Māyā's Question, and the Hell Without Interval
Part 2 carries this sūtra's third and fourth chapters — its longest by far. The Buddha's own mother, Lady Māyā, asks Kṣitigarbha the question the whole sūtra has been building toward: what actually determines where a being is reborn? His answer runs from the five deeds that lead straight to the hell without interval, through the sūtra's most sustained description of that hell's tortures, to two more origin-stories of his own vow — a pair of kings who divided one vow in half between them, and a girl named Bright Eyes who saves her mother from hell by exactly the same means the Brahmin woman used in Part 1, then goes further still.
Māyā's Question
爾時，佛母摩耶夫人，恭敬合掌，問地藏菩薩言：「聖者！閻浮眾生，造業差別，所受報應，其事云何？」
地藏答言：「千萬世界，乃及國土，或有地獄，或無地獄，或有女人，或無女人，或有佛法，或無佛法，乃至聲聞、辟支佛，亦復如是。非但地獄，罪報一等。」摩耶夫人重白菩薩：「且願聞於閻浮罪報，所感惡趣。」地藏答言：「聖母！唯願聽受，我麁說之。」
佛母白言：「願聖者說。」
At that time the Buddha's mother, Lady Māyā, joined her palms in reverence and asked Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: "Holy one, the beings of Jambudvīpa create karma so differently from one another — what is the truth of the retribution they receive?"
Kṣitigarbha answered: "Among the thousands upon thousands of worlds and lands, some have hells and some do not; some have women and some do not; some have the Buddha-Dharma and some do not; and the same is true even of śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas. It is not only in hell that the retribution for wrongdoing is uniform."
Lady Māyā said again to the bodhisattva: "I wish, then, to hear specifically of the evil destinies that the guilty of Jambudvīpa bring upon themselves." Kṣitigarbha answered: "Holy Mother, please listen and receive what I say — I will speak of it only in outline." The Buddha's mother said: "I beg the holy one to speak."
Lingcheng notes that Kṣitigarbha's first answer does not actually address Māyā's question — she asked specifically about Jambudvīpa, and he answers by pointing to the sheer diversity of "thousands upon thousands of worlds and lands" instead. He reads this as deliberate: before narrowing to the one thing Māyā actually wants explained, Kṣitigarbha first blocks a natural but false inference — that hell, or suffering, or any single pattern of retribution, is simply how reality works everywhere. Some world-systems have no hells at all; some, following the Sūtra of Compassionate Flowers, have no women, out of a logic Lingcheng also states plainly rather than softening — that among the sources of affliction observed in some earlier Buddhist psychology, "the affliction of women" is judged the heaviest — while other world-systems lack even the Buddha-Dharma itself. Only once that variability is on the record does Kṣitigarbha let Māyā pull him back to her real question — this world, this Jambudvīpa, and what actually happens here.
Five Deeds That Lead to the Hell Without Interval
爾時，地藏菩薩白聖母言：「南閻浮提罪報，名號如是：若有眾生，不孝父母，或至殺害，當墮無間地獄，千萬億劫，求出無期。
若有眾生，出佛身血，毀謗三寶，不敬尊經，亦當墮於無間地獄，千萬億劫，求出無期。若有眾生，侵損常住，點污僧尼，或伽藍內，恣行淫欲，或殺或害，如是等輩，當墮無間地獄，千萬億劫，求出無期。若有眾生，偽作沙門，心非沙門，破用常住，欺誑白衣，違背戒律，種種造惡，如是等輩，當墮無間地獄，千萬億劫，求出無期。若有眾生，偷竊常住財物穀米、飲食衣服，乃至一物不與取者，當墮無間地獄，千萬億劫，求出無期。」
地藏白言：「聖母！若有眾生，作如是罪，當墮五無間地獄，求暫停苦，一念不得。」
At that time Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to the Holy Mother: "The names of the retributions for wrongdoing in southern Jambudvīpa are these: if there are beings who are unfilial to their parents, or even go so far as to kill them, they will fall into the hell without interval, for thousands of myriads of kalpas, seeking release with no hope of it.
