Dharmākara's Resolve
法藏因地
A king renounces his throne on hearing a buddha teach, becomes the monk Dharmākara, and asks to see every buddha-land in existence before choosing what kind of land he will build.
- This part covers
- Fifty-three buddhas before Lokeśvararāja; a king who hears Lokeśvararāja teach and renounces his throne to become the monk Dharmākara; Dharmākara's verse of aspiration; his request to see every buddha-land, and five full aeons spent contemplating them before choosing his own.
- Who Dharmākara becomes
- Amitābha Buddha — this section names him only as "the bhikṣu Dharmākara" throughout; the sūtra does not identify him with Amitābha until Part 4
5. The Buddhas Before Lokeśvararāja
佛告阿難：乃往過去久遠無量不可思議無央數劫。錠光如來興出於世。教化度脫無量眾生。皆令得道乃取滅度。次有如來名曰光遠、次名月光、次名旃檀香、次名善山王、次名須彌天冠、次名須彌等曜、次名月色、次名正念、次名離垢、次名無著、次名龍天、次名夜光、次名安明頂、次名不動地、次名琉璃妙華、次名琉璃金色、次名金藏、次名炎光、次名炎根、次名地種、次名月像、次名日音、次名解脫華、次名莊嚴光明、次名海覺神通、次名水光、次名大香、次名離塵垢、次名捨厭意、次名寶炎、次名妙頂、次名勇立、次名功德持慧、次名蔽日月光、次名日月琉璃光、次名無上琉璃光、次名最上首、次名菩提華、次名月明、次名日光、次名華色王、次名水月光、次名除癡冥、次名度蓋行、次名淨信、次名善宿、次名威神、次名法慧、次名鸞音、次名師子音、次名龍音、次名處世。如此諸佛皆悉已過。
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "Long ago, in the distant past, immeasurable, inconceivable, and countless aeons ago, the Tathāgata Dīpaṃkara appeared in the world. He taught and delivered immeasurable beings, brought every one of them to attain the way, and then took final extinction. After him there came, in turn, the Tathāgatas named Far-Reaching Light, Moonlight, Sandalwood Fragrance, Good Mountain King, Sumeru's Heavenly Crown, Sumeru's Equal Radiance, Moon Color, Right Mindfulness, Free of Defilement, Non-Attachment, Dragon and Deva, Night Light, Peaceful Bright Summit, Unmoving Ground, Wondrous Lapis Flower, Golden Lapis Color, Golden Treasury, Blazing Light, Blazing Root, Earth Seed, Moon Image, Sun Sound, Liberation Flower, Adorned Light, Ocean-Awakening Spiritual Power, Water Light, Great Fragrance, Free of Dust and Defilement, Weary of Renunciation, Jeweled Blaze, Wondrous Summit, Valiant Establishment, Wisdom Upholding Merit, Light Eclipsing Sun and Moon, Sun-Moon Lapis Light, Supreme Lapis Light, Foremost Leader, Bodhi Flower, Moon Brightness, Sunlight, King of Flower's Color, Water-Moon Light, Dispeller of Delusion's Darkness, Conduct Crossing Beyond Hindrance, Pure Faith, Good Constellation, Majestic Spirit, Dharma Wisdom, the Simurgh's Cry, Lion's Roar, Dragon's Cry, and Dwelling in the World. All these buddhas had, each in turn, already passed on."
Of these fifty-three names, only the first, Dīpaṃkara (錠光, elsewhere transliterated 燃燈), is independently well known — he is the buddha most famous elsewhere in the canon for prophesying Śākyamuni's own eventual buddhahood many lifetimes in advance. This sūtra makes no such connection explicit; Dīpaṃkara appears here only as the first and most distant point in a chain of buddhas leading, fifty-two names later, to Lokeśvararāja. The other fifty-two names, like the disciples' names in Part 1, are translated by meaning rather than transliterated by sound, and most correspond to no independently attested Sanskrit name — this translation renders them as plain English rather than inventing Sanskrit that the tradition itself has not settled on.
Huiyuan's point in dwelling on this list at all is about scale, not about any individual buddha in it: before the story of Dharmākara's vow even begins, the sūtra has already established a lineage stretching across more buddhas, and more time, than a reader can hold in mind at once. The vow about to be made is being set, deliberately, against a backdrop this vast — an aeon in this sūtra is not a rhetorical flourish but the sūtra's actual working unit of time.
