Sakyamuni acclaimed the Inconceivable Virtues of Amitabha Buddha
Excerpts from the Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra, by Grand Master Ou-i
Grand Master Ou-i commented on the the final part of the sutra which deals with its transmission. This is in two sections: 1) a general admonition to accept the teaching, and 2) a concluding encouragement.
Buddha says: “Right now I am extolling the benefits of the inconceivable virtues of Amitabha Buddha.”
Master Ou-i commented the virtues of Amitabha are inconceivable in five sense.
First, Amitabha enables us to transcend the triple world “horizontally,” without have to wait until we cut off all delusion.
Second, Amitabha’s Pure Land includes the Four Lands (the Land where Saints and Ordinary Beings Dwell Together, the Land of Expedient Liberation, the Land of Real Reward, and the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light), so that we do not have to go step-by-step from one to another (i.e. once reborn in the Pure Land, we will never retrogress).
Third, Amitabha’s merit makes salvation possible for us by simply invoking his name, without having to resort to other methods, such as meditation (Zen) or visualization.
Fourth, Amitabha’s merit makes salvation possible in one to seven days, without requiring many eons and many lifetimes.
Fifth, by invoking the name of one Buddha, Amitabha, we are protected and kept in mind by all the Buddhas.
All this is the result of the great vows and deeds of our guide and teacher Amitabha. That is why Buddha speaks of “the benefits of the inconceivable virtues of Amitabha Buddha.”
Furthermore, when Pure Land practitioners recite the Buddha-name with faith and vows, they are gathering in all the virtues of Amitabha Buddha and making them their own. This is another reason why Buddha speaks of “the benefits of the inconceivable virtues of Amitabha Buddha.”
Later on in the text, Sakyamuni Buddha speaks of “the inconceivable virtues of all the Buddha” and also “my inconceivable virtues.” Here Sakyamuni Buddha is saying that all the Buddhas, as well as he himself, all consider Amitabha’s virtues as their own.
The sutra continues,
“But in the eastern direction there are also countless other Buddhas, like Akshobhya Buddha, the Buddha “Marks of the Polar Mountain”, the Buddha “Light of the Polar Mountain”, and the Buddha “Wondrous Voice”. Each of them, “extending his broad, long tongue”, preaches in his own land and covers a whole cosmos, speaking these sincere words: “all of you sentient beings should believe this sutra extolling inconceivable virtues, which all Buddhas protect and keep in mind”.
“Akshobhya” means “Immovable”. Each Buddha has countless virtues, and so he must have countless names, each established according to the teaching situation. Sometimes these names are based on causal conditions, sometimes on results achieved, sometimes on inherent nature, sometimes on apparent characteristics, sometimes on practices or vows or other things. Although each name only refers to one aspect of Buddhahood, each name still includes the four benefits a Buddha brings: joyful faith, helping others, counteracting evil, and witnessing absolute truth. Each name illustrates a particular quality of Buddhahood. If we were to try to express all the qualities of the Enlightened Ones, we could talk till the end of time and never be able to finish.
Space in the east is infinite, and there is an infinite number of worlds there. Since there is an infinite number of worlds, there is also an infinite number of Buddhas who dwell in those worlds. Thus the sutra refers to “countless other Buddhas.” All these Buddhas are using their eloquence to urge us to have faith in this sutra. If we sentient beings still fail to have faith in this sutra, we are being utterly stupid and benighted.
One of the traditional marks of a Buddha is a “long, broad tongue”. If an ordinary person tells no lies for three lifetimes, his tongue will be long enough to reach his nose. The Buddha mentioned in this sutra have realized the wondrous Pure Land teaching of the Great Vehicle, and so their tongues are long and broad enough to cover a whole galaxy of worlds. This symbolizes that they are truly in accord with absolute reality — it is fact, not fiction.
The title of the sutra as it circulates among us today, The Amitabha Sutra Spoken by Buddha, was devised by the master translator Kumarajiva, who knew that we Chinese like brevity. It skillfully matches the wondrous practice of reciting the Buddha-name. Master Hsuan-tsang translated the sutra with the longer title, The Sutra Extolling the Pure Land Accepted by Buddha. The two translations differ in style, but there is no change in the meaning.
The sutra continues,
“In the worlds of the southern direction there are countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Lamp of the Sun and Moon”, the Buddha “Light of Renown”, the Buddha “Great Blazing Shoulders”, the Buddha “Lamp of the Polar Mountain,”and the Buddha “Infinite Vigor”. Each of them, extending his broad, long tongue, preaches in his own land and covers a whole cosmos, speaking these sincere words: “all of you sentient beings should believe this sutra extolling inconceivable virtues, which all Buddha protect and keep in mind”.
“In the worlds of the western direction there are countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Infinite Life”, the Buddha “Innumerable Characteristics”, the Buddha “Innumerable Banners”, the Buddha “Great Light”, the Buddha “Great Illumination”, the Buddha “Jewel Appearance”, and the Buddha “Light of Purity”. Each of them, extending his broad, long tongue, preaches in his own land and covers a whole cosmos, speaking these sincere words: “all of you sentient beings should believe this sutra extolling inconceivable virtues, which all Buddhas protect and keep in mind”.
