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The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra with commentaries of the Venerable Master Hsuan Hua English translation by the Buddhist Text Translation Society Buddhist Text Translation Society Dharma Realm Buddhist University Dharma Realm Buddhist Association Burlingame, California U.S.A. The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra A General Explanation Published and translated by: Buddhist Text Translation Society 1777 Murchison Drive, Burlingame, CA 94010-4504 © 2002 Buddhist Text Translation Society Dharma Realm Buddhist University Dharma Realm Buddhist Association First edition (USA) 1974 Second edition (USA) 2002 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04 03 02 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 0-88139-430-0 Printed in Malaysia. Addresses of the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association branches are listed at the back of this book. Contents Introduction . .vii Why You Should Read This Book . viii Translator’s Introduction . .xv The Land of Ultimate Bliss . xxi The Translation of the Text . xxiii Part I. The Five-fold Profound Meanings . .1 Explaining the Name . .2 The Special Title . 3 The Common Title . 14 The Seven Classifications of Sutra Titles . 17 The Twelve Divisions of Sutra Texts. 19 Describing The Substance . .25 Clarifying the Principle . .26 Faith . 26 Vows. 30 Practice: Holding The Name . 42 Discussing the Function . 47 Determining the Teaching Mark . 49 Part II. The Translator. .50 Part III.The Preface . .54 Ananda’s Four Questions . .57 The Four Applications Of Mindfulness . .63 The Six Requirements . .68 The Benefactor’s Garden . .70 The Six Harmonious Unities of the Sangha . .74 The Kasyapa Brothers . 76 The Assembly of Arhats. 80 Shariputra. 81 Mahamaudgalyayana . 85 Mahakasyapa . 89 Mahakatyayana . 95 Mahakausthila . 98 Revata. 98 Suddhipanthaka . 100 Nanda . 102 Sundarananda . 103 Ananda . 108 Rahula. 109 Gavampati . 111 Pindola Bharadvaja . 112 Kalodayin. 112 MahaKapphina . 113 Vakkula . 113 Aniruddha . 114 The Assembly Of Bodhisattvas . 116 Manjushri . 117 Ajita . 122 Gandhahastin and Nityodyukta . 124 Part IV.The Principle Proper. 126 The Transmission . 174 Index . 177 Introduction by Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra belongs to the class of Sutras spoken without formal request. It describes in detail the supremely beautiful adornments of the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. Living beings of the ten directions need only recite Amitabha Buddha's name, practicing even just the Dharma of Ten Recitations, in order to be assured of rebirth in that land. When the Buddhadharma becomes extinct in the Saha World, this Sutra will be the last to disappear. The first to go will be the Shurangama Sutra, the Sutra most feared by heavenly demons and other religions, all of whom would like to see every existing copy of it burned to ashes. The Shurangama Sutra catches the reflections of the “li mei” and “wang liang” ghosts who, unable to hide, hate it with vengeance. Scholars who are without sufficient common sense fall in with the demons. This is truly pitiable. The Buddha Speaks of Amitabha Sutra may be compared to a great magnet, and the living beings of the ten directions are like iron filings; all the filings, without exception, are drawn to the magnet. Now, upon the completion of the English translation, I have added these words as a brief introduction. vii Why You Should Read This Book Gold Mountain Shramana Tripitaka Master Hua explains the path of self-cultivation as it has never been explained before. Where other Buddhist Masters merely recite texts, the Venerable Master illuminates the Way so that those who hear are crystal clear about its meaning. Where other Buddhist Masters explain texts with the intellectual juggling of manifold lists and technical discriminations which easily confuse an audience, the Venerable Master picks out the essentials which reveal the methods to eradicate suffering. Where other Buddhist Masters repeat inter- pretations learnd by rote, the Venerable Master speaks directly to the conditions around him, showing one man how to free himself from the grip of arrogance and conceit, instructing another how to relieve the suffering of chronic illness; showing one how to shake off the bonds of heavy emotional attachments, instructing others on the way to recovver from the pain of loss; showing one how to be patient and peaceful in the face of slander, scoldings, and beatings; showing others how, ultimately, to put an end to the unbroken cycle of birth and death. To the degree that those who seek his instruction are capable of understanding, to that degree the Venerable Master explains the Dharma, showing those of limited understanding how to be free from the suffering