A Vow Not Yet Settled, and How to Worship This Buddha
Part 3 turns first to a practitioner already devoted to rebirth in Amitāyus's Sukhāvatī but not yet certain of it, then to Mañjuśrī's own vow to carry this teaching through the age of the semblance Dharma, and finally to the Buddha's own detailed instructions — the first time in this sūtra that hearing a name gives way to a full account of what worship of this buddha actually looks like in practice.
A Vow to Sukhāvatī, Not Yet Decided
「復次，曼殊室利！若有四眾：苾芻、苾芻尼、鄔波索迦、鄔波斯迦，及餘淨信善男子、善女人等，有能受持八分齋戒，或經一年，或復三月，受持學處，以此善根，願生西方極樂世界無量壽佛所，聽聞正法，而未定者。若聞世尊藥師琉璃光如來名號，臨命終時，有八菩薩，乘神通來，示其道路，即於彼界種種雜色眾寶華中，自然化生。或有因此生於天上，雖生天中，而本善根亦未窮盡，不復更生諸餘惡趣。天上壽盡，還生人間，或為輪王，統攝四洲，威德自在，安立無量百千有情於十善道；或生剎帝利、婆羅門、居士大家，多饒財寶，倉庫盈溢，形相端嚴，眷屬具足，聰明智慧，勇健威猛，如大力士。若是女人，得聞世尊藥師如來名號，至心受持，於後不復更受女身。」
"Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, should there be any of the fourfold assembly — bhikṣus, bhikṣuṇīs, upāsakas, or upāsikās — or any other good son or good daughter of pure faith, who is able to uphold the eight-part fast, whether for a full year or for three months, keeping this training, and who, by this root of goodness, vows to be born in the western land of Sukhāvatī, in the presence of Amitāyus, to listen to the true Dharma, but has not yet settled that vow — should such a person hear the name of the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, then, at the moment of death, eight bodhisattvas, riding their spiritual powers, will come to show them the way, and they will spontaneously appear, born from transformation, amid the many-colored, jeweled lotus flowers of that world. Some, through this cause, will instead be born among the gods; yet even reborn among the gods, their original root of goodness will not be exhausted, and they will not again be reborn into any other evil destiny. When their heavenly life ends, they will be reborn again among humans, sometimes becoming a wheel-turning king, ruling the four continents, majestic and free in power, establishing measureless hundreds of thousands of beings upon the ten wholesome paths; or they will be born into a family of kṣatriyas, brahmins, or great householders, rich in wealth and treasure, their storehouses overflowing, their form well-proportioned and dignified, their household complete, wise and intelligent, courageous and mighty as a great strongman. And should a woman hear the name of the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru, and hold it in mind with a sincere heart, she will never again, in any life to come, take on a woman's body."
Taehyeon closes his five-part case-study structure here, naming this fifth and final obstacle the obstruction to rebirth in a pleasant destiny, and dividing it into two: removing the obstacle to pleasant rebirth in a pure realm (Sukhāvatī, as here), and removing the obstacle to pleasant rebirth even within an impure one (rebirth as a deva, a wheel-king, an exalted family, or a man's body, all named further on in this same passage). He records a monk called Master Mai's gloss on the fasting schedule: "a full year" means keeping six fast days each month — the eighth, fourteenth, and fifteenth of both the bright and dark halves — while "three months" means, for those unable to sustain that pace all year, three long fast-months instead, the first month of each of the year's three four-month divisions, so that the whole year is still touched by sustained practice even if not evenly. Citing the Mahāprajñāpāramitā-śāstra, he notes that fast days are traditionally held to be when hungry ghosts pursue people most fiercely, seeking to take their lives — which is why the practice of fasting itself, quite apart from any doctrine attached to it, predates the eight precepts historically and was only later formalized by the Buddha into the eight-part fast known today.
He also takes up two questions a careful reader might raise. First: if the Amitābha tradition holds that ten recitations of a buddha's name at the moment of death suffice for rebirth in a pure land, why does this passage describe a full year of sustained precept-practice and still call the outcome "undecided"? His answer distinguishes courage from mere eagerness — quoting the same śāstra's own line that "a fierce mind at the moment of death surpasses a hundred years of ordinary merit," he treats the difference as one of intensity rather than duration, so that a full year of steady practice and a single fierce recollection at death are not actually being ranked against each other by this passage, only distinguished. Second, on "spontaneous transformation-birth" (自然化生): citing the Nirvāṇa Sūtra's account of a woman born from a tree's blossom by contact with moisture already present in the tree, Master Mai distinguishes that moisture-birth from birth by transformation in a pure land, where the lotus itself, without any prior moisture, gives rise directly to a full human form — two different mechanisms that happen to share the image of a flower.
