Weather

It rained quite heavily in the afternoon and by 4.30pm or so , the rain stopped. From 5pm onwards, the sky is cloudy and it is good time to jog. Data obtained from here.

- wong chee tat :)

THE BUDDHA SPEAKS ABOUT AMITABHA SUTRA

THE BUDDHA SPEAKS ABOUT AMITABHA SUTRA

Translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by the Tripitaka Master Kumarajiva at Yao Ch'in

Thus I have heard, at one time time Buddha dwelt at Sravasti in the
Jeta grove in the garden of the Bene-factor of Orphans and the Solitary
together with a gathering of great Bhiksus, 1250 in all, all great Ar-hats
whom the assembly knew and recognized: Elders Sari-putra, Mahamaudgalyayana,
Mahakasyapa, Mahakatyayana, Mahakausthila, Revata, Suddhipanthaka, Nanda,
Ananda, Rahula, Gavampati, Pindola-bharadvaja, Kalodayin, Mahakaphina,
Vakkula, Aniruddha, and others such as these, all great disciples; together
with all the Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas: Dharma Prince Manjusri, Ajita Bodhisattva,
Gandhastin Bodhisattva, Nityodyukta Bodhisattva, and others such
as these, all great Bodhisattvas; and to-gether with Sakra, chief among
gods, and the numberless great multitudes from all the heavens.

At that time the Buddha told the Elder Sariputra, "Passing from here
through hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands to the West, there
is a world called Ultimate Bliss. In this land a Buddha called Amitabha
right now teaches the Dharma. Sariputra, for what reason is this land called
Ultimate Bliss? All living beings of this country endure none of
the suf-ferings, but enjoy every bliss. Therefore, it is called 'Ultimate
Bliss'.

Moreover, Sariputra, this Land of Ultimate Bliss is everywhere surrounded
by seven tiers of railings, seven layers of netting, and seven
rows of trees, all formed from the four treasures and for this reason
named 'Ultimate Bliss'.

Moreover, Sariputra, the Land of Ultimate Bliss has pools of the
seven jewels, filled with the eight waters of merit and virtue.
The bottom of each pool is pure, spread over with golden sand. On the four
sides are stairs of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, and crystal; above are
raised pavilions adorned with gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, mother-or-pearl,
red pearls, and carnelian.

In the pools are lotuses as large as carriage wheels: green colored
of green light; yellow colored of yellow light; red colored of red light;
white colored of white light; subtly, wonderfully, fragrant and pure.

Sariputra, the realization of the Land of Ultimate Bliss is thus meritoriously
adorned.

Moreover Sariputra, in that Buddhaland there is always heavenly music,
and the ground is yellow gold. In the six periods of the day and night
a heavenly rain of mandarava flowers falls, and throughout the clear morning
each living being of this Land, with sacks full of the myriads of wonderful
flowers, makes offerings to the hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhas
of the other directions. At mealtime they return to their own country,
and having eaten, they stroll around,

Sariputra, the realization of the Land of Ultimate Bliss is thus meritoriously
adorned.

Moreover Sariputra, in this country there are al-ways rare and wonderful
varicolored birds: white cranes; peacocks, parrots and egrets
; kalavinkas and two-headed birds . In the six periods of the day
and night the flocks of birds sing forth harmonious and elegant sounds.
Their clear and joyful sounds proclaim the five roots,29 the five powers
the seven Bodhi shares, the eight sage-ly way shares,30 and dharmas such
as these. When living beings of this land hear these sounds, they are alto-gether
mindful31 of the Buddha, mindful of the Dharma, and mindful of the Sangha.

Sariputra, do not say that these birds are born as retribution for their
karmic offenses. For what reason? In this Buddhaland there are no three
evil ways of re-birth.32 Sariputra, in this Buddhaland not even the names
of the three evil ways exist, how much the less their actuality! Desiring
that the Dharma sound be widely proclaimed, Amitabha Buddha by transformation
made this multitude of birds.

Sariputra, in that Buddhaland, when the soft wind blows, the rows of
jewelled trees and jewelled nets give forth subtle and wonderful sounds,
like one hundred thousand kinds of music played at the same time. All those
who hear this sound naturally bring forth in their hearts mindfulness of
the Buddha, mindfulness of the Dharma, and mindfulness of the Sangha.

Sariputra, the realization of the Land of Ultimate Bliss is thus meritoriously
adorned.

