V. The Sublime Trees Made of the Seven Treasures
“In addition, all over that land are trees made of the seven treasures, such as gold trees, silver trees, aquamarine trees, crystal trees, coral trees, emerald trees, and conch shell trees. Some trees are made of two, three, or even seven treasures. Some gold trees have silver leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some silver trees have gold leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some crystal trees have aquamarine leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some emerald trees have aquamarine leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some conch shell trees have leaves, flowers, and fruits made of several treasures. Some jeweled trees have purple-tinged gold roots, silver trunks, aquamarine branches, crystal twigs, coral leaves, emerald flowers, and conch shell fruits. Some jeweled trees have silver roots, aquamarine trunks, crystal branches, coral twigs, emerald leaves, conch shell flowers, and purple-tinged gold fruits. Some jeweled trees have aquamarine roots, crystal trunks, coral branches, emerald twigs, conch shell leaves, purple-tinged gold flowers, and silver fruits. Some jeweled trees have crystal roots, coral trunks, emerald branches, conch shell twigs, purple-tinged gold leaves, silver flowers, and aquamarine fruits. Some jeweled trees have coral roots, emerald trunks, conch shell branches, purple-tinged gold twigs, silver leaves, aquamarine flowers, and crystal fruits. Some jeweled trees have emerald roots, conch shell trunks, purple-tinged gold branches, silver twigs, aquamarine leaves, crystal flowers, and coral fruits. Some jeweled trees have conch shell roots, purple-tinged gold trunks, silver branches, aquamarine twigs, crystal leaves, coral flowers, and emerald fruits. These trees in lines are matched line to line, trunk to trunk, branch to branch, leaf to leaf, flower to flower, and fruit to fruit. Their splendid colors and radiance are beyond the capacity of one’s eyesight. When cool breezes blow, these trees play music in the five tones, and their wonderful melodies are naturally in harmony.”
Buddha continued to say, “In addition, all over that land are trees made of the seven treasures, such as gold trees, silver trees, aquamarine trees, crystal trees, coral trees, emerald trees, and conch shell trees, etc. Some trees are made of two, three, or even seven treasures, one treasure overlapping another. Some gold trees have silver leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some silver trees have gold leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some coral trees have emerald leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some emerald trees have aquamarine leaves, flowers, and fruits. Some conch shell trees have leaves, flowers, and fruits made of several treasures. Some jeweled trees have purple-tinged gold roots, silver trunks, aquamarine branches, crystal twigs, coral leaves, emerald flowers, and conch shell fruits. Some jeweled trees have silver roots, aquamarine trunks, crystal branches, coral twigs, emerald leaves, conch shell flowers, and purple-tinged gold fruits. Some jeweled trees have aquamarine roots, crystal trunks, coral branches, emerald twigs, conch shell leaves, purple-tinged gold flowers, and silver fruits. Some jeweled trees have crystal roots, coral trunks, emerald branches, conch shell twigs, purple-tinged gold leaves, silver flowers, and aquamarine fruits. Some jeweled trees have coral roots, emerald trunks, conch shell branches, purple-tinged gold twigs, silver leaves, aquamarine flowers, and crystal fruits. Some jeweled trees have emerald roots, conch shell trunks, purple-tinged gold branches, silver twigs, aquamarine leaves, crystal flowers, and coral fruits. Some jeweled trees have conch shell roots, purple-tinged gold trunks, silver branches, aquamarine twigs, crystal leaves, coral flowers, and emerald fruits. These trees in lines are matched line to line, trunk to trunk, branch to branch, leaf to leaf, flower to flower, and fruit to fruit. Their splendid colors and radiance are beyond the capacity of one’s eyesight. When cool breezes blow, these trees play wonderous music (gapped scale in ancient China with five notes, usually the fourth and seventh notes of the diatonic scale are omitted), and their wonderful melodies are naturally in harmony.”
In the above section of the Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha highlights trees made of the seven treasures all over the Pure Land.
In the scripture we can see that when Buddha introduces the seven-jeweled trees, which are made up of an amalgam of treasures, He gives a detailed description of what the branches, leaves, flowers and fruits of each tree are made of. A fellow practitioner once said that it would be better to just talk about the trees made up of the Seven Treasures than list in detail in a redundant manner. But suppose we introduce trees in our world, although they are composed of leaves, fruits, flowers, and branches, each type of tree has its own distinctive features. The size and color of leaves and flowers, the height of tree trunks, and the time for blossoming and bearing fruits vary greatly, and they need to be introduced separately in detail too. The jeweled trees in the Pure Land are distinguished by different arrangement of treasures. Take aquamarine for example, sometimes, flowers are made of aquamarine, sometimes, leaves, fruits and trunks are made of aquamarine respectively. Since each tree is composed of seven treasures, two treasures or three treasures, etc., the names of the trees are determined according to the different arrangement of the various treasures that make up the trees. Different species of jeweled trees radiate different light, present various colors, and send forth unique fragrances, each of which touch a certain type of sentient beings deeply through their faculties of seeing, hearing and perception and deliver them according to their roots and strengths. The wind blows through the leaves of the trees, making melodious music to give customized Dharma teachings to different sentient beings.
