The bhiksu Dharmakara collected the pure actions taken to adorn those 210 koti wonderful Buddha Lands. Having trained himself in this way, he went to that Buddha. He made obeisance at that Buddha’s feet and circled Him three times. Standing properly with his palms joined, he said to that Buddha, “World-Honored One, I have collected the pure actions to adorn my Buddha Land.”
That Buddha told the bhiksu, “You now may declare your vows. Know that now is the right time to delight all multitudes. After other Bodhisattvas have heard you, they too can train in the way that you have, and fulfill immeasurable great vows.”
The bhiksu said to that Buddha, “I pray that you will grant me your attention. I will declare my vows completely:
1. After I become a Buddha, if there should be hell-dwellers, hungry ghosts, or animals in my land, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
2. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land, after their death, should take any of the three evil life-paths, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
3. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not be the color of gold, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
4. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should have varied shapes and forms, beautiful or ugly, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
5. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not have the power to know their past lives and the past events in 100,000 koti nayuta kalpas, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
6. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not have the god-eye to see everything in 100,000 koti nayuta Buddha Lands, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
7. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not have the god-ear to hear, accept, and uphold the words spoken by 100,000 koti nayuta Buddhas, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
8. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not have the power to know the thoughts of sentient beings in 100,000 koti nayuta Buddha Lands, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
9. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not have the power to travel, in the instant of a thought, to 100,000 koti nayuta Buddha Lands, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
10. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should imagine that they have embodied selves, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
11. After I become a Buddha, sentient beings that definitely progress on the right path to bodhi until their attainment of the great nirvana, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
12. After I become a Buddha, if my radiance should have a limit of illuminating 100,000 koti nayuta Buddha Lands, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
13. After I become a Buddha, if my lifespan should have a limit of 100,000 koti nayuta kalpas, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
14. After I become a Buddha, if the number of voice-hearers in my land should be known by calculation, and be obtained through calculating for 100,000 kalpas by sentient beings in the Three-Thousand Large Thousandfold World that all have become Pratyekabuddhas, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
15. After I become a Buddha, if the lifespan of gods in my land should have a limit, except being shortened by their own wish, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
16. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should ever hear of any wrongdoings there, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
17. After I become a Buddha, if innumerable Buddhas in worlds in the ten directions should not praise my name, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
18. After I become a Buddha, in worlds in the ten directions, there will be sentient beings that, with earnest faith and delight, sincerely aspire to be reborn in my land, even if by only thinking ten thoughts [of that wish]. If they should fail to be reborn there—excepting those who have committed any of the five rebellious sins or maligned the true Dharma—I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
19. After I become a Buddha, in worlds in the ten directions, there will be sentient beings that activate the bodhi mind, acquire merit, and earnestly wish to be reborn in my land. If I should not appear, surrounded by a holy multitude, before them at their death, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
20. After I become a Buddha, in worlds in the ten directions, there will be sentient beings that hear my name, intently think of my land, plant their roots of virtue and, with a wish for rebirth in my land, transfer their merits to others. If they should fail to be reborn in my land, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
21. After I become a Buddha, if gods in my land should not be complete with a great man’s thirty-two physical marks, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
22. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas from other Buddha Lands who are reborn in my land should eventually fail to be in the holy position of waiting to attain Buddhahood in their next life, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment. (Except for those who are not in that position because of their original vows. For the sake of delivering all sentient beings, they don their armor of great vows and develop their roots of virtue. They visit Buddha Lands, train in the Bodhisattva Way, and make offerings to Buddha-Tathagatas [in worlds] in the ten directions. They develop and transform as many sentient beings as the sands of the Ganges, setting them on the Way to the unsurpassed bodhi. Transcending the regular course through the Bodhisattva Grounds, they currently cultivate the virtues of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva.)
23. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas in my land should fail to arrive, by virtue of my spiritual power, in the time of a meal in innumerable, countless kotis of nayutas of Buddha Lands to make offerings to those Buddhas, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
24. After I become a Buddha, Bodhisattvas in my land will demonstrate their roots of virtue before Buddhas. If they should fail to manifest at will their intended offerings to their satisfaction, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
25. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas in my land should be unable to expound [sarvajna] the overall wisdom-knowledge, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
26. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas in my land should not have the god Narayana’s adamantine body, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
27. After I become a Buddha, all things in my land will be radiant and splendid in extraordinary forms and colors, beyond description. If sentient beings in my land, including those with the god-eye, should know and distinguish them all by their names and numbers, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
28. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas in my land, including those with a meager store of merits, should fail to know and see in my bodhimanda the innumerable radiant colors of the [bodhi] tree, which is four million lis tall, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
29. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas in my land who read, recite, uphold, and expound sutras should fail to acquire eloquence and wisdom, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
30. After I become a Buddha, if Bodhisattvas in my land should have a limit in their eloquence and wisdom, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
31. After I become a Buddha, my land will be so pure that it illuminates and reflects innumerable, countless inconceivable Buddha Lands in the ten directions, like one’s own facial image seen in a clear mirror. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
32. After I become a Buddha, in my land, from the ground to the open sky, there will be palaces, towers, ponds, streams, flowers, and trees. Myriad things in my land will be made of innumerable varieties of treasures and 100,000 kinds of fragrances, and these wonderful adornments will surpass those of gods. As the fragrances suffuse all worlds in the ten directions, Bodhisattvas who smell them will all train in the Buddha Way. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
33. After I become a Buddha, in innumerable inconceivable Buddha Lands in the ten directions, all sentient beings touched by my radiance will become gentle in body and mind, surpassing gods. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
34. After I become a Buddha, in innumerable inconceivable Buddha Lands in the ten directions, if sentient beings that hear my name should fail to achieve the Bodhisattva Endurance in the Realization of the No Birth of Dharmas and to acquire profound dharanis, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
35. After I become a Buddha, in innumerable inconceivable Buddha Lands in the ten directions, women who hear my name will have faith and delight, activate the bodhi mind, and tire of their female form. If, after their death, they should be reborn in female form, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
36. After I become a Buddha, in innumerable inconceivable Buddha Lands in the ten directions, multitudes of Bodhisattvas who hear my name, after their death, will be reborn to train in the Brahma way of life until their attainment of Buddhahood. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
37. After I become a Buddha, in innumerable inconceivable Buddha Lands in the ten directions, Bodhisattvas who hear my name will prostrate themselves in obeisance and, with faith and delight, train in the Bodhisattva Way, and gods and humans will salute them. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
38. After I become a Buddha, gods in my land, by a single thought, will be able to make appear on their bodies garments, which are as wonderful as Buddhas say. If their garments should require sewing, dyeing, or laundering, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
39. After I become a Buddha, if the bliss experienced by gods in my land should be inferior to that of bhiksus with no more afflictions to discharge, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
40. After I become a Buddha, Bodhisattvas in my land who wish to see innumerable splendid, pure Buddha Lands in the ten directions will see them all displayed in the jeweled trees as they wish, like one’s facial image in a clear mirror. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
41. After I become a Buddha, if multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name should remain incomplete in their faculties until their attainment of Buddhahood, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
42. After I become a Buddha, multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name will all attain the Samadhi of Pure Liberation and abide in it. By a single thought, they will be able to make offerings to innumerable inconceivable Buddha-Bhagavans without losing their samadhi state. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
43. After I become a Buddha, multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name will, after their death, be reborn into a noble family. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
44. After I become a Buddha, multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name will, with delight and exuberance, train in the Bodhisattva Way and fully develop their roots of virtue. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
45. After I become a Buddha, multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name will all attain the Samadhi of Universal Equality and abide in it until their attainment of Buddhahood. They will constantly see innumerable inconceivable Buddhas. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
46. After I become a Buddha, Bodhisattvas in my land will hear the Dharma according to their wishes and preferences. If this should not come true, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
47. After I become a Buddha, if multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name should not soon attain [avinivartaniya] the spiritual level of no regress, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.
48. After I become a Buddha, if multitudes of Bodhisattvas in other lands who hear my name should not achieve the first, second, or third of the Three Endurances in the Dharma, and thus fail to attain the level of no regress from the Buddha Dharma, I would not attain the perfect enlightenment.”