Nine Untimely Deaths, and the Vow of Twelve Yakṣa Generals
This final page closes the sūtra: the bodhisattva Salvation names the nine kinds of death that need never have happened, and explains why merit can still extend a life already reckoned spent; twelve yakṣa generals, each commanding seven thousand of their own kind, vow on the spot to guard whoever carries this teaching forward; and the sūtra closes with its own three names and the assembly's plain joy.
The Nine Kinds of Untimely Death
爾時，阿難問救脫菩薩言：「善男子！云何已盡之命而可增益？」救脫菩薩言：「大德！汝豈不聞如來說有九橫死耶？是故勸造續命幡燈，修諸福德；以修福故，盡其壽命，不經苦患。」阿難問言：「九橫云何？」救脫菩薩言：「若諸有情，得病雖輕，然無醫藥及看病者，設復遇醫，授以非藥，實不應死而便橫死。又信世間邪魔、外道、妖之師，妄說禍福，便生恐動，心不自正，卜問覓禍，殺種種眾生，解奏神明，呼諸魍魎，請乞福祐，欲冀延年，終不能得；愚癡迷惑，信邪倒見，遂令橫死，入於地獄，無有出期，是名初橫。二者，橫被王法之所誅戮。三者，畋獵嬉戲，耽婬嗜酒，放逸無度，橫為非人奪其精氣。四者，橫為火焚。五者，橫為水溺。六者，橫為種種惡獸所噉。七者，橫墮山崖。八者，橫為毒藥、厭禱、呪詛、起屍鬼等之所中害。九者，飢渴所困，不得飲食而便橫死。是為如來略說橫死，有此九種。其餘復有無量諸橫，難可具說。
「復次，阿難！彼琰魔王主領世間名籍之記。若諸有情，不孝五逆，破辱三寶，壞君臣法，毀於信戒，琰魔法王，隨罪輕重，考而罰之。是故我今勸諸有情，然燈造幡，放生修福，令度苦厄，不遭眾難。」
At that time Ānanda asked the bodhisattva Salvation: "Good son, how can a lifespan already exhausted be increased?" The bodhisattva Salvation said: "Great Virtuous One, have you not heard the Tathāgata speak of the nine kinds of untimely death? This is exactly why he urges the making of the continuing-life banner and lamp, and the cultivation of merit; for by cultivating merit, one's allotted lifespan may be lived out in full, without passing through such suffering and affliction." Ānanda asked: "What are these nine kinds of untimely death?" The bodhisattva Salvation said: "Should a being fall ill, even lightly, yet have no physician, no medicine, and no one to nurse them; or should they meet with a physician, yet be given the wrong medicine — though they need not die at all, they die an untimely death regardless. Or again, should they place their trust in the evil demons, heterodox teachers, and deceitful masters of this world, who falsely speak of fortune and misfortune, so that fear and agitation arise, and the mind loses its own footing; seeking out divination to escape calamity, killing all manner of living beings to petition the spirits, calling upon goblins and sprites, and begging for blessing and protection, hoping thereby to prolong their life — such hope can never be fulfilled; and, foolish and deluded, trusting in wrong and inverted views, they thus meet an untimely death and enter hell, with no time set for their release: this is called the first untimely death. The second is being put to death, untimely, under the law of a king. The third is being untimely deprived of one's vital essence by a non-human spirit, through hunting and idle sport, indulgence in lust and drink, and dissipation without limit. The fourth is untimely death by fire. The fifth is untimely death by drowning. The sixth is untimely death, devoured by some fierce beast. The seventh is untimely death, falling from a mountain cliff. The eighth is untimely death, struck down by poison, by a curse invoked over an effigy, by an incantation, or by a corpse-raising demon and the like. The ninth is untimely death from being overcome by hunger and thirst, unable to obtain food or drink. These are the nine kinds of untimely death the Tathāgata has briefly described; beyond these there are measureless other kinds of untimely death, too many to describe in full.
"Furthermore, Ānanda, King Yama presides over the registers and records of the world. Should any being be unfilial, guilty of one of the five heinous offenses, defile and disgrace the Three Jewels, destroy the proper relation between ruler and subject, or break faith and precept, King Yama, the dharma-king, will examine and punish them according to the gravity of their offense. It is for this reason that I now urge all beings to light lamps, make banners, release living creatures, and cultivate merit, so that they may pass beyond suffering and calamity, and not meet with such misfortunes."
