Praise from All Buddhas
From Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vow 17
Praise from All Buddhas
Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vow 17
Sakyamuni Buddha speaks of the monk Dharmakara, his practice, and his forty-eight vows before he became Amitabha Buddha. Excerpted from the Infinite Life Sutra:
When I become a Buddha, all the countless Buddhas in the infinite buddha-lands in the ten directions will praise my name and speak of the wonderful merits and virtues of my land. If this is not so, I will not attain perfect enlightenment.
- Vow 17. Praise from all Buddhas.
Dharmakara next spoke of how “all the countless Buddhas . . . will praise my name.” Hearing this, we might feel tempted to think that Dharmakara was thinking of acclaim and recognition. But as Sakyamuni Buddha told Ananda, Dharmakara had transcended worldly ways.
Dharmakara had firm, unwavering belief and profound understanding. His conduct was supreme, his virtuous cultivation unsurpassed. His underlying aspiration was to help all beings attain supreme, perfect enlightenment. His way to accomplish this was to establish a pure land in which all beings born there will have ideal conditions for cultivation and quickly attain buddhahood.
“Praise my name” has three meanings.
- All Buddhas praising Amitabha Buddha’s name is the first.
- The second meaning is all Buddhas praising everyone who chants and is mindful of Amitabha Buddha’s name.
- The third meaning is all Buddhas are chanting and being mindful of Amitabha Buddha’s name.
When a Buddha is helping beings in samsara, many other Buddhas and bodhisattvas will also come to help. They do so by supporting the Buddha in every way. It is very different when we go to help others. Our egos and bad habits will taint our desire to help. There are no egos to pamper when those involved are Buddhas and bodhisattvas. In their giving, they will happily praise the accomplishments of others. Indeed, one of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva’s ten great vows is to “rejoice at others’ meritorious deeds.”
“All the countless Buddhas in the infinite buddha-lands in the ten directions will praise my name.” Seeing all that Amitabha Buddha accomplished in helping infinite beings, all Buddhas praise his name.
This vow is extremely important for without all Buddhas introducing Amitabha Buddha and the Western Pure Land, sentient beings would never know the merits and virtues of Amitabha Buddha’s great vows. Sentient beings, which includes us, would never benefit from these vows. This vow enables Amitabha Buddha’s great vows to be known to beings in all buddha-lands, thus benefiting them all.
All Buddhas also “speak of the wonderful merits and virtues” of Amitabha Buddha’s land. “Wonderful” has been explained as something that is unsurpassable and inconceivable.
To help us better understand what is meant by unsurpassable, we can imagine a line running between two points. We label one end of the line “imperfect” and the other end “perfect.”
At the imperfect end lies a land thoroughly unsuited for human habitation. It might be a war zone. Or an area ravaged by floods, with thieves grabbing anything they deem of value. As we move along our hypothetical line, we come upon a less inhospitable land. But problems still abound. Food and water are in short supply. People, fearful of strangers, cling to discordant factions and to what little power they might have. Moving further along, we come to a somewhat pleasant land with adequate necessities and limited violence. People are more inclined to help others and tend to live moral lives.
Finally, we arrive at the other end of the line: perfection. The Infinite Life Sutra gives us a picture of such a place:
The land and people will be enveloped in peace. The sun and moon will shine clear and bright. Wind and rain will appear accordingly, and there will be no disasters. Nations will be prosperous, and there will be no need for soldiers or weapons. People will abide by morality and accord with laws. They will be courteous and humble, and everyone will be content without injustices. There will be no thefts or violence. The strong will not dominate the weak, and everyone will get their fair share.
In our world, we would consider such a land perfect, but the Pure Land is even more so! It is unsurpassable.
It is also inconceivable, the other explanation for wonderful merits and virtues. Something is inconceivable because we cannot understand it with our mind or explain it with words. Words are too limited to describe the truth. There is a limit to our thinking and imagination — our store consciousness. Words and imagination depend on our experiences. We typically describe something new in terms of past experiences. But how can we accurately describe a color we have yet to see? Music we have never heard? How can we define “wonderful merits and virtues” when our own merits and virtues are limited and so unremarkable?
This seventeenth vow has very much to do with us. Regardless of how wonderful the Pure Land is, if no one recommends it, we will not know about it. Even if we possess good roots and abundant merits and good fortune, without any knowledge of the Pure Land method, we cannot be born there. It will be such a waste. We can thus see the importance of hearing of this Dharma door. And thus, how important it is that when all the Buddhas in the ten directions teach the Dharma to beings, they teach the Pure Land Dharma door.
Why do they do so?
First, we have to understand why a Buddha comes to a world. He comes to help all beings become Buddhas as quickly as possible. The Pure Land Dharma door helps beings become Buddhas in one lifetime. The teachings are found in the Infinite Life Sutra, the Amitabha Sutra, and the Visualization Sutra. All Buddhas teach these three sutras. Not all methods are taught by every Buddha, so this is indeed rare. Buddhas only teach the sutras that accord with the beings’ conditions and affinities.
Second, the Pure Land method is suitable for everyone — whether the being is virtuous or evil, male or female, young or old, of high or low status, of high or low capacity. As long as they believe, vow, and mindfully chant Amitabha Buddha’s name, they will be born in the Pure Land. This method universally liberates beings and helps them attain buddhahood. It is indeed rare! So, how can all Buddhas not teach the Pure Land method.
When we introduce the Pure Land method to our family and others, some may not wish to listen or accept. If this happens, we should not feel sad. The conditions for them to become Buddhas have yet to mature. When a person accepts and practices the Pure Land method, it shows that the person’s three requirements of good roots, good fortune and virtues, and causal connections are present. All three have matured at the same time.
We have cultivated over infinite kalpas, but if any of the three requirements is not present, we will not have the opportunity to be born in the Pure Land.
The third requirement, causal connections, concerns encountering the Pure Land method, which may take us hundreds of thousands of lifetimes. This encounter is that rare. We need to treasure it, and take this opportunity to believe, make the vow, and sincerely practice.
Since encountering the Pure Land method is so rare, it is very precious indeed that all the Buddhas praise and propagate it.
>> Learn more: The Initiation, Amitabha Buddha’s Forty-eight Vows
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Dedication of Merit
May the merits and virtues accrued from this work
adorn the Buddha’s pure land,
repay the four kinds of kindness above,
and relieve the sufferings of those in the three paths below.
May all those who see and hear of this
bring forth the bodhi mind
and at the end of this life,
be born together in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Note: The above is excerpted from the book “Awakening the Bodhi Mind: Amitabha Buddha’s Forty-Eight Vows”, which is available for download at eLibrary collection, Amitabha Gallery.
The Amitabha Buddha’s forty-eight vows is derived from the Chinese verses of the Infinite Life Sutra, that we are immensely grateful to the compilation efforts by Mr Xia Lianju. Translation credits go to The Pure Land Translation Team, Pure Land College Press.
