Practices and Vows of
Samantabhadra Bodhisattva

Chapter Forty, New Edition

 

SUTRA: 

This person will see himself born from a lotus flower and will receive a prediction for future Buddhahood from the Buddha. After receiving this prediction, for numberless quadrillions of nayutas of kalpas throughout ineffably ineffable numbers of worlds in the ten directions everywhere, with the power of wisdom, he will accord with the minds of living beings and bring them benefit.

Before long, he will sit in a Bodhimanda, vanquish the demon armies, accomplish Equal and Proper Enlightenment and turn the wonderful wheel of Dharma. He will cause living beings in worlds as many as the smallest atomic particles in Buddha kshetra-lands to bring forth the Bodhi-mind. According with their basic natures, he will teach and transform them until they are brought to accomplishment. To the end of the oceans of kalpas of the future, he will greatly benefit all living beings.

COMMENTARY: 

This person born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss will see himself born from a lotus flower. A person who has read, recited, received and upheld, and written out Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s ten great king of vows will be born in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss in a lotus flower. And will receive a prediction for future Buddhahood from the Buddha. In the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, there are only men, no women.

Everyone is born by transformation from a lotus flower, not from the body of flesh and blood of a father and mother. There is a saying: “When the flower blossoms, one sees the Buddha.” When one’s lotus flower blossoms, one will see a Buddha appear before himself, seated in a lotus flower. Amitabha Buddha will then foretell the time when one will become a Buddha.

After receiving this prediction, once one has received a prediction for their future Buddhahood, for numberless quadrillions of nayutas of kalpas throughout ineffably ineffable numbers of worlds in the ten directions everywhere, with the power of wisdom, he will accord with the minds of living beings and bring them benefit. For so many nayutas of kalpas, in so many worlds, with the power of his own wisdom he will comply with the hearts of living beings and benefit them.

Before long, he will sit in a Bodhimanda. He will very quickly in a short period of time sit in a Bodhimanda and become a Buddha. He will vanquish the demon armies, all the heavenly demons and those on heterodox paths, and will accomplish Equal and Proper Enlightenment. That is, he will become a Buddha. Then he will turn the wonderful wheel of Dharma, which is another way of saying that he will teach and transform living beings. He will speak the Dharma to rescue them. He will cause living beings in worlds as many as the smallest atomic particles in Buddha kshetra-lands to bring forth the Bodhi-mind. According with their basic natures, he will teach and transform them until they are brought to accomplishment. He will accord with living beings and use ingenious expedient methods to teach and transform them and bring their fundamental natures to maturity. To the end of the oceans of kalpas of the future, he will greatly benefit all living beings. He will benefit all living beings for countless eons, exhausting the limits of future time.

SUTRA: 

Good Man, if these living beings hear or have faith in these great king of vows, or receive, uphold, read, recite from memory, or extensively explain these vows for others, all the merit and virtue they obtain can only be known by the Buddha, the World Honored One, and by no one else.

Therefore, all of you who hear this king of vows should harbor no doubts. You should attentively accept these vows. After accepting them, you should be able to read them. After reading them, you should be able to recite them from memory. After reciting them from memory, you should be able to uphold them and even write them out and extensively explain them for others. In a single thought, these people will be able to accomplish all of their practices and vows.

COMMENTARY: 

Good Man! Samantabhadra Bodhisattva again calls out, “This person who practices good deeds.” If these living beings hear or have faith in this great king of vows, or receive, uphold, read, recite from memory, or extensively explain these vows for others, the merit and virtue they obtain…“These” living beings refers to those who receive, maintain, read, and recite The Practices and Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva Chapter. If you hear or have faith in these ten great king of vows or if you can receive them with your heart, put them into practice with your body, read them from the text, or recite them from memory, and explain them extensively for others, then the merit and virtue so obtained can only be known by the Buddha, the World Honored One, and by no one else. Only the Buddha can comprehend this. Only the Buddha, the World Honored One, knows how great this merit and virtue is. None of the other Bodhisattvas or Arhats can fathom the magnitude of this merit and virtue.