The Buddha “Infinite Life” has the same name as Amitabha. In the worlds of the Ten Directions, Buddhas who share the same name are innumerable. It is also possible that the sutra here is referring to our guide and teacher Amitabha. For the sake of saving sentient beings, there is no harm in Buddha Amitabha praising what the Tathagata Sakyamuni teaches in this sutra.
The sutra continues,
“In the worlds of the northern direction there are countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Blazing Shoulders”, the Buddha “Supreme Voice”, the Buddha “Hard to Injure”, the Buddha “Born of the Sun”, and the Buddha “Netted Light”. Each of them, extending his broad, long tongue, preaches in his own land and covers a whole cosmos, speaking these sincere words: “all of you sentient beings should believe this sutra extolling inconceivable virtues, which all Buddhas protect and keep in mind”.
“In the worlds of the nadir there are countless other Buddhas, like the Buddha “Lion”, the Buddha “Repute”, the Buddha “Light”, the Buddha “Dharma Banner”, and the Buddha “Upholding the Dharma”. Each of them, extending his broad, long tongue, preaches in his own land and covers a whole cosmos, speaking these sincere words: “all of you sentient beings should believe this sutra extolling inconceivable virtues, which all Buddhas protect and keep in mind”.
These are the infinite worlds that are located toward the zenith, above our mundane world. They too have many layers, and like our mundane world include Realms of Desire, of Form, and Formlessness, in an infinite number of levels.
Question: There are certainly pure lands in all directions, so why make a special point of praising Amitabha’s Pure Land in the west?
Answer: This is not a good objection. If we made a point of praising Akshobhya’s Pure Land in the east, you would wonder why we were emphasizing the eastern direction, and go on and on with your specious reasoning.
Question: Why not make the whole universe the focal point instead of Amitabha’s Pure Land?
Answer: There are three reasons. We focus on Amitabha’s Pure Land because this makes it easy for beginners to develop the Bodhi Mind, because Amitabha’s fundamental vows are most powerful, and because Amitabha has a special affinity with the sentient beings in our world.
The Buddhas offer salvation to sentient beings, and sentient beings accept the Buddhas’ teachings, but in this process there are differences in degrees of ease and profundity — it is all a matter of karmic links.
Depending on where the karmic affinities of sentient beings lie, the Buddhas extend the virtue of their benevolence, and stimulate the development of those sentient beings with all kinds of teachings. They can enable sentient beings to experience joy in the teaching and have faith in it, they can spark the development of the seeds of goodness from past lives, they can make it hard for the barriers of delusion to screen sentient beings off from the truth, and they can enable sentient beings to bring forth their self-nature.
Fundamentally, all the Buddhas manifest their teaching activities from within the Dharmakaya. They solidify sentient beings’ affinity with the truth and strengthen their seeds of enlightenment. Whether within the world or beyond it, the deeds of the Buddhas are all inconceivably great. They energize teaching vehicles and expound them to vast audiences. They plunge into the ocean of suffering where sentient beings dwell, and use their compassion to enable them to harmonize with the still light. Thus do the Buddhas exemplify the myriad virtues and epitomize the highest spiritual powers.
Finally, we must understand that the seeds of enlightenment come to fruition as a result of conditions. These conditions constitute the Dharma Realm as a whole. When the Buddhas are mindful of one, they are mindful of all, and when one dharma is born, all dharmas are born: there is one scent, one flower, one sound, one form. When the Buddhas accept our repentance and give us a prediction of enlightenment, when they rub our heads and reach down their hands to us, they create universal reverberation in all the worlds of the past, present, and future in the Ten Directions.
Therefore, these conditions are called “the Dharma Realm of conditional arising”. This is the meaning of remembering, of creating affinity with the Dharma Realm of the Ten Directions.
Ordinary people can simply resolve to seek rebirth in the Pure Land, while people at a profound level should not abandon Amitabha’s Pure Land in the west and seek the Flower Store World (Vairocana Buddha’s universal Pure Land) instead. If you think that Amitabha’s Pure Land is an expedient device, but Vairocana’s Flower Treasury World is a true reality, if you think that Amitabha’s Pure Land is associated with the Lesser Vehicle, but Vairocana’s Flower Store World belongs to the Mahayana teaching, you are completely under the sway of imaginary ideas and emotional clingings. Why? Because you have not comprehended that provisional teachings and the final teaching have a single essence, and that categories like Big Vehicle and Small Vehicle have no set identity.
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Source:
The above excerpt is a translation from the Chinese Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra written by Grand Master Ou-i. Translation comes from the book, Mind-Seal of the Buddhas.
To learn more about the Pure Land teachings from this commentary, read the complete text at The Commentary on The Amitabha Sutra.
Resources:
Five Pure Land Sutras from Pure Land Buddhism
Buddha-name Chanting Music Collection
