What Actually Helps the Dead
Part 4 carries the sūtra's seventh, eighth, and ninth chapters — its most practical stretch, addressed less to doctrine than to grief. An elder named Great Eloquence asks the question every family asks: does a funeral actually help the person who died, or only comfort the living? King Yama himself, arriving with an entire court of ghost-kings, asks Kṣitigarbha's own hard question — why freedom from hell never seems to last. A ghost-king who governs birth and death explains what protects a household at both thresholds. And the sūtra closes this stretch with ten buddha names offered as the plainest refuge it has to give: something to say, or hear, at the very end.
What Actually Helps the Dead
爾時，地藏菩薩摩訶薩白佛言：「世尊！我觀是閻浮眾生，舉心動念，無非是罪。脫獲善利，多退初心；若遇惡緣，念念增益。是等輩人，如履泥塗，負於重石，漸困漸重，足步深邃。若得遇知識，替與減負，或全與負，是知識有大力故，復相扶助，勸令牢脚，若達平地，須省惡路，無再經歷。
「世尊！習惡眾生，從纖毫間，便至無量。是諸眾生，有如此習，臨命終時，父母眷屬宜為設福，以資前路。或懸旛蓋，及然油燈，或轉讀尊經，或供養佛像及諸聖像。乃至念佛菩薩及辟支佛名字，一名一號，歷臨終人耳根，或聞在本識。是諸眾生所造惡業，計其感果，必墮惡趣，緣是眷屬為臨終人修此聖因，如是眾罪，悉皆銷滅。若能更為身死之後，七七日內，廣造眾善，能使是諸眾生，永離惡趣，得生人天，受勝妙樂，現在眷屬，利益無量。
「是故我今對佛世尊，及天龍八部、人、非人等，勸於閻浮提眾生：臨終之日，慎勿殺害，及造惡緣——拜祭鬼神，求諸魍魎。何以故？爾所殺害，乃至拜祭，無纖毫之力利益亡人，但結罪緣，轉增深重。假使來世，或現在生，得獲聖分，生人天中，緣是臨終被諸眷屬造是惡因，亦令是命終人，殃累對辯，晚生善處。何況臨命終人，在生未曾有少善根，各據本業，自受惡趣，何忍眷屬，更為增業？譬如有人，從遠地來，絕糧三日，所負擔物，彊過百斤。忽遇隣人，更附少物，以是之故，轉復困重。世尊！我觀閻浮眾生，但能於諸佛教中，乃至善事，一毛一渧，一沙一塵，如是利益，悉皆自得。」
At that time Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I observe that the beings of Jambudvīpa can hardly move a thought without it being sin. Even when they gain some wholesome benefit, they often abandon the resolve they first felt; but should they meet with an evil circumstance, that mind grows worse thought by thought. Such people are like someone walking through deep mud, carrying a heavy stone on his back — with every step he grows wearier and the stone grows heavier, and his feet sink ever deeper. If he happens to meet a good spiritual friend, who takes some of the load from him, or takes all of it, that friend, having great strength, can also support him and urge him to plant his feet firmly, so that once he reaches level ground, he may look back and recognize the bad road, never to travel it again.
"World-Honored One, beings habituated to evil go, from the smallest beginning, all the way to a measureless extent. Since beings have this tendency, when the time of death comes, their parents and family should make merit on their behalf, to provision the road ahead — whether by hanging banners and canopies, lighting oil lamps, reciting sacred sūtras aloud, or making offerings before images of buddhas and holy ones; or even by intoning the names of buddhas, bodhisattvas, and pratyekabuddhas — a single name, a single title, reaching the dying person's ear, or heard within their own consciousness. Such beings, reckoning the karma of the wrongs they have done, would surely fall into an evil destiny; but because their family cultivates this holy cause on the dying person's behalf, all these many sins are thereby dissolved. And if the family can, further, in the forty-nine days after death, broadly perform every kind of wholesome deed, they can cause that being to forever leave the evil destinies, to be born among gods and humans, and to enjoy supreme and wondrous bliss — and the living family, too, gains benefit without measure.
"For this reason I now, before the Buddha, the World-Honored One, and before the eightfold division of gods and nāgas, humans and non-humans, urge the beings of Jambudvīpa: on the day of death, be careful not to kill, nor to create any other evil circumstance — bowing and making offerings to spirits, or seeking help from goblins and sprites. Why is this? Because such killing, and such offerings, do not help the dead by so much as a hair's breadth — they only bind the dead further in karmic guilt, deepening it all the more. Even should that dying person, whether in a life to come or in this very life, be due to attain a share of holiness and be born among gods and humans, if their family creates this evil cause at the time of their death, it will still cause the dying person to be entangled in that guilt, forced to contend with it in judgment, and delayed in reaching a good rebirth. How much more so, then, for a dying person who, throughout their life, never once cultivated the slightest wholesome root, and who, according to their own karma alone, must undergo an evil destiny — how could a family bear to add further karma on top of that? It is as if a man, traveling from a distant land, has gone three days without food, and the load on his back already weighs well over a hundred catties; and then a neighbor he happens to meet adds a little more to that load — and because of this, he grows only more exhausted and more burdened still. World-Honored One, I observe that the beings of Jambudvīpa, if only they can, within the teaching of the buddhas, perform even the smallest wholesome deed — a single hair, a single drop, a single grain of sand, a single mote of dust — obtain the benefit of it entirely for themselves."