6. A King Becomes the Monk Dharmākara
爾時次有佛。名世自在王如來．應供．等正覺．明行足．善逝．世間解．無上士．調御丈夫．天人師．佛．世尊。時有國王。聞佛說法，心懷悅豫，尋發無上正真道意。棄國捐王，行作沙門。號曰法藏。髙才勇哲，與世超異。詣世自在王如來所。稽首佛足，右遶三匝。長跪合掌，以頌讚曰：
Then, next in that lineage, there came a buddha named Lokeśvararāja Tathāgata — Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Fully Awakened, Complete in Understanding and Conduct, Well-Gone, Knower of the World, Unsurpassed, Tamer of Beings, Teacher of Gods and Humans, Buddha, World-Honored One. At that time there was a king who, on hearing this buddha teach the Dharma, felt his heart fill with joy, and at once gave rise to the intent for unsurpassed, true, and perfect awakening. He renounced his kingdom and gave up his throne, and went forth to become a monk, taking the name Dharmākara. Of lofty ability and courageous wisdom, he was extraordinary beyond the ordinary world. He went to where the Tathāgata Lokeśvararāja was, bowed his head to the Buddha's feet, circled him three times to the right, then knelt with palms joined and offered this verse of praise:
The ten epithets given for Lokeśvararāja here — Worthy of Offerings, Perfectly and Fully Awakened, and so on — are the standard ten titles applied to any buddha throughout the canon, not unique to this one; the sūtra gives them in full here, at the buddha under whom Dharmākara studies, and does not repeat them at this length again. Huiyuan treats the king's renunciation as the hinge the entire sūtra turns on: everything from this point through the end of Part 4 is, structurally, the causal ground (因地) for what Amitābha Buddha and his land will become — not description of an existing thing, but the record of how it came to exist at all, made by someone still, at this point in the story, an ordinary king who has just heard one sermon.
"Dharmākara" (法藏, "Dharma-Treasury" or "Repository of the Dharma") is a name, not yet a title — this sūtra does not call him Amitābha until his vows are fulfilled, chapters from now. Holding that gap in mind is worth doing deliberately: the being who makes the forty-eight vows in the next part of this translation is, by his own account, not yet awakened, not yet certain of success, and explicitly asking to be shown what has already been tried by other buddhas before committing to a plan of his own.
7. Dharmākara's Verse of Aspiration
光顏巍巍 威神無極 如是炎明 無與等者 日月摩尼 珠光燄耀 皆悉隱蔽 猶如聚墨 如來容顏 超世無倫 正覺大音 響流十方 戒聞精進 三昧智慧 威德無侶 殊勝希有 深諦善念 諸佛法海 窮深盡奧 究其崖底 無明欲怒 世尊永無 人雄師子 神德無量 功德廣大 智慧深妙 光明威相 震動大千 願我作佛 齊聖法王 過度生死 靡不解脫 布施調意 戒忍精進 如是三昧 智慧為上 吾誓得佛 普行此願 一切恐懼 為作大安 假令有佛 百千億萬 無量大聖 數如恒沙 供養一切 斯等諸佛 不如求道 堅正不却 譬如恒沙 諸佛世界 復不可計 無數剎土 光明悉照 遍此諸國 如是精進 威神難量 令我作佛 國土第一 其眾奇妙 道場超絕 國如泥洹 而無等雙 我當愍哀 度脫一切 十方來生 心悅清淨 已到我國 快樂安隱 幸佛信明 是我真證 發願於彼 力精所欲 十方世尊 智慧無礙 常令此尊 知我心行 假令身止 諸苦毒中 我行精進 忍終不悔
Your radiant face towers, majestic beyond limit — this blazing brightness has nothing to equal it. Sun, moon, and jewel, their light and their radiance, all lie hidden before it, as if gathered into ink. The Tathāgata's countenance has no peer in the world; the great sound of perfect awakening flows through the ten directions. Discipline, learning, diligence, meditation, and wisdom — this majestic virtue is without companion, supreme and rare. Fathoming deeply, well minded, the sea of every buddha's Dharma — plumbing its depths, exhausting its subtlety, reaching its farthest shore. Ignorance, desire, and anger the World-Honored One has forever none of; hero among people, lion among people, of immeasurable spiritual virtue. Merit vast and great, wisdom deep and wondrous, light and majestic form shaking the great thousand worlds. I vow that when I become a buddha, I shall equal this sagely Dharma king, crossing beyond birth and death, leaving nothing unliberated. Giving, subduing the mind, discipline, patience, diligence, and such meditative concentration — wisdom foremost of all. I vow to attain buddhahood and fully carry out this vow, and make of every fear a great peace. Even if there were buddhas, a hundred thousand koṭis of them, immeasurable great sages, as many as the sands of the Ganges, and I made offerings to every one of these buddhas — that would not equal seeking the path, firm and true, never turning back. Like the sands of the Ganges are the worlds of every buddha, and beyond even these, uncountable, numberless lands — may my light shine fully upon them all, reaching every one of these lands; such diligence, such majestic power, is beyond all measure. Let me, on becoming a buddha, have a land foremost of all, its multitude wondrous and rare, its site of awakening beyond compare. Let that land be like nirvāṇa itself, without a rival anywhere; I shall have compassion, and deliver every being. Those who come from the ten directions, their minds joyful and pure, having already reached my land, at peace and full of joy — may the Buddha, in his good faith, be my true witness to this; I make this vow, and give all my strength to what I seek. Every world-honored one of the ten directions, of unobstructed wisdom, may they too always know this mind and this resolve of mine. Even if my body should dwell amid every bitter suffering, I will practice with diligence, and never once regret it to the end.
