地藏菩薩本願經 如來讚歎品

In the first five chapters it is mostly not the Buddha who speaks — Mañjuśrī asks, Samantabhadra requests, the Four Heavenly Kings ask, and the Buddha answers.

This chapter opens with no one asking. The Buddha raises his whole body and sends forth light, gives forth a great sound, and then says: listen to me today as I extol and praise Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.

In a sūtra, the Buddha praises someone of his own accord.

The Starting Point Is Set Very Low

The first thing the Buddha says in answer to Universally Broad sets the threshold astonishingly low: of those who hear that name, whoever joins the palms, or praises, or bows, or yearns in longing passes beyond thirty kalpas of offences.

Join the palms once, say one word of praise, make one bow, hold him in mind for a moment. Four things, and not one of them is hard.

The passage on sculpting and painting the image is lower still. Earth, stone, glue, lacquer, gold, silver, copper, iron — all eight materials count; and all that is asked is one gaze and one bow — look at him once, bow to him once.

In the passage on being weary of a woman’s body, what the sūtra promises is not a change of body but a change of birthplace. And immediately after it leaves one sentence of exception: unless it be by the power of a compassionate vow, that she must take a woman’s body in order to deliver beings.

There is a road for those who are weary of it, and a road for those who are not, and one who deliberately takes it on is counted a third kind again.

A Sick Person’s Bed

The longest passage in this chapter is about someone long sick: he lies long upon bed and pillow, seeking to live and seeking to die and getting neither; at night he dreams of evil ghosts and of his own household’s kin; as the days and months and years go deep, he cries out in pain in his sleep.

The sūtra says that this is a confrontation upon the paths of karma whose heavier and lighter have not yet been settled, and then adds one line: the worldly eyes of men and women cannot tell such a matter apart.

Not being able to tell is the ordinary condition. The sūtra does not require anyone to see clearly first before he is permitted to act.

What it gives is three things that can simply be done: read the sūtra aloud once before the images; take what the sick person holds dear and call out aloud, in his presence, that it is given away; and then declare it thus three times to the sick person, and let him hear it and know it.

The same words said three times, and he must hear them with his own ears. And even when the consciousnesses are already scattered and the breath already spent, within seven days one still only declares it aloud and reads the sūtra aloud.

If the sickness lifts, that is one road; if it does not, that is a road as well. The sūtra does not give only the first.

A Calendar

What it gives at the last is a calendar.

The first day of the month, the eighth, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, the eighteenth, the twenty-third, the twenty-fourth, the twenty-eighth, the twenty-ninth, and on to the thirtieth. Ten days.

The sūtra says that on these days the several offences are gathered together and their heaviness and lightness settled, and that the beings of Jambudvīpa, in every stirring of movement and every rising of a thought, have nothing that is not karma and nothing that is not offence.

On these ten days: read this sūtra once through.

A calendar that promises a great fruit, and the one act it asks for is this.

The Buddha Did Not Choose

At the last Universally Broad asks the name of the sūtra, and the Buddha gives three: one name is the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha, another the Original Practice of Kṣitigarbha, another the Sūtra of the Power of Kṣitigarbha’s Original Pledge.

The Buddha did not choose. Those who gathered the sūtra chose the first.

And of the benefits this chapter promises, the smallest slot is written at the very end: even those who hear three characters or five characters of this sūtra, or a single verse or a single line.

Three characters count too.

Śikṣānanda’s translation, made under the Tang, of the chapter “The Tathāgata’s Praise” in The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Taishō T13n0412, the sixth chapter of Fascicle One, from the chapter title down to the end of Fascicle One. The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔1 · The title of the chapter〕（0782b20）The Tathāgata’s Praise, Chapter Six.

〔2 · He raises his whole body and sends forth light · he gives forth a great sound〕（0782b21）At that time the World-Honored One raised his whole body and sent forth a great light, illumining everywhere the buddha-worlds as many as a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of sands of the Ganges; and he gave forth a great sound, proclaiming to all the bodhisattva-mahāsattvas of every buddha-world, and to the devas, nāgas, ghosts, spirits, humans, non-humans, and the rest: “Listen to me today as I extol and praise Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva: how in the worlds of the ten directions he manifests the great and inconceivable power of awesome spiritual might and of compassion, and rescues and guards in every matter of guilt and suffering.

〔3 · After my extinction, guard this sūtra〕（0782b26）After my extinction, you bodhisattvas and great beings, and the devas, nāgas, ghosts, spirits, and the rest, are to set out every kind of skillful means and guard this sūtra, so that all beings may realize the bliss of nirvāṇa.”

〔4 · Universally Broad asks him to speak of the causes and fruits that benefit humans and gods〕（0782b28）When these words had been spoken, there was in the assembly a bodhisattva named Universally Broad, who joined his palms in reverence and said to the Buddha: “Today I have seen the World-Honored One praise Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva as having such inconceivable and great awesome spiritual virtue. I pray only that the World-Honored One will expound, for the beings of ages to come in the time of the Dharma’s ending, the matters of the causes and fruits by which Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva benefits humans and gods, so that the eightfold host of devas and nāgas, and the beings of ages to come, may all receive the Buddha’s words upon their heads.”

〔5 · He enjoins them to listen and consents to speak · they gladly wish to hear〕（0782c04）At that time the World-Honored One said to the bodhisattva Universally Broad and to the fourfold assembly and the rest: “Listen closely! Listen closely! I shall speak for you in brief of the matters of the blessed merit by which Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva benefits humans and gods.”（0782c06）Universally Broad said: “Yes indeed, World-Honored One! We gladly wish to hear.”

〔6 · The blessing of hearing the name, joining the palms, praising, bowing, and yearning〕（0782c07）The Buddha said to the bodhisattva Universally Broad: “In ages to come, if there be a good man or a good woman who hears the name of this Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva — whether one who joins the palms, or one who praises, or one who bows, or one who yearns in longing — that person passes beyond thirty kalpas of offences.

〔7 · Sculpting and painting the image · one gaze, one bow〕（0782c10）Universally Broad! If there be a good man or a good woman who either paints his image in colors, or who with earth, stone, glue, and lacquer, with gold, silver, copper, and iron, fashions this bodhisattva — let such a one but gaze upon him once and bow to him once, and that person shall be born a hundred times over in the Thirty-Three Heaven and return again, and shall never fall into the evil destinies. Should the blessings of the heavens be spent, he will be born down among humans and still be a king, and will not lose the great benefit.

〔8 · Weary of a woman’s body · making offerings day after day without falling back〕（0782c14）If there be a woman who is weary of the body of a woman and with all her heart makes offerings to a painted image of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and to images of earth, stone, glue, lacquer, copper, iron, and the rest, doing so day after day without falling back, and constantly making her offerings with flowers, incense, food and drink, clothing, silk damask (damask of the five colors), banners and pennants (the larger sort of pennant is called a banner; both are implements of offering), money, and treasures —

〔9 · When the woman’s body of this one recompense is spent〕（0782c17）this good woman, when the woman’s body of this one recompense is spent, shall through a hundred thousand myriad kalpas never again be born in a world that has women in it — how much less receive a woman’s body again?

〔10 · Unless it be by the power of a compassionate vow〕（0782c19）Unless it be by reason of the power of a compassionate vow, that she must take a woman’s body in order to deliver beings. By the strength of such offering to Kṣitigarbha, and by the strength of that merit, for a hundred thousand myriad kalpas she does not receive a woman’s body.

〔11 · Weary of being ugly and much sick · gazing and bowing with wholehearted mind〕（0782c21）Again, Universally Broad! If there be a woman weary of being ugly and much sick, let her only gaze and bow with a wholehearted and sincere mind before an image of Kṣitigarbha for the space of a single meal (shiqing: the time of taking one meal — the short is used to set off the long), and that person, through a thousand myriad kalpas, shall be full and complete in the features of every body she receives.

〔12 · Not weary of a woman’s body · always a king’s daughter〕（0782c23）This ugly woman, if she is not weary of a woman’s body, shall then through a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of births constantly be a king’s daughter, and a king’s consort, and a daughter of the great clans of ministers and of great elders; upright in the birth she receives, and full and complete in every feature. Because of her wholehearted and sincere mind, she gazes upon Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva and bows, and the blessing she gains is such as this.

〔13 · Music and songs of praise · ghosts and spirits guard day and night〕（0782c27）Again, Universally Broad! If there be a good man or a good woman able to make every kind of music before the bodhisattva’s image, and to sing praises, and to make offerings of incense and flowers, and even to exhort one person or to exhort many — persons such as these, in the present age and in ages to come, shall constantly have a hundred thousand ghosts and spirits guarding them day and night, who will not let an evil matter so much as reach their ears; how much less shall they in their own persons meet with any sudden calamity?

〔14 · The marks of mockery and slander〕（0783a02）Again, Universally Broad! In ages to come, if there be an evil person, or an evil spirit, or an evil ghost, who sees a good man or a good woman take refuge in, make offerings to, praise, and gaze upon and bow to the image of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and who then idly gives rise to mockery and slander, saying that there is in it no merit and no benefit; or who bares the teeth in a laugh; or who complies to the face and objects behind the back; or who exhorts others to object along with him; or who objects alone; or who objects together with many; or who, for the space of even a single thought, gives rise to mockery and slander.

〔15 · The recompense of mockery and slander · Avīci and the three evil destinies〕（0783a07）A person such as this — though the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa should all pass into extinction, the recompense of his mockery and slander would still be in the Avīci Hell, where he receives the heaviest of offences.（0783a09）When that kalpa has passed, only then does he receive the body of a hungry ghost; and after a further thousand kalpas, he receives the body of an animal; and after yet another thousand kalpas, he at last obtains a human body. And though he receives a human body, he is poor and lowly, not whole in his faculties, and for the most part evil karma comes and knots up his mind, so that before long he falls into the evil destinies again.

〔16 · A closing “how much more” · how much more one who gives rise to evil views besides〕（0783a12）Therefore, Universally Broad! If mocking and slandering another’s offering gains a recompense such as this, how much more one who gives rise besides to evil views and destroys?

