Hello Fat Buddha fans,

I have precisely no evidence for this, but i feel that it's very
likely that the association between Maitreya and the fat man was
prompted purely by a pun: 'mettaayati'ti mettaa, 'it fattens, thus
it's called mettaa'. Fat in Pali being of course 'meda'.

Another interesting detail on this is that 'metteyya' in the Pali
canon as far as i know is only used in conjunction with 'petteyya',
meaning 'filial devotion to mother and father'. Thus the association
of Metteyya Buddha with mettaa is possibly an incorrect reading. Of
course the meaning is nice, in view of the association of the maataa
with mettaa (and the overweight stature of the pregnant woman!)

in Dhamma

Bhante Sujato

--- In Pali@yahoogroups.com, redxfist@... wrote:
> You'll often find the fat "monk" referred to Phra SangkaJai in
Thailand.
> There is a story behind him but I don't have time to write it
now. If anyone
> is interested I will though.
>
> Hope this helps.
> David
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]