Surety in Attaining Perfect Enlightenment
From Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vows 12
Surety in Attaining Perfect Enlightenment
Amitabha Buddha’s Vow 12
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 beings born in my land will no longer discriminate. All senses will be still. If they do not achieve supreme, perfect enlightenment and attain great nirvana, I will not attain perfect enlightenment.
- Vow 12. Surety in attaining perfect enlightenment.
There is nothing in the environment in the Western Pure Land that will lead the bodhisattvas to discriminate — no reasons, no causes. Nothing. Thus, removed from discrimination, they will remain calm and stable, and “all senses will be still.”
We unawakened beings, however, are very different. An encounter with an object or an occurrence is perceived with our six sense organs — our eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body, and mind. With things and happenings perceived this way, we immediately begin to label and discriminate.
We can see how this works by imagining a scene where we walk through a garden with a friend. We come upon a flower unknown to us. We see its multi-colored complexity, feel the silky petals, and inhale the delicate scent. Our friend tells us the flower is a rare variety of rose. Continuing to wander through the garden, we spot another kind of flower. This one is very different from the delicate, beautifully scented rose. We are told it is a poppy. It has a single color and offers no scent. Being unawakened and thus always discriminating, we start to pigeonhole the two flowers we perceive with our senses. And we decide that the fragrant, lovely rose is vastly preferable to the unscented, plain poppy.
We go through the same process with everything and everyone we encounter. For example, here in samsara, we categorize people, experiences, and objects as good, neutral, or inferior. We want more of the “good” (like the rose) and develop aversions to whatever we deem “inferior” (that poppy). We spend our lives on this continuous pendulum, swinging between good and inferior, like and dislike.
But once we are born in the Pure Land, this will change. Due to the Pure Land’s favorable conditions, the bodhisattvas are in a state of constant balance. For example, in accordance with Dharmakara’s third vow, all the bodhisattvas in the Pure Land have bodies the color of pure gold and possess the same appearance. So, there is nothing to cause them to discriminate, nothing to cause them to label one bodhisattva’s appearance as magnificent and another’s less so.
In our world, our bodies are in a state of constant change. There is birth, old age, sickness, and death. These are changes. There are changes in the weather of coldness and heat, and in physical feelings of hunger and fullness. There is no change in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. The bodies of the bodhisattvas there are permanent and real. There is no birth, old age, sickness, or death, nor is there the need for them to gradually grow from childhood! When people grow up slowly from childhood, many changes will occur. Bodhisattvas in the Pure Land are born and transformed in their lotus flowers. Having indestructible bodies, they will never become ill or die.
The bodhisattvas, no longer distracted by likes and dislikes, can focus on their learning and cultivation. They perceive everything accurately and react appropriately without being affected by their surroundings. Emotional flare-ups no longer assail them as they do us. Once we are born there, our afflictions will no longer arise and our suffering will cease.
“All senses will be still” is a very high level of meditative concentration. At such a level, not only will there be no afflictions. Attachments, discrimination, and subtle wandering thoughts are all gone. True wisdom is revealed. In other words, one will “achieve supreme, perfect enlightenment and attain great nirvana.”
That is to attain buddhahood. And once in the Pure Land, we will definitely attain buddhahood in one lifetime.
>> 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.