If there are beings who draw a buddha's blood, slander the Three Jewels, or fail to revere the sacred scriptures, they too will fall into the hell without interval, for thousands of myriads of kalpas, seeking release with no hope of it. If there are beings who encroach upon or damage what belongs to the permanent assembly, defile monks or nuns, or indulge in sexual misconduct or kill or harm within the monastery precincts, such beings will fall into the hell without interval, for thousands of myriads of kalpas, seeking release with no hope of it. If there are beings who falsely pose as monastics while their hearts are not truly monastic, who misuse what belongs to the permanent assembly, deceive the laity, and violate the precepts, committing every kind of wrongdoing, such beings will fall into the hell without interval, for thousands of myriads of kalpas, seeking release with no hope of it. If there are beings who steal the property, grain, food, or clothing of the permanent assembly — even taking a single item not given to them — they will fall into the hell without interval, for thousands of myriads of kalpas, seeking release with no hope of it."
Kṣitigarbha said: "Holy Mother, if there are beings who commit crimes such as these, they will fall into the fivefold hell without interval, seeking even a moment's respite from suffering, and will not obtain it."
Lingcheng dwells on the ordering: of every crime in Buddhist literature that leads to the hell without interval, this list places unfiliality and matricide or patricide first, ahead even of drawing a buddha's blood or slandering the Three Jewels. He grounds the weight of the charge in a citation from the Sūtra of Profound Kindness: "carrying one's father on the left shoulder and one's mother on the right for a thousand years, even relieving oneself upon one's own back the whole while, one still could not repay a parent's kindness." Filial devotion, already identified in Part 1 as coextensive with Kṣitigarbha's own name, here becomes the sūtra's first and heaviest line of moral accounting — the debt everything else on this list is implicitly measured against.
What "Without Interval" Means
摩耶夫人重白地藏菩薩言：「云何名為無間地獄？」
地藏白言：「聖母！諸有地獄，在大鐵圍山之內。其大地獄，有一十八所，次有五百，名號各別。次有千百，名字亦別。無間獄者，其獄城，周匝八萬餘里，其城純鐵，高一萬里，城上火聚，少有空缺。其獄城中，諸獄相連，名號各別。
「獨有一獄，名曰無間。其獄周匝萬八千里，獄墻高一千里，悉是鐵為，上火徹下，下火徹上，鐵蛇鐵狗，吐火馳逐，獄墻之上，東西而走。獄中有床，遍滿萬里。一人受罪，自見其身，遍臥滿床。千萬人受罪，亦各自見，身滿床上。眾業所感，獲報如是。又諸罪人，備受眾苦。千百夜叉，及以惡鬼，口牙如劍，眼如電光，手復銅爪，拖拽罪人。復有夜叉，執大鐵戟，中罪人身，或中口鼻，或中腹背，拋空翻接，或置床上。復有鐵鷹，啗罪人目。復有鐵蛇，繳罪人頸。百肢節內，悉下長釘，拔舌耕犁，抽腸剉斬，洋銅灌口，熱鐵纏身。萬死千生，業感如是。動經億劫，求出無期。此界壞時，寄生他界。他界次壞，轉寄他方。他方壞時，展轉相寄。此界成後，還復而來。無間罪報，其事如是。
「又五事業感，故稱無間。何等為五？一者，日夜受罪，以至劫數，無時間絕，故稱無間。二者，一人亦滿，多人亦滿，故稱無間。三者，罪器叉棒，鷹蛇狼犬，碓磨鋸鑿，剉斫鑊湯，鐵網鐵繩，鐵驢鐵馬，生革絡首，熱鐵澆身，飢吞鐵丸，渴飲鐵汁。從年竟劫，數那由他，苦楚相連，更無間斷，故稱無間。四者，不問男子女人，羗胡夷狄，老幼貴賤，或龍或神，或天或鬼，罪行業感，悉同受之，故稱無間。五者，若墮此獄，從初入時，至百千劫，一日一夜，萬死萬生。求一念間，暫住不得。除非業盡，方得受生。以此連綿，故稱無間。」
地藏菩薩白聖母言：「無間地獄，麁說如是。若廣說地獄罪器等名，及諸苦事，一劫之中，求說不盡。」
摩耶夫人聞已，愁憂合掌，頂禮而退。
Lady Māyā said again to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: "What is meant by the hell without interval?"
Kṣitigarbha said: "Holy Mother, all the hells are located within the Great Iron Ring Mountains. Of the great hells there are eighteen; next there are five hundred, each with its own separate name; next there are a thousand and a hundred more, each likewise with its own name. As for the hell without interval — its walled city measures more than eighty thousand li around, its walls made entirely of iron, ten thousand li high, with fire massed along the top, leaving hardly a gap. Within this walled city the hells are joined one to another, each with a separate name.