Taehyeon reads Ānanda's question here as opening a compact, five-step exchange: a difficulty raised, a resolution given, a further inquiry pressed, an explanation supplied, and a conclusion drawn. His resolution to the difficulty — how a life already reckoned spent could ever be lengthened — is that none of the nine untimely deaths are fixed, determined karma; they are what he calls "undetermined karma, resembling in kind the ripening of similar past deeds," and precisely because they are undetermined, supplementary merit can still alter their outcome, where a truly fixed karmic result could not be moved at all. On the first and longest-described untimely death — the one caused by trusting diviners and sacrificing other beings to buy oneself more time — he is blunt about why the scheme fails on its own terms: "killing shortens life, and eating meat brings much illness — how, then, could cutting off another's life ever extend one's own?" The other's suffering does not become the killer's longevity; it becomes one more untimely death of the killer's own making, the very thing the practice was meant to prevent.
He closes by tying the second half of this passage — King Yama's registry of every being's conduct — directly back to the question that opened it: if merit is not cultivated and a life is not thereby extended, that life simply remains subject to Yama's own jurisdiction, to be reckoned and judged exactly as Part 4's account of his court already described. The nine untimely deaths and the registrar who judges unextended lives are, on this reading, not two separate topics but one continuous answer to Ānanda's single question.
The Vow of the Twelve Yakṣa Generals
爾時，眾中有十二藥叉大將，俱在會坐，所謂：宮毘羅大將， 伐折羅大將，迷企羅大將， 安底羅大將，頞儞羅大將， 珊底羅大將，因達羅大將， 波夷羅大將，摩虎羅大將， 真達羅大將，招杜羅大將， 毘羯羅大將。此十二藥叉大將，一一各有七千藥叉以為眷屬，同時舉聲白佛言：「世尊！我等今者，蒙佛威力，得聞世尊藥師琉璃光如來名號，不復更有惡趣之怖。我等相率，皆同一心，乃至盡形歸佛法僧，誓當荷負一切有情，為作義利饒益安樂。隨於何等村城、國邑、空閑林中，若有流布此經，或復受持藥師琉璃光如來名號，恭敬供養者，我等眷屬衛護是人，皆使解脫一切苦難；諸有願求，悉令滿足。或有疾厄求度脫者，亦應讀誦此經，以五色縷，結我名字，得如願已，然後解結。」爾時，世尊讚諸藥叉大將言：「善哉！善哉！大藥叉將！汝等念報世尊藥師琉璃光如來恩德者，常應如是利益安樂一切有情。」
At that time there were, in the assembly, twelve great yakṣa generals, all seated there together — namely: General Kumbhīra, General Vajra, General Mihira, General Andira, General Anila, General Śaṇḍila, General Indra, General Pajra, General Mahoraga, General Cindāla, General Catura, and General Vikarāla. Each of these twelve great yakṣa generals had seven thousand yakṣas as their own retinue, and together they raised their voices and said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, we, through the Buddha's majestic power, have now come to hear the name of the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, and no longer have any fear of falling into an evil destiny. We, together, all of one mind, take refuge for as long as we live in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Saṅgha, and vow to take upon ourselves every being, working their benefit and welfare, and bringing them ease. In whatever village, city, kingdom, town, or solitary forest this sūtra is spread abroad, or wherever anyone upholds the name of Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha and reverently makes offerings to him, we and our retinues will guard and protect that person, causing them to be freed from every suffering and difficulty, and fulfilling whatever they wish and seek. And should anyone, afflicted by illness or calamity, seek to be delivered from it, they should likewise recite this sūtra, and, tying a cord of five colors into a knot bearing our names, undo the knot only once their wish has been fulfilled." At that time the World-Honored One praised the yakṣa generals, saying: "Excellent, excellent, great yakṣa generals! You who remember to repay the kindness of the World-Honored One, the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha, should always bring benefit and ease to every being in just this way."