〔17 · Long sickness and its evil signs〕（0783a13）Again, Universally Broad! If in ages to come there be a man or a woman who lies long upon bed and pillow, seeking to live and seeking to die and getting neither; or who dreams at night of evil ghosts and of the kin of his own household; or who roams in dream upon perilous roads; or who is often held down in sleep (to be pressed down while lying asleep and unable to wake is called yanmei), roaming in company with ghosts and spirits; and as the days and months and years go deep, grows ever more wasted and worn, crying out in pain in his sleep, wretched and without joy.

〔18 · The confrontation upon the paths of karma · worldly eyes cannot tell〕（0783a17）All this is a confrontation upon the paths of karma where the heavier and the lighter have not yet been settled, so that either it is hard for him to let go of his lifespan, or he cannot be healed. The worldly, fleshly eyes of men and women cannot tell such a matter apart.

〔19 · Before the images, read this sūtra aloud once〕（0783a19）One should only, before the images of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, read this sūtra aloud once through.

〔20 · Giving away the sick person’s goods · calling it out aloud〕（0783a20）Or take what the sick person holds dear, or clothing and treasures, gardens and estates, houses and dwellings, and before the sick person call out aloud: “I, so-and-so, and the rest, for the sake of this sick person, before the sūtra and the images give away these things: whether in making offerings to the sūtra and the images, or in making images of buddhas and bodhisattvas, or in building stūpas and monasteries, or in lighting oil lamps, or in giving to the permanent dwelling (giving to the resident saṃgha of a monastery).”

〔21 · Declaring it three times to the sick person · aloud within seven days〕（0783a24）Declare it thus three times to the sick person, and let him hear it and know it. Even should his several consciousnesses be already scattered and his breath already spent, then for one day, two days, three days, four days, and on to seven days, one need only declare it aloud and read the sūtra aloud. After this person’s life ends, the heavy offences of calamitous recompense from former lives, and even the five offences of uninterrupted retribution, are forever released; and in the places where he is born he will always know his former lives.

〔22 · How much more one who writes this sūtra himself · sculpts and paints the image himself〕（0783a28）How much more the good man or good woman who writes out this sūtra himself, or teaches another to write it, or himself sculpts and paints the bodhisattva’s image, or even teaches another to sculpt and paint it: the recompense he receives must gain the great benefit.

〔23 · Exhorting those who read, recite, praise, and revere〕（0783b02）Therefore, Universally Broad! If you see anyone reading and reciting this sūtra, or praising this sūtra for the space of even a single thought, or revering it, you must with a hundred thousand kinds of skillful means exhort such persons to be diligent of mind and not to fall back, so that they may gain, in ages to come and in the present, a thousand myriad koṭis of inconceivable merit.

〔24 · Seeing ghosts and spirits and every kind of shape in dream and sleep〕（0783b05）Again, Universally Broad! If in ages to come beings of every sort, whether in dream or in sleep, see ghosts and spirits of every kind and shapes of every kind, now grieving, now weeping, now sorrowing, now sighing, now in dread, now in terror.

〔25 · Kin of former lives in the evil destinies seeking to be rescued〕（0783b07）All these are the fathers and mothers, sons and daughters, younger brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and kinsfolk of one life, ten lives, a hundred lives, a thousand lives past, who are in the evil destinies and have not yet been able to get out, and who have nowhere to look for a power of blessing to rescue them; and so they come to tell their own flesh and blood of former lives, wishing them to devise some means whereby they may leave the evil destinies.

〔26 · Send them to read this sūtra three times or seven times〕（0783b10）Universally Broad! Use your spiritual power to send these kinsfolk, and have them, before the images of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, read this sūtra themselves with a wholehearted and sincere mind, or request another to read it; and the number of readings is three, or else seven. Kinsfolk such as these who are in the evil destinies, once the sound of the recitation has filled out that number, shall thereupon gain release; and even in dream and sleep they shall never be seen again.

〔27 · The lowly and those who are not their own masters · repenting and calling the name〕（0783b14）Again, Universally Broad! If in ages to come there be persons of every sort who are lowly, whether bondmen or bondwomen, and even persons of every sort who are not their own masters, and if, becoming aware of the karma of their former lives, they wish to repent, let them gaze and bow with a wholehearted and sincere mind before the image of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, and within a single seven days call the bodhisattva’s name to the full ten thousand times. Persons such as these, when this one recompense is spent, shall through a thousand myriad births be constantly born into honorable houses, and shall never again pass through the suffering of the three evil destinies.

〔28 · A household newly delivered of a child · reading the sūtra and calling the name within seven days〕（0783b19）Again, Universally Broad! If in ages to come, within Jambudvīpa, among the kṣatriyas (the royal caste), the brahmins, the elders, the laymen of standing, all people whatsoever, and the clans of other surnames, there be one newly delivered of a child, whether a boy or a girl, let them within seven days and early read and recite this inconceivable scripture for the child, and further call the bodhisattva’s name for it to the full ten thousand times. This newborn child, boy or girl, if he has calamitous recompense from former lives, shall thereupon gain release, and be at ease and easy to rear, and his lifespan shall increase; and if he is one born upon the strength of blessings, then his ease and his lifespan shall be increased the more.

〔29 · The ten fast days · the several offences are gathered together〕（0783b25）Again, Universally Broad! If in ages to come beings, on the first day of the month, the eighth day, the fourteenth day, the fifteenth day, the eighteenth day, the twenty-third, the twenty-fourth, the twenty-eighth, the twenty-ninth day, and on to the thirtieth day — on these days and the like, the several offences are gathered together and their heaviness and lightness settled.

〔30 · Every stirring, every rising thought · nothing that is not karma〕（0783b28）The beings of southern Jambudvīpa, in every stirring of movement and every rising of a thought, have nothing that is not karma and nothing that is not offence; how much more when they give free rein to their feelings and kill, steal, commit sexual misconduct, and speak falsely, making a hundred thousand kinds of offence?

〔31 · Reading the sūtra on the ten fast days · no calamity within a hundred yojanas〕（0783c01）If one is able on these ten fast days to read this sūtra once through before the images of the buddhas, the bodhisattvas, and the worthies and sages, then east, west, south, and north within a hundred yojanas there will be no calamity of any kind. In that household, both old and young, in the present and in ages to come, through a hundred thousand years, will forever be free of the evil destinies.

〔32 · One reading each time · no sudden sickness in the present life〕（0783c04）If one is able on the ten fast days to read it through once each time, then in this present life that household will be without any sudden sickness, and clothing and food will be abundant and to spare.

〔33 · Summing up the great awesome spiritual power〕（0783c06）Therefore, Universally Broad! You should know that Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva has such matters of benefit as these, from a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of great awesome spiritual power, inexpressible in number.

〔34 · Those of Jambudvīpa have the affinity · hearing the name, seeing the image, three characters or five〕（0783c08）The beings of Jambudvīpa have a great affinity with this great being. Of these beings, those who hear the bodhisattva’s name, who see the bodhisattva’s image, or who hear even three characters or five characters of this sūtra, or a single verse or a single line, gain in the present a rare and wondrous ease, and in ages to come, through a hundred thousand myriad births, are constantly upright in form and born into honorable houses.”

〔35 · Universally Broad asks the name of the sūtra〕（0783c11）At that time the bodhisattva Universally Broad, having heard the Buddha Tathāgata extol and praise Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva to the end, knelt in the Hu manner with palms joined (hugui is also rendered “alternate kneeling,” the name coming from the three places that rise up — the two knees and the head; that is, the right knee is set to the ground), and said again to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! I have long known that this great being has such inconceivable spiritual power and such power of great vows. It was for the sake of the beings of ages to come, that they might know the benefit, that I asked the Tathāgata; yes indeed, I receive it upon my head. World-Honored One! By what name should this sūtra be called? How am I to spread it abroad?”

〔36 · The three names of this sūtra · spread it according to his vow〕（0783c16）The Buddha said to Universally Broad: “This sūtra has three names: one name is the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha, another the Original Practice of Kṣitigarbha, another the Sūtra of the Power of Kṣitigarbha’s Original Pledge. Because this bodhisattva, over kalpas long past, has made great and weighty vows to benefit beings, you are therefore to spread it abroad according to his vow.”

〔37 · He bows and withdraws〕（0783c19）When Universally Broad had heard this, he joined his palms in reverence, bowed, and withdrew.

〔38 · The title at the end of the fascicle〕（0783c21）The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Fascicle One.

The only commentary on this sūtra now extant that runs through it phrase by phrase is the Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva in six fascicles, by Lingcheng, the śramaṇa styled Qinglian, of the Qing. The first five chapters set out the master who transforms and the capacities that are transformed; at this chapter he opens a new great division: 「大章第三，明度脫緣分」—“The third great section: making plain the conditions of deliverance.” 〔X21n0384 0706b17〕, and divides it in two — 「初、化主放光讚歎；二、閻王興問讚歎」—“First, the master of transformation sends forth light and praises; second, King Yama raises a question and praises.” 〔X21n0384 0706b17〕. This chapter is the first of the two, and beneath it there is a further division: 「初、世尊讚歎功德；二、地藏利益存亡」—“First, the World-Honored One praises his merit; second, Kṣitigarbha benefits the living and the dead.” 〔X21n0384 0706b22〕; so that in his outline this chapter and the next are the two halves of one thing. The outline within the chapter runs: 「二、品文，二。初、如來歎慈悲事；二、普廣請利益事」—“Second, the text of the chapter, in two: first, the Tathāgata praises the matter of compassion; second, Universally Broad asks about the matter of benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0706b24〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

The Buddha Opens His Own Mouth to Praise Someone

In the first five chapters it is mostly not the Buddha who speaks: Mañjuśrī asks, King Sovereign in Samādhi asks, the Four Heavenly Kings ask, Samantabhadra requests, and the Buddha answers. This chapter opens with no one asking. The Buddha raises his whole body and sends forth light, gives forth a great sound, and then says: listen to me today as I extol and praise Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.

