What is the exact Age Limit that Buddha can live?
score:1
A Buddha can live as long as he wants – even an aeon, as the Buddha potentially have the age or lifespan of an aeon. – but this decision depends on the others. If an arahant that is closest to a Buddha makes a formal convincing request for a Buddha to live for many thousands of years, he will do so. But always the Mara gets in the way, and asks the Buddha to attain Parinibbhana, no sooner His Dispensation is fully established. In our Gautama Buddha’s time, this happened when he was 85 years of age.
Buddha once said that anyone who had developed the Four Bases to Success (iddhi-pada), and is firmly rooted in these four bases, if he wishes, could live until ones full age - in our times until 100 - 120 years. Four bases to success (iddhi-pada) are Chanda Iddhipada (great desire to practice); Citta Iddhipada (Will); Viriya Iddhipada (effort or perseverance -repeatedly applying the mind); Vimansa Iddhipada (examination leading to insight).
The Buddha asked one of his ten chief disciples, Ananda, about this, once He knew that He has achieved the goal of fully establishing his dispensation. He asked not once or twice, but sixteen times. But every time Mara got in the way. Mara had power over Ananda, as he had not yet fully purified himself. So Ananda never heard what Buddha said, as he was not himself. And it was Mara who asked the Buddha, not Ananda. If Mara had not intervened, Ananda would have asked the Buddha to live a prolonged life, out of compassion for the world.
Mara appeared before the Buddha and reminded him of a promise the Buddha made to him forty-five years before, immediately after the enlightenment. At that time, Buddha said that he would not attain Parinibbhana until he had established and well taught the Doctrine. Now that had been accomplished, Mara said that it it was time to fulfill the promise. In reply The Buddha said that he would attain Parinibbhana in three months. A Buddha sees that this mortal body, with its six sense faculties, as belonging to Mara. This shows the detachment of an Arahant to the ways of this world. Buddha kept this body until the Dhamma was fully established, and as promised, and as invited by another, left this earth than live a prolonged life.
Upvote:1
Some sources claim fantastic ages that even the Dalai Lama questions in Becoming Enlightened. The 16th chapter of the Lotus sutra readable at https://nichiren.info/buddhism/lotussutra/text/chap16.html discusses the question more thoroughly than I care to here.
More post
- 📝 Sutta Question about 4 ways of debating
- 📝 The spirit of five precepts
- 📝 Seeking sources on -- practicing for this life alone is not even Dharma
- 📝 Emotional Release: Images Versus Dry Body Awareness
- 📝 Are the majority of humans reincarnated from the lower worlds?
- 📝 Do all words belong to conventional truth (Sammuti Sacca)?
- 📝 "Being" or "Existence" in Paticca Samuppada
- 📝 Publication of written texts involving the dhamma
- 📝 Did the Buddha ever refute the view of "extreme metaphysical nihilism" e.g. a view that "nothing is real"?
- 📝 A Monk Reborn in a Lower Realm for Breaking a Leaf
- 📝 Is it possible to adhere to the practices and beliefs of both Buddhist and Christianity?
- 📝 Being bored :anapanasati meditation
- 📝 The knot of adherence to dogmatic assertion of truth
- 📝 Why isn't there a Buddhist Bible?
- 📝 An example of Papañca?
- 📝 How do you handle when someone tries to instill guilt in you?
- 📝 Sutras says that there is nothing to attain: but is there a beginning to attaining nirvana?
- 📝 Do beings without conscious experiences have buddha nature
- 📝 Do buddhists fall in love?
- 📝 Madhyamaka, theravada and mahayana
- 📝 Why my Mind told me to Sleep?
- 📝 Real Monk vs Fake Monk
- 📝 Sutta references
- 📝 Acting nice for karma's sake?
- 📝 Body's response to meditation
- 📝 Does buddhism allow for families?
- 📝 A question regarding the level of worldly participation for a buddhist monk
- 📝 What dietary practices are most helpful for reaching enlightenment?
- 📝 What are those "deck of cards" objects that various sutras are printed on?
- 📝 Can another being/thing be credited or blamed for causing your emotions?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 What is the exact Age Limit that Buddha can live?
- 📝 To what level can be said that Buddha 'followed' the dzogchen?
- 📝 What are the texts that contain words which can be attributed directly to the Buddha?
- 📝 How can the Buddha (after he was enlightened) reflect that he was not at ease and then became at ease in seclusion?
- 📝 If Buddha is able to predict the future of other sentient beings how can freewill be possible as its very nature is that of unpredictability?
- 📝 How can anyone who hasn't realised the truth, claim that Mahatma Buddha or any other person in history realised God or the Truth?
- 📝 What is the "Unconditioned" that the Buddha is talking about? And vinjana in Buddhsm
- 📝 What is the meaning of "Nothing new will be said here, nor have I any skill in composition. Therefore I do not imagine that I can benefit others."
- 📝 What is (re)born? Did the Buddha explicitly state that it is "the mental idea of the self" that is reborn?
- 📝 What can be done about wanting to change things in the present that you can't?
- 📝 How could the Buddha know that he had attained enlightenment when he didn't know what it was?
- 📝 what is the last orginal quote of buddha and what is the meaning of that quote?
- 📝 What is the Sutra where The Buddha says that he has taught only a fraction of what he knew
- 📝 What did the Buddha mean by "no truth can be spoken?"
- 📝 What is meant by the impossibility "A Buddha can not help someone not related to him"?
- 📝 Can there be an action free from the taint of desire? If there can be, what is the nature of that action?
- 📝 Where does the Buddha say that human life can have at most 50% happiness?
- 📝 What is the sutta where the Buddha says that one breath or one bite of food is the proper timeframe with which to contemplate life/death?
- 📝 How can we know if a dharma teaching is really what the Buddha taught? Is there some sort of test?
- 📝 Can the Buddha ever be a woman?
- 📝 Where is the Buddha quoted as saying do not believe anything I say until you can prove it by yourself?
- 📝 Can a person live by the Dhamma and have another religion as well?
- 📝 What language did the Buddha speak?
- 📝 Did the Buddha really say that "life is suffering"?
- 📝 Why do Buddhists believe that the Buddha was enlightened, despite that he claimed it himself?
- 📝 What are the suttas in which the Buddha provides instruction on how to meditate?
- 📝 Where is the story that Buddha was worried about a monk who meditated with a straight back?
- 📝 What did the Buddha say about music?
- 📝 What are the resources a Buddhist can use during very hard times?
- 📝 It is said that arahants never dream. What are the textual sources for this claim?