The Buddha-List Closes
The final twenty-eight names complete the 178-buddha Bhadrakalpa list, and Māyā closes with her own declaration: to every one of these buddhas she has been mother, and in every world of the ten directions she continues teaching and transforming sentient beings.
Mother to Every Buddha of the Bhadrakalpa
「……見無礙佛、降眾魔佛、不著相佛、離虛妄海佛、清淨海佛、不可沮壞須彌山佛、無著智佛、無量坐佛、與魔戰佛、隨師行佛、無上調佛、常月佛、饒益王佛、不動陰佛、饒益名佛、饒益慧佛、壽持佛、壽名佛、滿稱佛、無壞盛佛、色明淨佛、無相智佛、勇無動佛、難思妙德佛、同月行佛、無量身佛、隨順王佛、增壽天佛。佛子！如是等賢劫一切佛，於此世界成等正覺，我悉為母，亦於十方一切世界教化眾生。」
"… Unobstructed-Vision Buddha, Every-Māra-Subduing Buddha, Unattached-to-Marks Buddha, Falsehood-Ocean-Transcending Buddha, Pure-Ocean Buddha, Sumeru-That-Cannot-Be-Undermined Buddha, Unattached-Wisdom Buddha, Boundless-Seat Buddha, Battling-Māra Buddha, Following-the-Teacher's-Own-Conduct Buddha, Supreme-Taming Buddha, Ever-Moon Buddha, Benefiting-King Buddha, Unmoving-Shade Buddha, Benefiting-Renown Buddha, Benefiting-Wisdom Buddha, Longevity-Upholding Buddha, Longevity-Renown Buddha, Full-Renown Buddha, Indestructible-Blazing Buddha, Form-Bright-and-Pure Buddha, Markless-Wisdom Buddha, Valiant-and-Unmoving Buddha, Inconceivable-Sublime-Virtue Buddha, Moon-Like-Conduct Buddha, Boundless-Body Buddha, Accordant-King Buddha, and Increasing-Longevity-Deva Buddha. Child of the Buddha, all these buddhas of the Bhadrakalpa, having attained the most correct awakening within this world — I have been mother to every one of them, and also, in every world of the ten directions, I teach and transform sentient beings."
178 buddhas, named in full, close on the single claim this whole catalogue exists to support: not that Māyā once mothered one bodhisattva at one moment in history, but that this same motherhood repeats across the buddhas of an entire kalpa, and simultaneously, in Māyā's own words, "in every world of the ten directions." Fazang reads the list's sheer length as itself part of its teaching — a vow this concrete and this often repeated cannot be mistaken for poetic exaggeration; it is offered as an enumerable, nameable fact about how many times the pattern has held.
Part 216 Complete — the Bhadrakalpa List Now Finished
With this, the 178-buddha Bhadrakalpa list — one of the longest name-lists in the entire sūtra — is complete. Part 217 turns to Sudhana's next question: how long has Māyā held this Dharma-gate? Her answer opens an entirely new ancient-kalpa account, reaching back before even the Bhadrakalpa's own buddhas.
Continue to Part 217 →