Many Buddhas, One Buddha - A Study and Translation of Avadānaśataka 1-40 - Naomi Appleton
First Decade (Stories 1-10)
Many Buddhas, One Buddha - A Study and Translation of Avadānaśataka 1-40 - Naomi Appleton
Naomi Appleton [+]
University of Edinburgh
Naomi Appleton is Senior Lecturer in Asian Religions at the University of Edinburgh. Her primary research interest is the role of narrative in early South Asian religions. She is the author of Jātaka Stories in Theravāda Buddhism (Ashgate, 2010), Narrating Karma and Rebirth: Buddhist and Jain Multi-Life Stories (CUP 2014) and Shared Characters in Jain, Buddhist and Hindu Narrative (Routledge 2017) as well as a number of articles on Buddhist and Jain narrative.
Description
The ten stories in the first chapter of the text tell of people predicted to future buddhahood by Śākyamuni Buddha. While the details differ, the general pattern is the same: someone has an impressive encounter with Śākyamuni Buddha (usually involving a miraculous display of some sort) and makes a vow to achieve future buddhahood, which is confirmed by Śākyamuni through a miraculous light-emitting smile.