Taehyeon treats this scene with unusual brevity, dividing it into only three simple beats — the sūtra's own naming of the twelve generals, their vow, and the Buddha's praise — and states plainly that "the sense of the passage is clear as it stands," offering no further gloss beyond that structure. This collection's reading notes follow him in restraint here rather than manufacturing depth his own commentary does not supply: unlike the case studies of Parts 2 and 3, or the courtroom scene of Part 4, this closing episode is, on Taehyeon's own reading, meant to be received directly rather than unpacked. Left to the reader to notice on the text's own terms: twelve generals with seven thousand retainers each yields a total of eighty-four thousand guardians — the same round number Buddhist literature elsewhere uses for the full catalogue of afflictions and, correspondingly, of Dharma-gates that address them, though neither this sūtra nor Taehyeon's commentary draws that connection explicitly. The five-colored cord, tied at the start of a plea and untied only once it is answered, is the sūtra's own most concrete and personal gesture of protection — a promise a worried person could act on that same day, no image or seven-day fast required.
The Sūtra's Own Name, and Its Close
爾時，阿難白佛言：「世尊！當何名此法門？我等云何奉持？」佛告阿難：「此法門名說藥師琉璃光如來本願功德；亦名說十二神將饒益有情結願神呪；亦名拔除一切業障；應如是持。」時薄伽梵說是語已，諸菩薩摩訶薩，及大聲聞，國王、大臣、婆羅門、居士，天、龍、藥叉、揵達縛、阿素洛、揭路荼、緊捺洛、莫呼洛伽，人、非人等，一切大眾，聞佛所說，皆大歡喜，信受奉行。
At that time Ānanda said to the Buddha: "World-Honored One, what should this Dharma-gate be called? How should we uphold it?" The Buddha said to Ānanda: "This Dharma-gate is called 'Proclaiming the Fundamental Vows and Merit of the Tathāgata Bhaiṣajyaguru Vaiḍūryaprabha'; it is also called 'Proclaiming the Vow-Bound Spell of the Twelve Divine Generals for Benefiting Sentient Beings'; and it is also called 'Uprooting Every Karmic Hindrance' — it should be upheld under these names." When the Bhagavān had spoken these words, the great bodhisattva-mahāsattvas and great śrāvakas, the kings, great ministers, brahmins, and householders, the gods, nāgas, yakṣas, gandharvas, asuras, garuḍas, kiṃnaras, and mahoragas, humans and non-humans, the whole great assembly, having heard what the Buddha had taught, rejoiced greatly, and received and upheld it with faith, putting it into practice.
Taehyeon marks this passage as the sūtra's third and final major division — "hearing the name and rejoicing in practice" — following the opening assembly and the long central section of question and answer that has occupied the rest of this sūtra. He ties the Buddha's three names for this teaching directly back to his own opening discussion at the very start of his commentary, where he had already noted that this sūtra carries three titles across its Chinese translation history: an earlier Liu Song-dynasty version took its title from the third name given here, "uprooting every karmic hindrance"; a Sui-dynasty version took the first, shorter name; and Xuanzang's own translation, the one this collection follows, uses the full first title as its formal name while still preserving all three inside the text itself. Ānanda's closing question, "how should we uphold it," is on this reading answered simply: by holding the teaching under whichever of its three true names best fits how a given reader has come to it — as an account of one buddha's vows, as a protective formula tied to twelve generals, or as a practice for uprooting hindrance directly.
The Sūtra Complete
This closes Ru-Yi's translation of the Sūtra of the Fundamental Vows of Bhaiṣajyaguru: an assembly beneath a tree of music at Vaiśālī, twelve vows made long before they bore fruit, a land of lapis lazuli watched over by two bodhisattvas of light, and case after case of beings — the miser, the precept-breaker, the envious, the sorcerer, the doubter, the dying — each met at the specific point of their own difficulty by nothing more elaborate than a name, held in mind. Xuanzang's translation is the shortest and plainest of the five Chinese versions this sūtra has received across its long history, and Taehyeon's commentary, composed a few generations later in Silla, reads it with the same directness: a buddha's causal vow, and its fruit, offered to a reader without embellishment. The sūtra needs no dedication of merit or closing exhortation beyond its own last line — the assembly's plain joy, and its resolve to carry the teaching forward, is already the ending the text itself chose.