Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!eagle!data.nas.nasa.gov!news
From: wrs!wrs.com!mikeg@uunet.UU.NET (Mike Gallagher)
Newsgroups: soc.religion.eastern
Subject: Re: End-Of-The-World Speculations?
Message-ID: <1990Dec31.003646.13685@nas.nasa.gov>
Date: 31 Dec 90 00:36:46 GMT
References: <1990Dec20.011706.5978@nas.nasa.gov>
Sender: news@nas.nasa.gov
Organization: NAS Program, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA
Lines: 16
Approved: prabhu@amelia.nas.nasa.gov


loren@dweasel.llnl.gov (Loren Petrich) writes:

>	Isn't there also some Buddhist speculation about the end of
>the world, involving some being named Maitreya? I read this in a
>recent _Time_(?) article about end-of-the-world speculations.

My understanding is that Buddhism states that there is no beginning or
end.  There is no creator.  Everything is just conditions and arisings.
Maitreya is the next Buddha.  Shakyamuni was the eighth Buddha in a 
line into the infinite future.  Maitreya is not the end of the world,
but a new turning of the Dharma (The Law) and is a cause for great
advancement for all.  Maitreya was a disciple of the last Buddha and was
told by him that he would be the next.  

If I have this wrong, somebody please correct me.