Lingcheng reads the man in the mud with the stone as southern Jambudvīpa's beings as a class — always sinking, because the weight on their back only grows with every step, and the good spiritual friend who takes on some or all of that weight is Kṣitigarbha specifically, since only a being of great power can carry another's karmic burden at all. He is careful about what the parable does and doesn't promise: the friend "urges the traveler to plant his feet firmly" once level ground is reached, but cannot walk the rest of the road for him — the warning against retracing old bad habits is addressed to the traveler, not guaranteed by the rescue itself.
On the warning against killing animals at a deathbed or funeral, Lingcheng cites the Upāsaka-śīla Sūtra directly against a folk logic that was evidently common in his own time as much as in the sūtra's: "if a father has died and fallen among hungry ghosts, and his son makes merit on his behalf, that merit does indeed reach him — but to say that killing animals as a sacrifice brings merit is simply false. Has anyone ever seen an erythrina seed planted and a sandalwood tree grow from it? One cannot take the life of a being and call it merit." The logic he draws from this is exact: whatever comfort slaughter at a funeral offers the living, it adds nothing to the dead — and, on this sūtra's own account a few lines later, it actively adds to their burden instead.
Great Eloquence's Question, and the Rule of Seven Parts
說是語時，會中有一長者，名曰大辯——是長者，久證無生，化度十方，現長者身——，合掌恭敬，問地藏菩薩言：「大士！是南閻浮提眾生，命終之後，小大眷屬，為修功德，乃至設齋，造眾善因，是命終人，得大利益及解脫不？」
地藏答言：「長者！我今為未來現在一切眾生，承佛威力，略說是事。長者，未來現在諸眾生等，臨命終日，得聞一佛名、一菩薩名、一辟支佛名，不問有罪無罪，悉得解脫。
「若有男子女人，在生不修善因，多造眾罪，命終之後，眷屬小大為造福利一切聖事，七分之中，而乃獲一，六分功德，生者自利。以是之故，未來現在善男女等，聞健自修，分分己獲。無常大鬼，不期而到，冥冥遊神，未知罪福，七七日內，如癡如聾。或在諸司，辯論業果，審定之後，據業受生。未測之間，千萬愁苦，何況墮於諸惡趣等？是命終人，未得受生，在七七日內，念念之間，望諸骨肉眷屬，與造福力救拔。過是日後，隨業受報，若是罪人，動經千百歲中，無解脫日。若是五無間罪，墮大地獄，千劫萬劫，永受眾苦。
「復次，長者！如是罪業眾生，命終之後，眷屬骨肉，為修營齋，資助業道。未齋食竟，及營齋之次，米泔菜葉，不棄於地。乃至諸食未獻佛僧，勿得先食。如有違食及不精勤，是命終人，了不得力。如精勤護淨，奉獻佛僧，是命終人，七分獲一。是故，長者！閻浮眾生，若能為其父母，乃至眷屬，命終之後，設齋供養，志心勤懇，如是之人，存亡獲利。」
說是語時，忉利天宮有千萬億那由他閻浮鬼神，悉發無量菩提之心。大辯長者，作禮而退。
While this was being said, there was in the assembly an elder named Great Eloquence — an elder who had long ago realized the unborn, and who, to liberate beings throughout the ten directions, appeared in the form of an elder — who joined his palms in reverence and asked Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: "Great one, when the beings of southern Jambudvīpa die, and their family, young and old, performs merit on their behalf — even to the point of holding a vegetarian feast and creating every kind of wholesome cause — does that dying person actually gain great benefit and release from it, or not?"
Kṣitigarbha answered: "Elder, by the Buddha's spiritual power, I will now briefly explain this matter for the sake of all beings present and future. Elder, if beings present and future, on the day of their death, come to hear the name of a single buddha, a single bodhisattva, or a single pratyekabuddha, they will be released from it, whether guilty or not.
"But if there is a man or woman who, while alive, cultivated no wholesome cause and committed many wrongs, and after death their family, young and old, performs every kind of holy deed of merit on their behalf, then of that merit, seven parts in all, only one part reaches the dead — the other six belong to the living who performed the deed. For this reason, good men and women present and future should, while still in health, cultivate merit for themselves, so that they may keep every part of it for their own. The great ghost of impermanence arrives without warning, and the departed spirit wanders in darkness, not yet knowing whether it is guilty or innocent — for the first forty-nine days it is as though deaf and witless, while it stands before various courts, its karmic fruits debated; only once this has been determined does it receive rebirth according to its karma. In the time before this is settled, it undergoes a thousand, ten thousand sorrows — how much more so should it fall into one of the evil destinies! In these forty-nine days, before that being has yet received a new birth, it looks, thought after thought, to its own flesh and blood, hoping they will make merit to rescue and save it. Once these days have passed, it receives its retribution according to karma; and if it is guilty, it will pass through hundreds, even thousands of years with no day of release. And if it bears the fivefold sin without interval, it will fall into the great hells, there to undergo every suffering for a thousand, ten thousand kalpas without end.