"Among them, one hell alone is named 'Without Interval.' Its own walls measure eighteen thousand li around, its ramparts a thousand li high, made entirely of iron; fire rises from below clear through to above, and falls from above clear through to below. Iron snakes and iron dogs spew fire, chasing and racing along the top of the prison walls, running east and west. Within the hell are beds that stretch out for ten thousand li: one person undergoing punishment sees his own body lying stretched across the whole bed, and thousands upon thousands of people undergoing punishment likewise each see their own body filling the whole bed — such is the retribution these beings' collective karma brings about. These guilty beings, moreover, undergo every kind of suffering in full. Hundreds and thousands of yakṣas and evil spirits, their fangs like swords and their eyes like lightning, their hands tipped with claws of bronze, drag and haul the guilty about. Other yakṣas wield great iron halberds, striking the guilty through the body — sometimes through the mouth or nose, sometimes through the belly or back — tossing them into the air and catching them again as they fall, or laying them down upon the beds. Other iron hawks peck out the eyes of the guilty. Other iron snakes coil around their necks. Long nails are driven into every one of their hundred joints; their tongues are torn out and ploughed with an ox; their intestines are drawn out and hacked to pieces; molten bronze is poured into their mouths; red-hot iron is wound about their bodies. Ten thousand deaths, a thousand rebirths — such is what their karma brings about, kalpa after kalpa without end, seeking release with no hope of it. When this world-system is destroyed, they are transferred to live out their punishment in another; when that world in turn is destroyed, they are transferred again to yet another; and when that one, too, is destroyed, they are passed along from one to the next in turn; and once this world-system has come back into being, they return once more to it. Such is the retribution of the hell without interval.
"It is called 'without interval' because of five things it involves. What are these five? First, punishment is undergone day and night, on through the count of kalpas, with never a moment's interruption — hence it is called without interval. Second, whether it holds one person or many people, it is equally full in either case — hence it is called without interval. Third, the instruments of punishment — pitchforks and staves, hawks and snakes, wolves and dogs, pestles and mills, saws and chisels, choppers and cauldrons of boiling liquid, iron nets and iron ropes, iron donkeys and iron horses, raw hide bound about the head, molten iron poured over the body, red-hot iron balls swallowed when hungry, molten iron drunk when thirsty — from year's end to kalpa's end, through countless nayutas, one torment follows another without any interval at all — hence it is called without interval. Fourth, it makes no difference whether one is a man or a woman, of whatever race or nation, old or young, noble or base, a nāga or a spirit, a god or a ghost — the karmic retribution for wrongdoing is undergone equally by all — hence it is called without interval. Fifth, once one falls into this hell, from the moment of first entering it until a hundred thousand kalpas have passed, there are ten thousand deaths and ten thousand rebirths in a single day and night, and one cannot obtain so much as a single moment's respite — only when one's karma is entirely exhausted can one at last be reborn elsewhere. It is because of this unbroken continuity that it is called without interval."
Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to the Holy Mother: "This is only an outline of the hell without interval. Were I to describe fully the names of all the instruments of punishment in the hells, and every torment they involve, one could not finish the telling in a whole kalpa." Having heard this, Lady Māyā, sorrowful and grieving, joined her palms, bowed in reverence, and withdrew.
Lingcheng carries forward the reading he introduced in Part 1 for the Brahmin woman's vision of the sea of blood: whether the hell-wardens tearing at the guilty are themselves sentient beings undergoing their own retribution, or are better described as the mind's own retribution given a body to wield weapons with, was an open question the Sarvāstivāda Abhidharma debated directly. He cites the New Abhidharma-mahāvibhāṣā's own resolution — a warden who chains a newly arrived soul and marches it before King Yama counts as a sentient being; a warden who exists only to wield the instruments of torment within the hell itself does not, and is better classed as non-sentient, "both arising from collective karma, and manifested by mind." He connects this directly to the Śūraṅgama Sūtra's account of how a "retributive contact" (觸報) generates its own tormentor from within the very karma that earned the punishment — the ox-headed warden a falling being sees is less a separate jailer than the visible shape of the karma doing the falling.
He also takes up, with some evident care, a cosmological puzzle the passage raises but does not spell out: hell sits beneath Jambudvīpa, and a kalpa's great fire eventually destroys this whole world down to its first meditative heaven — so what becomes of beings still serving unfinished sentences when their hell itself burns away? His answer works through the objection in stages, exactly as a careful student might press it: they are transferred to an unburned world; but if that world's fire comes next, they are transferred again; and should every direction eventually burn in turn, they cycle back to this world once it has re-formed, still serving out whatever karma remains. He is explicit that this applies only to those whose karma is not yet exhausted — beings whose retribution has run its course are instead reborn as humans, or in the heaven of the second dhyāna, when the fire comes, exactly as the Longer Āgama describes. Nothing about the destruction of a world-system, on this reading, is itself capable of erasing a debt that karma has not yet finished collecting.