That the Buddha should praise a bodhisattva of his own accord is a thing that itself requires a reason. The commentator of old cites a question and answer from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom and puts the question to himself: the buddhas do not cling to the world, and look upon outsiders, evil persons, bodhisattvas, and arhats all alike without difference — why then single out one person for praise? The answer is: 「佛雖無吾我，無有憎愛，於一切法，心無所著」—“Although the Buddha has no I and no mine, and neither hatred nor love, and his mind clings to nothing in any dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0707b18〕, yet he pities beings and with a mind of great kindness and compassion guides them all, and therefore distinguishes the good and gives them praise; and moreover 「以佛讚歎故，無量眾生，愛樂菩薩，恭敬供養，後皆成就佛道」—“because the Buddha praises him, measureless beings love and delight in the bodhisattva, revere him and make offerings to him, and afterwards all accomplish the way of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0707b21〕

The praise is not for the sake of the one who is praised. It is for the sake of those who hear it.

As for what is praised, the sūtra itself says only one thing: that in the worlds of the ten directions he manifests the great and inconceivable power of awesome spiritual might and of compassion, and rescues and guards in every matter of guilt and suffering. Here a question may be put: why does the Buddha not praise his merit in the six perfections, but praise only the power of awesome spiritual might and of compassion? The reading handed down raises this question head on — 「問：佛何以不讚歎地藏六度功德，而獨讚歎威神慈悲之力乎」—“Question: why does the Buddha not praise Kṣitigarbha’s merit in the six perfections, but praise only the power of his awesome spiritual might and compassion?” 〔X21n0383 0648c19〕; and the answer it cites comes from the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom: 「眾生有二種：一者樂善法，二者樂善法果報」—“Beings are of two kinds: the first delight in good dharmas, the second delight in the fruits and recompense of good dharmas.” 〔X21n0383 0648c20〕, and therefore 「為樂善法者，讚歎諸功德；為樂善法果報者，讚歎大神力」—“for those who delight in good dharmas, the several merits are praised; for those who delight in the fruits and recompense of good dharmas, the great spiritual power is praised.” 〔X21n0383 0648c21〕

What the hearers want is the recompense, and so what is praised is the power. What is praised is not a station of fruition but the business of saving people — 「但慈悲之道，救拔為先；菩薩之懷，愍濟為用」—“Only, in the way of kindness and compassion, rescue comes first; in a bodhisattva’s heart, pity and relief are its function.” 〔X21n0384 0707a10〕

Light Is a Manifesting, Sound Is a Speaking

The sending forth of light and the giving forth of sound are both present in this chapter, and in the same order as in the first chapter: first the manifesting, then the speaking.

The reading handed down takes this light as having something to signify: 「顯大地同成智地，會羣生咸入無生」—“to show that the great earth becomes together the ground of wisdom, and to gather the flock of beings so that all enter the unborn.” 〔X21n0384 0706c08〕 The name Kṣitigarbha takes its sense from earth, and this light that shines across the sand-worlds shines upon that same character.

For the sound there is scripture and treatise to go by. 「大音聲，乃三十二相梵聲相」—“The great sound is the mark of the brahmā-voice among the thirty-two marks.” 〔X21n0384 0706c15〕 — it is one of the Buddha’s thirty-two marks, not a voice raised for the occasion. The commentator of old cites the five kinds of voice of the Brahmā King as the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom sets them out: 「其一、深如雷；二、清徹遠聞，聞者悅樂；三、入心敬愛；四、諦了易解；五、聽者無厭」—“the first, deep as thunder; the second, clear and penetrating, heard far off, and those who hear it are glad; the third, it enters the mind and is revered and loved; the fourth, it is exact and plain and easily understood; the fifth, the hearer never wearies of it.” 〔T25n1509 0091a09〕 Deep, far-carrying, lovable, easy to understand, never wearying — three of the five speak of the hearer.

And this sound is addressed to two companies. The commentator of old divides it plainly: 「告諸菩薩者，為流通是經。告天龍等，為擁護是經也」—“That he addresses the bodhisattvas is for the transmission of this sūtra; that he addresses the devas and nāgas and the rest is for the guarding of this sūtra.” 〔X21n0384 0706c20〕 The bodhisattvas are charged with passing it on, the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits with protecting it. One sentence, two commissions.

The sūtra text says only the four characters 「聽吾今日」 — listen to me today — yet the commentator stops a moment upon the character 「聽」, listen: 「聽者，耳之力」—“Listening is the power of the ear.” 〔X21n0384 0706c21〕; what the eye meets is much, and yet it does not enter a person as deeply as the ear does, because 「視散而聽收」—“seeing scatters, hearing gathers in.” 〔X21n0384 0706c23〕 Seeing spreads out; hearing draws in.

What this chapter asks people to do from beginning to end is precisely to read, to recite, to sing, to call the name — all of it upon the ear.

A Sūtra Is Handed Over into Keeping

After the sending forth of light the Buddha at once gives instruction for a matter after his own passing: after my extinction, you bodhisattvas and great beings, and the devas, nāgas, ghosts, and spirits, are to set out every kind of skillful means and guard this sūtra, so that all beings may realize the bliss of nirvāṇa.

Why should a sūtra need to be 「衛護」, guarded? The commentator of old answers here by citing a passage: 「譬如栴檀，能療人病。一切眾生，莫不願得」—“It is as with sandalwood: it can heal people’s sickness, and there is no being who does not wish to obtain it.” 〔X21n0384 0707a21〕; and yet 「有人大得栴檀香樹，束薪賣之，無有買者」—“a man came by a great sandalwood tree, and bound it up as firewood to sell, and there was no one who would buy.” 〔X21n0384 0707a22〕 Someone got a whole sandalwood tree and bundled it up as kindling to sell, and so no one bought it. It is the same with the sūtra: 「此經能令人得道，無不度者」—“this sūtra can bring a person to the Way, and there is none it does not deliver.” 〔X21n0384 0707a23〕, and after the Buddha’s extinction it remains in the world; if no one looks after it, it is like that sandalwood sold for firewood.

The medicine has not gone bad. It is that no one recognizes it as medicine.

So the four characters 「廣作方便」 — set out every kind of skillful means — are not a courtesy. Skillful means is read here as a thing that may not be laid aside — 「方便乃菩薩二利之器，不可須臾暫離」—“Skillful means is the implement of a bodhisattva’s twofold benefit, and may not be set aside for a moment.” 〔X21n0384 0707a17〕

The Name Universally Broad

Next to come forward is the bodhisattva Universally Broad. He appears in this chapter alone in the whole sūtra, and the latter half of this chapter is entirely the Buddha’s answer to his question.

His name is taken apart and given back: 「從心發智，智彌法界，曰普。以智導行，行滿虗空，曰廣」—“Wisdom issues from the mind, and the wisdom fills the dharma-realm: this is called universal. With wisdom he leads his practice, and the practice fills empty space: this is called broad.” 〔X21n0384 0707b11〕 — wisdom reaching everywhere in the dharma-realm is called universal, practice filling empty space is called broad; and 「心是境體，普廣是用」—“the mind is the substance of the object; universal and broad are its function.” 〔X21n0384 0707b12〕

What he asks for the sūtra writes plainly: to expound the matters of the causes and fruits by which Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva benefits humans and gods. The commentator of old holds the two characters 「因果」, cause and fruit, tight: 「正修名因，已得名果」—“What is being cultivated is called the cause; what has been obtained is called the fruit.” 〔X21n0384 0707c06〕, and 「下文章章約人天以明因果」—“the text below, passage upon passage, makes cause and fruit plain in terms of humans and gods.” 〔X21n0384 0707c06〕 — what is spoken of passage by passage below is all the causes and fruits of that one layer, the human and the heavenly.

So this chapter does not speak of the ten grounds or of the three worthy stations. What it speaks of is this: what a person did, and what will come of it.

Counting from One Gaze and One Bow

The first thing the Buddha says in answer has a starting point astonishingly low: whoever hears the name of this Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva — whoever joins the palms, or praises, or bows, or yearns in longing — that person passes beyond thirty kalpas of offences.

To hear the name, to join the palms once, to say one word of praise, to make one bow, to hold him in mind for a moment — five things, and not one of them beyond us. The commentator of old assigns the latter four to the three kinds of action: joining the palms is 「此身業供養」—“this is offering by the action of body.” 〔X21n0384 0708b01〕, praising is 「此口業供養」—“this is offering by the action of speech.” 〔X21n0384 0708b02〕, bowing the head to the ground with the five wheels all rounded 「乃三業普供」—“is a universal offering of all three kinds of action.” 〔X21n0384 0708b03〕, and yearning in longing is 「此意業供養也」—“this is offering by the action of mind.” 〔X21n0384 0708b05〕 Four small things, and body, speech, and mind are all taken up.

And why should the name that is heard have such power? The reading handed down does not take it for a mere token: 「大士之名，萬行萬德莊嚴」—“The name of the great being is adorned with ten thousand practices and ten thousand virtues.” 〔X21n0384 0708a20〕; and the source of that adornment is written most concretely — 「自最初一念救母孝思，便為六道救苦發心根源」—“from the first single thought of filial care to save his mother comes the root and source of the resolve to save from suffering in the six destinies.” 〔X21n0384 0708a20〕 That first thought was only the wish to save one mother, and the resolve to relieve suffering throughout the six destinies grew out of that thought. Only so is the name matched with a simile: 「如耆婆攬草，無非藥者，普能愈病」—“like Jīvaka gathering herbs: there is nothing among them that is not medicine, and all of it can heal sickness.” 〔X21n0384 0708a23〕 — the good physician of old takes up a handful of grass, and not one blade of it is anything but medicine.

The brahmin woman of the introductory section who sold her house and lands to make offerings is where this name comes from. To call this name is to call that one thought.

