Skip to main content
 

The Six Buddhist Sages - List

  5.00/5.00 - (1 votes for article, provide comments and help us improve if required.)

There are six Enlightened Buddhas that exist in each of the six realms or paths. These six Buddhas or great teachers are also known as the six sages.

The Six Buddhist Sages - ListThe Six Buddhist Sages - ListThe Six Buddhist Sages - ListThe Six Buddhist Sages - List
The Six Buddhist Sages - List

Generally Buddhism tends to teach that these levels are real modes of existence although some forms of Buddhism, especially within Mahāyāna and tantra, particularly in the tantra of the Nyingma school mentions six teachers, one for each realm and emphasize that they are symbolic of states of mind or modes of experience. According to Mahāyāna teachings, rebirth in each of these modes of existence is brought about by a predominance of a particular spiritual defilement (kleśa) as a god through pride, a demi-god through jealousy, human through lust, animal through stupidity, hungry ghost through greed and hell-denizen through hatred.
The six paths are in Buddhist cosmology generally are the six realms where sentient beings are reincarnated based on their karma, which is linked to their actions in previous lives.
These six levels are depicted in in the Mandala of the Peaceful Deities and the popular Tibetan Wheel of Life (bhavacakra) paintings.

The Six Buddhist Sages

01. Indrasakra, Indrashakra or Indra Kaushika.

Buddha in the god realm (deva) is White and holds a lute or pipa because gods enjoy this kind of sensual pleasure. He represents the purity of pride or conceit.
I bow down to Indrasakra, whose emanational buddha form Acts ceaselessly on behalf of beings.

02. Vemacitra or Vemachitra.

Buddha of the petty or war like demi god realm (asura) is green holds a sword in his right hand and armour in his left and have the purity of envy or jealousy.
Asuras have very strong jealousy. They do not accept their inferior standing to the gods, given their similar life span, surroundings, and enjoyment of pleasures, so they fight with the gods constantly.
I bow down to Vemacitra, whose emanational buddha form Acts ceaselessly on behalf of beings.

03. Sakyamuni.

Buddha in the human realm (manushya) is yellow holds the staff of a monk and a bowl and represents the purity of attachment or desire.
Among the six mental poisons, desire or insatiable greed is the most serious for humans. Therefore, the supreme teacher for humans manifests the purity of desire without obliterating it.
I bow down to Sakyamuni, whose emanational buddha form Acts ceaselessly on behalf of beings.

04. Sthirasimha, Shravasingha, Dhruvasiṃha or Siṃhapradyota.

Buddha in the animal realm (tiryagyoni) is blue holds a book and represents the purity of delusion.
The fourth supreme teacher is for the animal realm. He manifests the purity of ignorance without obliterating it.
Because animals are deluded, the teacher holds a scripture in his hands, which signifies rooting out ignorance with wisdom.
I bow down to Sthirasimha, whose emanational buddha form Acts ceaselessly on behalf of beings.

05. Jvalamukha or Jvalamukhadeva.

Jvalamukha is the Buddha in the hungry ghost realm (preta), is red and holds a wish granting casket and has the purity of miserliness.
He manifests the purity of selfishness (an unwillingness to give) without obliterating it. He holds a container of jewels, which signifies the elimination of hunger and thirst for the hungry ghosts.
I bow down to Jvalamukha, whose emanational buddha form Acts ceaselessly on behalf of beings.

06. Yama Dharmaraja.

Buddha in the hell realm (naraka) is black holds a flame and water, and represents the purity of aversion or anger.
He manifests the purity of aversion without obliterating it. He holds the fire in his right hand and water in his left hand, which symbolizes the dispelling cold and heat in the hell realm.
I bow down to Yama Dharmaraja, whose emanational buddha form Acts ceaselessly on behalf of beings.

Synonyms/tags: the six enlightened buddha, the six buddha, the six paths, the six muni




Or, why not search for other related lists on our site;

This list was published by Here There, Everywhere and is a printable check-list; To print, hold down the key marked "ctrl", and whilst holding that down, press the "p" key.
This is a downloadable list, select here, if you would like to download the The Six Buddhist Sages - List as an excel or .csv file. Or find the print function on your browser (top right, three dots, print) and print to a pdf printer if you would like to download as a pdf file, or print to a pdf file.

If you are interested in advertising with us reach out via the contact page below. If you would like to share viewers, and your site is related with great content, then feel free to use the code below on your site then reach out via our contact page and we will look for a place to mention you.


Otherwise, suggest improvements, request additional items, report typos, errors or misspellings, ask us questions or just say hello via the comments here below, we are always pleased to hear from you.

Comments HistoryBe a pioneer and write the first comment.

Note: Current average rating of 5.00 based on 1 reviews and ratings. (1-Low, 5-High)

Note: Comments and ratings help this site get better; if you see something missing, see something wrong, have a question, or want to suggest something to improve then comment below and join the dialogue;

Comments



Looking for something else? Then search the rest of the internet here. If you do like what you see then come back sometime and create your own checklist here. If the item does not have a checkbox next to it, its probably a folder which you can open by clicking. If there are actions listed against an item on the right hand side you can visit websites, download as excel/csv for xls, or create an ical calendar entry.

If you found this page useful, share it, or like us using the buttons on the bottom right, it helps us to improve.

This webpage with information about The Six Buddhist Sages has the following attributes;
The list was authored by .

« Go look for more free lists & checklists