Two Kings, Two Vows
「乃往過去無量阿僧祇那由他不可說劫，爾時有佛，號一切智成就如來——應供、正遍知、明行足、善逝、世間解、無上士、調御丈夫、天人師、佛、世尊，其佛壽命六萬劫。未出家時，為小國王，與一隣國王為友，同行十善，饒益眾生。其隣國內，所有人民，多造眾惡。二王議計，廣設方便。一王發願，早成佛道，當度是輩，令使無餘。一王發願，若不先度罪苦，令是安樂，得至菩提，我終未願成佛。」
佛告定自在王菩薩：「一王發願早成佛者，即一切智成就如來是。一王發願永度罪苦眾生，未願成佛者，即地藏菩薩是。」
"In ages past, incalculable asaṃkhyeyas of nayutas of kalpas beyond telling ago, there was a buddha in the world named Sarvajñā-siddhi, the Tathāgata Who Perfects All Wisdom — worthy of offerings, of right and universal knowledge, perfect in wisdom and conduct, well-gone, knower of the world, unsurpassed, tamer of those to be tamed, teacher of gods and humans, buddha, world-honored one — whose lifespan was sixty thousand kalpas. Before he left the household life, he was a minor king, and was a friend to a neighboring king; together they practiced the ten wholesome deeds and brought benefit to their peoples. But the people within that neighboring king's realm committed a great deal of evil. The two kings deliberated together and devised every kind of skillful means to address it. One king made this vow: 'I will attain buddhahood swiftly, and will then liberate every one of these beings, leaving none behind.' The other king made this vow: 'If I do not first liberate these guilty, suffering beings and bring them to peace and to bodhi, I will never vow to become a buddha myself.'"
The Buddha said to the bodhisattva Samādhi-Sovereign King: "The king who vowed to attain buddhahood swiftly is now the Tathāgata Who Perfects All Wisdom. The king who vowed to liberate suffering, guilty beings forever, without vowing for himself to become a buddha, is Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva."
Lingcheng keeps a running count across the sūtra of how many times Kṣitigarbha's founding vow gets told from the beginning, and marks this as the third telling — after the elder's son moved by a buddha's marks, and the Brahmin woman moved by her mother's suffering, in Part 1 — with Bright Eyes' story, next in this same chapter, still to come as a fourth. He reads the two kings less as a new origin than as the same vow held up at a different angle: where the elder's son and the Brahmin woman each act alone, here the vow is explicitly split between two otherwise identical, equally devout rulers, and Lingcheng's point is that the split makes visible a choice the earlier tellings left implicit — that securing one's own buddhahood first and securing every other being's liberation first are not the same act, however much both may look, from the outside, like boundless compassion. The sūtra names both choices as legitimate paths to buddhahood. It simply identifies which one is Kṣitigarbha's.
Bright Eyes and Her Mother
