地藏菩薩本願經 稱佛名號品

There is no story in this chapter. No hells, no ghost kings, no daughter saving her mother.

There is only a roster: the names of nineteen buddhas.

The Buddha Says: I Am About to Go

Kṣitigarbha asks leave to speak of matters of benefit, and the Buddha grants it very quickly, and then adds one line: I am about to enter nirvāṇa, so that you may finish this vow of yours the sooner; and then I shall have no anxiety for any being of the present or of ages to come.

I am about to enter nirvāṇa — so speak quickly.

The chapters before this one all told how beings fall, how the hells are undergone, how great the power of karma is. In this chapter, with his time nearly used up, the Buddha hands over a thing that could not be smaller: a name.

Nineteen Names, and Thresholds of Unequal Height

Ten buddhas have a passage each, and the last nine are crowded into a single sentence with nothing left but their names.

What each passage asks for is not the same. Some ask that reverence should arise for a moment; some ask only for taking refuge in a single thought; some ask only that one hear the name of this buddha, so that it passes through the faculty of hearing — a name going in at the ear, and no more than that.

And what is gained is not the same either: passing beyond the grave sins of forty kalpas; never falling back; being born a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire; meeting measureless buddhas who lay their hands upon one’s head and give the prediction; gaining before long the fruit of an arhat; certainly accomplishing awakening.

The few gates that ask least do not give least.

The sixth of them is the strangest. The sūtra writes three characters only: named Vipaśyin. No Tathāgata attached, and no Buddha either — of the nineteen names, this one alone has no suffix. And what it gives is this: hearing the name of this buddha, one shall never fall into the evil destinies, but shall always be born among humans and gods and there enjoy supreme and wondrous bliss.

No reverence, no taking refuge, no gazing and bowing and praising. Only hearing.

One, and Many

The roster called out, the sūtra gathers it up in a line of its own: if one can but recite the name of a single buddha, the merit of it is measureless — how much more the reciting of many names?

And then it marks the hour: such beings as these, at the time of birth and at the time of death, gain great benefit of themselves, and in the end do not fall into the evil destinies.

At the time of birth, at the time of death. This is the first mention of death in the chapter.

The One Who Recites Is Not the One Who Is Dying

From here the sūtra begins to take away.

The number of people comes down to even one. What is recited comes down to reciting aloud the name of a single buddha — one buddha, one name. And the one who recites it is not even oneself.

The one for whom it is recited is the sort of person with the least room left of any in the whole sūtra: he is at the end of life. He has no time to practice, no time to repent, no time to sell his house and lands and raise offerings at a stūpa-monastery. The people in the chapters before had some time at least; here there is nothing left but one family member beside him willing to speak aloud.

And the fruit given him is this: the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are taken away, and the remaining karmic retributions and the rest of them are all extinguished.

Even the Five Uninterrupted Are Being Extinguished

How heavy the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are, the sūtra says for itself: heavy in the utmost degree, and though a koṭi of kalpas may pass one still cannot get out of them at all.

And the sentence that follows is this: by the strength of another’s calling and reciting a buddha’s name for him at the end of life, even within these sins there is a gradual extinguishing.

It is not that they are set aside; it is that they are taken away. Only one word has been added — gradual: the heavy are not the unextinguished, they are the slowly extinguished.

The Last Sentence Is a Question Turned Back

The whole chapter closes upon a question turned back on itself: how much more when beings call and recite for themselves? The blessings gained are measureless, and the sins extinguished are measureless.

All the way down to this point the sūtra has been coming down, down to another reciting on his behalf; and at this sentence it turns the whole thing back up.

If another reciting on his behalf does this much, how much more his reciting for himself.

The chapter ends here. It does not turn back to speak of the hells again, nor does it name any pure land to go to. It only sets nineteen names down where they are, and says one thing: recite a single one of them, and the merit of it is already measureless.

Śikṣānanda’s translation, made under the Tang, of the chapter “Reciting the Names of the Buddhas” in The Sūtra of the Original Vows of Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva, Taishō T13n0412, the ninth chapter, in Fascicle Two, from the chapter title down to “how much more when beings call and recite for themselves: the blessings gained are measureless, and the sins extinguished are measureless.” The figures in parentheses at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.

〔1 · The title of the chapter〕（0785c22）Reciting the Names of the Buddhas, Chapter Nine.

〔2 · Kṣitigarbha asks leave to set forth matters of benefit〕（0785c23）At that time Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva-mahāsattva said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! I would today, for the beings of ages to come, set forth matters of benefit, so that in the midst of birth and death they may gain great benefit. I pray only that the World-Honored One will grant me leave to speak of it.”

〔3 · The Buddha urges him to speak quickly〕（0785c25）The Buddha said to Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva: “You would today raise up kindness and compassion and rescue all the guilty and suffering beings of the six destinies, and set forth inconceivable matters — now is just the time; only speak of it quickly. I am about to enter nirvāṇa, so that you may finish this vow of yours the sooner; and then I shall have no anxiety for any being of the present or of ages to come.”

