“Maitreya Bodhisattva is also known as Ajita. Maitreya is his family name. Ajita is his given name. Maitreya means ‘compassionate clan.’ Ajita means ‘invincible.’ Perhaps you have seen images of a fat monk in the dining hall in Buddhist temples. Maitreya is that monk. Maybe this Bodhisattva liked to eat good things and got fat that way. He also liked to laugh, but his laugh was not a coarse “ha ha ha!” Rather he always had a big smile on his face. He enjoyed playing with children, and so the children were all fond of him. He was always surrounded by them.
After Śākyamuni Buddha retires as the teaching host of this world, Maitreya Bodhisattva will take over that position. Śākyamuni Buddha is known as the Red-Yang Buddha. When Maitreya Bodhisattva becomes a Buddha, he will be known as the White-Yang Buddha. This means that when Maitreya Bodhisattva comes to the world as a Buddha, people ’s blood will be white, not red. People are red-blooded now because of the Red-Yang Buddha.” (SS V 112)
As to Maitreya Bodhisattva’s perfection of patience, “if someone scolded him, he pretended he hadn’t heard it. How did he do that? His face was like rubber, as thick as an automobile tire. If someone scolded him he paid no attention. If someone hit him, he just pretended it didn’t happen. He knew how to be patient.…
“Maitreya Bodhisattva’s stomach was like the sea; you could float a boat in it. His heart was the heart of a Buddha, extremely compassionate.
He has a short verse which…[I] will repeat for you now:
“The Old Fool wears a tattered robe, and fills his belly with plain food.
He mends the rags to keep his body warm,
And lets the myriad affairs just take their course.
Should someone scold the Old Fool, the Old Fool just says, ‘Fine.’
Should someone strike the Old Fool, he just lies down to sleep.
‘Spit right in my face,’ he says, ‘and I’ll just let it dry.
That way I save energy and you don’t get afflicted.’
This kind of pāramitā is the most wondrous treasure.
Now that you know this news,
How can you worry about not attaining the Way?” (DFS II 350-351)
In the Sūraṇgama Sutra Maitreya explains the method of cultivation he used to realize enlightenment:
I remember when, as many kalpas ago as there are fine motes of dust, a Buddha named Light of Sun, Moon and Lamp appeared in the world.
Under that Buddha I left the home-life; yet I was deeply committed to worldly fame and liked to fraternize with people of good family. Then that World Honored One taught me to cultivate consciousness-only concentration, and I entered that samadhi.
For many aeons I have made use of that samadhi as I performed deeds for as many Buddhas as there are sands in the Ganges River. My seeking for worldly fame and fortune ceased completely and never recurred. When Burning Lamp Buddha appeared in the world, I finally realized the unsurpassed, wonderfully perfect samadhi of consciousness. I went on until, to the ends of empty space, all the lands of the Thus Come Ones, whether pure or defiled, existent or nonexistent, were transformations appearing from within my own mind.
World Honored One, because I understand consciousness-only thus, the nature of consciousness reveals limitless Thus Come Ones. Now I have received the prediction that I will be the next to take the Buddha's place. The Buddha asks about perfect penetration. I was intent upon the contemplation that the [ten] directions come only from consciousness. When the conscious mind is perfect and bright, one enters the perfection of the real. One leaves behind reliance on others and attachment to incessant calculating and attains the patience when no dharmas come into being. This is the foremost method. (SS V 111-118)
彌勒《菩薩》