Dasabodhisattuppattikatha

The Dasabodhisattuppattikathā ("Ten Bodhisattva Birth Stories" or "Lives of the Ten Bodhisattvas") is a Pali Buddhist text that deals with the Avatars of ten future Buddhas. It is a "strange small work of late Pali literature" and "the only example of a book devoted entirely to extolling the Bodhisattas who will be Buddhas in future ages." ^[1]

There are several recensions to the text, all of which were consulted in the publishing of Saddhatissa's book. Despite frequent differences in vocabulary, they agree in the arrangement and content of the stories. Each story is about a virtuous person near the end of his or her cycle of rebirths. Each character has lived a meritorious life and dies through some self-inflicted act, often gruesome, which serves as an offering to the universal Buddha. Each will be reborn one final time and attain full Buddhahood.

References

1. ^ The Birth-Stories of the Ten Bodhisattas and the Dasabodhisattuppattikathā, translated and edited by H. Saddhatissa, Pali Text Society, London and Boston: 1975.