「復於過去，無量阿僧祇劫，有佛出世，名清淨蓮華目如來，其佛壽命四十劫。像法之中，有一羅漢，福度眾生。因次教化，遇一女人，字曰光目，設食供養。羅漢問之：『欲願何等？』光目答言：『我以母亡之日，資福救拔，未知我母生處何趣？』羅漢愍之，為入定觀，見光目女母墮在惡趣，受極大苦。羅漢問光目言：『汝母在生，作何行業？今在惡趣，受極大苦。』光目答言：『我母所習，唯好食噉魚鼈之屬。所食魚鼈多食其子，或炒或煮，恣情食噉。計其命數，千萬復倍。尊者慈愍，如何哀救？』羅漢愍之，為作方便，勸光目言：『汝可志誠念清淨蓮華目如來，兼塑畫形像，存亡獲報。』
「光目聞已，即捨所愛，尋畫佛像，而供養之。復恭敬心，悲泣瞻禮。忽於夜後，夢見佛身，金色晃耀，如須彌山，放大光明，而告光目：『汝母不久，當生汝家，纔覺飢寒，即當言說。』其後家內，婢生一子，未滿三日，而乃言說，稽首悲泣，告於光目：『生死業緣，果報自受。吾是汝母，久處暗冥，自別汝來，累墮大地獄。蒙汝福力，方得受生。為下賤人，又復短命，壽年十三，更落惡道。汝有何計，令吾脫免？』光目聞說，知母無疑，哽咽悲啼，而白婢子：『既是我母，合知本罪，作何行業，墮於惡道？』婢子答言：『以殺害毀罵二業受報。若非蒙福，救拔吾難，以是業故，未合解脫。』光目問言：『地獄罪報，其事云何？』婢子答言：『罪苦之事，不忍稱說，百千歲中，卒白難竟。』
「光目聞已，啼淚號泣，而白空界：『願我之母，永脫地獄。畢十三歲，更無重罪，及歷惡道。十方諸佛，慈哀愍我，聽我為母所發廣大誓願：若得我母永離三塗，及斯下賤，乃至女人之身，永劫不受者，願我自今日後，對清淨蓮華目如來像前，却後百千萬億劫中，應有世界，所有地獄，及三惡道，諸罪苦眾生，誓願救拔，令離地獄惡趣、畜生、餓鬼等。如是罪報等人，盡成佛竟，我然後方成正覺。』發誓願已，具聞清淨蓮華目如來而告之曰：『光目！汝大慈愍，善能為母發如是大願。吾觀汝母，十三歲畢，捨此報已，生為梵志，壽年百歲。過是報後，當生無憂國土，壽命不可計劫。後成佛果，廣度人天，數如恒河沙。』」
佛告定自在王：「爾時羅漢福度光目者，即無盡意菩薩是。光目母者，即解脫菩薩是。光目女者，即地藏菩薩是。過去久遠劫中，如是慈愍發恒河沙願，廣度眾生。」
「未來世中，若有男子女人，不行善者，行惡者，乃至不信因果者，邪婬妄語者，兩舌惡口者，毀謗大乘者，如是諸業眾生，必墮惡趣。若遇善知識，勸令一彈指間歸依地藏菩薩，是諸眾生，即得解脫三惡道報。若能志心歸敬，及瞻禮讚歎，香華衣服，種種珍寶，或復飲食，如是奉事者，未來百千萬億劫中，常在諸天受勝妙樂。若天福盡，下生人間，猶百千劫，常為帝王，能憶宿命因果本末。定自在王，如是地藏菩薩，有如此不可思議大威神力，廣利眾生，汝等諸菩薩，當記是經，廣宣流布。」
定自在王白佛言：「世尊！願不有慮。我等千萬億菩薩摩訶薩，必能承佛威神，廣演是經於閻浮提，利益眾生。」定自在王菩薩白世尊已，合掌恭敬，作禮而退。
"Again, in ages past, incalculable asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a buddha who came into the world named the Tathāgata of the Pure Lotus-Flower Eye, whose lifespan was forty kalpas. In the age of the semblance Dharma there was an arhat who brought blessing and liberation to beings. Teaching in due course, he came upon a woman named Bright Eyes, who prepared food and made offerings to him. The arhat asked her: 'What is it you wish for?' Bright Eyes answered: 'On the day my mother died, I performed merit on her behalf to save and rescue her — but I do not know into which destiny my mother has been born.' Moved with pity, the arhat entered samādhi to look, and saw that Bright Eyes' mother had fallen into an evil destiny, undergoing extreme suffering. The arhat asked Bright Eyes: 'What deeds did your mother practice while alive? She is now in an evil destiny, undergoing extreme suffering.' Bright Eyes answered: 'What my mother was given to was only the eating of fish and turtles. Of the fish and turtles she ate, she ate mostly their young, whether fried or boiled, indulging her appetite freely — and if one reckons the lives she took, they number in the thousands upon thousands, twice over. Reverend one, out of compassion, how might she be saved?' Moved with pity, the arhat devised a skillful means, and urged Bright Eyes: 'You should, with utter sincerity, hold in mind the name of the Tathāgata of the Pure Lotus-Flower Eye, and also make a painted or sculpted image of him — both the living and the dead will receive its benefit.'