The passage on sculpting and painting the image speaks more plainly still. The sūtra says only 「一瞻一禮」 — one gaze, one bow — and the commentator of old at once points out the form of the passage: 「此明修因甚少，下明得果極大」—“This makes plain how very little the cause cultivated is; what follows makes plain how very great the fruit obtained is.” 〔X21n0384 0708c09〕 The cause cultivated is as small as it can be made, and the fruit obtained is birth a hundred times over in the Thirty-Three Heaven and never falling into the evil destinies.

And the sūtra even lists the materials: earth, stone, glue, lacquer, gold, silver, copper, iron. The commentator glosses them one by one, and at the last of them says: 「銕於金品最下，而致用為多，民利不可闕也」—“Iron is lowest in rank among the metals, and yet it is put to the most uses; the people’s benefit cannot do without it.” 〔X21n0384 0708c04〕 — iron is the lowest in grade among the metals, and yet the most used, the thing ordinary people cannot do without.

Eight materials set side by side, the costly and the cheap alike counted. Only so can that judgment come down: 「金銀銅銕，價雖貴賤不同，體乃堅剛不異」—“Gold, silver, copper, and iron differ in price as dear and cheap, but in substance they are alike hard and firm.” 〔X21n0384 0708b19〕

The fruit of this passage the sūtra writes as 「猶為國王，不失大利」 — he will still be a king, and will not lose the great benefit. What is the great benefit? Read on the face of it, it is that when the blessings of heaven are spent and he is born down among humans he can still be a king. The reading handed down does not permit a halt here. He first grants the plain layer: taken generally, it is not losing this benefit of making the image and of gazing and bowing; and then he pushes the matter further — 「若深推其意，必以成佛為大利」—“If one pushes its sense deep, the great benefit must be the becoming of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0708c21〕, and cites the Lotus as witness: 「如是諸人等，漸漸積功德，具足大悲心，皆已成佛道」—“Persons such as these, accumulating merit little by little and becoming complete in the mind of great compassion, have all accomplished the way of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0708c22〕 He gathers it up with a further judgment: 「今經欲收無始微善，咸趣菩提」—“This sūtra would gather up the slight good of beginningless time and make it all tend toward awakening.” 〔X21n0384 0708c24〕, 「若已發心，隨有毫善，莫非緣因」—“once the resolve has been aroused, whatever hair’s breadth of good there may be is nothing other than a contributing cause.” 〔X21n0384 0708c24〕

This line is the watershed of the chapter. The fruits promised throughout it are, on the face of them, mostly the blessed recompense of humans and gods — birth in heaven, kingship, an upright appearance, abundant clothing and food. If 「大利」, the great benefit, went no further than kingship, this chapter would be a book for seeking blessings. But the reading handed down reads it as the becoming of a buddha: those human and heavenly recompenses are things along the road, not the end of the road. Every blessing promised in the passages that follow is to be read beneath this one line.

The Passage on Being Weary of a Woman’s Body

The next two passages speak of women. The first is of one weary of a woman’s body who makes offerings with all her heart; the second is of one weary of being ugly and much sick who gazes and bows with a wholehearted mind.

The fruit promised in the first passage the sūtra writes in a most particular way: not a change of body but a change of birthplace — 「盡此一報女身，百千萬劫，更不生有女人世界」 — when the woman’s body of this one recompense is spent, through a hundred thousand myriad kalpas she will never again be born in a world that has women in it. The commentator of old points straight to the place: 「即指西方極樂，一向無有女人」—“This points to Ultimate Bliss in the West, where there have never been women at all.” 〔X21n0384 0709b19〕

The axis of original vows has a sibling sūtra. The eighth great vow of The Sūtra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Buddha, Beryl Radiance Tathāgata runs: 「若有女人，為女百惡之所逼惱，極生厭離，願捨女身」—“If there be a woman oppressed and vexed by the hundred evils of womanhood, who conceives an extreme weariness and wishes to cast off the body of a woman.” 〔T14n0450 0405b05〕, and 「聞我名已，一切皆得轉女成男，具丈夫相」—“having heard my name, all shall be able to turn from woman into man and be complete in the marks of a man.” 〔T14n0450 0405b07〕 The commentator of old himself joined the two places, saying that this passage of our sūtra is 「同藥師願中」—“the same as within the vow of the Medicine Buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0709a07〕 in sense.

Set the two side by side, and this sūtra’s own two layers come out. There what is promised is a turning; here what is promised is never again to be born in such a world; and here there is one sentence more that the other does not have — 「除非慈願力故，要受女身，度脫眾生」 — unless it be by the power of a compassionate vow, that she must take a woman’s body in order to deliver beings. For the weary and for the unweary alike the sūtra leaves a door: some are weary of it and seek release, some are not weary and receive it still, and there is yet a kind who plainly need not receive it and deliberately will. The commentator raises two women as instances: of one, 「此以順愛法門，度眾生也」—“this is delivering beings by the Dharma-gate of going along with love.” 〔X21n0384 0709b22〕, and of the other, 「此以逆愛法門，度眾生也」—“this is delivering beings by the Dharma-gate of going against love.” 〔X21n0384 0709b24〕, and the method in both is 「先以欲鈎牽，後令入佛智」—“first to draw them with the hook of desire, and afterwards to bring them into the wisdom of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0709c02〕

The two sūtras are recorded side by side, with no weighing of higher and lower. What the sūtra itself leaves is that one sentence of exception.

The Two Characters: Wholehearted Mind

The fruit promised in the second passage is stranger still: one has only to 「志心瞻禮，食頃之間」 — gaze and bow with a wholehearted mind for the space of a single meal — before the image, and through a thousand myriad kalpas one’s features are full and complete.

The commentator of old stops here on purpose to give warning: these two characters are 「義深意重，貫於前後，勿輕看過」 — deep in sense and weighty in meaning, running through what goes before and after; do not pass lightly over them. And what is intent? 「志者，心之所至也」—“Intent is that at which the mind arrives.” 〔X21n0384 0710b01〕 — the place the mind reaches.

Then he sets stirring and response in one place: the ugly woman stirs by gazing and bowing, Kṣitigarbha responds by the power of kindness, and at both ends it is one and the same mind; if each clings to his own side, so that grasper and grasped stand apart and ordinary and holy fork away, then stirring and response cannot meet in the Way. Only when, in the very moment of gazing and bowing, one comprehends that grasper and grasped are alike empty, 「則醜婦與地藏，無二無別，功竝由於志心」—“then the ugly woman and Kṣitigarbha are not two and not different, and the merit in both alike comes from the wholehearted mind.” 〔X21n0384 0710b04〕 The weight of that sentence is that it sets the woman who despises her own ugliness in the very same place as the bodhisattva she bows to.

The same passage cites a line of the Ekottarikāgama: 「若欲禮佛者，當來及過去，當觀空無法，是名禮佛義」—“If one would bow to the buddhas, those to come and those past, one should contemplate emptiness and the absence of dharmas: this is what bowing to a buddha means.” 〔X21n0384 0710b06〕

The space of a single meal suffices, not because the time is short or long, but because of whether in that moment our mind has arrived.

Making Music, Singing Praise, and Bringing One Person Along

The sections before this all went by the eye and the body: gazing, bowing, sculpting, painting, making offerings. This section changes the gate — to sound. The sūtra says: to be able, before the bodhisattva’s image, to make every kind of music, and to sing praises, and to make offerings of incense and flowers.

The commentator of old does not let the opening character 「能」, able, pass: 「能者，信善之實」—“Able is the substance of faith in the good.” 〔X21n0384 0710b13〕; one whose faith has no substance cannot do such a thing. Making music takes the hands, singing takes the voice — set beside joining the palms and making a bow, this cannot be hidden.

Singing praises has a name of its own within the Buddhist house. The reading handed down joins the zan of the Middle Land to the bai of the Western Land: 「尋西方之有唄，猶東國之有讚」—“The West has its bai just as the Eastern country has its zan.” 〔X21n0384 0710b22〕; 「讚者從文，以結章；唄者短偈，以流頌」—“Zan follows the text and rounds it into a section; bai is a short verse and lets a chant flow.” 〔X21n0384 0710b23〕 — zan follows the wording and makes a section, bai is a short verse made into a chant. The last line settles it briskly: 「比其事義，名異實同」—“Compare them in matter and in sense: the names differ, the reality is the same.” 〔X21n0384 0710b24〕 Two names, one thing.

Then the sūtra writes a sentence found nowhere else: 「乃至勸於一人多人」—“and even exhorting one person or many.” 〔T13n0412 0782c29〕

This sentence matters. The causes throughout the chapter run downward — hearing the name, joining the palms, one gaze and one bow, the space of a meal, and even a single thought — and every one of them is something a person can finish alone. At this section the sūtra for the first time turns outward: 「不惟信心自為，更以普勸他作，或一或多，隨緣轉化」—“Not only doing it oneself out of a mind of faith, but universally exhorting others to do it, whether one or many, transforming them as conditions allow.” 〔X21n0384 0710c01〕 As for the number exhorted, the sūtra says only one person or many, and sets no threshold at which the count begins; move one, and that is one.

As for why making music should draw down protection, the commentator of old puts the question himself first: 「然作樂供像，何以得鬼神衛護耶」—“But making music as an offering to an image — how does it gain the guarding of ghosts and spirits?” 〔X21n0384 0710c03〕 His answer begins from the Book of Rites: 「禮樂之行乎陰陽，通乎鬼神」—“Rites and music move within the yin and the yang and reach through to the ghosts and spirits.” 〔X21n0384 0710c04〕; and then he fastens it closer — 「況乾闥、緊那皆天帝樂神」—“how much more when the gandharvas and the kiṃnaras are all musician-spirits of the lord of the gods.” 〔X21n0384 0710c06〕 The gandharvas and the kiṃnaras are the spirits who make music in Śakra’s train, and making music before an image falls squarely within their office.

And the fruit the sūtra promises is still upon the ear: constantly to have a hundred thousand ghosts and spirits guarding one day and night, 「不令惡事輒聞其耳」 — not letting an evil matter so much as reach one’s ears.

At one end a voice given out, at the other something not heard. From gate to fruit, this section does the business of the ear.

