Dipankara

Dīpankara Mongolian Jula-yin Jokiyaγči, Dibangkara, Nepal Bhasa: one of the Buddhas of the past, said to have lived on Earth one hundred thousand years.

Theoretically, the number of Buddhas having existed is enormous and they are often collectively known under the name of "Thousand Buddhas". Each was responsible for a life cycle. According to some Buddhist traditions, Dīpankara (also Dīpamkara) was a Buddha who reached enlightenment eons prior to Gautama, the historical Buddha. Generally, Buddhists believe that there has been a succession of many Buddhas in the distant past and that many more will appear in the future; Dīpankara, then, would be one of numerous previous Buddhas, while Gautama was the most recent, and Maitreya will be the next Buddha in the future.

Chinese Buddhism tends to honor Dīpankara as one of many Buddhas of the past. Dīpankara, Gautama (Buddha of the present), and Maitreya (Buddha of the future), collectively form the Buddhas of Three Times.

Dīpankara is generally represented as a sitting Buddha, but his depictions as a standing Buddha are common in China, Thailand, and Nepal; with the right hand he generally forms a protection mudra (abhaya mudra), and often he forms it with both hands.

Dīpankara is rarely depicted alone; one of the Buddhas of Bamyan, destroyed by the Taliban government in Afghanistan in 2001, was said to portray Dīpankara. Statues of Dīpankara can also be found in the Longmen and Yungang Grottoes in China.

He is generally depicted with two Bodhisattvas, Manjushri and Vajrapani (common in Java) or Avalokiteshvara and Vajrapani (common in Sri Lanka); or with the Buddhas who come after him, Gautama and Maitreya.

One story shown in Buddhist art stupas, has Gautama Buddha (also known as Shakyamuni) in a former incarnation known as Sumedha, a rich Brahmin turned hermit kneeling and laying his long black hair on the ground, in an act of piety that the prophet Dīpankara could cross a puddle of mud without soiling his feet. This story between Dīpankara Buddha and Shakyamuni, occurred many lifetimes before Shakyamuni's eventual enlightenment. From this act, Dīpankara told Sumedha "In the ages of the future you will come to be a Buddha called Shakyamuni",to which Sumedha replied, "I am to become a Buddha, awakened to enlightenment; may you tread with your feet on my hair - on my birth, old age, and death." Dīpankara Buddha then said, "Freed from human existence, you will become an effective teacher, for the sake of the world. Born among the Shakyas, as the epitome of the Triple World, the Lamp of all Beings, you will be known as Gauthama. You will be the son of King Suddhodana and Queen Maya. Shariputta and Moggallana will be your chief disciples. Your caretaker will name as Ananda."

In 45 years life of the Buddha, said almost 554 past life stories, Jaathaka Katha in Sinhalese of himself. Gauthama Bodisatta, a person starts the journey to become a Buddha filling 10 Paramita, was born in the time of Dīpankara Buddha, and was rich and gave away all his wealth to become a Monk. It is said that Gauthama Bodisatta received his first Niyatha Vivarana, definite foresighting by a Buddha, from Dīpankara Buddha. This encounter, among many other predictions of Shakyamuni Buddha's future enlightenment, can be found in a Mahayana text named the Sangatha Sutra.

By the 17th century, Dīpankara had become a figure of veneration in Nepalese Buddhist communities. These followers consider him a protector of merchants and associate him with alms-giving.

He is also considered the protector of the sailors, and sometimes statues of Dīpankara are found on the coastline to guide and protect the ships in their route.

Folk worshippers in Taiwan also revere Dīpankara.

In Buddhist tradition, Kakusandha (Pāli) is the name of the twenty-fifth Buddha, the first of the five Buddhas of the present kalpa, and the fourth of the seven ancient Buddhas. In the Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, this Buddha is known as Krakucchanda. In Tibetan, he is known as Khorvadjig. His biography is recorded in the Buddhavamsa, one of the books of the Pāli Canon.

Kakusandha Buddha was born in Khemavati (now Gotihawa), in Kapilavastu District, in the Lumbini Zone of southern Nepal. His father was Aggidatta, a Brahmin chaplain of the king Khemankara of Khemavati. His mother was Visakha. His wife was Virochamana (also known as Rocani); he had a son, Uttara (son of Kakusandha). Asoka visited Gotihawa, Nepal when he visited Lumbini, Nepal and installed a stone pillar and inscribed his visit in the pillar. There is also a stupa in Gothihawa. Therefore, it is generally accepted due to the pillar that the birthplace of Kakusandha is in Gothihawa, Nepal near Kapilvastu, Lumbini, Devadaha and Ramagrama of Nepal.

