The Bodhisattva in the Heaven of Contentment

The bodhisattva who would be reborn as Siddhartha Gautama and become Shakyamuni Buddha spent his penultimate lifetime in the Heaven of Contentment (S. Tushita), the fourth of the six heavens of the desire realm. The inhabitants of that heaven are said to live for around half a billion years. This is the same heaven wherein Maitreya Bodhisattva, who is supposed to be the next Buddha of this world, now resides.

Human life on Earth is estimated to have only appeared two hundred millennia ago, whereas the expansion of the sun will make Earth uninhabitable within a billion years, though other changing conditions on Earth may cause the extinction of humanity as soon as a quarter of a billion years from now if we are not able to find ways to colonize other inhabitable planets. From this, we should consider that the point of these lifespans and timetables for the appearance of buddhas is to underscore that, as far as we should be concerned, the appearance of a buddha is a one-time event. This does not mean that people do not have buddha-nature or that they cannot awaken as the buddha did. What it means is that there is no need for anyone else in history to take on the specific role of a “buddha” (awakened one), understood as one who awakens without a teacher or previous teaching to benefit from and who then initiates the teaching of the Buddha Dharma so that it can be remembered, practiced, and passed on. The Buddha Dharma has already been discovered and taught. We have all that we need, and no further revelations or awakenings will add to or take away from it. It is up to us to practice the Dharma as taught by Shakyamuni Buddha. Even so, Buddhism teaches that in other times and places wherein there is no historical memory of a buddha or of the Buddha Dharma, a buddha may appear when conditions are right.

Though that is what is taught in the sutras, is it true that what the historical Shakyamuni Buddha taught cannot be changed, added to, or amended? From a Mahayana perspective, there are certain core concepts whose implications take one to the limits of what can be said or even demonstrated. The teachings relating to dependent origination and emptiness are such. The four noble truths, the eightfold path, and the six perfections are all the practical implications of these core insights. They are teachings that guide a person who puts them into practice so that they can directly know for themselves and live in accord with those key insights. To a certain extent, the sutras do allow for the revision and adaptation of those teachings that derive from dependent origination and emptiness. This is what allows for the skillful means of the buddhas and bodhisattvas. They can adapt their teachings to better guide particular people in particular situations so that they can quickly awaken to the core insights as Shakyamuni Buddha did. In this sense, the Dharma has innumerable or infinite meanings as taught in the Infinite Meanings Sutra, the sutra that opens the Threefold Lotus Sutra. It might also be the case that when people are ready or the situation demands, certain implications of the core insights that were held in reserve might be revealed by a “messenger of the Tathagata” (Tathagata is another title for a buddha) for a particular time and place. This is the meaning of Shakyamuni Buddha transmitting the essence of the Buddha Dharma in four phrases to the bodhisattvas appearing from underground to propagate in the Latter Age of the Dharma in Chapter Twenty-one of the Lotus Sutra. So Buddhism does allow for change and adaptation, but not to the extent that a new buddha is needed to set forth anew the core insights and practices of the Buddha Dharma.

The Heaven of Contentment is the second of six heavens located on or above Mt. Sumeru. In Buddhist cosmology, this mountain is at the center of the world. Why do bodhisattvas on the verge of buddhahood reside in this heaven in particular? Why don’t they reside in a pure land or at least in one of the higher heavens? Why not the highest of the heavens of the desire realm? Why not one of the five pure abodes that are highest and most refined of the form realm heavens? Why not the heavens of the formless realm?

To begin with, the tradition that bodhisattvas reside in the Heaven of Contenment predates the later Mahayana development of buddhas residing in pure lands. In any case, while bodhisattvas do reside in pure lands to cultivate themselves and serve the buddhas, the Heaven of Contentment is still where they will go before being reborn in the human realm to attain buddhahood in terms of the accommodative-body, which allows for their appearance within mundane history.

Setting aside the pure lands, let us consider the various heavens and their place in ancient Buddhist cosmology, wherein there are countless world systems. Each of these is configured like a mandala. In the center is Mt. Sumeru surrounded by a cluster of mountain ranges with oceans between them. Outside of these are four oceans that surround four continents located in the four cardinal directions. The southernmost of these is called Jambudvipa, “the rose-apple tree continent.” Jambudvipa, not surprisingly for a cosmology developed in India, is roughly the shape of the Indian subcontinent, with the Himalayas at the northernmost reaches. The other continents are inhabited by giants whose lifespans are many times those of humans. Encircling these oceans is a range of iron mountains. Outside of that is the ocean of space, upon which float countless other Sumeru worlds. Our particular world is called the Saha world, or World of Endurance. It is called that because the inhabitants of our world system are particularly polluted by the three poisons of greed, hatred, and delusion, and so must endure many kinds of suffering. The Saha world may be likened to a karmic prison planet in comparison with the others.