Therefore, all of you who hear these king of vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva should harbor no doubts. You must make sure to not have any doubts. “The mind of a cultivator of the path should never have doubts. As soon as doubts arise, he will go astray.” If you want to cultivate the path, you cannot have doubts about the Dharma spoken by the Buddha. If you do, you can easily go down the wrong road, and you will not obtain any benefit.

You should attentively accept these vows. You should earnestly and honestly receive and maintain these ten great king of vows. After accepting them, you should be able to read them. After you accept their meaning, you should read these ten great king of vows from the text. After reading them, you should be able to recite them from memory. Having read them, you should be able to recite them from memory without looking at the Sutra text. And after reciting them from memory, you should be able to uphold them. After you are able to recite them from memory, you should protect and maintain these ten great king of vows and even write them out and extensively explain them for others. You should use a pen to write them out, and then you constantly explain these ten great king of vows for others.

In a single thought, in such a short period of time as one thought, these people will be able to accomplish all of their practices and vows. All of one’s cultivation and one’s hopes and vows will be accomplished. That is, all of one’s merit and virtue will be accomplished, and all of one’s vows will be fulfilled.

SUTRA: 

The blessings that one will amass are measureless and boundless. One will be able to rescue living beings from the great ocean of afflictions and suffering, causing them to make good their escape, so that all of them are reborn in Amitabha Buddha’s Land of Ultimate Bliss.

COMMENTARY: 

Previously I explained that one who can read, recite, and write out the ten great king of vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and proclaim them extensively for others can fulfill all his practices and vows in as short a time as a single thought. Now the text says the blessings that one will amass are measureless and boundless. In his cultivation of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s practices, all of the blessings that he has attained when accumulated together are measureless and boundless. They cannot be calculated with numbers, nor can their limits or boundaries be found.

One will be able to rescue living beings from the great ocean of afflictions and suffering. Those Bodhisattva’s who bring forth the Bodhi-mind and cultivate Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s practices can rescue living beings in the great ocean of suffering and afflictions.

Although we common people have afflictions, we are not aware that afflictions are suffering. If you have afflictions, you suffer. However, if you are free from afflictions, then you have no suffering. Those people who cultivate the practices of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva can rescue all living beings from the great ocean of suffering and afflictions, so that they leave suffering and obtain happiness, thus causing them to make good their escape. One can liberate all living beings from the ocean of suffering, so that they reach the Other Shore of Nirvana. Where will they go? Where will they be reborn? That is, in what world or land will they be reborn? So that all of them are reborn in Amitabha Buddha’s Land of Ultimate Bliss.

 

 

Although the name “Amitabha Buddha” consists of only a couple of words, the entire Buddha-dharma is included within these words. Shakyamuni Buddha spoke every Sutra after being requested to speak the Dharma by someone. In the Vajra Sutra it was Subhuti who requested the Dharma, and Shariputra requested the Dharma in the Dharma Flower Sutra. The only exception was the Amitabha Sutra. No one requested the Buddha to speak the Amitabha Sutra. It was spoken without request. Why? Because, no one understood this Dharma. The Pure Land Dharma door appears to be very simple, but actually the words “Amitabha Buddha” encompass all the Sutras in the Three Treasuries and the Twelve Divisions of the Buddhist canon. A few decades ago I wrote this verse:

Amitabha Buddha is the king of the ten thousand dharmas,
Which totally contains the Five Periods and the Eight Teachings.
A practitioner need only uphold and recite it single-mindedly
And he will certainly reach the unmoving field of serenity and light.

A few decades ago I was moved while reciting the Buddha’s name, and so I wrote this verse. You may see “Amitabha Buddha” as only being a Buddha’s name, but if you recite his name, you can understand all dharmas; and thus the verse says, “Amitabha Buddha is the king of the ten thousand dharmas.” In the second line, “the Five Periods” are:

In the second line, “the Five Periods” are:

• the Flower Adornment Period;
• the Agama Period;
• the Vaipulya Period;
• the Prajna Period;
• the Dharma Flower-Nirvana Period.

