Light from the Pure Land Illuminates All Directions
From Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vow 42
Light from the Pure Land Illuminates All Directions
Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vow 42
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, my buddha-land will be vast, boundless, magnificent, pure, and bright and luminous like a mirror, and will thoroughly illuminate the infinite, innumerable, and inconceivable buddha-lands in the ten directions. Beings who see this will give rise to a rare and precious mind. If this is not so, I will not attain perfect enlightenment.
- Vow 42. Thoroughly illuminate the ten directions.
Dharmakara vowed that his pure land would be “vast, boundless, magnificent, pure.” Vast and boundless, and magnificent and pure is what we call beautiful and good today. The environment is without defect. It is the best of the best, completely perfect. The purity of the environment is unsurpassed and is as crystal clear as a pure mirror. This is because the Western Pure Land is made entirely of jewels. Radiant and free of dust, the jewels all emit light, so this world is a land of light.
“Thoroughly illuminate” means that there are no obstacles. The light from the Pure Land can penetrate everything. This is so different from our sunlight, which cannot penetrate obstacles like opaque walls. But the light emitting from the Pure Land “thoroughly illuminate[s] the infinite, innumerable, and inconceivable buddha-lands in the ten directions.” There are no obstacles to this light.
“A rare and precious mind” refers to the exceptional and unsurpassed bodhi mind. When we see the light of the Pure Land, we will give rise to a longing and admiration for that land. In other words, the light inspires us to vow to be born there.
This is the Buddha’s way of inspiring and guiding us to the Pure Land — with light.
>> 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.
