The Buddha-List Begins
Māyā names herself mother to the tathāgata Vairocana, then opens one of the longest name-lists in the entire sūtra: every buddha of the Bhadrakalpa, our own present age, to whom she has likewise been mother. It opens with the four buddhas already known to this world — Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, Kāśyapa, and Maitreya, the buddha yet to come.
Mother to Vairocana, and to the Bhadrakalpa's Own Buddhas
「善男子！我為盧舍那佛母，拘樓孫佛、拘那含牟尼佛、迦葉佛、彌勒佛、師子佛、法幢佛、善眼佛、淨華佛、妙德華佛、提舍佛、弗沙佛、歡喜意佛、自在佛、離垢佛、明淨月佛、執炬佛、樂靜佛、金剛楯佛、清淨義佛、阿私陀佛、度彼岸佛、高焰山佛、執燈佛、寶蓮華佛、功德稱佛、無量德持佛、妙德燈佛、莊嚴身佛、善威儀佛、妙德慈佛、……」
"Good man, I am mother to the tathāgata Vairocana — to Krakucchanda Buddha, Kanakamuni Buddha, Kāśyapa Buddha, Maitreya Buddha, Lion Buddha, Dharma-Banner Buddha, Good-Eye Buddha, Pure-Flower Buddha, Sublime-Virtue-Flower Buddha, Tiṣya Buddha, Puṣya Buddha, Joyful-Mind Buddha, Sovereign Buddha, Stainless Buddha, Bright-Pure-Moon Buddha, Torch-Bearing Buddha, Delighting-in-Tranquility Buddha, Vajra-Shield Buddha, Pure-Meaning Buddha, Asita Buddha, Crossed-to-the-Other-Shore Buddha, Lofty-Flame-Mountain Buddha, Lamp-Bearing Buddha, Jeweled-Lotus Buddha, Merit-Renowned Buddha, Holder-of-Boundless-Virtue Buddha, Sublime-Virtue-Lamp Buddha, Adorned-Body Buddha, Good-Dignified-Bearing Buddha, Sublime-Virtue-Kindness Buddha … [the list continues]"
The list opens by naming the four buddhas of our own Bhadrakalpa already familiar from elsewhere in the canon — Krakucchanda, Kanakamuni, and Kāśyapa as buddhas of the deep past, Maitreya as the buddha yet to come — before continuing into more than a hundred further names unattested elsewhere. Fazang reads this list as demonstrating Māyā's vow in its full, concrete extension: not a single motherhood but a motherhood repeated for every buddha of this entire kalpa, of which Krakucchanda through Maitreya are merely the four this world already knows by name.
Part 211 In Progress
The buddha-list has now begun with its first thirty names. Given its length — 178 buddhas in total — the list continues across several further parts before Māyā's account of the Bhadrakalpa closes.
Continue to Part 212 →