Sariputra, what do you think? Why is this Buddha called Amitabha? Sariputra,
the brilliance of that Buddha's light is measureless, illumining the lands
of the ten directions everywhere without obstruction; for this reason he
is called Amitabha.33

Moreover Sariputra, the life of that Buddha and that of his people extends
for measureless limitless asankhyeya kalpas; for this reason he is called
Amitayus.34 And Sariputra, since Amitabha realized Buddhahood, ten kalpas
have passed.

Moreover Sariputra, that Buddha has measureless limitless "sound-hearer"
disciples,35 all Arhats, their number incalculable; thus also is the assembly
of Bodhi-sattvas.

Sariputra, the realization of the Land of Ultimate Bliss is thus meritoriously
adorned.

Moreover Sariputra, those living beings born in the Land of Ultimate
Bliss are all avaivartika.36 Among them are many who in this very life
will dwell in Buddhahood.37 Their number is extremely many, it is incalculable
and only in measureless, limitless asankhyeya37 kalpas could it be spoken.

Sariputra, those living beings who hear should vow, 'I wish to be born
in that country.' And why? Those who thus attain are all superior and good
people, all coming together in one place. Sariputra, one cannot have few
good roots, blessings, virtues, and causal connections to attain birth
in that Land.

Sariputra, if there is a good man or good woman who hears spoken 'Amitabha
Buddha' and holds the name, whether for one day, two days, three, four,
five days, six days, as long as seven days, with one heart uncon-fused,
when this person approaches the end of life, be-fore him will appear Amitabha
Buddha and all the assem-bly of Holy Ones. When the end comes, his heart
is without inversion; in Amitabha Buddha's Land of Ultimate Bliss he will
attain rebirth. Sariputra, because I see this benefit, I speak these words:
If living beings hear this spoken they should make the vow, 'I will be
born in that land.'

Sariputra, as I now praise the inconceivable bene-fit from the merit
and virtue of Amitabha Buddha, thus in the East are also Aksothya Buddha,38
Sumeru Appearance Buddha,39 Great Sumeru Buddha,40 Sumeru Light Buddha,41
Won-derful Sound Buddha,42 all Buddhas such as these, number-less as Ganges'
sands. In his own country each brings forth the appearance of a vast and
long tongue, every-where covering the three thousand great thousand worlds,43
and speaks the sincere and actual words, 'All you living beings should
believe, praise, and hold in reverence the inconceivable merit and virtue44
of this Sutra of the Mindful One of Whom All Buddhas Are Protective.'45

Sariputra, in the Southern world are Sun Moon Lamp Buddha,46 Well-Known
Light Buddha,47 Great Blazing Shoulders Buddha,48 Sumeru Lamp Buddha,49
Measureless Vigor Buddha,50 all Buddhas such as these, numberless as Ganges
sands. In his own country each brings forth the appearance of a vast and
long tongue, everywhere covering the three thousand great thousand worlds,
and speaks the sincere and actual words, 'All you living beings should
believe, praise, and hold in reverence the inconceivable merit and virtue
of this Sutra of the Mindful One of Whom All Buddhas Are Protective.'

Sariputra, in the Western world are Measureless Life Buddha,51 Measureless
Appearance Buddha,52 Measureless Curtain Buddha,53 Great Light Buddha,54
Great Brightness Buddha,55 Jewelled Appearance Buddha,56 Pure Light Buddha,57
all Buddhas such as these, numberless as Ganges sands. In his own country
each brings forth the appearance of a vast and long tongue, everywhere
covering the three thousand great thousand worlds, and speaks the sincere
and actual words, 'All you living beings should believe, praise, and hold
in reverence the inconceivable merit and virtue of this Sutra of the Mindful
One of Whom All Buddhas Are Protective.'

Sariputra, in the Northern world are Blazing Shoulders Buddha,58 Most
Victorious Sound Buddha,59 Hard to Injure Buddha,60 Sun Birth Buddha,61
Net Brightness Buddha,62 all Buddhas such as these, numberless as Ganges
sands. In his own country each brings forth the appearance of a vast and
long tongue, everywhere covering the three thousand great thousand worlds,
and speaks the sincere and actual words, 'All you living beings should
believe, praise, and hold in reverence the inconceivable merit and virtue
of this Sutra of the Mindful One of Whom All Buddhas Are Protective.'