How does this relate to what the sutras refer to as the “triple world”? The triple world consists of the realms of desire, form, and formlessness. The realm of desire consists of the realms of the hells, hungry ghosts, animals, fighting demons, and humans who reside on a Sumeru world, as well as the six heavens of the desire realm located either on the slopes, the summit, or directly above the summit of Mt. Sumeru. The heavens of the form realm are above these and of increasing size, so that beyond the first three heavens they cover not just one but many Sumeru worlds. All of these are included among the six paths or realms of transmigration within Buddhist cosmology. They are all subject to impermanence and suffering.

Of the six heavens of the desire realm, the first is the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, located on the slopes of Mt. Sumeru. The four heavenly kings are guardian deities who watch over the world. Each heavenly king is responsible for one of the four cardinal directions. As generals serving under the god Indra, they lead an army drawn from the eight kinds of supernatural beings to hold back the asuras, the fighting demons. At the summit of Mt. Sumeru is the Heaven of the Thirty-three gods presided over by Shakra Devanam Indra. These would be roughly equivalent to Zeus and the Olympians or to the idea of a supreme deity envisioned as a tribal chieftain who oversees the world. Above that is the Heaven of Yama. Yama is the first man who died in the Saha world, and so he was given the role of judge over the dead. Above that is the Tushita Heaven, the Heaven of Contentment. Above that is the Heaven of Delight in Creation, inhabited by those who can create whatever they desire. Above that is the Heaven of Controlling the Creations of Others, inhabited by those who can control the magical creations of the gods of the previous heaven. This heaven is also the home of Mara, the devil king of the sixth heaven.

Why is the king of devils in heaven? Mara, though a personification of delusion and all that is unwholesome, is vastly different from the devil in other religious traditions. To begin with, he is not the leader of the fighting demons who are the enemies of the gods, nor does he dwell in hell. Rather, from the sixth heaven of the desire realm of desire, he can manipulate, exploit, and trick all the other sentient beings in that realm, including other deities in the lower heavens. His primary purpose is to ensure that no one escapes samsara. In some ways, he is like a jail warden who is trying to ensure that none of his prisoners can escape his realm of desire. In other ways, he is like the owner of a casino who employs all kinds of entertainments and even occasional payouts to keep the gamblers at the roulette wheels and card tables. In the end, the gamblers always lose, but Mara does his best to keep them fooled into thinking they can hit the jackpot and find eternal bliss within the impermanence of the desire realm.

So again, why do bodhisattvas reside within the Heaven of Contentment before being reborn one last time in the human realm to attain buddhahood? While a bodhisattva could be reborn in the heavens of form or formlessness, perhaps they do not wish to lose themselves in the four meditative absorptions or the four formless attainments that those heavens represent. Neither does the bodhisattva indulge in creating whatever they desire or controlling the creations of others, which the highest of the heavens of the desire realm represent. And though they have risen beyond the power and perspective of the more sensual gods such as Indra and his court, they have not yet definitively broken free of Mara’s realm, so they are in the fourth heaven beneath that of the sixth heaven over which Mara presides.

Consider also that it is the Heaven of Contentment, not the Heaven of Self-satisfaction or the Heaven of Perpetual Indulgence, wherein these bodhisattvas await their final rebirth. A bodhisattva on the verge of buddhahood has already perfected all the perfections except for the perfection of wisdom. Their accumulations of merit and other preparations are complete, and there is nothing more they need to do until their final human lifetime. Therefore, in heavenly splendor, the bodhisattvas are content to wait for the right circumstances to take that final step, even if it takes half a billion years.

It may also be that the Heaven of Contentment provides the best vantage point from which bodhisattvas can observe the human realm for the right conditions to be reborn and attain buddhahood. They await the right time, country, family, mother, and lifespan of the mother. In the case of Shakyamuni Buddha, he was born in an age wherein the human lifespan was around a hundred years. If it were longer, people would not understand the fleeting and impermanent nature of life. Those whose lifespans were generally shorter would be too afflicted to be receptive to the teaching of a buddha. In terms of the country, the bodhisattva chose to be born on Jambudvipa at the center of the Vedic culture of ancient India. The family he chose was the Gautama family of the Shakya tribe. They were chosen for their virtue and because they were of the kshatriya class, the warriors and governors who commanded the respect of the people. The chosen mother was Queen Maya, the wife of King Shuddhodana, the ruler of the Shakyas. Queen Maya was worthy to be the mother of a buddha because she had also practiced the perfections for many lifetimes and was faultless in her observance of the five precepts. Furthermore, the bodhisattva saw that her allotted lifespan would accommodate bringing the bodhisattva into the world, but that she would pass away only a week afterward.

The bodhisattva, seeing that the conditions for attaining buddhahood had come together, determined that it was time to relinquish his life in the Heaven of Contentment and descend into the human realm by entering the womb of Queen Maya.

Sources

Bays, Gwendolyn, trans., The Lalitavistara Sutra: Voice of the Buddha: The Beauty of Compassion 2 volumes. Berkeley: Dharma Publishing, 1983.

Jayawickrama, N.A., trans., The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jataka-nidana). Oxford: Pali Text Society, 2002.

Nanamoli, Bhikkhu, The Life of the Buddha. Kandy: Buddhist Publication Society, 1992.