Ten Thousand Buddhas, All Met
After the first buddha's own parinirvāṇa, the prince — now reborn again and again as a wheel-turning king and as the ruling king of one heaven after another — meets eight further buddhas across eight more rebirths, closing out the kalpa of Virtuous Light at a full ten thousand buddhas personally encountered.
Eight Rebirths, Eight Buddhas, One Kalpa Complete
「佛子！我於爾時命終之後，即復於彼閻浮提中王宮，受生作轉輪王。彼法輪音聲虛空燈如來滅度之後，我於爾時，守護正法；次值法虛空妙德王佛；次為釋王，即彼道場值天藏佛；次為焰摩天王，即彼世界值大地功德山佛；復值法輪光音聲王佛；次為化樂天王，即彼世界值虛空燈智王佛；次為阿脩羅王，即彼世界值一切法雷震王佛；次為他化自在天王，即彼世界值不可壞力幢佛；次為梵王，即彼世界值法輪化普光音佛。佛子！於彼寶光世界善光劫中，一萬如來出興于世，我悉值遇。」
"Child of the Buddha, at that time, after my life had ended, I was once more reborn within a royal palace in that same Jambudvīpa, and became a wheel-turning king. After that tathāgata, the Empty-Space Lamp of the Sound of the Dharma-Wheel, had entered parinirvāṇa, I, at that time, guarded and upheld the true Dharma; next I met the buddha King of Sublime Virtue in the Dharma's Empty Space; next I became Śakra, Lord of the Devas, and at that same bodhimaṇḍa met the buddha Heavenly Treasury; next I became King of the Devas of the Yāma Heaven, and in that same world met the buddha Mountain of the Great Earth's Merit; and again met the buddha King of the Light and Sound of the Dharma-Wheel; next I became King of the Devas Who Delight in Transformation, and in that same world met the buddha King of the Wisdom of the Empty-Space Lamp; next I became King of the Asuras, and in that same world met the buddha King of the Thunder-Peal of All Dharmas; next I became King of the Devas of Mastery Over Others' Transformations, and in that same world met the buddha Indestructible Banner of Power; next I became Brahmā King, and in that same world met the buddha Universal Light and Sound of the Dharma-Wheel's Own Transformation. Child of the Buddha, within that world Jeweled Light, during the kalpa of Virtuous Light, ten thousand tathāgatas arose in the world, and I met every single one of them."
Fazang's own outline for this stretch of the account, already quoted at the close of the previous part, named exactly what this passage delivers: 略舉八佛，通結一萬 — "briefly citing eight buddhas, generally concluding with ten thousand." Eight buddhas are indeed named here, met across a climb through the very heavens of desire and form this collection has traced elsewhere — wheel-turning king, then Śakra, then in turn the kings of the Yāma, Nirmāṇarati, and Paranirmita-vaśavartin heavens, an asura king, and finally Brahmā himself — before the whole sequence is closed with the same round number that has framed this teacher's testimony from its opening: ten thousand buddhas, in a single kalpa, in a single world, every one of them personally met.
Part 116 In Progress
The kalpa of Virtuous Light is now complete, its full ten thousand buddhas met across two lifetimes of the account. Part 117 turns to a further kalpa still — the kalpa of Sunlight, where six billion buddhas arise, and this same being takes ten more rebirths to meet ten of them by name.
Continue to Part 117 →