Question asked by Jay-r
Pastors,
I just want to know the origins of all the buddhas. I mean, were they humans like us before? Or are they creators of the world? I watched gautama buddha and he was a human before and now he is a buddha. I thought he is the only buddha but there are a lot. How is that? I want to know. Thank you so much.
Dear Jay-r,
Rinpoche did explain once that the Buddha at some point before he became enlightened, was just like us, having to go through the human experience and thus creating various forms of karmas. The karmas led him to go through countless rebirths encompassing all 6 realms of existences, of deva (god realm), asura (demi-god realm), human, animal, spirit and hell realms.
For the Buddha, it took him 3 aeons of practicing virtues that eventually took him to collect the necessary merit to traverse the finals stage as a bodhisattva prince who eventually became the Buddha that we know today. Through his omniscient perception, the Buddha told us of many others like him. It was also due to his incredible legacy of teachings that there were many who had achieved similar states after him. Lama Tsongkhapa is one prime example and not the only one. Hope this helps you.