metteyya

Updated: May 3, 2025

There is no reason to doubt that Gotama regarded himself as one in a series of Buddhas: the Pali scriptures relate that he mentioned his predecessors by name, and also spoke of unnumbered Buddhas to come. Nevertheless Maitreya or Metteyya is rarely mentioned in the Pali Canon.

Sir Charles Eliot - Hinduism and Buddhism, An Historical Sketch, Vol. 2