"Furthermore, elder, when such a guilty being has died, if the family, out of flesh and blood devotion, holds a vegetarian feast to assist it on the path of karma, then before the meal is finished, and while it is still being prepared, no rice-water or vegetable scraps should be thrown carelessly on the ground, and none of the food should be eaten before it has first been offered to the buddhas and the monastic assembly. If this is violated, or done without diligence, the dying person will gain no benefit from it at all. But if it is done with diligence and purity, offered first to the buddhas and the assembly, the dying person will receive one part in seven of its merit. For this reason, elder, if the beings of Jambudvīpa can, for their parents or any other family member, after death, hold a vegetarian feast with a sincere and earnest heart, both the dead and the living will gain benefit from it."
While this was being said, hundreds of thousands of myriads of nayutas of ghosts and spirits of Jambudvīpa in the Trāyastriṃśa assembly all gave rise to the immeasurable resolve for bodhi. The elder Great Eloquence bowed and withdrew.
The "seven parts, one part" teaching is this sūtra's single most consequential piece of doctrine for how later Chinese Buddhism actually practiced grief, and Lingcheng treats it with corresponding care. He does not read it as diminishing the point of funerary merit-making — the one part that does reach the dead can still, elsewhere in this same chapter, dissolve the fivefold sin without interval — but as redirecting where the sūtra's real urgency lies: "good men and women present and future should, while still in health, cultivate merit for themselves." He connects this directly to a specific pastoral practice already established by his own time, the "advance seventh," in which a person performs their own funerary merit-making while still alive rather than trusting it entirely to descendants afterward — citing the Sūtra of Rebirth by One's Own Request, where the bodhisattva Puguang asks the Buddha whether merit made before death is worth more than merit made after, and the Buddha answers simply that it is "immeasurable." The teaching's plain implication, on Lingcheng's reading, is not that funerals are pointless, but that grief is a poor time to discover the math for the first time.
The Ghost-Kings of Hell, and a Question About Why Freedom Doesn't Last
爾時，鐵圍山內，有無量鬼王，與閻羅天子，俱詣忉利，來到佛所。所謂惡毒鬼王、多惡鬼王、大諍鬼王、白虎鬼王、血虎鬼王、赤虎鬼王、散殃鬼王、飛身鬼王、電光鬼王、狼牙鬼王、千眼鬼王、噉獸鬼王、負石鬼王、主耗鬼王、主禍鬼王、主食鬼王、主財鬼王、主畜鬼王、主禽鬼王、主獸鬼王、主魅鬼王、主產鬼王、主命鬼王、主疾鬼王、主險鬼王、三目鬼王、四目鬼王、五目鬼王、祁利失王、大祁利失王、祁利叉王、大祁利叉王、阿那吒王、大阿那吒王。如是等大鬼王，各各與百千諸小鬼王，盡居閻浮提，各有所執，各有所主。是諸鬼王，與閻羅天子，承佛威神，及地藏菩薩摩訶薩力，俱詣忉利，在一面立。
爾時，閻羅天子，胡跪合掌，白佛言：「世尊！我等今者與諸鬼王，承佛威神，及地藏菩薩摩訶薩力，方得詣此忉利大會，亦是我等獲善利故。我今有小疑事，敢問世尊，唯願世尊，慈悲宣說。」佛告閻羅天子：「恣汝所問，吾為汝說。」
是時，閻羅天子瞻禮世尊，及迴視地藏菩薩，而白佛言：「世尊！我觀地藏菩薩，在六道中，百千方便，而度罪苦眾生，不辭疲倦。是大菩薩，有如是不可思議神通之事。然諸眾生，脫獲罪報，未久之間，又墮惡道。世尊！是地藏菩薩既有如是不可思議神力，云何眾生而不依止善道，永取解脫？唯願世尊，為我解說。」
佛告閻羅天子：「南閻浮提眾生，其性剛彊，難調難伏。是大菩薩，於百千劫，頭頭救拔如是眾生，早令解脫。是罪報人，乃至墮大惡趣。菩薩以方便力，拔出根本業緣，而遣悟宿世之事。自是閻浮眾生，結惡習重，旋出旋入。勞斯菩薩，久經劫數，而作度脫。
「譬如有人，迷失本家，誤入險道。其險道中，多諸夜叉，及虎狼師子、蚖蛇蝮蠍。如是迷人，在險道中，須臾之間，即遭諸毒。有一知識，多解大術，善禁是毒，乃及夜叉諸惡毒等。忽逢迷人，欲進險道，而語之言：『咄哉！男子！為何事故，而入此路？有何異術，能制諸毒？』是迷路人，忽聞是語，方知險道，即便退步，求出此路。是善知識，提携接手，引出險道，免諸惡毒，至于好道，令得安樂，而語之言：『咄哉！迷人！自今已後，勿履是道。此路入者，卒難得出，復損性命。』是迷路人，亦生感重。臨別之時，知識又言：『若見親知及諸路人，若男若女，言於此路多諸毒惡，喪失性命。無令是眾，自取其死。』
「是故地藏菩薩具大慈悲，救拔罪苦眾生，欲生天人中，令受妙樂。是諸罪眾，知業道苦，脫得出離，永不再歷。如迷路人，誤入險道，遇善知識，引接令出，永不復入。逢見他人，復勸莫入，自言：『因是迷故，得解脫竟，更不復入。』若再履踐，猶尚迷誤，不覺舊曾所落險道，或致失命，如墮惡趣。地藏菩薩方便力故，使令解脫，生人天中。旋又再入，若業結重，永處地獄，無解脫時。」
At that time, from within the Iron Ring Mountains, measureless ghost-kings, together with King Yama, all went together to Trāyastriṃśa, coming before the Buddha — namely the ghost-king Malicious Poison, the ghost-king Great Evil, the ghost-king Great Contention, the ghost-king White Tiger, the ghost-king Blood Tiger, the ghost-king Crimson Tiger, the ghost-king Scattered Calamity, the ghost-king Flying Body, the ghost-king Lightning Glare, the ghost-king Wolf Fang, the ghost-king Thousand Eyes, the ghost-king Beast-Devourer, the ghost-king Stone-Bearer, the ghost-king Lord of Loss, the ghost-king Lord of Misfortune, the ghost-king Lord of Grain, the ghost-king Lord of Wealth, the ghost-king Lord of Livestock, the ghost-king Lord of Fowl, the ghost-king Lord of Beasts, the ghost-king Lord of Goblins, the ghost-king Lord of Childbirth, the ghost-king Lord