This verse sets out, in miniature and before any of the forty-eight vows are spoken, the whole shape of what is to come: a land without rival, beings arriving from the ten directions at peace, and a vow made not tentatively but as an oath sealed by the buddhas of the ten directions as witnesses. Huiyuan reads the closing couplet — willing to endure any suffering, diligent, and never regretting it — as the verse's real center of gravity: everything Dharmākara is about to request depends on a resolve the text takes pains to show is not naive optimism but a vow made with full awareness that it may cost him something to keep.
Worth flagging honestly: this is devotional verse translated for sense and readability rather than for the strict parallel meter of the Chinese, which runs in regular four-character lines throughout. Something is inevitably lost in that move — the incantatory, chant-like rhythm of the original is not fully reproducible in English prose-verse — and this translation makes no claim to have reproduced it, only the content.
8. The Request to See Every Buddha-Land
佛告阿難：法藏比丘說此頌已，而白佛言：唯然世尊，我發無上正覺之心。願佛為我廣宣經法。我當修行攝取佛國清淨莊嚴無量妙土。令我於世速成正覺，拔諸生死勤苦之本。佛語阿難：時世自在王佛，語法藏比丘：如所修行莊嚴佛土，汝自當知。比丘白佛：斯義弘深，非我境界。唯願世尊廣為敷演諸佛如來淨土之行。我聞此已，當如說修行成滿所願。
The Buddha said to Ānanda: "When the bhikṣu Dharmākara had spoken this verse, he said to the Buddha: 'World-Honored One, I have given rise to the mind of unsurpassed, perfect awakening. I ask the Buddha to proclaim the Dharma broadly for me. I shall practice and gather together a pure, adorned, and wondrous land beyond measure, so that I may swiftly attain perfect awakening in this world and uproot the very source of the suffering of birth and death.'" The Buddha said to Ānanda: "At that time the Buddha Lokeśvararāja said to the bhikṣu Dharmākara: 'As for how a buddha-land is cultivated and adorned, this is something you yourself should come to know.' The bhikṣu said to the Buddha: 'This meaning is vast and deep — it lies beyond my own reach. I ask only that the World-Honored One set forth, at length, the pure practices of every Tathāgata's land. Once I have heard this, I will practice accordingly and bring my vow to its fulfillment.'"
Lokeśvararāja's first answer — "this is something you yourself should come to know" — is easy to misread as a refusal. Huiyuan reads it instead as a test of exactly the resolve the previous verse just claimed: a lesser aspiration might have taken the buddha's silence as dismissal and stopped there. Dharmākara's reply — that the matter is beyond his own reach, and he needs to be shown — is the correct response precisely because it does not pretend to a confidence he does not yet have. The vow that follows two sections from now is built on this admission, not in spite of it: Dharmākara asks to see the real, comparative range of what buddha-lands can be before choosing what his own will contain.
