Once upon a time, when this planet earth was quite young, the Brahma Gods in the highest spheres looked down on this green and luscious planet in search of mystical signs regarding the planet's future. When they saw the five white lotus flowers they were over joyed for they knew in their godly wisdom that five Buddhas would appear on the planet. Thus they called this planet in their own language Badda Kappa.

Now there is some explaining to be done here. In the Burmese language there is a word called Gabar which the Burmese people use to call this planet. However, the origin of this word is a pali word called Kalpa which does not signify any planet at all but a certain length of time. A kalpa is a unit of time so long that ordinary units of time do not apply. To know a little bit about the ancient measurements of time we have to take a look at Sir Edwin Arnold's masterpiece about the life of Gautama Buddha written in poetic form. The book is called "the Light of Asia" and it was written in the year 1879.

On page 20 of the Light of Asia (Kessinger Publishing Company, Montana, U.S.A.) one can see the measurements of time.

Now more than 2500 years have passed since the time of the fourth Buddha, Gautama Buddha. The three previous Buddhas that went before him were called Kakusanda, Konagamana and Kassapa. Thus when the Buddhists in Burma refer to the four Buddhas they mean these four Buddhas of Badda Kappa.

But there is another Buddha yet to come. He will come to this world when the age of man rises again to ten thousand years. His name will be called Meitreya. Now you will want to know how I know all these things. I did not make up all these things. They are written in the Buddhist scriptures called the Tripitaka - the three baskets of Buddhism.

Are Buddhas Gods or just ordinary men? How many Buddhas are there? When I was a young boy I have asked these same questions to my parents, teachers, uncles and aunties. This is what they told me.

"Now young man", my father said. There are five persons to whom we owe limitless gratitude. Who are these five persons? "They are called Anandaw Ananda ngabar", he said. "They are the Buddha, the Dhamma, the Shanga, Parents and teachers. Always pays your respects to them and listen to what they have taught you. If you do this you will always be successful in life." This was what my father taught me a long long time ago and now that I am a father myself, I appreciate more and more what he taught me.

When I think of this, my memory goes back to the day my mother taught me the Than-baudde Garhtar. At that time as I was quite young and was always eager to play it was with great difficulty that my mother taught me this garhtar. A garhtar is a piece of poem written about the holy attributes of the Buddha. In this particular piece of garhtar, the person who is reciting the poem is actually saying that he or she pays homage to all the Buddhas that have appeared ages ago. The number of Buddhas that have gained enlightenment cannot be counted as they are more than the sands on the banks of the Gunga river. That was how I knew way back then that there had been many, many Buddhas before Gautama Buddha.

The answer to the next question was a little more difficult. Are Buddhas gods? To answer this question we must first define what we mean by the term god. A Buddha is not a god in the Christian sense of the word. If we take the example of Gautama Buddha, he was a deva in Tusita heaven before he came down to earth to become a human being to fulfil his vow to become a Buddha.

According to the belief of Theravada Buddhists, there are 31 planes of existence. They are as follows:

1. Human plane

2. Animal plane

3. Peta plane

4. Asurake plane

5. Hell

6. Six planes of devas

7. Twenty planes of Brahmas

The six planes of devas are:

1. Satumaharit

2. Tavatimsa

3. Yama

4. Tusita

5. Neimanarati Paraneimita

6. Wutthavati

So Buddha is a man but he is not an ordinary man. To become a Buddha, he had to train himself for many Asankyas. He had to train himself in ten areas called "Paramis". In English we could call them "fulfilments". The ten paramis are:

1. Charity (Dana)

2. Charater development (Sila)

3. Renunciation (Neikhama)

4. Knowledge (Pyinya)

5. Will Power (Viriya)

6. Forbearance (Khanti)

7. Truthfulness (Thitsa)

8. Determination (Adeikhtan)

9. Compassion (Metta)

10. Equanimity (Upekka)

Gautama Buddha hiimself answered this question when a man asked him " My friend, what are you? Are you a celestial being or a god? The Buddha replied, "No".

"Well, then, are you some kind of magician or wizard?" The Buddha again answered, "No."

"Are you a man?"

"No."

"Well, my friend, then what are you?"

The Buddha replied "I am awake."

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