Three Kinds Who Mock and Slander

The sūtra next writes the reverse side, and writes it in finer detail than the obverse: idly giving rise to mockery and slander, baring the teeth in a laugh, objecting behind the back, exhorting others to object along with one, objecting alone, objecting together with many, and even a single thought that gives rise to mockery and slander. From a crowd’s open ridicule it draws all the way in to one thought in one person’s mind. That last slot is the hardest to see, because it has not even a sound.

Mockery and slander the commentator of old keeps clearly apart: 「譏者，嘲誚之言；毀者，謗壞之事」—“Mockery is a word of derision; slander is the act of defaming and ruining.” 〔X21n0384 0711a10〕; and as for their root: 「譏生忌嫉之心；毀起貪恨之念」—“Mockery is born of a mind of envy; slander arises from a thought of greed and hatred.” 〔X21n0384 0711a11〕, and therefore 「故知心為起惡之源，口乃召禍之本」—“know then that the mind is the source from which evil arises, and the mouth the root that calls down calamity.” 〔X21n0384 0711a12〕

The sūtra raises three kinds: the evil person, the evil spirit, the evil ghost. The commentator asks why they should be envious, and answers most tellingly: 「惡人恐以彼善，形我之惡也」—“The evil person fears that another’s goodness will set off his own evil.” 〔X21n0384 0711a04〕 — afraid that another’s good will show up his own evil; 「惡神恐其出界，失我之眷屬也」—“The evil spirit fears that the man will leave his precincts, and that he will lose one of his own retinue.” 〔X21n0384 0711a05〕 — afraid the man will slip out of his territory; 「惡鬼恐其齋戒，失我之血肉也」—“The evil ghost fears that the man will keep the fast and the precepts, and that he will lose his own flesh and blood.” 〔X21n0384 0711a06〕 — afraid the man will keep the fast and cut off his rations. Three private motives, each unlike the others, and yet 「懷私雖異，為惡是同」—“though the private motives they harbor differ, in doing evil they are the same.” 〔X21n0384 0711a06〕

As for why 「一念」, a single thought, should count as well, the commentator sets down two similes in succession: 「譬夫決江之流，濫觴於甕口；叅天之樹，發蘖乎毫芒」—“It is as when a river bursts its course: the flood begins at a gap the size of a jar’s mouth; and a tree that pierces the sky puts out its first shoot from a hair’s tip.” 〔X21n0384 0711a21〕 — the flood that breaks the dyke starts from a breach the size of a jar’s mouth, and the sky-piercing tree starts from the point of an awn. Then one line gathers it: 「唇口是弓，心慮如弦，音聲如箭，一念如機」—“Lips and mouth are the bow, the mind’s deliberation is the string, the voice is the arrow, and a single thought is the trigger.” 〔X21n0384 0711a22〕

Bow, string, and arrow are all still unmoving; what moves is the trigger.

Three Declarations at the Sickbed

The longest passage in this chapter is about a person long sick.

He lies long upon bed and pillow, seeking to live and seeking to die and getting neither; at night he dreams of evil ghosts and of his household’s kin, or roams perilous roads, or is often held down in sleep; as the days and months and years go deep he grows ever more wasted, and cries out in pain in his sleep. The sūtra explains the cause itself: 「此皆是業道論對，未定輕重」 — all this is a confrontation upon the paths of karma, where the heavier and the lighter have not been settled — the confrontation is going on upon the paths of karma, and the heavier and lighter have not been decided. The reading handed down blocks both ends: 「但未定其罪之輕重，豈便判其人之死生」—“So long as the heaviness or lightness of his offence is not settled, how should the man’s living or dying be judged?” 〔X21n0384 0712a23〕 The one who ought to die cannot for the moment let go of his lifespan; the one who ought not to die drags on unhealed.

And the sūtra at once says something of great importance: the worldly eyes of men and women cannot tell such a matter apart. Not being able to see it is precisely the ordinary condition of this pair of eyes of ours; the sūtra does not require that one see clearly first before being permitted to act.

So what is given below is not a diagnosis but three things that can simply be done: read the sūtra aloud once before the images; take what the sick person holds dear and call out aloud before him that it is given away; declare it three times to the sick person and let him hear it and know it.

Why should the first be read only once? The commentator answers: 「諸佛心者，慈悲為體，能作毉王，善療眾生身心之病」—“The mind of the buddhas has kindness and compassion for its substance; it can act as king of physicians and skillfully heal the sicknesses of beings in body and in mind.” 〔X21n0384 0712b07〕, and 「經是法藥，菩薩是瞻病之人」—“the sūtra is the medicine of Dharma, and the bodhisattva is the one who tends the sick.” 〔X21n0384 0712b08〕; and being medicine of Dharma, then 「金丹一粒，點銕成金，至理一言，革凡成聖」—“a single grain of the golden elixir touches iron and turns it to gold; a single word of the ultimate principle transforms the ordinary into the holy.” 〔X21n0384 0712b10〕

But what, in the end, does reading a sūtra heal? The reading handed down answers this question honestly. He first divides sickness in two: 「世人之病有二種：四大是身病，三毒是心病。身病可用藥，心病須修福」—“The sicknesses of people in the world are of two kinds: the four great elements are the body’s sickness, the three poisons are the mind’s sickness. For the body’s sickness one may use medicine; for the mind’s sickness one must cultivate blessings.” 〔X21n0384 0712b16〕 — earth, water, fire, and wind out of balance is the body’s sickness, greed, hatred, and delusion are the mind’s; for the body’s sickness one takes medicine, for the mind’s one cultivates blessings. He does not say that a sūtra can take the place of medicine: for ordinary cases of cold and fever, 「世醫藥餌，可能療治」—“the physicians of the world and their remedies are able to treat them.” 〔X21n0384 0712b06〕; while what this passage writes of is the sickness of karmic confrontation, 「今是惡業報病，須藉法力方祛」—“this being a sickness of recompense for evil karma, it must be dispelled by relying on the power of the Dharma.” 〔X21n0384 0712b07〕

So the sort of sickness this sūtra heals was never in the apothecary’s shop. That line above, 「業道論對」 — a confrontation upon the paths of karma — speaks of exactly this sort.

Why should the second be spoken aloud in the sick person’s presence? 「對病高唱者，令知代施功德，憶持在心不忘」—“Calling it out aloud before the sick is to let him know the merit given on his behalf, and to keep it in mind and not forget.” 〔X21n0384 0712b22〕 What is given away belongs to the family; what must remember is the sick person’s mind — the merit is for him himself to know. And why should what is given away be 「可愛之物」, what he holds dear? 「今割其愛，斷病之根也」—“To cut away his attachment now is to sever the root of the sickness.” 〔X21n0384 0712b19〕

The third is repetition. The same words must be said three times, and further 「遣令聞知」 — he must be made to hear it and know it; and the sūtra reckons even the time after death into it: even should the several consciousnesses be scattered and the breath be spent, then for one day, two days, three days, four days, and on to seven days, one need only declare it aloud and read the sūtra aloud.

The commentator here separates two cases: 「假令者，謂藉斯施福，病去身安，何善如之」—“‘Even should’ means: if by this giving and blessing the sickness departs and the body is at ease, what good could equal it?” 〔X21n0384 0712c19〕; 「借使大限難逃，世緣永絕」—“and supposing the appointed term cannot be escaped and the bond with this world is forever cut.” 〔X21n0384 0712c20〕, then within seven days one calls it out and reads just the same.

If the sickness lifts, that is one road; if it does not, that is a road as well. The sūtra does not give only the first.

The Kinsfolk Who Come in Dreams

Next comes another passage of dreams. The dreams of this passage are not of the same sort as those of the last, and the reading handed down separates them at the first word: 「此中之夢，與前夢不同」—“The dreams here are not the same as the dreams before.” 〔X21n0384 0713c01〕 — the last passage was the sick man’s own karmic confrontation; this one is kinsfolk of other lives coming to the door.

What is a dream? He cites an old saying: 「形接為事，神遇為夢」—“When forms touch, it is an affair; when spirits meet, it is a dream.” 〔X21n0384 0713c04〕 Waking is bodies coming into contact; in dream it is spirits that meet.

The forms seen the sūtra writes in detail: now grieving, now weeping, now sorrowing, now sighing, now in dread, now in terror. The commentator says in one line what sort of countenance that is — 「悲啼愁歎，親鬼乞憐之狀也」—“Grieving and weeping, sorrowing and sighing: this is the look of ghostly kin begging for pity.” 〔X21n0384 0713c12〕

Why must the road of dreams be taken? Because 「多生眷屬，故現諸形。未接生前，安能念及乎」—“Being kinsfolk of many lives, they therefore manifest in these forms. Never having met in this present life, how could one so much as call them to mind?” 〔X21n0384 0713c17〕 — kin separated by several lives have never once been met in this life, and if they do not come by way of a dream there is no second road open. Their situation is 「或沉地府，或墜鬼倫。經歷長途，出離寡助」—“Some sunk in the earth-prisons, some fallen among the ghosts; they pass along a long road, and there is little help toward getting out.” 〔X21n0384 0713c21〕; 「既失望福救之處，乃遠告多世之親」—“having lost every place from which to hope for blessing and rescue, they call from afar upon kin of many lives ago.” 〔X21n0384 0713c21〕 — only when there is nowhere left to hope do they speak to flesh and blood of another age. The commentator gathers it in a very weighty line: 「此鬼神無聊之極思有求之苦境也」—“This is the bitter state of ghosts and spirits at the last extremity of helplessness, in a thought that has something to ask.” 〔X21n0384 0713c22〕

And then comes the sentence in this chapter that most needs to be seen clearly. Of the business of cultivating blessings for the dead, the commentator first gives a simile: 「故知，為過去父母等作福，如餉遠人」—“Know then that to make blessings for parents and the rest who have passed is like sending provisions to someone far away.” 〔X21n0384 0713c23〕 — like sending grain to a person at a distance.

