In this part of the Sutra, the Buddha told us in the innumerable kalpas past, there was in this world a Tathagata named World Sovereign King. A king who heard that He was expounding the Dharma abandoned his throne and affection and became a Sramana named Dharmakara to put Buddhism doctrines into practice. When I saw this passage about Bhikshu Dharmakara, it reminded me of the story of our original master, Shakyamuni Buddha, who initially began his monastic practice. Bhikshu Dharmakara was a king before he adopted monastic life, whereas our original teacher, Shakyamuni Buddha, was a prince named Siddhartha Gautama and heir to the throne. They both abandoned the throne and worldly love, and became monks.
For secular people, happiness derives from the satisfaction of their desires for fame, fortune and passion. It seems to be human beings’ natural instinct. If one wants to give visible benefits to all beings, in the capacity of a king, one can not only meet his own needs to the greatest satisfaction but also act for the good of the country and people. However, contrary to his parents’ expectation, Prince Siddhartha Gautama ran away in the middle of the night in the hope of leading a monastic life to seek for truth. His behavior has brought much pain and disappointment to his parents who had carefully nurtured him and to his wife and child who had a deep affection for him. As a prince who is supposed to inherit the crown, Siddhartha Gautama’s mission in the world should be to become an excellent king to make his country powerful and his people prosperous. But both Shakyamuni Buddha and Amitabha Buddha renounced their secular affections and missions. Was it because that they were all apathetic and world-weary? By training himself in the Buddhist way and making vows to form a world of peace and bliss for all beings, did Bhikshu Dharmakara aspire to be a Dharma king of the world rather than an earthly king? After reading Amitabha Buddha’s 48 great vows, you will understand that they make the choice simply because they deeply love their families, their countries and their people, rather than they are ruthless or disgusted with the world. They see the limit and transience of the happiness brought about by the fulfilment of habits and desires for fame, fortune and passion. The cyclic birth, aging, illness, and death can take away everything one deeply loves at any time. Accordingly, for the sake of the permanent welfare and benefits of themselves and all beings, they resolve to find the path leading to the eternal peace. And both of them have accomplished their goals.
Therefore, a Bodhisattva initially abstains from worldly life merely because of limited time and energy and because of the fact that he himself is still lost in delusions. Habits and desires stimulated by conditions easily render him unable to contain himself and trapped in a dreamlike delusion, thus failing to awaken quickly. A Bodhisattva has to adopt the monastic practice by abstaining from love and desires and by avoiding the disturbances from the world of mortals. But in the end, they will definitely return with perfect wisdom and merits. At that time, all the choices they made are in response to the needs of ferrying over the sentient beings.
In the Sutra we also find that Bhikshu Dharmakara and prince Siddhartha Gautama shared the same experience of abandoning the throne and human love. Both of them renounced their household life to adopt monastic life. However, the conditional causations for their becoming monks were different. The origination for prince Siddhartha Gautama’s leaving home was that one day he happened to see the human sufferings of birth, aging, illness and death though he was living an extravagant life in the palace, enjoying peace and contentment. Hence, he vowed to find a way for all beings to be liberated from the merciless assaults of cyclic birth, aging, illness and death. Bhikshu Dharmakara was relatively lucky, for he was living in a time when there was a Buddha residing in the world. World Sovereign King Tathagata expounded the absolute fundamental reality of time and space and all phenomena to Bhikshu Dharmakara. There is no need for Dharmakara groping in the darkness for a path of liberation from the impermanence of all phenomena. It is his aspiration to form a blissful world when he attains Buddhahood to equally share his merits and benefits to all those who get reborn in his world. All sentient beings who practice Buddhist doctrines in this Pure Land can attain Buddhahood in pure joy, and those who would not practice will still enjoy the eternal happiness there.
There is no distinction between the realm attained by Shakyamuni Buddha and Amitabha Buddha, and the absolute reality they apprehended is not dissimilar. The difference lies in their distinctive vows made in accord with time and space and the particular roots of sentient beings at their time. Therefore, two different Buddhas emerged before us. I recall a sentence from “The Diamond Sutra”: “Unconditioned dharmas distinguish worthy sages.” The meaning of this sentence is that no matter what differences appear externally, all wise sages are essentially the same. They have already been in a state of complete voidness. Here “unconditioned dharmas” refer to the state of truth in which the sages have been detached from all forms, and abide in the state of “True and Genuine Suchness” instead of the state of concepts formed by action. Here “sages” refer in general to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas who have apprehended all things in their real aspect.