“The Eight Teachings” are:

• the Storehouse;
• the Pervasive;
• the Exclusive;
• the Perfect;
• the Sudden;
• the Gradual;
• the Secret;
• the Unfixed.

The words “Amitabha Buddha” contain the Five Periods and the Eight Teachings; thus “A practitioner need only uphold and recite it single-mindedly.” All that cultivators need to do is to recite Amitabha Buddha’s name with a concentrated mind, and they “will certainly reach the unmoving field of serenity and light.” You will certainly reach the Pure Land of Eternal Serenity and Light, which is the unmoving Bodhimanda.

Shakyamuni Buddha spoke about Amitabha Buddha without being asked. No one requested him to speak, yet he spoke the Amitabha Sutra. Some people think that reciting Amitabha Buddha’s name is a practice for old ladies and that people with wisdom should not cultivate this method. This is a mistake! Whether you are wise or unintelligent, you can cultivate the practice of reciting Amitabha Buddha’s name. This Dharma door benefits beings of all three capacities: superior, average, and inferior capacities. They all derive benefit. All are blessed, and so everyone can cultivate this method. It’s not just for old ladies.

Why recite Amitabha Buddha’s name? We living beings in the Saha World have the closest affinities with the Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva. Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva reveals the Universal Door and has thirty-two response- bodies. Amitabha Buddha has even greater affinities with all living beings because he is the teacher of Guan Shi Yin Bodhisattva and Great Strength Bodhisattva and is the Teaching-Master of the Land of Ultimate Bliss.

How is it that we have affinities with Amitabha Buddha? In a past life, when he was cultivating on the causal stage of practice before becoming a Buddha, Amitabha Buddha was a Bhikshu named Fa Zang (Dharma Treasury). Bhikshu Fa Zang made Forty-Eight Great Vows and each vow was for the purpose of leading living beings to the Land of Ultimate Bliss to become Buddhas.

The Bhikshu Fa Zang vowed, “In the future, when I become a Buddha, there will only be men and no women in my world.” Everyone knows that without women there can be no men, and that without men, there can be no women. Everyone must have a father and mother to be born. If there are only men in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, can men give birth to children? No. If not, where do the children in the Land of Ultimate Bliss come from?

The children are born from lotus flowers. Beings born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss first enter a lotus bud. When we recite the name of Amitabha Buddha, our lotus bud grows. When we recite once, our flower grows a little. When we recite again, it grows a little more. The more we recite, the larger the bud grows, until the lotus gets as big as a carriage wheel. When we are on the verge of death, Amitabha Buddha comes in person to take us to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Then he puts our spirit-nature into that lotus flower. When the lotus flower opens, your Dharma- body appears. Therefore, the saying goes, “When the flower opens, one sees the Buddha.” When the lotus flower opens, a Buddha is born. Since everyone who becomes a Buddha is a man and not a women, the Land of Ultimate Bliss has only men and no women.

How far away is the Land of Ultimate Bliss? It’s a hundred billion Buddha-lands away. It’s a very long distance from us. Amitabha Buddha said “After I become a Buddha, my land will certainly only have men and not have any women.” So all people in his land are born by transformation from lotus flowers.

 

 

There is a verse that says:

I vow to be born in the Western Pure Land,
Where the nine grades of lotus flowers are my parents.

The “nine grades of lotus flowers” are our parents. Each of the nine grades are further divided into nine grades, making a total of eighty one grades. What are the nine grades? They are the highest superior grade, the middle superior grade, the lowest superior grade; the highest medium grade, the middle medium grade, and the lowest medium grade; and the highest inferior grade, the middle inferior grade, and the lowest inferior grade. Each of these nine grades of lotus flowers is again divided into nine grades, which gives a total of eighty-one grades. All of us living beings who recite Amitabha Buddha’s name can be born in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss.