"Bright Eyes, hearing this, at once gave up what she loved most, and had a painting of the Buddha made and made offerings before it. With a reverent heart she wept and gazed on it in worship. Suddenly, one night, she dreamed she saw the Buddha's body, golden and radiant like Mount Sumeru, emitting great light, and he told her: 'Your mother will soon be born into your own household. As soon as she feels hunger and cold, she will be able to speak.' Afterward, a servant in her household gave birth to a son, and before three days had passed, the child spoke. Bowing his head, weeping, he said to Bright Eyes: 'The causes and conditions of birth and death, and their retribution, are borne by oneself alone. I am your mother — I have long dwelt in darkness. Since I parted from you, I have fallen again and again into the great hells. Through the power of the merit you made, I have now been able to be reborn — but as a person of low station, and short-lived besides: my life will last only thirteen years, and I will then fall again into an evil destiny. What plan can you devise to free me from this?' Hearing this, Bright Eyes knew without doubt that this was her mother, and choking with sobs she said to the child: 'Since you are truly my mother, you must know your original offense — what deeds did you do, that you fell into an evil destiny?' The child answered: 'It was through the two karmic deeds of killing and of cursing that I received this retribution. Had I not received the merit that rescued me from my difficulty, I would not, on account of that karma, have deserved release at all.' Bright Eyes asked: 'What is the truth of the retribution of the hells?' The child answered: 'The suffering of that place cannot bear to be spoken of — a hundred thousand years would not suffice to tell it in full.'
"Hearing this, Bright Eyes wept aloud and cried out to the empty air: 'I pray that my mother be forever freed from hell — that when these thirteen years are complete, she will incur no further grave offense, nor pass again through any evil destiny. Buddhas of the ten directions, have mercy and compassion on me, and hear the vast vow I now make on my mother's behalf: if my mother is forever freed from the three evil destinies and from this low station, and even from ever again taking a woman's body throughout every future kalpa, then from this day forward, before the image of the Tathāgata of the Pure Lotus-Flower Eye, I vow that for hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas to come, in every world there may be, for all the suffering, guilty beings in the hells and the three evil destinies, I will devise a vow to rescue them, causing them to leave behind hell, the evil destinies, the animal realm, and the realm of hungry ghosts — and only once every being under such retribution has become a buddha will I myself then attain true awakening.' Having made this vow, she distinctly heard the Tathāgata of the Pure Lotus-Flower Eye tell her: 'Bright Eyes, your great compassion is such that you have been able, for your mother's sake, to make so vast a vow. I see that when your mother's thirteen years are complete, she will cast off this retribution and be born as a brahmacārin, living to a hundred years. After that life is over, she will be born in the land of No Sorrow, with a lifespan beyond calculation; and afterward she will attain buddhahood, broadly liberating gods and humans, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges.'"
The Buddha said to Samādhi-Sovereign King: "The arhat of that time who brought blessing to Bright Eyes is now the bodhisattva Boundless Intention. Bright Eyes' mother is the bodhisattva Liberation. And Bright Eyes herself is Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva. Through kalpas long past, with compassion such as this, he has made vows as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, broadly liberating beings.
"In future ages, if there are men or women who do no good, or who do evil — who do not believe in cause and effect, who commit sexual misconduct or false speech, who speak with a forked tongue or harsh words, who slander the Great Vehicle — beings guilty of such deeds will surely fall into an evil destiny. But if they meet a good spiritual friend who urges them, for even the space of a single finger-snap, to take refuge in Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, these beings will at once be freed from the retribution of the three evil destinies. And if they can, with a sincere heart, take refuge in him, gaze on him in reverence, praise him, and make offerings of incense, flowers, clothing, every kind of treasure, or food, then those who serve him so will, for hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas to come, ever dwell among the gods, enjoying supreme and wondrous bliss; and when their heavenly merit is exhausted and they descend to be born among humans, they will still, for a hundred thousand kalpas, remain kings, able to remember the causes and effects of their own past lives from beginning to end. Samādhi-Sovereign King, such is Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva's inconceivable, great, majestic spiritual power, broadly benefiting beings — you bodhisattvas should hold this sūtra in mind, and spread it far and wide."
Samādhi-Sovereign King said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, be at ease — we, hundreds of thousands of myriads of bodhisattva-mahāsattvas, will surely, by the Buddha's spiritual power, broadly proclaim this sūtra throughout Jambudvīpa, for the benefit of all beings." Having said this to the World-Honored One, the bodhisattva Samādhi-Sovereign King joined his palms in reverence, bowed, and withdrew.
Lingcheng draws out the deliberate parallel and the deliberate difference between Bright Eyes' story and the Brahmin woman's in Part 1. Both are daughters; both lose a mother to hell; both make offerings before an image of a buddha; both are answered directly by that buddha, and both close with a great vow made "before the image." But where the Brahmin woman's mother is condemned by an interior fault — wrong views, contempt for the Three Jewels — Bright Eyes' mother is condemned by an external practice: a sustained habit of killing living things for food, aggravated, Lingcheng stresses, by a specific cruelty the text names outright — that she "ate mostly their young." He treats this as the sūtra's way of insisting that karma is not only a matter of belief but of what one actually does daily at the table, a second and complementary account of how an ordinary life accumulates the debt this sūtra keeps describing.