In this scripture, whether it is Bodhisattvas of Bhadrakalpa (the present kalpa) or Bodhisattva Samantabhadra acting out his vows in the Bodhisattva Way, or Shakyamuni Buddha in this Saha World who manifests the Eight aspects of the Buddha’s life, or Amitabha Buddha forming the Western Pure Land, they reside in the true reality detached from all forms. They make vows, attain the Way and manifest the forming of a world. But they are similar in essence, that is, they do nothing – it is Asamskrita (unconditioned, unproduced or non-action). But different beings have seen their different forms. Even when Bodhidharma, the first patriarch of Zen Buddhism, came to China, what you see is he spent nine years sitting in meditation, facing the wall. It seems that he has not done anything and has not poured down the Dharma rain and opened the Dharma door to help all beings as you expect. But like all the sages, the essential reality is no different. His distinctive behavior just caters to the needs of ferrying over sentient beings at the time. Tathagatas actually have no manifestations of all, no willpower and no world.
The scripture also introduces that, endowed with powerful and able roots, Bhikshu Dharmakara makes earnest, energetic progress and quickly achieves high achievements. One day he makes a resolution to cultivate himself in order to form a Buddha’s pure land foremost in splendor in the worlds of ten directions. Once all beings think of his pure land adorned with myriad wonders, they will have joyful pure minds. Upon arrival in the land, they all will enjoy immeasurable peace and bliss. Therefore, he comes to the presence of World Sovereign King Tathagata, and before expressing his wishes, he extols the solemnity and rarity of World Sovereign King Tathagata. He makes a vow in front of the Buddha that he will attain Anuttara Samyak Sambodhi, form a world unique, beyond comparison to benefit all sentient beings. He says that he is so rejoicing to have World Sovereign King Tathagata’s pure trust and understanding and to have Him be his true witness. He prays for the protection and blessings from World-Honored Ones in worlds in the ten directions and beseeches Them to let this World Sovereign King Tathagata know about his mind and actions, whose supervision and encouragement will enable him to persist in fulfilling his action vows and never regret from beginning to end despite all kinds of afflictions and malicious persecutions.
In the Sutra of The Universally Worthy Action Vow of Samantabhadra’s to Enter the Inconceivable Liberation State, among the ten great vows, there are six great vows mainly concerned with Buddhas, and four vows oriented towards sentient beings. The first vow is to make obeisance to all Buddhas, while the second is to eulogize Tathagata. In innumerable kalpas past, Bhikshu Dharmakara abandoned the throne and became a monk. Endowed with powerful and able roots, he quickly made great achievements in cultivation. He made obeisance to the Buddha World Sovereign King at His feet, then circled Him to the right three times. Kneeling on both knees, he joined his palms and eulogized World Sovereign King Tathagata in all the beautiful words in the world. Without a trace of arrogance or conceit on account of having keen insight, possessing supernatural powers, and even having made great vows, he is lavish in his praise of World Sovereign King Tathagata. He never thinks arrogantly that it is World Sovereign King Tathagata who should in turn praise him because even Tathagata Himself has not taken great vows like him. Neither does he refuse to seek for His advice because he himself has made great achievements in his cultivation.
In the Sutra, the appraisal made by World Sovereign King Buddha of bhiksu Dharmakara is: “With your current cultivation achievements, you should know how to train yourself and adorn your Buddha Land.” The tacit implication is that bhiksu Dharmakara is fully capable of carrying out his mission, and therefore it is not necessary to seek for Buddha’s advice and help. But devoutly bhiksu Dharmakara prays that the Buddha will fully expound to him the situation of innumerable Buddha Lands. Bhiksu Dharmakara’s speech and action at the Dharma Assembly is a natural revelation of the inner qualities of a great Bodhisattva rather than a personal requirement for instruction about how to practice. World Sovereign King Buddha knows about his disciple well, so in the Sutra we see that He does not pour cold water on his disciple by saying that it is too difficult to form a world ranking first in the worlds in ten directions and that “aren’t you too arrogant to activate such a wish? Isn’t it simpler to form a world, just anyhow?” On the contrary, He affirms his disciple’s immense resolve and his exceptional capacity to form such a land. He uses an analogy to encourage his student: if a person keeps drawing water from an ocean with a small container, as long as he perseveres in doing so, he can drain the ocean one day. He expresses his confidence in His student that with the earnest and energetic progress to seek bodhi and the perfection of merits, Bhiksu Dharmakara will definitely fulfil his wish.
Judging from World Sovereign King Buddha’s analogy, we can see that even in innumerable kalpas past when the living environment and the practicing circumstances are quite different from ours, the fulfilment of such a wish is still far from being easy. World Sovereign King Buddha makes such an analogy to indicate that it may probably take many kalpas to complete the adornment of such a Buddha Land. With the encouragement and appreciation from his beloved mentor, Bhiksu Dharmakara further strengthens his wish to form a beautiful and pure land ranking number one in all Buddhas’ Lands. He sincerely prays to World Sovereign King Buddha to introduce him to all the pure, solemn, and subtle aspects of other Buddhas’ worlds in time and space for himself to learn from.