9. Every Buddha-Land, Shown at Once
爾時世自在王佛，知其髙明，志願深廣。即為法藏比丘而說經言：譬如大海，一人斗量，經歴劫𢿙，尚可窮底得其妙寶。人有至心精進，求道不止，會當剋果，何願不得？於是世自在王佛即為廣說二百一十億諸佛剎土天人之善惡國土之麤妙，應其心願悉現與之。時彼比丘聞佛所說嚴淨國土，皆悉覩見。超發無上殊勝之願。其心寂靜，志無所著。一切世間無能及者。具足五劫。思惟攝取莊嚴佛國清淨之行。
Then the Buddha Lokeśvararāja, knowing Dharmākara's understanding was lofty and his aspiration deep and vast, spoke this teaching for the bhikṣu Dharmākara: "It is like the great ocean — even a single person, measuring it out ladle by ladle, could, given the passage of aeons, eventually reach its bottom and obtain its wondrous treasures. If a person brings a sincere mind and unrelenting diligence to seeking the path, and does not stop, then in time they are bound to attain the fruit — what vow, then, could not be attained?" Thereupon the Buddha Lokeśvararāja proceeded to expound, at length, two hundred and ten koṭis of buddha-lands, together with the good and evil of the gods and humans within them and the coarseness or subtlety of those lands, and made all of it appear before Dharmākara exactly according to his wish. And the bhikṣu, having heard the Buddha's teaching and beheld those adorned and pure lands in full, gave rise to a vow more excellent than any before, unsurpassed by any other. His mind was still and tranquil, his resolve attached to nothing at all — unequaled by anyone in the entire world. For five full aeons he contemplated, and gathered together, the pure practices that would adorn his own buddha-land.
Two numbers here are worth sitting with rather than passing over: two hundred and ten koṭis of buddha-lands shown to him, in full, including their flaws as well as their virtues — not a single ideal to imitate but a genuine comparative survey — and five entire aeons spent contemplating them before a single vow is spoken aloud. Huiyuan's reading is that the sūtra is being deliberate about this pacing: the forty-eight vows that follow are not presented as a sudden inspiration but as the considered outcome of the broadest possible study, undertaken with, by the text's own account, a mind that had already become still and unattached even before the vows were formulated. Whatever one makes of the vow that follows, the sūtra is explicit that no other buddha-land in existence, sight unseen, went into its design — every one of them was reportedly examined and weighed first.
10. The Vow Prepared, and Ready to Speak
阿難白佛：彼佛國土壽量幾何。佛言：其佛壽命四十二劫。時法藏比丘。攝取二百一十億諸佛妙土清淨之行。如是修已詣彼佛所。稽首禮足遶佛三匝合掌而住。白佛言：世尊，我已攝取莊嚴佛土清淨之行。佛告比丘：汝今可說宜知是時，發起悅可一切大眾。菩薩聞已，修行此法，緣致滿足無量大願。比丘白佛：唯垂聽察，如我所願，當具說之。
Ānanda said to the Buddha: "What is the lifespan of that buddha's land?" The Buddha said: "That buddha's lifespan is forty-two aeons." At that time, the bhikṣu Dharmākara, having gathered together the pure practices of two hundred and ten koṭis of wondrous buddha-lands, and having completed this cultivation, went to where that buddha was, bowed his head to the Buddha's feet, circled him three times, and stood with palms joined, saying to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I have now gathered together the pure practices that will adorn a buddha-land." The Buddha said to the bhikṣu: "You may now speak of it — it is fitting that you should know this is the time. This will give rise to joy and delight in the whole great assembly, and bodhisattvas who hear it will, by practicing this teaching, thereby bring immeasurable great vows to their fulfillment." The bhikṣu said to the Buddha: "I ask only that you listen and observe closely — I shall now set forth, in full, exactly what I have vowed."
Ānanda's question — how long does Lokeśvararāja himself live? — and the answer, forty-two aeons, is easy to misread as being about Dharmākara; it is not. It measures the buddha under whom Dharmākara studied, and quietly confirms that the five aeons of contemplation just described, and the whole of Dharmākara's training, took place within a single such buddha's teaching career — the sūtra's timescale, again, treated as literal and load-bearing rather than as a poetic round number.
Lokeśvararāja's closing instruction — that Dharmākara's vow, once spoken, will "give rise to joy... and bring immeasurable great vows to their fulfillment" in others who hear it — is, on Huiyuan's reading, the sūtra's own explanation for why this story is being told to Ānanda's audience, and by extension to any later reader, at all: the vow that follows is offered not only as an account of how Amitābha's land came to exist, but as a template capable of doing the same work in any bodhisattva who takes it up. The forty-eight vows themselves begin in the next part of this translation.