On the vow's own closing clause — that Bright Eyes' mother be freed "even from ever again taking a woman's body" — Lingcheng does not gloss over it, and neither does this collection: the sūtra elsewhere states plainly that a woman who venerates Kṣitigarbha may, if she wishes, escape rebirth as a woman "for a hundred thousand myriads of kalpas," a recurring assumption of the period that treats female embodiment itself as a hardship to be escaped rather than a neutral fact of rebirth. It is a place where this sūtra's eighth-century social world shows through its otherwise universal promise of liberation, and this collection's reading notes will flag it again where it recurs rather than pass over it in silence.
The Four Heavenly Kings, and Twenty-Three Correspondences
爾時，四方天王，俱從座起，合掌恭敬，白佛言：「世尊！地藏菩薩於久遠劫來，發如是大願，云何至今，猶度未絕，更發廣大誓言？唯願世尊，為我等說。」
佛告四天王：「善哉！善哉！吾今為汝，及未來現在天人眾等，廣利益故，說地藏菩薩於娑婆世界，閻浮提內，生死道中，慈哀救拔，度脫一切罪苦眾生方便之事。」
四天王言：「唯然，世尊！願樂欲聞。」
佛告四天王：「地藏菩薩久遠劫來，迄至于今，度脫眾生，猶未畢願。慈愍此世罪苦眾生，復觀未來無量劫中，因蔓不斷，以是之故，又發重願。如是菩薩，於娑婆世界，閻浮提中，百千萬億方便，而為教化。
「四天王！地藏菩薩若遇殺生者，說宿殃短命報。若遇竊盜者，說貧窮苦楚報。若遇邪婬者，說雀鴿鴛鴦報。若遇惡口者，說眷屬鬪諍報。若遇毀謗者，說無舌瘡口報。若遇瞋恚者，說醜陋癃殘報。若遇慳悋者，說所求違願報。若遇飲食無度者，說飢渴咽病報。若遇畋獵恣情者，說驚狂喪命報。若遇悖逆父母者，說天地災殺報。若遇燒山林木者，說狂迷取死報。若遇前後父母惡毒者，說返生鞭撻現受報。若遇網捕生雛者，說骨肉分離報。若遇毀謗三寶者，說盲聾瘖瘂報。若遇輕法慢教者，說永處惡道報。若遇破用常住者，說億劫輪迴地獄報。若遇污梵誣僧者，說永在畜生報。若遇湯火斬斫傷生者，說輪迴遞償報。若遇破戒犯齋者，說禽獸飢餓報。若遇非理毀用者，說所求闕絕報。若遇吾我貢高者，說卑使下賤報。若遇兩舌鬪亂者，說無舌百舌報。若遇邪見者，說邊地受生報。
「如是等閻浮提眾生，身口意業，惡習結果，百千報應，今麁略說。如是等閻浮提眾生，業感差別，地藏菩薩百千方便，而教化之。是諸眾生，先受如是等報，後墮地獄，動經劫數，無有出期。是故汝等，護人護國，無令是諸眾業，迷惑眾生。」
四天王聞已，涕淚悲歎，合掌而退。
At that time the Heavenly Kings of the four quarters all rose from their seats, joined their palms in reverence, and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva has made vows such as these since kalpas long past — why is it that even now his work of liberation is still not finished, and he has made yet another vast vow? We beg the World-Honored One to explain this to us."
The Buddha said to the Four Heavenly Kings: "Excellent, excellent! For your sake, and for the sake of gods and humans present and future, that they may be broadly benefited, I will now explain the skillful means by which Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, within the Sahā world, in Jambudvīpa, moves through the paths of birth and death with sorrowful compassion, rescuing and liberating every suffering, guilty being." The Four Heavenly Kings said: "So be it, World-Honored One — we wish gladly to hear it."
The Buddha said to the Four Heavenly Kings: "Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, from kalpas long past up to the present day, has liberated beings and still has not completed his vow. Grieving with compassion for the suffering, guilty beings of this age, and further observing that in measureless kalpas to come the causes of suffering will spread on unbroken, like a vine, he has for this reason made yet another weighty vow. Such a bodhisattva, within the Sahā world, in Jambudvīpa, teaches and transforms beings by hundreds of thousands of myriads of skillful means.
