Maitreya presides over Tushita Heaven, dwelling in the Joyous Realm as the bodhisattva awaiting his final descent to the human world to attain Buddhahood and renew the dharma.
The Eight Great Bodhisattvas — Avalokiteshvara, Manjushri, Vajrapani, Kshitigarbha, Akashagarbha, Sarvanīvaraṇaviṣkambhin, Maitreya, and Samantabhadra — appear together as the chief attendants in the Buddha's assemblies, each embodying a distinct perfection of the bodhisattva path.
Maitreya, the Future Buddha prophesied to descend when the dharma has faded from the world, is venerated across Buddhist Asia as Miroku in Japan, Milefo in China, Mireuk in Korea, and Maitreya in Tibet — the same bodhisattva transmitted through Buddhist scriptural lineages from the original Sanskrit.
After twelve years of solitary meditation in a cave, Asanga was lifted to Tushita Heaven where Maitreya transmitted the five great treatises of Yogacara philosophy, which Asanga brought back to the human world and established as the foundation of a new school of Buddhist thought.
Gautama Buddha prophesied that when his teaching has vanished from the world and human lifespan has grown to eighty thousand years, Maitreya will descend from Tushita Heaven, attain perfect enlightenment beneath the dragon flower tree, and turn the wheel of dharma anew for countless beings.
Gautama Buddha entrusted Ksitigarbha with protecting all sentient beings during the long interregnum between his own parinirvana and Maitreya's future awakening, a charge Ksitigarbha fulfills by descending into the hell realms to rescue the lost.
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