of Life, the ghost-king Lord of Sickness, the ghost-king Lord of Danger, the ghost-king Three Eyes, the ghost-king Four Eyes, the ghost-king Five Eyes, King Qilishi, King Great Qilishi, King Qilicha, King Great Qilicha, King Anazha, and King Great Anazha. Great ghost-kings such as these, each together with hundreds of thousands of lesser ghost-kings, all dwell within Jambudvīpa, each with a charge of their own, each governing something of their own. These ghost-kings, together with King Yama, by the Buddha's spiritual power and the power of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, all went together to Trāyastriṃśa, and stood to one side.
At that time King Yama knelt with one knee to the ground, joined his palms, and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, we, together with these ghost-kings, have only now, by the Buddha's spiritual power and the power of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, been able to come to this great assembly at Trāyastriṃśa — and this itself is a wholesome benefit we have gained. I have now a small matter I am uncertain of, and I venture to ask the World-Honored One — I beg only that the World-Honored One, out of compassion, explain it." The Buddha said to King Yama: "Ask freely whatever you wish — I will explain it for you."
At that time King Yama gazed on and bowed to the World-Honored One, and turned to look at Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I observe that Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, throughout the six destinies, by hundreds of thousands of skillful means, liberates suffering, guilty beings without ever tiring of it. This great bodhisattva possesses spiritual powers such as these, inconceivable. And yet these beings, no sooner have they been freed from the retribution of their guilt, than before long they fall again into an evil destiny. World-Honored One, since Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva already possesses such inconceivable spiritual power, why is it that beings do not simply hold fast to the good path and win release forever? I beg only that the World-Honored One explain this to me."
The Buddha said to King Yama: "The beings of southern Jambudvīpa are, by nature, of unbending temper, hard to tame and hard to subdue. This great bodhisattva, throughout hundreds of thousands of kalpas, rescues beings such as these wherever they are, bringing them swiftly to liberation. Even those already guilty, already fallen into the great evil destinies — the bodhisattva, by the power of skillful means, draws out the root karmic cause of their fall, and leads them to awaken to the truth of their own past lives. But the beings of Jambudvīpa are so bound by heavy habituated evil that they no sooner escape than they fall back in again — and so this bodhisattva must labor on, through kalpa after kalpa, working their liberation without end.
"It is as if a man has lost his way home, and wanders by mistake onto a dangerous road. On that dangerous road there are many yakṣas, and tigers, wolves, and lions, and vipers, snakes, and scorpions. This lost man, on that dangerous road, in the space of a moment, meets with every kind of poison. There is a good spiritual friend, deeply versed in great arts, skilled at warding off such poisons, and at warding off yakṣas and every kind of venomous harm. He happens to meet the lost man just as he is about to enter the dangerous road, and says to him: 'You there! Good man! For what reason are you entering this road? What unusual art do you have that can master these poisons?' The lost man, hearing these words, at once realizes it is a dangerous road, and turns back at once, seeking to escape it. This good spiritual friend takes him by the hand, leads him out of the dangerous road, spares him every venomous harm, brings him to a good road, and lets him find peace, saying to him: 'You there! Lost man! From now on, never walk this road again. Anyone who enters it will find it nearly impossible to escape, and will lose his very life.' The lost man, too, is deeply moved with gratitude. As they are about to part, the friend says again: 'Should you see anyone you know, or any traveler on the road, man or woman, tell them this road holds many poisonous dangers, and will cost them their life — do not let these people bring about their own death.'
