Buddhas of the Three Time Periods

Something cool I learned about while watching a Japanese documentary of Eiheiji temple, one of the two core temples in the Soto Zen tradition. Evidentially there is a small Buddhist altar there that features three Buddha statues. You can see photos of it here, the building (called the butsuden 仏殿) is here. This is posted on a separate blog too. You can see a photo of the three buddhas at the very bottom of this page here.

But who are these three Buddhas? In Japanese this is called the Sanzebutsu (三世仏), or “Buddhas of the Three Time Periods”.

In order these are:

• Amida Buddha – the Buddha of the Past (he accomplished his vows eons ago), and thus the Pure Land was established.
• Shakyamuni Buddha – the Buddha of the Present (the current eon of history), the historical founder of Buddhism. Also known as Siddhartha Gautama, Shakyamuni, etc.
• Maitreya Buddha – Buddha of the Future (he has not accomplished his vows yet, but will eons later). For now he dwells in the heaven realm of Tushita.

This “trinity” of Buddhas is not limited to Eiheiji Temple. You can find similar works of art in other temples as well.

Anyhow, it’s an intriguing idea that the Dharma has always existed across space and time, but simply represented by different Buddhas as appropriate.

Namu Amida Butsu
Namu Shakamuni Butsu
Namu Miroku Bosatsu