Provisions sent are sometimes not delivered. He at once cites a sūtra and sets a limit: 「若為亡人修福行布施」—“If one cultivates blessings and practises giving for a dead person.” 〔X21n0384 0713c24〕, 「鬼容得福，以鬼知悔，前身慳貪，故為施時，彼則歡喜」—“a ghost may obtain the blessing, because a ghost knows regret — knows that in his former body he was miserly and greedy — and so when the giving is done for him, he rejoices.” 〔X21n0384 0714a01〕; 「若生餘道，多無得力」—“but if he has been born into one of the other destinies, for the most part no strength is got from it.” 〔X21n0384 0714a02〕

One born among the ghosts receives it — because a ghost himself knows regret, knows that in his former body he was miserly and greedy, and so when the giving is done he rejoices. One born into the other destinies, for the most part, gets no strength from it.

This limit is a beam holding up both this chapter and the next. Cultivating blessings for the dead is the thing this sūtra teaches most diligently, and it has never been a thing that works unconditionally: the blessing cultivated is not a letter certain of delivery, and whether it arrives hangs on which destiny the one who is to receive it has fallen into. The commentator even follows the limit back to infer who it is that this passage writes of — 「今此輩求作方便，願離惡道，恐是餓鬼之類耶」—“These here, who seek that some means be devised and who wish to leave the evil destinies — are they not likely of the hungry-ghost kind?” 〔X21n0384 0714a02〕 Those who come in dreams to ask are likely just the kind that can receive.

The means the sūtra gives is to read this sūtra oneself with a wholehearted mind, or to request another to read it, three times or seven. Why three and seven? 「皆陽數也」—“Both are yang numbers.” 〔X21n0384 0714a10〕; and 「故唯取三、七之數，不取六、八者，以陰數坎陷，非超冥之道耳」—“therefore only the numbers three and seven are taken and not six and eight, because the yin numbers sink and pit downward, and are no way to rise out of the dark.” 〔X21n0384 0714a15〕 — to bring someone out of a dark place, the very numbers used must be of the kind that go upward.

There is one more line easily slipped over: the Buddha does not commit this business to the dead one’s family but to Universally Broad. Why? 「以世間愚人識恩分者少」—“Because among the foolish of the world few recognize what they owe.” 〔X21n0384 0714a06〕, and how much less kin separated by several lives; 「即有念及者，既未識面，縱形夢寐，想不及此」—“and even those who do call them to mind have never seen their faces, so that though they take shape in dream and sleep, the thought does not reach so far.” 〔X21n0384 0714a08〕 — even having dreamed of them, one would not know who they were.

And at the end the sūtra gives a term by which the work may be checked: kinsfolk such as these in the evil destinies, once the sound of the recitation has filled out that number, shall gain release, 「乃至夢寐之中，永不復見」 — and even in dream and sleep they shall never be seen again. The word release is not read here in any recondite way: 「解脫者，離惡道也」—“Release means leaving the evil destinies.” 〔X21n0384 0714a19〕

The dream is a letter. That the dream does not come again is the reply.

Written for Those Who Cannot Be Their Own Masters

The people this chapter has written of so far are mostly people who can act for themselves: who can make an image, who can make offerings, who can give away what they hold dear, who can ask someone to read a sūtra. The section that follows writes of another kind.

The sūtra says: there are persons of every sort who are lowly, whether bondmen or bondwomen, and even persons of every sort who are not their own masters.

The five characters 「諸不自由之人」 — persons of every sort who are not their own masters — the reading handed down deliberately pushes one layer outward: 「非下賤奴婢之流，乃皂隸門舘之類」—“Not the class of lowly bondmen and bondwomen, but the sort who are runners and clerks and household retainers.” 〔X21n0384 0714b10〕 — not those bound by register, but the sort who are hired, supervised, and sent about at another’s word. He writes their days most concretely: 「月有請受，日藉資生」—“By the month they draw their pay; by the day they get their living.” 〔X21n0384 0714b10〕; 「聞呼喚而來，仰其鼻息；聽發遣而去，承其聲光，身不自從，非丈夫矣」—“Hearing the call they come, and look to another’s breath; hearing the dismissal they go, and take their cue from another’s voice and countenance; their bodies do not follow themselves — such a one is not his own man.” 〔X21n0384 0714b11〕 They draw a wage by the month and live from day to day; one call and they must come, one word and they must go, and their bodies are not their own.

And the threshold the sūtra sets is 「覺知宿業，要懺悔者」 — those who become aware of the karma of former lives and wish to repent. The commentator here separates two kinds of people: the unaware sort simply take their days for what they had to be; 「若稍黠慧有覺知者，豈惟哀之，誠欲脫之」—“but one who has a little sharpness of wit and does become aware — he does not merely grieve over it, he genuinely wishes to be free of it.” 〔X21n0384 0714b15〕 — not self-pity merely, but a real wish to get out.

Why should the unfree in particular need to repent? He cites a sūtra for the reason: 「繫屬於他，常有怖畏，不得自在，而造諸惡」—“Bound in subjection to another, constantly in fear, unable to be at their own disposal, they commit every kind of evil.” 〔T16n0663 0337a13〕 Held under another’s control, constantly in fear, unable to decide, they make evil in just this way. This line reads unfreedom as the situation in which karma is made, not as a recompense whose case is already closed.

The two characters for repentance are glossed as well: 「梵語懺摩，此云悔過，華梵雙標也」—“The Sanskrit is transcribed chanmo; here it means to repent of a transgression — the term sets Chinese and Sanskrit side by side.” 〔X21n0384 0714b17〕 — one word made of half Sanskrit and half Chinese. And where in the end does it come down? 「懺悔秪是三善業耳」—“Repentance is nothing but the three good kinds of action.” 〔X21n0384 0714b18〕 Doing good in the three places of body, speech, and mind — that and no more; there is no other contrivance.

The single seven days and the ten thousand recitations are explained too. 「一七者，世數，極於七也」—“A single seven: it is a worldly number, and seven is its limit.” 〔X21n0384 0714b22〕; 「一日念之不應，念之七日，必遂所求」—“If calling for one day brings no response, call for seven days, and what is sought will surely be granted.” 〔X21n0384 0714b22〕 The number ten thousand is a matched pair: 「滿萬徧者，表祛萬惡，集萬善也」—“To fill out ten thousand recitations signifies driving off ten thousand evils and gathering ten thousand goods.” 〔X21n0384 0714c01〕 — not a quota of work, but ten thousand evils set against ten thousand goods.

Not one of the causes in this section costs money: no image is made, no offering given, nothing handed over. What is left in the hands of a person whose body is not his own is a name and seven days. And the fruit promised is that when this recompense is spent he will constantly be born into honor — and the commentator finds even that not said far enough: 「今七日稱名，豈止千萬生中尊貴，不經惡道，即佛果必可期也」—“Calling the name for seven days now — how should it stop at honor through a thousand myriad births and at not passing through the evil destinies? The fruit of buddhahood itself may certainly be looked for.” 〔X21n0384 0714c07〕

A Child Just Born

The last section wrote of those who have lived half a life and cannot act for themselves; this one writes of one just come into the world, who has not yet had time to do anything at all. The causes of the chapter, walking downward, reach their lowest point here — the one who benefits has done nothing, and the ones who act are the people of his household.

Why is Jambudvīpa alone raised? The reading handed down compares the continents one by one: 「但舉南洲者，北洲產於樹下，亦無惡露苦惱」—“That only the southern continent is raised is because in the northern continent they give birth beneath a tree, and there is neither foul discharge nor distress.” 〔X21n0384 0714c12〕, and 「唯有南洲，女人多產多苦」—“only in the southern continent do women bear much and suffer much.” 〔X21n0384 0714c13〕 The reason is stated plainly: 「以一切諸眾生母，欲生子時，身體遍痛，受大苦惱，數坐數起，不能自安」—“because the mother of every being, when she is about to bear her child, aches throughout her body, undergoes great distress, sits down and rises again and again, and cannot settle herself.” 〔X21n0384 0714c14〕

He does not write childbirth as a happy occasion. He counts over the ways it can go wrong: 「或順生，或逆生，甚有一足先下，謂之踏蓮生，母腸同出，謂之盤腸生。此最險惡，命在須臾」—“Some come forth the right way about, some the reverse; there are even those where one foot comes down first, which is called a treading-the-lotus birth, and those where the mother’s bowels come out along with the child, which is called a coiled-bowel birth. This last is the most perilous, and life hangs upon a moment.” 〔X21n0384 0715a21〕

Why 「七日之中，早與讀誦」 — within seven days, and early, read and recite for the child — why early? The commentator cites a spell-sūtra in answer. That sūtra records the Great Brahmā King saying to the Buddha that 「有夜叉羅剎，常喜啗人胎」—“there are yakṣas and rākṣasas who constantly delight in devouring human embryos.” 〔X21n0384 0715a02〕, and can leave people childless, injure the womb, and even snatch the child away at birth; and it lists them by name one by one: 「此十五鬼神，常遊行世間為嬰孩小兒，作於恐怖」—“These fifteen ghosts and spirits constantly roam the world and work terror upon infants and little children.” 〔X21n0384 0715a06〕 Therefore 「今故早讀本願經，及與地藏名，則令善神擁衛門戶，惡鬼自遠遁矣」—“therefore one reads the Sūtra of the Original Vows early now, together with Kṣitigarbha’s name, and then good spirits guard the doorway and the evil ghosts flee far off of themselves.” 〔X21n0384 0715a08〕

What is guarded is the doorway; it is not a matter of holding the child and warding off blows.

This passage has an echo elsewhere within the sūtra. Later a ghost king, Master-of-Life, states his own office and speaks of the birth-chamber: 「是產難時，有無數惡鬼，及魍魎精魅，欲食腥血」—“At the time of that hard delivery there are numberless evil ghosts, and wangliang sprites and goblins, wanting to eat the raw blood.” 〔T13n0412 0785b20〕 — and he has already had the earth-spirits of house and grounds bear up and guard both child and mother. This chapter writes from the human end what ought to be done; that chapter writes from the ghost king’s end what he is already doing. One birth-chamber, seen from two sides.