"For this reason, Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, filled with great compassion, rescues suffering, guilty beings, wishing them to be born among gods and humans, to enjoy wondrous bliss. These guilty beings, once they know the suffering of the path of karma, and have won release from it, should never travel it again — like the lost man who, having wandered by mistake onto the dangerous road, met a good spiritual friend who led him out of it, and who never enters it again; and who, meeting others, urges them likewise not to enter it, saying: 'Because I was once lost, and have now won release, I will never enter it again.' But should he walk it once more, still confused, not even recognizing the very road he once fell into, he may lose his life there, exactly as if he had fallen into an evil destiny. It is by the power of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva's skillful means that beings are made to win release and be born among gods and humans — but should they enter that road again, and their karma prove heavy, they will dwell forever in hell, with no time of release."
Lingcheng treats the thirty-four ghost-kings' names as a working bureaucracy rather than a poetic flourish — Lord of Grain, Lord of Wealth, Lord of Livestock, Lord of Childbirth, Lord of Life each hold a specific portfolio, the same way a Chinese magistracy divides its casework, and he cross-references several against similar office-holders recorded in Daoist sources, treating the underworld this sūtra depicts as one instance of a shared cultural cosmology of celestial and infernal record-keeping rather than a uniquely Buddhist invention.
On King Yama's question — the sharpest challenge to Kṣitigarbha's power that any interlocutor raises across the whole sūtra — Lingcheng is careful about exactly what the parable answers and what it leaves standing. The good spiritual friend can pull a traveler out of danger, name the danger plainly, and ask him to pass the warning on; what the friend cannot do is prevent the traveler from choosing, later, to walk that same road again "still confused, not even recognizing the very road he once fell into." Kṣitigarbha's power, on this reading, is real and vast, but it was never a power over what beings choose next — the Buddha's answer to Yama is not a defense of the bodhisattva's strength so much as an account of exactly where that strength's limit necessarily falls, given what freedom itself requires.
The Ghost-King Who Governs Birth and Death
爾時，惡毒鬼王合掌恭敬，白佛言：「世尊！我等諸鬼王，其數無量，在閻浮提，或利益人，或損害人，各各不同。然是業報，使我眷屬，遊行世界，多惡少善。過人家庭，或城邑聚落、莊園房舍。或有男子女人，修毛髮善事，乃至懸一旛一蓋，少香少華，供養佛像及菩薩像，或轉讀尊經，燒香供養一句一偈。我等鬼王，敬禮是人，如過去、現在、未來諸佛。勅諸小鬼，各有大力，及土地分，便令衛護。不令惡事橫事、惡病橫病，乃至不如意事，近於此舍等處，何況入門？」佛讚鬼王：「善哉！善哉！汝等及與閻羅，能如是擁護善男女等，吾亦告梵王帝釋，令衛護汝。」
說是語時，會中有一鬼王，名曰主命，白佛言：「世尊！我本業緣，主閻浮人命，生時死時，我皆主之。在我本願，甚欲利益。自是眾生，不會我意，致令生死，俱不得安。「何以故？是閻浮提人，初生之時，不問男女，或欲生時，但作善事，增益舍宅。自令土地無量歡喜，擁護子母，得大安樂，利益眷屬。或已生下，慎勿殺害，取諸鮮味，供給產母。及廣聚眷屬，飲酒食肉，歌樂絃管，能令子母，不得安樂。「何以故？是產難時，有無數惡鬼，及魍魎精魅，欲食腥血。是我早令舍宅土地靈祇，荷護子母，使令安樂，而得利益。如是之人，見安樂故，便合設福，答諸土地。翻為殺害，集聚眷屬，以是之故，犯殃自受，子母俱損。
「又閻浮提臨命終人，不問善惡，我欲令是命終之人，不落惡道，何況自修善根，增我力故。是閻浮提行善之人，臨命終時，亦有百千惡道鬼神，或變作父母，乃至諸眷屬，引接亡人，令落惡道，何況本造惡者？「世尊！如是閻浮提男子女人，臨命終時，神識惛昧，不辯善惡，乃至眼耳，更無見聞。是諸眷屬，當須設大供養，轉讀尊經，念佛菩薩名號。如是善緣，能令亡者，離諸惡道，諸魔鬼神，悉皆退散。世尊！一切眾生臨命終時，若得聞一佛名、一菩薩名，或大乘經典一句一偈，我觀如是輩人，除五無間殺害之罪，小小惡業，合墮惡趣者，尋即解脫。」
佛告主命鬼王：「汝大慈故，能發如是大願，於生死中，護諸眾生。若未來世中，有男子女人，至生死時，汝莫退是願，總令解脫，永得安樂。」
鬼王白佛言：「願不有慮，我畢是形，念念擁護閻浮眾生，生時死時，俱得安樂。但願諸眾生，於生死時，信受我語，無不解脫，獲大利益。」
爾時，佛告地藏菩薩：「是大鬼王主命者，已曾經百千生，作大鬼王，於生死中，擁護眾生。是大士，慈悲願故，現大鬼身，實非鬼也。却後過一百七十劫，當得成佛，號曰無相如來。劫名安樂，世界名淨住。其佛壽命，不可計劫。地藏！是大鬼王，其事如是，不可思議，所度天人，亦不可限量。」
At that time the ghost-king Malicious Poison joined his palms in reverence and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, we ghost-kings are measureless in number, and dwell within Jambudvīpa — some of us benefit people, some of us harm them, each in our own way. But it is our own karma that sends our followers roaming through the world doing more harm than good. When we pass by people's households, or by towns, villages, gardens, and homes, and see a man or woman performing some wholesome deed no bigger than a strand of hair — even hanging a single banner or canopy, or offering a little incense or a few flowers before an image of a buddha or bodhisattva, or reciting a sacred sūtra, or burning incense in offering to even a single verse or phrase of it — we ghost-kings revere that person as we would a buddha of the past, present, or future. We command our lesser ghosts, each with their own great power, and whatever portion of the local earth-spirits they command, to guard and protect them, so that no misfortune or unforeseen disaster, no illness or unforeseen sickness, nor anything unwanted, comes near that household — how much less enters through its door." The Buddha praised the ghost-king: "Excellent, excellent! That you and King Yama can guard and protect good men and women in this way — I will also tell Brahmā and Śakra to guard and protect you in turn."