Mañjuśrī's Own Vow
爾時，曼殊室利童子白佛言：「世尊！我當誓於像法轉時，以種種方便，令諸淨信善男子、善女人等，得聞世尊藥師琉璃光如來名號，乃至睡中亦以佛名覺悟其耳。世尊！若於此經受持讀誦，或復為他演說開示；若自書，若教人書；恭敬尊重，以種種花香、塗香、末香、燒香、花鬘、瓔珞、幡蓋、伎樂，而為供養；以五色綵，作囊盛之；掃灑淨處，敷設高座，而用安處。爾時，四大天王與其眷屬，及餘無量百千天眾，皆詣其所，供養守護。世尊！若此經寶流行之處，有能受持，以彼世尊藥師琉璃光如來本願功德，及聞名號，當知是處無復橫死；亦復不為諸惡鬼神，奪其精氣；設已奪者，還得如故，身心安樂。」
At that time the youth Mañjuśrī said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, I vow that, in the age of the semblance Dharma, I will use every kind of skillful means to cause good sons and good daughters of pure faith to hear the name of the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, even waking their ears with this buddha's name while they sleep. World-Honored One, should anyone uphold, read, and recite this sūtra, or explain and expound it for others; whether they copy it themselves or have another copy it; and revere and honor it with offerings of every kind of flower, incense, fragrant powder and unguent, garlands, necklaces, banners, canopies, and music; wrapping it in a pouch of five-colored silk; sweeping and sprinkling a clean place, setting up a high seat, and installing it there — then the Four Heavenly Kings, together with their retinues, and other measureless hundreds of thousands of heavenly beings, will all come to that place, to make offerings and to guard it. World-Honored One, wherever this precious sūtra circulates, should anyone be able to uphold it, and, through the fundamental vow and merit of the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, and by hearing his name, know that in that place there will be no more untimely death; nor will evil spirits or ghosts steal away that person's vital essence — and should it already have been stolen, it will be restored as before, body and mind at ease."
Taehyeon marks this as the opening of a new major division of the sūtra — no longer the Buddha directly answering Mañjuśrī's original three-part question, but a second division devoted to encouraging beings toward actual benefit, which he divides into five gates running to the sūtra's end: a vow-and-awakening gate (this passage), a gate where the Tathāgata himself confirms what Mañjuśrī has proposed, a gate weighing the gain of faith against the loss of doubt, a gate where an image is used to assist beings in crisis, and a gate where the twelve yakṣa generals themselves repay this teaching's benefit with a vow of their own. He treats Mañjuśrī's promise to "wake their ears with the Buddha's name" even during sleep as more than a figure of speech — a bodhisattva already established in this teaching, on his reading, is not limited to daylight, deliberate transmission, but can plant the seed of a name in a mind that has not consciously chosen to receive it at all, which is precisely why the passage's benefit (freedom from untimely death and from spirits stealing one's vital essence) applies to the place where the sūtra is kept, not only to the person who deliberately recites it.
How to Worship the Medicine Buddha
佛告曼殊室利：「如是！如是！如汝所說。曼殊室利！若有淨信善男子、善女人等，欲供養彼世尊藥師琉璃光如來者，應先造立彼佛形像，敷清淨座而安處之；散種種花，燒種種香，以種種幢幡莊嚴其處；七日七夜，受持八分齋戒，食清淨食，澡浴香潔，著新淨衣，應生無垢濁心，無怒害心，於一切有情，起利益安樂，慈、悲、喜、捨，平等之心，鼓樂歌讚，右繞佛像。復應念彼如來本願功德，讀誦此經，思惟其義，演說開示。隨所樂願，一切皆遂：求長壽得長壽，求富饒得富饒，求官位得官位，求男女得男女。若復有人，忽得惡夢，見諸惡相，或怪鳥來集，或於住處，百怪出現；此人若以眾妙資具，恭敬供養彼世尊藥師琉璃光如來者，惡夢惡相，諸不吉祥，皆悉隱沒，不能為患。或有水、火、刀、毒、懸嶮、惡象、師子、虎、狼、熊、羆、毒蛇、惡蠍、蜈蚣、蚰蜒、蚊虻等怖；若能至心憶念彼佛，恭敬供養，一切怖畏皆得解脫。若他國侵擾，盜賊反亂；憶念恭敬彼如來者，亦皆解脫。
「復次，曼殊室利！若有淨信善男子、善女人等，乃至盡形不事餘天，惟當一心歸佛、法、僧，受持禁戒，若五戒、十戒、菩薩四百戒、苾芻二百五十戒、苾芻尼五百戒，於所受中或有毀犯，怖墮惡趣，若能專念彼佛名號，恭敬供養者，必定不受三惡趣生。或有女人，臨當產時，受於極苦；若能至心稱名禮讚，恭敬供養彼如來者，眾苦皆除。所生之子，身分具足，形色端正，見者歡喜，利根聰明，安隱少病，無有非人，奪其精氣。」
The Buddha said to Mañjuśrī: "So it is, so it is, just as you have said. Mañjuśrī, should there be good sons or good daughters of pure faith who wish to make offerings to the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, they should first fashion an image of that buddha, and set it in a clean and pure seat; scattering flowers of every kind, burning incense of every kind, and adorning the place with banners of every kind; for seven days and seven nights, they should uphold the eight-part fast, eating pure food, bathing until fragrant and clean, wearing new and clean garments, giving rise to a mind free of stain and turbidity, free of anger and the wish to harm, and, toward every being, giving rise to a mind of benefit and ease, of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity, held equally toward all; playing music and singing praises, circling the buddha's image to the right. They should further hold in mind that Tathāgata's fundamental vow and merit, read and recite this sūtra, reflect on its meaning, and explain and expound it. Whatever they wish and vow for will then all be fulfilled: those who seek long life will gain long life; those who seek wealth will gain wealth; those who seek office will gain office; those who seek a son or daughter will gain a son or daughter. And should anyone suddenly have a bad dream, see ill omens, have strange birds gather about them, or find a hundred