of excessive greed and anger, or how to transform stupidity into wisdom, and guiding those whose viii capacity is great to put an end to the last traces of birth and death. Never trapped in convention, the Venerable Master’s teaching covers the whole spectrum, leading beings from the hells, through all the intermediate realms of mind, and establishing them in the wonderful enlightenment of Buddhahood. Where scholars worry about sources and chronology, discrimate the goods and bads of secondary sources, and try to organize an attendant host of biographical and bibliographical minutiae, the Venerable Master deals directly with the ultimate meaning of the primary texts. Although he teaches with unassuming simplicity, when he speaks people spontaneously change for the good and come to understand the profound and mysterious. His teaching is so thorough that it affects everything, but none of those who seek his instruction lans on him. When he seems to be doing nothing, his influence is felt everywhere, and when no one is aware of him, he fills everyone with happiness. His teaching transcends teaching. How is it that he has come to be able to teach in a way that is so unlike the ways of others? It is because he has cultivated the path to enlightenment and because he has cultivated the path to tnlighten- ment and has arrived at the goal that what he ways can be believed. This is what makes him different from everyone else who talks about self-cultivation, and this is why you should read this book. You may wonder about the particulars of his cultivation of the Way. There is much too much to present here, and so a general summary will have to suffice. Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua (also named An Tz’u and To Lun) was born on the sixteenth day of the third month, lunar calendar, in 1908. His father, Pai Fu-hai was a farmer in the Shuang-ch’eng District of Northeastern China. The Master was the youngest of eight children. His mother often recited the name of Amitabha Buddha, and in a dream one night shortly before the Master was born, she saw amitabha Buddha emitting a light which illumined ix the entire world. When she awoke, her room was filled with a rare fragrance. Because the Master’s home was in the countryside where there were few people, he did not become aware of death until he was eleven years old. When he did, it stunned him. While walking with some friends in a pasture, he came upon the body of a dead baby. the Master did not understand why the baby was lying still on the ground and asked his friends, who simply said, “She’s dead.” Puzzled, he returned home and asked his mother what exactly death was. “All people, whether rich or poor, must die,” she said, “either from old age, sickness, or accidentally.” “How does one free oneself from death?” the Master asked insistently. At that time there was a visitor in his home who answered the Master’s question by saying, “It is only through cultivation of the Way, awakening to one’s own mind and seeing one’s fundamental nature that one can gain liberation from the continous cycle of birth and death in the six paths.” On hearing his the Master wished immediately to leave the home-life and being cultivation, but his mother told him that he must wait, for she needed him to care for her in her old age. He complied with her wishes, serving both his parents with the greatest devotion; his filial piety earned him the name “Filial Son Pai.” He did, however, take refuge with the Triple Jewel, boring to the Venerable Master Ch’ang Chih as his teacher. Although the Master had but a few years of formal schooling, he is extremely well-educated. Possessed of a photographics memory, he was able to memorize the Four Books and the Five Classics of Chinese lieterature in an amazingly short time. Moreover, in addition to his mastery of the Buddhist Canon, he is well versed in the study of medicine, physiognomy, and astrology. x When he was nineteen years old his mother died. After receiving the shramanera precepts from his master, he took up the practice of sitting by his mother’s grave, observing a mourning period of three years. He lived in an A-frame hut made from sorghum stalks where he cultivated dhyana samadhi and recited the name of Amitabha Buddha, ate only one meal a day, and never lay down to sleep. Occasionally he would enter samadhi for weeks at a time, never rising from his seat. One night the residents of the nearlby village saw that the Master’s hut was on fire. A blazing light shot up into the air for some ten yards, making the area around the hut as bright as broad daylight. Many people rushed to the graveyard, shouting as they went, “The filial son’s hut has caught fire!” and soon there were hundreds of people there to lend assistance with buckets of water.
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