While this was being said, there was in the assembly a ghost-king named Life-Governor, who said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, it is my own karma to govern the lives of the people of Jambudvīpa — I preside over both their birth and their death. My own original vow was truly to benefit them. But beings do not understand my intention, and so, in both birth and death, they fail to find peace. Why is this? When the people of Jambudvīpa are about to give birth, whether to a son or a daughter, they need only perform wholesome deeds, adding to the good fortune of their household — this alone causes the local earth-spirits to rejoice beyond measure, and to guard mother and child, bringing them great peace and benefiting the whole family. But once the child is born, they must be careful not to kill living things to procure delicacies for the mother, nor to gather the whole family together to drink wine, eat meat, and make music with song and string — all of which prevents mother and child from finding peace. Why is this? Because at the time of a difficult birth, there are countless evil spirits, goblins, and demons who wish to feast on the blood. It is I who see to it, in advance, that the earth-spirits of that household guard mother and child, bringing them peace and benefit. Such people, once they see that peace has come, ought to make an offering of merit in gratitude to the earth-spirits — but instead they turn to killing and gathering their kin together, and because of this, they bring calamity upon themselves, and both mother and child suffer harm.
"Again, when a person in Jambudvīpa is dying, whether they have been good or evil, I wish for that dying person not to fall into an evil destiny — how much more so, then, when they have themselves cultivated wholesome roots, adding to my own power. And yet, when a person of Jambudvīpa who has lived a good life comes to die, there are still hundreds of thousands of evil-destiny spirits who may transform themselves into that person's parents or other family members, to lure the dying one into an evil destiny — how much more so, then, one who was evil to begin with? World-Honored One, when men and women of Jambudvīpa are dying, their consciousness grows confused, unable to distinguish good from evil, and even their eyes and ears can no longer see or hear. Their family must, at such a time, make a great offering, recite sacred sūtras aloud, and intone the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas. Wholesome conditions such as these can cause the dead to leave every evil destiny, and every demon and evil spirit will retreat and scatter of itself. World-Honored One, when any being is dying, if they come to hear the name of a single buddha, a single bodhisattva, or a single verse or phrase of a Mahāyāna sūtra, I observe that such a person, excepting only the fivefold sin without interval, will be at once released from whatever lesser evil karma would otherwise have caused them to fall into an evil destiny."
The Buddha said to the ghost-king Life-Governor: "Because of your great compassion, you have been able to make a vow such as this, to protect beings through both birth and death. In future ages, when men and women come to the moment of birth or death, do not let this vow slacken — see to it that they are wholly released, and forever find peace."
The ghost-king said to the Buddha: "Be at ease — as long as I hold this form, I will, thought after thought, guard and protect the beings of Jambudvīpa, that they may find peace in both birth and death. I only wish that beings, at the time of birth and death, would believe and accept my words — then none would fail to be released, and all would gain great benefit."
At that time the Buddha said to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: "This great ghost-king, Life-Governor, has already, for hundreds of thousands of lifetimes, been a great ghost-king, guarding beings through birth and death. It is out of this great one's own compassionate vow that he appears in the body of a great ghost — he is not truly a ghost at all. A hundred and seventy kalpas from now, he will attain buddhahood, named the Tathāgata of No Marks. His kalpa will be called Peace and Bliss, and his world will be called Pure Abode. That buddha's lifespan will be beyond calculation. Kṣitigarbha, this great ghost-king's affairs are just as inconceivable as this, and the gods and humans he has liberated are likewise beyond measure."
