The Buddha to come, ‘the kindly one’, a principal figure in all forms of Buddhism; he is known as Mi-lo-fo in China and Miroku in Japan. Buddhists believe that a Buddha appears from time to time to maintain knowledge of the true path; Maitreya is the next future Buddha
Apparently there's some sort of apocalyptic "fifth Buddha" that is sorta like the second coming of Jesus - except that the world doesn't end. It's really coincidental - I named my website "deus diapente" which is Latinesque for "fifth god", only because my last name is Latin for "five".