When Amitabha Buddha was the Bhikshu Fa Zang, one of his Forty- Eight Vows is as follows: “When I become a Buddha, any living being throughout the ten directions who recites my name will be born in my land.” He vowed that they all would be born in his land. And when they go to his land, they will be “born by transformation from a lotus flower and realize Anuttara-Samyak-Sambodhi.” They will attain the Unsurpassed, Right and Equal, Proper Enlightenment. Since Amitabha Buddha made this vow, if we of the Saha world recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha” at the end of our lives, he will come and extend his hand to take us. When you look at the image of Amitabha Buddha, one hand is held out. This is an expression of his wish to lead you to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. That is, he uses his hand to pull you off to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. It is said,

Amitabha is foremost of the Buddhas of the ten directions and the three periods of time.
In nine grades he rescues living beings.
And his awesome virtue is inexhaustible.

Therefore, you should not look upon Amitabha Buddha too lightly.

In the future during the Dharma Ending Age, the Dharma will no longer exist; it will be destroyed. Now the Sutras have words. However, in the Dharma Ending Age the words of the Sutras will disappear by themselves. Why? Because living beings will not have any blessings. Their karmic offenses will be too heavy. So they will not have the opportunity to read the Sutras. We need not discuss the future, even today some people whose eyes are without any disease cannot see clearly when they read Sutras. They see it in a muddled way because they have obstructions. What kind of obstructions? These are the same karmic obstructions that living beings in the Dharma Ending Age will experience. Although they have eyes, they cannot read the Buddha-dharma clearly. In the future, all the Sutras of the Buddha-dharma will no longer exist.

Which Sutra will disappear first? The Shurangama Sutra will disappear first, and after it no longer exists, the other Sutras will continue to be extinguished until the only one left is the Amitabha Sutra. At that time this Sutra alone will exist in the world for one hundred years, and it will save measureless numbers of living beings. But after one hundred years, it too will be gone, and all that will remain will be the words “Namo Amitabha Buddha,” which will survive for another hundred years. The living beings who will recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha” and be rescued will be very many indeed. They will be measureless and boundless in number. After this period of one hundred years, the word “Namo” will be gone, leaving only “Amitabha Buddha.” At that time people who understand the Buddha-dharma will recite “Amitabha Buddha, Amitabha Buddha,” frantically seeking for the Buddha to save their lives. After another hundred years, the words “Amitabha Buddha” will also disappear, at which time the Buddha-dharma will be totally extinct.

Why did Shakyamuni Buddha explain the Amitabha Sutra without being requested? Because this Sutra is extremely important and because it will be the last Sutra to remain in the world when the Dharma vanishes. So those of us who study the Buddha-dharma must never look lightly on the practice of reciting Amitabha Buddha’s name.

When practicing Chan meditation, for example, people investigate: “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” If we are able to do this, it confirms that in the past we have recited the name of the Buddha, and as a result we will be able to investigate “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name.” If you have not recited the name of the Buddha before, then how could you investigate “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name” now. Therefore, examining the topic “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” shows that we had recited the Buddha’s name in past lives. However, some have recited a lot, and some have recited a little; some have recited earnestly, and some have recited in a muddled manner. Now that we have encountered this Dharma, we should not take it lightly and ignore it. We should pick it up and continue the work that we had already done in the past by reciting “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” If you recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha,” you can be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. In this land one will “endure none of the sufferings but enjoy every bliss.”

SUTRA: 

At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva Mahasattva, wishing to restate his meaning, contemplated everywhere in the ten directions and spoke these verses.

COMMENTARY: 

At that time, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, this Mahasattva, this great Bodhisattva, wishing to restate his meaning, contemplated everywhere in the ten directions and spoke these verses. He wished to explain his meaning again, in order to explain it a little more clearly. He contemplated the basic natures and causes and conditions of living beings everywhere throughout the ten directions. Then he spoke these verses. Look how kind and compassionate Samantabhadra Bodhisattva is! Since he’s afraid that we might not understand the Sutra, he explains it again in verse form.

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