And the fruit the sūtra promises is divided between two kinds of children. For one with calamitous recompense from former lives, 「便得解脫，安樂易養，壽命增長」 — he thereupon gains release, is at ease and easy to rear, and his lifespan increases; for one born upon the strength of blessings to begin with, 「轉增安樂，及與壽命」 — his ease and his lifespan are increased the more. The one in debt has his debt discharged, the one not in debt has blessing added — the sūtra does not write only for the unlucky sort.

Ten Days

What this chapter gives at the last is a calendar.

On the first day of the month, the eighth, the fourteenth, the fifteenth, the eighteenth, the twenty-third, the twenty-fourth, the twenty-eighth, the twenty-ninth, and on to the thirtieth — ten days. The sūtra says that on these days 「諸罪結集，定其輕重」 — the several offences are gathered together and their heaviness and lightness settled — and that to read the sūtra once through on these ten days leaves no calamity within a hundred yojanas, and the household forever free of the evil destinies.

The ten days are not counted off at random. The reading handed down first distinguishes three kinds of fast: 「世之持齋者，有三長齋、月六齋、十齋不同」—“Those in the world who keep the fast differ: there are the three long fasts, the six monthly fast days, and the ten fast days.” 〔X21n0384 0715b17〕; and the old ground for the six is the Sūtra of the Four Heavenly Kings — that sūtra says the Four Heavenly Kings 「常以月八日」—“constantly, on the eighth day of the month.” 〔T15n0590 0118b04〕 send down their envoys, and 「十四日遣太子下；十五日四天王自下；二十三」—“on the fourteenth they send down the princes; on the fifteenth the Four Heavenly Kings come down themselves; on the twenty-third.” 〔T15n0590 0118b06〕 the envoys come down again, on the twenty-ninth the princes again, and on the thirtieth the four kings again themselves, their charge being 「勤伺眾生，施行吉凶」—“diligently to watch over beings and to deal out fortune and misfortune.” 〔T15n0590 0118b10〕

The ten fasts add four more days on top of these six. Each of the ten days has its own name, and the reading handed down reports them day by day, following the Sūtra of Mañjuśrī Bodhisattva on Good and Evil Days and the Constellations 〔X21n0384 0715b18〕: 「每月一日，梵云鉢闍底下」—“On the first day of each month, the one called in Sanskrit bosheti comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b18〕, 「是建名日。宜為善業，苦節修行布施等事，竝吉」—“This is the Day of Establishing the Name. It is fitting for good deeds; austere discipline, cultivation, giving, and the like are all auspicious.” 〔X21n0384 0715b19〕; 「八日、二十三日，是力戰日，婆娑善神下，宜力用之事」—“The eighth and the twenty-third are the Days of Battle-Strength; the good spirit Posuo comes down; they suit matters that require the use of strength.” 〔X21n0384 0715b20〕; 「十四日、二十九日，是勇猛日，藥蒭神下」—“The fourteenth and the twenty-ninth are the Days of Valor; the spirit Yaochu comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b21〕; 「二十四日，是凶猛日，嚕達囉尼神下」—“The twenty-fourth is the Day of Fierceness; the spirit Ludaluoni comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b22〕; 「二十八日，是最勝日，鉢折底神下」—“The twenty-eighth is the Day of Supremacy; the spirit Bozhedi comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b22〕; 「十五日、三十日，是吉相日，必多盧神下」—“The fifteenth and the thirtieth are the Days of the Auspicious Sign; the spirit Biduolu comes down.” 〔X21n0384 0715b23〕, and on these two days 「宜祭先亡，及布施供養父母、尊者、諸天，持齋戒施食」—“it is fitting to sacrifice to the departed, and to give to and make offerings for parents, elders, and the gods, and to keep the fast and the precepts and to give food.” 〔X21n0384 0715b24〕 Only when the names for all ten days have been listed does the line come down: 「故取此十日為齋日也」—“and so these ten days are taken as the fast days.” 〔X21n0384 0715c02〕

Establishing the Name, Battle-Strength, Valor, Fierceness, Supremacy, the Auspicious Sign — the ten days are not ten identical blanks. Some suit giving, some the use of strength; some are valorous and some are fierce; and the fifteenth and the thirtieth are the days set apart for sacrifice to the departed. The sūtra listed only the numbers; this roster is what the commentator has put in.

What shows most backbone in this passage is the few lines in which he defends the translator. The sūtra text says 「二十九日，乃至三十日」 — the twenty-ninth day, and on to the thirtieth — but the thirtieth comes straight after the twenty-ninth and nothing is skipped between them, so why 「乃至」, and on to? 「但乃至二字，自古講者，皆云超略之辭」—“As for the two characters ‘and on to,’ expounders from of old have all called them a phrase of skipping and abbreviating.” 〔X21n0384 0715c02〕, and so some reproached the translator with not understanding. He does not agree, and puts it very strongly: 「譯師不通甚矣。非也。含蓄深意，人不知也」—“‘The translator understood nothing at all.’ Not so. There is a deep meaning held in reserve, and people do not know it.” 〔X21n0384 0715c04〕 His own explanation is that the old gloss of the character is “hard,” and that what the two characters say is 「今言一日至三十日，如是十日無間，至難至難也」—“to say now, from the first day to the thirtieth, ten such days without a break — that is hard, hard indeed.” 〔X21n0384 0715c07〕 — to keep all ten of these days within one month is hard and hard again. And having said it, he puts a question back: 「若不信此解，若為通此二字乎」—“If you do not believe this explanation, how then will you make sense of these two characters?” 〔X21n0384 0715c08〕

The character for fast is itself glossed once through. The old gloss is 「齋之為言，齊也。齊不齊，以致齊者也」—“Fast says even: it evens what is uneven, and so brings about evenness.” 〔X21n0384 0716b18〕 — making even what is uneven. And within the Buddhist house, 「今釋氏以不過中食為齋」—“the followers of Śākya now take not eating past noon as the fast.” 〔X21n0384 0716b19〕; and deeper still, the commentator cites a line: 「齋者，只是中道也」—“The fast is simply the Middle Way.” 〔X21n0384 0716b21〕

Making the uneven even, not eating past noon, the Middle Way — three layers of sense laid one upon another in a single character.

As for why these days should be singled out at all, the commentator of old cites at the last a line of the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom, which says it most plainly: 「六齋日，諸天來觀人心」—“On the six fast days the gods come to look at people’s minds.” 〔X21n0384 0716b13〕; 「若有是日受八戒持齋布施聽法，是時諸天歡喜，小鬼不得其便，利益行者」—“If on these days one receives the eight precepts, keeps the fast, gives, and listens to the Dharma, then the gods rejoice, the lesser ghosts find no opening, and the practitioner is benefited.” 〔X21n0384 0716b15〕

What they come to look at is not the offerings but people’s minds.

Those Who Read and See No Effect

The fruit promised in the passage on the ten fast days is very great: no calamity within a hundred yojanas, a household forever free of the evil destinies, clothing and food abundant and to spare.

The commentator of old does not let this pass. He puts the question to himself on the spot: 「然今非無讀經者，竟不獲報，何也」—“Yet it is not that there are none today who read sūtras, and still they gain no recompense. Why is this?” 〔X21n0384 0716c07〕 — it is not that no one reads the sūtra nowadays; why then is no effect seen?

He gives two answers. The first: 「一、方內之人，及居家之屬，前生罪惡深重，則是定業難逃」—“First, that among people within the region and the members of the household, the offences and evils of former lives are deep and heavy, and fixed karma is hard to escape.” 〔X21n0384 0716c08〕 The second lies with the one who reads: 「志心者，誦經得力，故能轉宿殃；不志心者，誦力既淺，福不勝罪，故難轉也」—“One of wholehearted mind gets strength from reciting the sūtra, and so can turn the calamity of former lives; one not of wholehearted mind has but shallow strength in his reciting, and his blessing does not outweigh his offences, and so it is hard to turn.” 〔X21n0384 0716c09〕

A book of commentary, at the very place where the blessings promised are richest, suddenly stops to admit that there are indeed people who read and get nothing by it. The admission does not weaken what came before — it raises once more those two characters from before, 「志心」, the wholehearted mind. One and the same reading of the sūtra: where our minds arrive as we read, there the result arrives too; and the difference is not a matter of how fluently it is recited.

Turning the Ears and Eyes Back

The ten fast days told, the Buddha draws his brush to a close: the beings of Jambudvīpa have a great affinity with this great being.

The two characters for affinity the reading handed down does not take in any recondite sense: 「因緣，秪是感應異名」—“Affinity is simply another name for stirring and response.” 〔X21n0384 0717a03〕 — a stirring at one end, a response at the other, and the line between them is called affinity. And the character 「大」, great, points to something else: 「大者，皆欲令其開、示、悟、入佛之知見，大事因緣也」—“Great means: all of it is meant to make them open, be shown, awaken to, and enter a buddha’s knowledge and vision — the affinity of the one great matter.” 〔X21n0384 0717a03〕

Why should it be the people of this one continent in particular who have an affinity with this bodhisattva? The answer is homely: 「譬子墮水火，父母騷擾救之；子有疾病，父母心偏愛之」—“It is as when a child falls into water or fire and the parents are thrown into a commotion to save him; or when a child is sick and the parents’ hearts are partial to him.” 〔X21n0384 0717a09〕; 「以南洲眾生，罪業偏重故也」—“because the karmic offences of the beings of the southern continent are particularly heavy.” 〔X21n0384 0717a10〕 It is not that the people here are better, but that the people here are more gravely ill. And between stirring and response there is no before and after — 「譬如磁石吸銕，應感同時」—“as a lodestone draws iron: response and stirring are at one instant.” 〔X21n0384 0717a12〕

Then comes the last question of the chapter: hearing a name, seeing an image, listening to three or five characters — how should that count for anything? The reading handed down gives a direct answer here: 「此言聞名見像者，明旋復之功也」—“That it speaks here of hearing the name and seeing the image is to make plain the work of turning back.” 〔X21n0384 0717a18〕

To turn is to come back round. Seeing and hearing run outward by nature: the eye chases forms, the ear chases sounds, and once out they cannot be gathered in again. 「今旋其妄聞，聞菩薩之名；旋其妄見，見菩薩之像」—“Now one turns one’s deluded hearing and hears the bodhisattva’s name; one turns one’s deluded seeing and sees the bodhisattva’s image.” 〔X21n0384 0717a21〕 — the same pair of ears and eyes, never exchanged, only turned in another direction; and at the furthest point, 「名無名，而真聞了了；像無像，而真見昭昭」—“the name is nameless, and the true hearing is perfectly clear; the image is imageless, and the true seeing is perfectly bright.” 〔X21n0384 0717a23〕 The name is heard until there is no name, and that hearing becomes utterly clear instead.