Lingcheng treats the reveal at the end of this passage — that Life-Governor is secretly a bodhisattva a hundred and seventy kalpas from buddhahood, wearing a ghost's body purely out of vow — as the sūtra's answer to a question it never states outright: why would anyone trust guidance about childbirth and deathbed conduct from a figure the tradition otherwise treats as fearsome or capricious? His identity is revealed only after his teaching has already been given and tested, which Lingcheng reads as deliberate: the sūtra wants the advice against ostentatious, meat-heavy funeral and birth feasts judged on what it actually says — that killing for a celebration or a wake invites the very predatory spirits it claims to ward off — before the reader learns that the one giving it outranks nearly everyone else in the assembly.
Ten Buddha Names
爾時，地藏菩薩摩訶薩白佛言：「世尊！我今為未來眾生，演利益事，於生死中，得大利益。唯願世尊，聽我說之。」
佛告地藏菩薩：「汝今欲興慈悲，救拔一切罪苦六道眾生，演不思議事，今正是時，唯當速說。吾即涅槃，使汝早畢是願，吾亦無憂現在未來一切眾生。」
地藏菩薩白佛言：「世尊！過去無量阿僧祇劫，有佛出世，號無邊身如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，暫生恭敬，即得超越四十劫生死重罪。何況塑畫形像、供養讚歎？其人獲福，無量無邊。
「又於過去恒河沙劫，有佛出世，號寶性如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，一彈指頃，發心歸依，是人於無上道，永不退轉。又於過去，有佛出世，號波頭摩勝如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，歷於耳根，是人當得千返生於六欲天中，何況志心稱念？「又於過去不可說不可說阿僧祇劫，有佛出世，號師子吼如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，一念歸依，是人得遇無量諸佛，摩頂授記。又於過去，有佛出世，號拘留孫佛。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，志心瞻禮，或復讚歎，是人於賢劫千佛會中，為大梵王，得授上記。「又於過去，有佛出世，號毘婆尸。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，永不墮惡道，常生人天，受勝妙樂。「又於過去無量無數恒河沙劫，有佛出世，號寶勝如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，畢竟不墮惡道，常在天上，受勝妙樂。「又於過去，有佛出世，號寶相如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名，生恭敬心，是人不久，得阿羅漢果。「又於過去，無量阿僧祇劫，有佛出世，號袈裟幢如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名者，超一百大劫生死之罪。「又於過去，有佛出世，號大通山王如來。若有男子女人，聞是佛名者，是人得遇恒河沙佛，廣為說法，必成菩提。又於過去，有淨月佛、山王佛、智勝佛、淨名王佛、智成就佛、無上佛、妙聲佛、滿月佛、月面佛，有如是等不可說佛。
At that time Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I wish now to expound something of benefit to beings of the future, that they may gain great benefit in the midst of birth and death. I beg only that the World-Honored One let me speak of it." The Buddha said to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: "You now wish to raise up compassion and rescue every suffering, guilty being of the six destinies, expounding this inconceivable matter — now is exactly the time, and you should speak of it at once. I am soon to enter nirvāṇa; let this vow of yours be fulfilled all the sooner, and then I too will have no anxiety for any being, present or future."
Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, in ages past, measureless asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a buddha in the world named the Tathāgata of Boundless Body. If there are men or women who, hearing this buddha's name, feel even a moment's reverence, they will at once pass beyond forty kalpas of the grave sin of birth and death — how much more so, then, one who paints or sculpts his image, and makes offerings and sings his praise? Such a person's blessing is beyond measure, beyond bound.
"Again, in ages past, kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges ago, there was a buddha in the world named the Tathāgata of Jeweled Nature. If there are men or women who, hearing this buddha's name, take refuge in him for the space of a single finger-snap, that person will never again turn back from the unsurpassed path. Again, in ages past, there was a buddha in the world named the Tathāgata Supreme Red Lotus. If there are men or women who, hearing this buddha's name, let it merely pass through their ear, that person will be reborn a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire — how much more so, then, one who calls his name with a sincere heart? Again, in ages past, asaṃkhyeya kalpas beyond telling and telling again ago, there was a buddha in the world named the Tathāgata Lion's Roar. If there are men or women who, hearing this buddha's name, take refuge in him for a single thought, that person will come to meet measureless buddhas, who will place their hands on his crown and grant him a prediction of buddhahood. Again, in ages past, there was a buddha named Krakucchanda. If there are men or women who, hearing this buddha's name, gaze on him and bow with a sincere heart, or praise him, that person will, in the assembly of the thousand buddhas of the Fortunate Kalpa, become a Great Brahmā King, and receive the highest prediction of buddhahood. Again, in ages past, there was a buddha named Vipaśyin. If there are men or women who hear this buddha's name, they will never again fall into an evil destiny, and will forever be born among gods and humans, enjoying supreme and wondrous bliss. Again, in ages past, measureless, countless kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges ago, there was a buddha named the Tathāgata Jeweled Victory. If there are men or women who hear this buddha's name, they will never fall into an evil destiny at all, and will forever dwell among the gods, enjoying supreme and wondrous bliss. Again, in ages past, there was a buddha named the Tathāgata Jeweled Countenance. If there are men or women who, hearing this buddha's name, give rise to a reverent heart, that person will, before long, attain the fruit of arhatship. Again, in ages past, measureless asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a buddha named the Tathāgata Kaṣāya Banner. If there are men or women who hear this buddha's name, they will pass beyond a hundred great kalpas of the sin of birth and death. Again, in ages past, there was a buddha named the Tathāgata Great Penetrating King of Mountains. If there are men or women who hear this buddha's name, that person will come to meet buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, who will teach the Dharma to him at length, and he will certainly attain bodhi. Again, in ages past, there were the Buddha of the Pure Moon, the Buddha King of Mountains, the Buddha of Supreme Wisdom, the Buddha King of Pure Names, the Buddha of Accomplished Wisdom, the Buddha Unsurpassed, the Buddha of Wondrous Voice, the Buddha of the Full Moon, and the Buddha of the Moon's Countenance — there are buddhas such as these beyond all telling."