Why is the Pure Land full of the Seven-Treasure Trees and why does Sakyamuni Buddha focus on introducing these trees in detail? It is because all sentient beings in worlds in the Ten Directions are familiar with trees, especially in our world of Saha where trees can be seen everywhere. A detailed elaboration on this point will enable sentient beings to understand the differences between these two worlds clearly. Further, the disciples of the Buddha in the Human Path prefer to practice in quiet places in the depths of the woods, and when there is no pure abode for them, they often meditate under the trees. The leafy shade of a big tree is their sanctuary for enlightenment, and they stay under the trees at night. The Buddha was afraid that his disciples would develop a greed for a particular tree, he made the Hinayana precept that his disciples should not meditate and rest under the same tree every day for fear that they would rely on and attempt to occupy that place. Shakyamuni Buddha was seated beneath a big Bodhi tree, and as soon as he looked up at the stars in the evening sky, he ended his quest for the Truth and attained Buddhahood. Human beings prefer to build houses with wood and plant trees surrounding their houses and in the courtyard as decoration. It can be said that trees are closely related to human life. Even if we don’t know the species of trees, we can visualize them quite easily because of our familiarity with them.
When I read this past of the Sutra myself, I carefully pay attention to the description of every kind of jeweled trees. The images of the trees will naturally present themselves in front of me as vividly as they grow in my own mental and physical spheres, as if at my will. And the melodious music made by different trees make me very comfortable and delightful. As I read this part of the Sutra, I felt I was wandering through a beautiful scenic area overgrown with seven-jeweled trees manifested by illusory light, each of which is a true wonder. After reading, my eyes were clear and cool, sparkling with light. I have no other intention of sharing the realm I have attained through careful reading of the scriptures but to hope that everyone can have some patience while reading the scriptures, and can in the same way try to imagine oneself wandering in the seven-jeweled forest of the West Pure Land.
Alright, let’s continue to look at the Sutra.
VI. The Bodhi Tree in His Bodhimanda adorned with the Kings of Jewels and Provided with Boundless Blessings
“In addition, the bodhi tree in Amitayus Buddha’s bodhimanda is four million lis tall. The tree trunk is 5,000 yojanas in circumference, with branches and leaves spreading 200,000 lis in the four directions. All are naturally made of various treasures and adorned with the kings of jewels, such as the moonlight jewel and the ocean wheel jewel. Hanging from the twigs are garlands of jewels in a billion changing colors, radiating boundless beams of glowing light. Covering this tree are wonderful jeweled nets that manifest all kinds of adornments at one’s wish. They emit wondrous Dharma tones as breezes gently stir. These tones flow to all Buddha Lands in the ten directions. Those who hear them achieve the profound Endurance in Dharmas, abiding in the spiritual level of no regress. Even before they attain Buddhahood, they will have pure sense organs of ears and will not encounter tribulations. Although their eyes see sights, ears hear sounds, noses smell scents, tongues taste flavors, bodies touch the light, and minds perceive mental objects, they abide in the spiritual level of no regress and they acquire purity in their six faculties, which will trouble them no more. Ananda, when gods in that land see this bodhi tree, they achieve the Three Endurances in the Dharma. First, the Endurance in Hearing the Sounds; second, the Endurance in Accord; third, the Endurance in the Realization of the No Birth of Dharmas. They achieve these endurances entirely by virtue of Amitayus Buddha’s awesome spiritual power and by virtue of the power of His original vows, the fulfillment of these vows, the clarity of these vows, the firmness of these vows, and the ultimacy of these vows.”
We are going to translate this part of the Sutra into vernacular Chinese.
Shakyamuni Buddha said, “in addition, the bodhi tree in Amitayus Buddha’s bodhimanda is four million lis tall. The tree trunk is 5,000 yojanas in circumference, with branches and leaves spreading 200,000 lis in the four directions. All are naturally made of various treasures and adorned with the kings of jewels, such as the moonlight jewel and the ocean wheel jewel. Hanging from the twigs are garlands of jewels in a billion changing colors, radiating boundless beams of glowing light, which cover boundless land. Covering this tree are wonderful jeweled nets that manifest all kinds of sublime adornments at one’s wish. They emit wondrous Dharma tones as breezes gently stir. These tones flow to all Buddha Lands in the ten directions. Those who hear them achieve the profound Endurance in Dharmas, abiding in the spiritual level of no regress. Even before they attain Buddhahood, they will not encounter tribulations and they have pure sense organs of ears. Although their eyes see sights of the bodhi tree in bodhimanda, noses smell scents, tongues taste flavors, bodies touch the light, and minds perceive mental objects, they acquire Endurances because of purity in their six faculties, and they abide in the level of no regress until they attain Buddhahood. They have pure six sense organs and suffer no more tribulations.
