluster. Its phrasing and vocabulary suggest it may predate the more elaborate Mahāyāna versions (T453–T456), and it has been compared to Āgamic Maitreya passages. Hayashiya Tomojirō (1945) dated it to the Western Jìn on linguistic grounds; its placement in “Eastern Jìn records” in the Taishō represents the cautious bibliographic tradition. The world described — Jāmbudvīpa expanding, a wheel-turning king, Maitreya’s birth and quick enlightenment — parallels the other descent sūtras, but in an abbreviated form that may represent an older recension or a Chinese précis. The first appearance in the catalogue record (Zhòngjīng mùlù by Jìngtài) dates to the early Táng (after 650 CE).
Translations and research
- Sponberg and Hardacre (eds.). Maitreya, the Future Buddha. CUP, 1988.