Sariputra, in the world below are Lion Buddha,63 Well-Known Buddha,64
Famous Light Buddha,65 Dharma Buddha,66 Dharma Curtain Buddha,67 Dharma
Maintaining Buddha,68 all Buddhas such as these, numberless as Ganges sands.
In his own country each brings forth the appearance of a vast and long
tongue, everywhere covering the three thousand great thousand worlds, and
speaks the sincere and actual words, 'All you living beings should believe,
praise, and hold in reverence the inconceivable merit and virtue of this
Sutra of the Mindful One of Whom All Buddhas Are Protective.'

Sariputra, in the world above are Pure Sound Buddha,69 King of Past
Lives Buddha,70 Superior Fragrance Buddha, 71 Fragrant Light Buddha,72
Great Blazing Shoulders Buddha,73 Vari-colored Jewels and Flower Adornment
Body Buddha,74 Sala Tree King Buddha,75 Jewelled Flower Virtue Buddha,76
Vision of all Meaning Buddha,77 Such as Mt. Sumeru Buddha,78 all Buddhas
such as these, numberless as Ganges sands. In his own country each brings
forth the appearance of a vast and long tongue, everywhere covering the
three thousand great thousand worlds, and speaks the sincere and actual
words, 'All you living beings should believe, praise, and hold in reverence
the inconceivable merit and virtue of this Sutra of the Mindful One of
Whom All Buddhas Are Protective.

Sariputra, what do you think? Why is it called Sutra of the Mindful
One of Whom All Buddhas Are Protective? Sariputra, if a good man or good
woman hears this Sutra and holds to it, and hears the names of all these
Buddhas, this good man or woman will be the Mind-ful One of whom all Buddhas
are protective, and will irreversibly attain to anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
There-fore, Sariputra, all of you should believe and accept my words, and
those which all Buddhas speak.

Sariputra, if there are people who have already made the vow, who now
make the vow, or who are about to make the vow, 'I desire to be born in
Amitabha's Country', these people whether born in the past, now being born,
or to be born in the future, all will irreversibly attain to anuttara-samyak-sambodhi.
Therefore, Sariputra, all good men and good women, if they are among those
who have faith, should make the vow, 'I will be born in that country.'

Sariputra, just as I am now one who praises the merit and virtue of
all Buddhas, all those Buddhas equally praise my inconceivable merit and
virtue saying these words, 'Sakyamuni Buddha can complete extremely rare
and difficult deeds. In the Saha Land, in the evil time of the five turbidities,79
in the midst of the kalpa turbidity, the view turbidity, the affliction
turbidity, the living beings turbidity, and the life turbidity, he can
attain anuttara-samyak-sambodhi and for the sake of living beings, speak
this Dharma which in the whole world is hard to believe.'

Sariputra, you should know that I, in the evil time of the five turbidities,
practice these difficult deeds, attain anuttara-samak-sambodhi and for
all the world speak this dharma, difficult to believe, extremely difficult!"

After the Buddha spoke this Sutra, Sariputra and all the Bhiksus, all
the gods, men, and asuras, and others from all the worlds, hearing what
the Buddha had said, joyously welcomed, faithfully accepted, bowed and
withdrew.

END OF THE BUDDHA SPEAKS OF AMITABHA SUTRA

********************

NOTES

NOTES TO THE INTRODUCTION

1.

2 is one
of the more important of Chinese Buddhist sects.

3.

4. In China the Sutra is also known as

5. Conze (1958) translates from the Sanskrit 'miraculously born':
"Those who are miraculously born, and appear all at once, without conception
or embryonic growth, with all their limbs fully grown from the very start.
Miraculous or ap-paritional birth is the lot of gods. infernal beings,
beings in the in-termediary world and Never-returners." (p. 25) The DIAMOND
SUTRA lists ten different kinds of birth, the SURANGAMA SUTRA, twelve.
In Sukhavati transformation birth is in a lotus. There are only males,
for females reborn there have male transformation bodies.

6. Muller (1894, p. 2).

7. Takakusu (1894, p. 165).

8.
is one of the twelve sutra division`. Most sutras contain most or all of
the twelve divisions. To my knowledge, only the small SUKHAVATI-VYUHA is
entirely composed of the "self-spoken" division.

9. See the last lines of the Sutra text.

10. In both India and China sutras and other 'sacred' texts were almost
always printed and studied with an authoritative commentary. Study-ing
such texts without a commentary was practically unheard of. Un-fortunately,
none of the previous Western publications on the Sutra have made much of
a beginning in this direction. However, nothing is to be gained in dwelling
on the shortcomings of pioneering effort. For information on previous editions
see Appendix A.