Ananda, when gods in that land see this bodhi tree, they achieve the Three Endurances in the Dharma. First, the Endurance in Hearing the Sounds; second, the Endurance in Accord; third, the Endurance in the Realization of the No Birth of Dharmas. They achieve these endurances entirely by virtue of Amitayus Buddha’s awesome spiritual power and by virtue of the power of His original vows, the fulfillment of these vows, the clarity of these vows, the firmness of these vows, and the ultimacy of these vows.”
In this part of the Sutra, after introducing the jeweled trees, Sakyamuni Buddha focused on introducing the Bodhi Tree—the king of all trees— in Amitabha Buddha’s Bodhimanda. The sutra reads, “the bodhi tree in Amitayus Buddha’s bodhimanda is four million lis tall. The tree trunk is 5,000 yojanas in circumference, with branches and leaves spreading 200,000 lis in the four directions.” Can you imagine such a huge tree? All are naturally made of various treasures from the heavenly worlds, never seen or heard of by human beings. Covering this bodhi tree are wonderful jeweled nets, radiating boundless beams of glowing light, in which pavilions and halls are manifested at will. In human world, when we raise our heads, we can only see the floating clouds of various shapes in the sky. When celestial beings in the Pure Land see the Bodhi tree and the wonderful music emitted by the trees, they achieve the Three Endurances in the Dharma. First, the Endurance in Hearing the Sounds; second, the Endurance in Accord; third, the Endurance in the Realization of the No Birth of Dharmas.
What then is the Endurance in the Dharma? It is a Buddhist terminology which means that the Dharma penetrates into the truth of all phenomena and the reality of life. For example, we often talk about the Endurance in the Realization of the No Birth of Dharmas, which is a state of the non-reality of birth and extinction of all phenomena, a variant name for Nirvana. Celestial beings in the Pure Land are able to realize the state once they see these trees. When in contact with the sound, light, color, fragrance of the Bodhi tree, they realize the truth of Buddhism and abide in the state of no regress until they attain Buddhahood. Endurances in the Dharma, namely, the Endurance in Hearing the Sounds, the Endurance in Accord and the Endurance in the Realization of the No Birth of Dharmas.
However, if it is sentient beings from other worlds whose eyes see sights, ears hear sounds, noses smell scents, tongues taste flavors, bodies touch the light, and minds perceive mental object, they acquire purity in their six faculties, and they will be free from tribulations and suffer no bitter misfortunes such as sickness, etc. They can achieve the profound Endurance in Dharmas, abiding in the spiritual level of no regress in the Bodhi Path. Sentient beings who see the jeweled trees attain achievement in liberation is not because these beautiful and majestic jeweled trees are made up of rare treasures, but because of Amitayus Buddha’s awesome spiritual power and by virtue of the power of His original vows, the fulfillment of these vows, the clarity of these vows, the firmness of these vows, and the ultimacy of these vows.
What then is the power of His original vows? It refers to all the efforts made by Amitabha Buddha when he was a Bodhisattva in forming a pure land for sentient beings to attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi. Our original vow is to free ourselves as well as lead sentient beings to free themselves from the cycle of reincarnation and to learn various methods which are needed for liberation. The Pure Land formed by Amitabha Buddha equals an exceptionally perfect bodhimanda that brings a wealth of great convenience for sentient beings to attain Buddhahood. “The fulfillment of these vows” mentioned in the Sutra indicates that Amitabha Buddha has achieved anuttara-samyak-sambodhi and has fulfilled his great vows made on the causal ground.
“The clarity of these vows” and “the ultimacy of these vows” means that Amitabha Buddha has clearly and completely understood the ultimate truth of all dharmas and simultaneously has attained the realm in which He plays with the supernatural power and is yet fully aware of immateriality of all phenomena—a supreme state of Buddhas. “
The firmness of these vows” shows the power of firmness and everlastingness of these vows made on the causal ground, upon the fulfilment of which everything in the Pure Land becomes permanent and indestructible.
In a word, this magnificent Bodhi tree is a manifestation of Amitabha Buddha’s merits accrued over innumerable kalpas and the power of firm vows. This great bodhi tree in Amitayus Buddha’s bodhimanda is somewhat similar to the Bodhi tree in our world. Shakyamuni Buddha sits under a Pippala tree to achieve enlightenment, and henceforth, it is named as “Bodhi tree” and worshipped by Buddhist disciples. Nowadays, Buddhist believers often make various prayer beads and bracelets of Bodhi seeds and wear them as a token of holy blessings and protection, which is an eloquent testimony to the important position of the Bodhi tree in the hearts of Buddha disciples.
Amitabha Buddha manifests the Great Bodhi Tree adorned with the Kings of Jewels in his Bodhimanda also because He knows how much Buddhist disciples adore, revere and rely on Bodhi tree.
Alright, let’s continue to look at the original scriptural text.