Only so does the sūtra dare to lower the threshold to three characters or five: 「一偈則一門超出，一句則一性圓明」—“By a single verse one gate is passed beyond; by a single line one nature is round and bright.” 〔X21n0384 0717b03〕

This section gathers all the causes of the chapter back into one place. Gazing, bowing, praising, singing, reading, calling the name — counted separately they are six or seven things; gathered up they are only one: turning the ears and eyes, which have always run outward, in another direction.

Three Names

At the last Universally Broad asks the name of the sūtra, and the Buddha gives three: the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha, the Original Practice of Kṣitigarbha, the Power of Kṣitigarbha’s Original Pledge.

The commentator of old glosses each in turn. Original practice 「即本昔之行」—“is the practice of the original past.” 〔X21n0384 0717c23〕; and the power of the original pledge he glosses from the Sanskrit: 「梵語僧那，此云弘誓」—“The Sanskrit is transcribed sengna; here it means the great pledge.” 〔X21n0384 0718a02〕, 「梵名娑羅，此云力」—“the Sanskrit name is transcribed suoluo; here it means power.” 〔X21n0384 0718a05〕 And the character 「力」, power, is not left as a generality but fastened item by item upon this bodhisattva: since he first aroused the resolve 「不為天魔沮壞，一力也」—“he is not thwarted or wrecked by the māras of the heavens: that is the first power.” 〔X21n0384 0718a08〕; wherever he is he benefits beings, the second power; he has the daring to transform the hells in particular, the third power; 「能為六道得依，四力也」—“he can be that on which the six destinies rely: that is the fourth power.” 〔X21n0384 0718a09〕

Of the three names, the Buddha chose none. Those who gathered the sūtra chose the first — 「此顯地藏之名，亦從本願而立」—“This shows that the name Kṣitigarbha too is set up from the original vow.” 〔X21n0384 0718a14〕, 「故集家單以本願立題，深有以也」—“and so the compilers set up the title by the original vow alone, and there is deep reason in it.” 〔X21n0384 0718a15〕

Vow, practice, and power are one string: from the vow the practice arises, and practice long continued becomes power. To set up the original vow alone is to set up the end that comes first.

Transmission — A Qing Outline-Commentary, and a Sibling Sūtra of the Same Axis

The above is the sense of this chapter itself. Below, one eye casts its light from the side — the mirror is not the sūtra, only the same passage seen through another way of reading.

The Outline and Commentary on the Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, in six fascicles, was compiled by Lingcheng of the Qing, styled Qinglian. The outline and the glosses cited above come from it in their whole frame: the great division on the conditions of deliverance; the gloss on the sending forth of light and the giving forth of sound; the simile of the sandalwood bound up as firewood; the sense of the name Universally Broad; the judgment that the cause cultivated is very small and the fruit obtained very great; the pushing of the great benefit through to buddhahood; the simile of Jīvaka gathering herbs; the raising of the two characters for the wholehearted mind; that bai and zan differ in name and are the same in fact; the private motives of the three kinds who mock and slander; the order of the three things to be done in long sickness and the division of sickness into body and mind; the limit set upon cultivating blessings for those who come in dreams; the look of those who are not their own masters; the reason for reading early upon a birth; the names of the ten fast days one by one and the argument over 「乃至」; the work of turning back; and the gloss on the three names with the matching of the four powers. He opens by citing the Ratnamegha Sūtra to set the key of this chapter: 「寶雨經云：云何菩薩能令稱歎」—“The Ratnamegha Sūtra says: how does a bodhisattva bring it about that he is praised?” 〔X21n0384 0706b18〕, and the answer is 「如月出現，能使人間城邑聚落諸剎帝利、婆羅門等，若男若女，悉皆稱讚」—“As when the moon appears, it can make the kṣatriyas and brahmins and the rest, in the cities and towns and villages of the human world, whether men or women, all alike praise it.” 〔X21n0384 0706b19〕 — the moon comes out, and the whole city naturally lifts its head. With this he begins the section on the sending forth of light and the praising.

In his glossing of this chapter there are two side branches worth recording.

First, in glossing the provenance of the ten fasts he reports the books he follows one by one: 「準佛祖統記，引提謂經，明三長齋」—“Following the Comprehensive Record of the Buddhas and Patriarchs, it cites the Trapuṣa Sūtra to make plain the three long fasts.” 〔X21n0384 0715c09〕, 「引四天王經，明六齋」—“it cites the Sūtra of the Four Heavenly Kings to make plain the six fasts.” 〔X21n0384 0715c15〕, 「引十齋經，明十齋」—“it cites the Sūtra of the Ten Fasts to make plain the ten fasts.” 〔X21n0384 0715c19〕, and he records the law of the state in his own day: 「今國律，令諸州十直日，不得行刑，正據此義」—“the present statutes of the state order that in all the prefectures, on the ten appointed days, no punishment be carried out; this rests upon exactly this sense.” 〔X21n0384 0715c20〕 And what the Comprehensive Record of the Buddhas and Patriarchs itself sets down is just this: 「每月十齋日。持佛菩薩號乞福滅罪」—“The ten fast days of each month. One holds the names of the buddhas and bodhisattvas, praying for blessings and the extinction of offences.” 〔T49n2035 0320c06〕; and the same work records an edict of Gaozu of the Tang in the second year of Wude: 「正五九月及月十齋日。不得行刑屠釣。永為國式」—“In the first, fifth, and ninth months, and on the ten fast days of each month, no punishment shall be carried out, nor butchering, nor fishing. Let this be a standard of the state forever.” 〔T49n2035 0362b03〕 A calendar that came out of a sūtra was once written into the penal law of a dynasty.

Second, in glossing the passage on the use of glue in making images, he compares point by point the differences between the disciplinary rules and local products, and at the last sets up a rule about pennants: 「凡造旛法，切不得安佛菩薩像，及名號等」—“In the method of making pennants, one must on no account set upon them images of buddhas and bodhisattvas, or their names and titles.” 〔X21n0384 0709b10〕, the reason being 「旛是供具，供於所供，如何復以像名為之」—“a pennant is an implement of offering, offered to what is offered to; how then should the image or the name be made into it?” 〔X21n0384 0709b11〕 — a pennant is a thing brought as an offering, and the name of what is offered to should not be written upon it. Details of this kind are recorded, not adjudicated.

And there is one more thing, which he writes in the account of the occasion at the head of the work: he left home young, and before he could support them his parents had died; and so in the winter of the jiwei year of Kangxi he copied out a text of this sūtra with his own hand, and 「每遇十齋日，披衣敬讀一過」—“whenever a fast day of the ten came round, he put on his robe and reverently read it through once.” 〔X21n0383 0639a08〕, 「為資冥之大猷，作酬恩之常課」—“as a great plan for aiding those in the dark, and as a regular exercise for repaying kindness.” 〔X21n0383 0639a09〕 The ten days this chapter sets up, the man who glossed this chapter kept himself.

There are two further mirrors that may be read alongside, set side by side without weighing higher and lower.

The first is The Sūtra of the Original Vows and Merits of the Medicine Buddha, Beryl Radiance Tathāgata. The two sūtras alike take 「本願」, original vows, into their titles, and alike make the hearing of the name the gate of benefit; that sūtra says 「我之名號，一經其耳」—“my name, once it has passed his ear.” 〔T14n0450 0405b02〕 and the sicknesses are all removed, while this chapter speaks of hearing the name, seeing the image, and even hearing three characters or five of this sūtra. The difference in the passage on weariness of a woman’s body has been seen above: there a turning of the body is promised, here a turning of the birthplace, and here there is one sentence of exception besides. The two sūtras are recorded side by side; no collation of wording is made.

The second is the Daśacakra-kṣitigarbha Sūtra. That sūtra speaks of the benefit of calling the name, and its sentence occurs nineteen times in the whole work: 「有能至心稱名、念誦、歸敬、供養地藏菩薩摩訶薩者」—“If there be any who with utmost mind call the name of, recite, take refuge in and revere, and make offerings to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva.” 〔T13n0411 0724b23〕, all shall obtain what they seek in accordance with the Dharma and be free of every sorrow and suffering; and there is a verse that runs 「一日稱地藏，功德大名聞」—“To call upon Kṣitigarbha for a single day — the merit of it, and the great renown.” 〔T13n0411 0727c09〕, 「勝俱胝劫中，稱餘智者德」—“surpasses praising the virtue of other wise ones through koṭis of kalpas.” 〔T13n0411 0727c10〕 That calling the name for one day surpasses praising another through many kalpas shares its frame with this chapter’s 「乃至一七日中，念菩薩名，可滿萬遍」 — and within a single seven days call the bodhisattva’s name to the full ten thousand times. And that sūtra nowhere brings out any list of fast days — this calendar of ten fast days is a layer this sūtra alone has. Sūtras of the same honored one but of different text, set side by side for parallel reading, with no weighing of higher and lower.

And the sūtra’s own light is bound to no mirror at all. It goes forth from the Buddha’s whole body and shines across buddha-worlds as many as a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of sands of the Ganges, and comes down at the last beside a sick person’s bed, and upon ten days in the month of a single household.