NOTES TO THE TRANSLATION

1. ‘The Buddha
speaks of (about)' is included as part of the title to indicate that the
Sutra was spoken by Sakyamuni Buddha about Amitabha Buddha. It is then
clear that Ami-tabha Buddha did not speak the Sutra.

2.

3. Anattapindika, the Chinese is

4.
The Chinese can also be interpreted as meaning 'those in the Assembly who
had ‘knowledge'.

5. The text gives
(Constant Vig-or). All the rest of the list of Arhats and Bodhisattvas
is given in Sanskrit transliteration.

6.
sakro-devanam-indra.

7. means either heavens or gods (devas).

8. Sukhavati.

9. Sattva.

10.

. is usually equivalent to the Sanskrit vedana
(feeling), here it is translated as
.

11. Vedika.

12. Kimkinijala.

13. Talapamkti.

14. Puskarini.

15. Most Chinese editions list gold,
silver, lapis lazuli,

crystal, mother of pearl,
red pearl, and carnelian. There is some controversy
about the identification of these items. The Sanskrit list is suvarna,
rupya, vaidurya, sphatika, musaragalva, rohita-mukta, and asmagarbha.

16. The eight waters of merit and vir-tue are listed in the Hsuan Tsang

edition:

(pure; cool; sweet; soft; moist; peaceful; when drunk get rid of hunger,
thirst, etc., measureless calamities, after drinking one is able to make
grow and nourish all roots). See also Muller (1894, p. 93), Beal (1871,
p. 379).

17. is usually
translated simply merit, however, since the two char-acters are often explained
separ-ately, they are individually trans-lated

18. . The Sanskrit text has hamsa.

19. Mayura.

20. Suka.

21. Sari, often identified with the maina bird, probably the Indian
egret.

22. Kalavinka; its sound is said to be heard even in the egg.

23. Jivajivaka; the Chinese
is literally "birds with collect-ivie lives."

24. ; Sanskrit indriya (faculties).
The five are faith, vigour, mindfulness, samadhi, and wisdom.

25. The five powers are simply the powers of faith, vigour, mindful-ness
samadhi, and wisdom.

26.
are better known as the 'seven wings of enlightenment', a translation from
the Sanskrit. They are mindfulness, investiga-tion into dharmas, vigour,
joy, tranquillity, samadhi, and re-linquishing.

27. Also known as the Eightfold Noble Path: right views, right thought,
right speech, right conduct, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness,
and right samadhi.

The five roots, the five powers, the seven Bodhi shares and the eight
sagely way shares are part of the 37 limbs of enlightenment. The 'fours'
are not mentioned here: four applications of mindfulness; four right efforts;
four bases of psychic power.

28. means mindfulness, thought,
and/or recitation.

29. Animals, hungry ghosts and hells—the lower three gati.

30. .

31. I.e., measureless light.

32. I.e., measureless life.

33. Sravakas; they heard the sound of the Buddha and awakened to the
Way.

34. They were 'irreversible', i.e., beyond the seventh bhumi.

35. The Chinese is ambiguous.

36. Asankhyeya also means limitless,

37.

38. The following names are all translated rather than transliterated.

39. Merudhvaja.

40 Mahameru.

41 Meruprabhasa.

42. Sughosa.

43. The three thousand means a thousand cubed, i.e., the great trichiliocosm.
Edward Conze (1961, p. 3) has a similar passage: "Thereupon the Lord on
that occasion put out his tongue. With it he covered the great trichiliocosm
and many hundreds of thousands of niyutas of kotis of rays issued from
it."

44. See note #17

45.

46. Candrasuryapradipa.

47. Yasahprabha.

48. Mahaciskamdha.

49. Merupradipa.

50. Arantavirya.

51. Amitayus.

52. Amitaskamdha.

53. Amitadhavaja.

54. Mahaprabha.

55. Maharasmiprabha.

56. Maharatnaketu.

57. Suddharasmi.

58. Maharcislcamdha.

59. Dumdubhisvaranirghosa.

60. Duspradharsa.

61. Adityasambhava.

62. Jalemiprabha.

63. Simha.

64. Yasas.

65. Yasahprabha.

66. Dharma.

67. Dharmadhvaja.

68. Dharmadhara.

69. Brahmaghosa.

70. Naksatraraja.

71. Gamdhottama.

72. Gamdhaprabhasa.

73. Maharciskamdha.

74. Ratnakusumasampuspitagatra.

75. Salendraraga.

76. Ratnotpalasri.

77. Sarvarthadarsa.

78. Sumerukalpa.

79.
.

- wong chee tat :)