The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (801 page)

 
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Footprint of the Buddha
:

see
PILGRIMAGE
(BUDDHIST).

 
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Forgiveness
:

see
ATONEMENT
.

 
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Form criticism
.

A method of analysing a text in terms of its pre-history in oral tradition. It was first applied (1901) by H.
Gunkel
to the narratives of Genesis, and has been most significantly used since then in studying the
Gospels
, as well as the Psalms and
Pentateuch
. The term
(Germ.,
Formgeschichte
) comes from the preoccupation of the pioneer critics with the forms of oral material.

 
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Former Buddhas
.

Members of a lineage of Perfectly Awakened Ones (
samm
sanbuddhas
) who are alleged by tradition to have preceded
Gotama
, the historical
Buddha
. Earliest Buddhist texts record the names of six: Vipassi (the earliest), Sikhi, Vessabhu, Kakusandha, Kon
gamana, and finally Gotama's immediate predecessor, Kassapa.
In later texts the number of former buddhas becomes gradually multiplied: the
Buddhava
sa
lists twenty-four, the
Lalitavistara
S
tra
fifty-three, the
Larger
Sukh
vat
vy
ha
S
tra eighty-one, and the
Mah
vastu
five hundred. Eventually, in accordance with the expansive cosmology and mythology of the Mah
y
na, their number becomes incalculable. See also
D
PA
KARA
;
MAITREYA
.