Lingcheng notes that this catalogue mixes buddhas already well known across the wider canon — Vipaśyin and Krakucchanda both belong to the standard list of the seven buddhas of antiquity — with names that appear nowhere else, and treats the mixture itself as instructive: what matters for this practice is not researching each buddha's separate career, but the plain mechanics common to every entry, hearing leading to some fixed and named benefit. He closes his discussion of the whole list by pointing past it entirely, to the one buddha this chapter never actually names: "the treatises and sūtras elsewhere on this site's own shelf reserve their highest praise for Amitābha Buddha of the west, whose vow to receive beings into his land is especially heavy-laden — it is for this reason that Samantabhadra's own Vows of Practice single out Amitābha as the furthest goal." Ten buddha names are offered here as a wide door open to anyone in extremity; Lingcheng's aside is a reminder that this site's own Pure Land collection treats one name among them as the door this tradition ultimately recommends walking all the way through.
The Power of a Single Name at the Moment of Death
「世尊！現在未來一切眾生，若天若人，若男若女，但念得一佛名號，功德無量，何況多名？是眾生等，生時死時，自得大利，終不墮惡道。若有臨命終人，家中眷屬，乃至一人，為是病人，高聲念一佛名，是命終人，除五無間罪，餘業報等，悉得銷滅。是五無間罪，雖至極重，動經億劫，了不得出，承斯臨命終時，他人為其稱念佛名，於是罪中亦漸銷滅。何況眾生，自稱自念，獲福無量，滅無量罪。」
"World-Honored One, if beings present and future, whether gods or humans, whether men or women, so much as hold in mind the name of a single buddha, their merit is measureless — how much more so, then, if they hold many names in mind? Such beings will, in both birth and death, gain great benefit for themselves, and will never fall into an evil destiny. If there is a dying person, and even a single member of their family, on that sick person's behalf, calls out the name of a single buddha in a clear voice, then that dying person will have the fivefold sin without interval, and every other karmic burden besides, entirely dissolved. Even the fivefold sin without interval, grave as it is, though it would ordinarily take a hundred million kalpas to escape, will, through another person calling a buddha's name aloud on their behalf at the moment of death, gradually be dissolved even within that very sin. How much more so, then, if the being calls the name and holds it in mind themselves — they will gain measureless blessing, and dissolve measureless sin."
Lingcheng meets the obvious objection to this teaching head-on: if the fivefold sin without interval ordinarily takes a hundred million kalpas to work off, how can hearing one name at one moment simply erase it? His answer turns on the psychology of a deathbed rather than any arithmetic of merit: an ordinary lifetime of scattered devotion is diluted across decades of distraction, but the mind of someone facing death, he argues, focuses with unusual and total force — "though the thought is brief, its power is fierce, the way fire or poison in even a small quantity can still accomplish a great deal." He reaches for a simile to make the asymmetry concrete: sinew from a lion's mane strung as a single note on a lute will, when struck, snap every other string on the instrument at once, regardless of how those other strings were tuned — one true, undivided moment of mindfulness at the very end, on this reading, is not a small thing weighed against a large sin, but a different order of act altogether, which is exactly why the sūtra insists a being's own final act of calling the name outweighs even having someone else call it on their behalf.
Part 4 Complete
This closes Part 4: an elder's question about whether funeral rites truly help the dead, the rule of seven parts that has shaped Chinese Buddhist mourning practice ever since, King Yama's own doubt about why liberation never seems to last, a ghost-king's teaching on how to protect a household at birth and at death, and ten buddha names offered as the plainest refuge this sūtra has to give. Part 5 turns to giving itself: the Buddha's own systematic comparison of what different kinds of generosity are actually worth, and the earth-spirit Dṛḍha who has watched over this teaching since before it had a name.
Continue to Part 5 — What Generosity Is Actually Worth →