"Heavenly Kings — when Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva encounters one who kills living beings, he speaks of the retribution of misfortune and a short life carried over from the past. When he encounters one who steals, he speaks of the retribution of poverty and hardship. When he encounters one who commits sexual misconduct, he speaks of the retribution of being reborn as a sparrow, a dove, or a mandarin duck. When he encounters one who speaks harshly, he speaks of the retribution of discord among one's own family. When he encounters one who slanders, he speaks of the retribution of a tongueless mouth full of sores. When he encounters one prone to anger, he speaks of the retribution of an ugly, crippled body. When he encounters one who is miserly, he speaks of the retribution of every wish thwarted. When he encounters one who eats and drinks without restraint, he speaks of the retribution of hunger, thirst, and a throat disease. When he encounters one who hunts and indulges every impulse, he speaks of the retribution of a panicked, sudden death. When he encounters one who defies and rebels against his parents, he speaks of the retribution of disaster and death sent down from heaven and earth. When he encounters one who burns mountain forests, he speaks of the retribution of a crazed, wandering death. When he encounters a stepparent's cruelty, he speaks of the retribution of being reborn to suffer beating at another's hand, in this very life. When he encounters one who nets or captures young birds, he speaks of the retribution of being parted from one's own flesh and blood. When he encounters one who slanders the Three Jewels, he speaks of the retribution of blindness, deafness, and muteness. When he encounters one who treats the Dharma lightly and scorns its teaching, he speaks of the retribution of dwelling forever in an evil destiny. When he encounters one who misuses what belongs to the permanent assembly, he speaks of the retribution of turning in the wheel of hell for kalpas without end. When he encounters one who defiles a pure practitioner or falsely accuses a monastic, he speaks of the retribution of remaining forever among the animals. When he encounters one who scalds, burns, cuts, or otherwise harms living beings, he speaks of the retribution of paying that debt back, turn by turn, in the wheel of rebirth. When he encounters one who breaks the precepts or violates the fast, he speaks of the retribution of hunger among the beasts. When he encounters one who destroys things without cause, he speaks of the retribution of every future need going unmet. When he encounters one who is proud and holds himself above others, he speaks of the retribution of a lowly, servile station. When he encounters one who speaks with a forked tongue to stir up discord, he speaks of the retribution of a tongueless mouth, or a hundred tongues at once. When he encounters one who holds wrong views, he speaks of the retribution of being born in a remote and backward land.
"Such is the karma, born of the deeds of body, speech, and mind of beings in Jambudvīpa, and its hundreds and thousands of retributions — I have spoken of it here only in brief outline. Such is the difference in karmic retribution among the beings of Jambudvīpa, and it is by hundreds of thousands of skillful means that Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva teaches and transforms them. These beings first undergo retributions such as these, and afterward fall into hell, passing through kalpa upon kalpa with no hope of release. For this reason, you must protect these people and protect their lands, and not let such deeds as these lead beings further into confusion." Having heard this, the Four Heavenly Kings wept and sighed in sorrow, joined their palms, and withdrew.
Lingcheng raises, and answers, the objection a modern reader is likely to share with a Kangxi-era one: why does a bodhisattva teach this way at all — cataloguing specific sins against specific, often grotesque, consequences — rather than simply teaching emptiness and letting beings work the rest out for themselves? His answer is that "gentle words" and "harsh words" are not different in kind, only in the audience they are suited to: without naming greed as a fault, generosity cannot be shown to be its opposite; without naming the three evil destinies as suffering, the happiness of the human and heavenly realms cannot be felt as happiness by contrast. A sharp-faculty listener, hearing this catalogue, is moved straight to renunciation and the contemplation that ends suffering at its root; a dull-faculty listener is moved only as far as wanting worldly comfort, and so takes up wholesome deeds for that lesser reason instead — but on Lingcheng's reading, both listeners are moved, which the doctrine of emptiness alone, addressed to an audience not yet ready for it, would not accomplish. "It is for this reason," he writes, glossing the Buddha's own conclusion, "that this must be spoken" — not spoken instead of emptiness, but spoken because most listeners cannot yet hear emptiness at all.
Part 2 Complete
This closes Part 2: Māyā's question about how karma actually differs across the cosmos, the specific deeds that lead straight to the hell without interval and why it bears that name, the story of two kings who split one vow between them, and Bright Eyes' rescue of her mother — the fourth and last of the origin-stories this sūtra tells for Kṣitigarbha's vow. Part 3 turns from causes to consequences in full: a exhaustive roll call of hell by name, and the Buddha's own extended praise of what venerating this bodhisattva is actually worth.
Continue to Part 3 — A Roll Call of Hell, and the Buddha's Praise →