strange occurrences appearing where they dwell — should this person, with every kind of fine offering, reverently make offerings to the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, then the bad dreams, ill omens, and every inauspicious sign will all vanish, and will be unable to cause them harm. Should there be dangers of water, fire, blades, poison, sheer cliffs, savage elephants, lions, tigers, wolves, bears, venomous snakes, scorpions, centipedes, millipedes, or mosquitoes and gnats — should one be able, with a sincere heart, to hold that buddha in mind and reverently make offerings, one will be freed from every fear. And should there be invasion and unrest from another country, or the rebellion of bandits — those who hold that Tathāgata in mind and revere him will likewise all be freed from it.
"Furthermore, Mañjuśrī, should there be good sons or good daughters of pure faith who, for as long as they live, serve no other god, but take refuge with a single mind in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha alone, upholding the precepts — whether the five precepts, the ten precepts, the bodhisattva's four hundred precepts, the bhikṣu's two hundred and fifty precepts, or the bhikṣuṇī's five hundred precepts — and should they, among what they have undertaken, have transgressed in some part, and fear falling into an evil destiny, then, should they be able to single-mindedly hold that buddha's name in mind and reverently make offerings to him, they will certainly not undergo rebirth in the three evil destinies. And should there be a woman approaching the time of childbirth, undergoing the most extreme suffering — should she be able, with a sincere heart, to call his name, offer praise, and reverently make offerings to that Tathāgata, all her suffering will be entirely removed. The child born to her will be complete in every part of the body, well-formed in appearance, delighting all who see it, of sharp faculties and intelligence, peaceful and free of illness, and no non-human spirit will steal away its vital essence."
Taehyeon calls this the "gate where the Tathāgata himself confirms" what Mañjuśrī has just proposed, and divides it into instructions for offering followed by an account of the benefit gained. The offering itself he further divides in three: material offering (the image, the seat, the incense and banners), proper-practice offering (the seven days of fasting and precept-keeping, the mind of the four immeasurable states), and threefold-karma offering (music, praise, and circumambulation as offerings of body; recitation and exposition as offerings of speech and mind together). The benefit he likewise divides in three: wishes fulfilled exactly as sought, ill omens dissolved before they can cause harm, and — the section this reading note focuses on — freedom from the fear of falling into an evil destiny even for someone who has actually broken precepts, a benefit he splits further into present-life precept-breaking (addressed by the passage just translated) and a woman's suffering in childbirth, which he classifies, cross-referencing Part 1's eighth vow, as a suffering carried over from an embodiment already determined by past karma rather than a present transgression at all.
On the "bodhisattva's four hundred precepts" named here, Taehyeon pauses over a genuine textual puzzle rather than resolving it by fiat: he notes that different scriptures give entirely different counts for bodhisattva precepts depending on how finely each groups them — the Sūtra of the Upāsaka Precepts and related Vaipulya texts count four major and twenty-eight minor precepts, the Yogācārabhūmi counts four major and forty-five minor, and the Brahmajāla Sūtra counts ten major and forty-eight minor — because, he says, "the Tathāgata teaches according to what suits his listeners, sometimes in full and sometimes in brief, and the groupings differ accordingly." He adds, further still, that other Chinese translations of this very sūtra do not even agree with Xuanzang's own number here: the earlier Liu Song-dynasty translation gives the figure as twenty-four precepts, and the Sui-dynasty translation gives it as one hundred and four, a discrepancy he attributes to real variation among the different Sanskrit manuscripts each translator worked from, rather than to any single translator's error.
Part 3 Complete
This closes Part 3: a vow to Sukhāvatī still undecided but never abandoned by this buddha's own aid, Mañjuśrī's promise to carry this teaching forward, and the Buddha's own, unusually concrete instructions for worshipping him — image, incense, seven days of fasting, and a mind held level across all four immeasurable states. Part 4 turns to Ānanda, who is given the sūtra's hardest question to ask on behalf of every future doubter: how can a single name accomplish this much, and what happens to those who cannot bring themselves to believe it?
Continue to Part 4 — Ānanda's Doubt, and the Bodhisattva Called Salvation →