Kakusandha lived for four thousand years in the household in three palaces: Ruci, Suruci and Vaddhana (or Rativaddhana). At the age of four thousand, he renounced the worldly life while riding on a chariot. He practised austerities for eight months. Beforing attaining enlightenment, he had accepted some milk-rice from the daughter of the brahmin Vajirindha of the village Suchirindha, as well as grass for his seat from the yavapalaka Subhadda. He attained enlightenment under a sirisa tree, then delivered his first sermon to the assembly of eighty-four thousand monks in a park near Makila.

Kakusandha performed the twin miracle under a sala tree, at the gates of Kannakujja. Among his converts was a fierce yaksha named Naradeva. Kakusandha kept the fast-day (uposatha) every year.

His chief disciples were Vidhura and Sanjiva among the monks, and Sama and Champa among the nuns. His personal attendant was Buddhija. Acchuta and Samana among the men, and Nanda and Sunanda among the women were his chief lay-supporters. Acchuta built a monastery for Kakusandha Buddha on the same site, which was later chosen by Anathapindika for Jetavana Arama for Gautama Buddha.

According to the Samyutta Nikaya (ii.194), the Vepulla peak of Rajgir was then called Pachinvamsa; and the people of the region Tivara.

Kakusandha's body was forty cubits in height, and he died at the age of forty thousand years in Khemavati. The thūpa erected over his relics was one league high.

The bodhisattva who was to become Siddhartha Gautama was born as King Khema during the time of Kakusandha. Kakusandha was the Buddha who foretold that King Khema, who offered him alms with robes and medicines, would become the Gautama Buddha in the future.

In Buddhist tradition, Kassapa (Pāli) is the name of a Buddha, the third of the five Buddhas of the present kalpa (the Bhaddakappa or 'Fortunate Aeon'), and the sixth of the six Buddhas prior to the historical Buddha mentioned in the earlier parts of the Pali Canon (D.ii.7). In the Buddhist texts in Sanskrit, this Buddha is known as Kāśyapa.

Kassapa was born in Nepal. His parents were the Brahmins Brahmadatta and Dhanavatī, of the Kassapagotta.

According to legend, his body was twenty cubits high, and he lived for two thousand years in three different palaces. They are Hamsa, Yasa, and Sirinanda. (The BuA.217 calls the first two palaces Hamsavā and Yasavā). His chief wife was Sunandā, who bore him a son named Vijitasena.

Kassapa gave up his worldly life traveling in his palace (pāsāda). He practiced austerities for only seven days. Just before attaining enlightenment, he accepted a meal of milk-rice from his wife and grass for his seat from a yavapālaka named Soma. His bodhi (the tree under which he attained enlightenment) was a banyan tree, and he preached his first sermon at Isipatana to an assembly of monks who had renounced the world in his company.

Kassapa performed the Twin Miracle at the foot of an asana tree outside Sundar Nagar, India. He held only one assembly of his disciples; among his most famous conversions was that of Nāradeva, a Yaksha. His chief disciples among monks were Tissa and Bhāradvāja, and among nuns were Anulā and Uruvelā, his constant attendant being Sabbamitta. Among his patrons, the most eminent were Sumangala and Ghattīkāra, Vijitasenā, and Bhaddā.

Kassapa died at the age of forty thousand years, in the city of Kashi, in the Kasi Kingdom (now known as Varanasi, in the modern-day Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. Over his relics was raised a thūpa one league in height, each brick of which was worth one crore (ten million) rupees.

There was initially a great difference of opinion on what should be the size of the stupa and of what material it should be built. Construction of the stupa was begun after these issues were finally settled. But then the citizens found they lacked sufficient funds to complete the stupa. An anāgāmī devotee named Sorata travelled throughout Jambudipa, requesting money from the people for the completion of the stupa. He sent the money as he received it, and on hearing that the work was completed, he set out to go and worship the stupa. However, he was seized by robbers and murdered in the forest, which later came to be known as the Andhavana.

Upavāna, in a previous birth, became the guardian deity of the stupa, hence his great majesty in his last life (DA.ii.580; for another story of the building of the shrine see DhA.iii.29).

Among the thirty-seven goddesses noticed by Guttila when he visited heaven was one who had offered a scented five-spray at the stupa (J.ii.256). Alāta offered āneja-flowers and obtained a happy rebirth (J.vi.227).

The cause of Mahā-Kaccāna's golden complexion was his gift of a golden brick to the building of Kassapa's shrine (AA.i.116). At the same stupa, Anuruddha, who was then a householder in Benares, offered butter and molasses in bowls of brass, which were placed without any interval around the stupa (AA.i.105).