prophecy of future enlightenment [授記・記別・和伽羅那] ( vyākarana; Pali veyyākarana; juki, kibetsu, or wagarana): A Buddha’s prediction that a disciple (or disciples) will attain enlightenment in the future. One of the twelve divisions of the teachings, vyākarana is rendered as the prophecy of future enlightenment and indicates the part of a sutra in which Shakyamuni Buddha pronounces that a practitioner will attain Buddhahood in a future existence. Such prophecies are common in Mahayana sutras. The Lotus Sutra contains a number of passages in which the Buddha predicts enlightenment for his disciples and foretells what their titles as future Buddhas will be as well as the names of their respective kalpas (eras) and Buddha lands. In the “Simile and Parable” (third) chapter of the Lotus Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha predicts the enlightenment of Shāriputra, and in the “Bestowal of Prophecy” (sixth) chapter, Shakyamuni predicts enlightenment for the four great voice-hearers, Mahākāshyapa, Subhūti, Kātyāyana, and Maudgalyāyana. In the “Five Hundred Disciples” (eighth) and the “Prophecies” (ninth) chapters, Shakyamuni predicts enlightenment for other individual disciples as well as for groups of disciples, thousands in all. According to the Jātaka, stories of the Buddha’s previous lives, in a past existence Shakyamuni himself received a prophecy of enlightenment from the Buddha Burning Torch ( Dīpamkara).