〔4 · The first · the Tathāgata Boundless Body〕（0785c29）Kṣitigarbha Bodhisattva said to the Buddha: “World-Honored One! Measureless asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Boundless Body Tathāgata (all three bodies carry the sense of the boundless: the dharma-body is complete in boundless true merits, the reward-body arises out of boundless true merits, and the response-body appears as things require and is everywhere). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha and gives rise to reverence for even a moment, that one at once passes beyond the grave sins of birth and death of forty kalpas. How much more one who sculpts and paints his image and makes offerings and praises him? The blessings such a person gains are measureless and boundless.

〔5 · The second · the Tathāgata Jewel Nature〕（0786a04）“Again, kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges ago, there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Jewel Nature Tathāgata (jewels are of seven kinds, and gold stands at the head of them; the ancients took gold’s four senses — that its color does not alter, that its substance takes no stain, that it may be worked into anything without hindrance, and that it makes a man rich — as the figure of the four virtues of the dharma-body: permanence, purity, self, and bliss; and that is the jewel that lies in the nature). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha and in the space of a finger-snap raises the thought and takes refuge, that person shall never fall back upon the unsurpassed way.

〔6 · The third · the Tathāgata Red Lotus Supreme〕（0786a07）“Again, in the past there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Red Lotus Supreme Tathāgata (the first part of the name transcribes a sound, 波頭摩, also written 鉢特摩, which is rendered in this land as red lotus; among the four kinds of lotus the red lotus is supreme, and hence the name Red Lotus Supreme). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha, so that it does no more than pass through the faculty of hearing, that person shall gain the recompense of being born a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire and returning again. How much more one who recites it with the whole of his mind?

〔7 · The fourth · the Tathāgata Lion’s Roar〕（0786a10）“Again, inexpressible, inexpressible asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Lion’s Roar Tathāgata (when the Tathāgata expounds the Dharma at length in the midst of a great assembly he is sovereign and without fear, and therefore he is named the lion; this name takes precisely the mark of the expounding of the Dharma). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha and takes refuge in a single thought, that person shall meet with measureless buddhas who lay their hands upon his head and give him the prediction.

〔8 · The fifth · the Buddha Krakucchanda〕（0786a13）“Again, in the past there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named the Buddha Krakucchanda (Krakucchanda is a Sanskrit name, rendered in this land as What Ought to Be Cut Off, and rendered again as Adornment of Function). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha, and gazes and bows with the whole of his mind, or praises him besides, that person shall be a Great Brahmā King in the assembly of the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa, and shall receive the highest prediction.

〔9 · The sixth · Vipaśyin〕（0786a16）“Again, in the past there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Vipaśyin (also called Weiwei, and rendered in this land as Supreme Contemplation. The sūtra text here brings out the name alone, and attaches to it neither Tathāgata nor Buddha — of the nineteen buddha-names in this chapter, this one alone is so). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha, he shall never fall into the evil destinies, but shall always be born among humans and gods and there enjoy supreme and wondrous bliss.

〔10 · The seventh · the Tathāgata Jewel Supreme〕（0786a18）“Again, measureless and numberless kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges ago, there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Jewel Supreme Tathāgata (the Sanskrit name is 囉怛曩毗婆 — 囉怛曩 being rendered as jewel and 毗婆 as supreme). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha, he shall in the end not fall into the evil destinies, but shall always be in the heavens and there enjoy supreme and wondrous bliss.

〔11 · The eighth · the Tathāgata Jewel Mark〕（0786a21）“Again, in the past there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Jewel Mark Tathāgata (this too takes the jewel upon the side of marks as the figure of the jewel that lies in the nature; the ancients said: the dharma-nature and the mark of reality neither go nor come, and the mark of reality is honored, and so the name is Jewel Mark). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha and gives rise to a heart of reverence, that person shall before long gain the fruit of an arhat.

〔12 · The ninth · the Tathāgata Kāṣāya Banner〕（0786a23）“Again, measureless asaṃkhyeya kalpas ago, there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Kāṣāya Banner Tathāgata (the kāṣāya is the very mark of the Tathāgata’s jewel banner; to think of it as a jewel banner when one puts it on can extinguish the multitude of sins and give birth to all blessings, and it is like armor besides, so that the poisoned arrows of the afflictions cannot wound). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha, he shall pass beyond the sins of birth and death of a hundred great kalpas.

〔13 · The tenth · the Tathāgata Great Universal Mountain King〕（0786a25）“Again, in the past there was a buddha who appeared in the world, named Great Universal Mountain King Tathāgata (the mountain king is Mount Sumeru, which the seven golden mountains encircle and which stands up alone in the midst of the sea, and so it is called king in particular; great speaks of its height of eighty-four thousand yojanas, and universal of its brightness shining on all four sides — and this is the figure of the reward-body buddha). If there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha, that person shall meet with buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges, who will expound the Dharma at length for him, and he shall certainly accomplish awakening.

〔14 · The remaining nine buddhas, and the buddhas beyond all telling〕（0786a28）“Again, in the past there were the Buddha Pure Moon (the Buddha’s true dharma-body is like empty space, and appears in form as things require, like the moon in water), the Buddha Mountain King (the Sanskrit name is 勢禮捺囉惹, rendered in this land as mountain king), the Buddha Wisdom Supreme (that is, the wisdom of all modes; since it knows every kind and every aspect of things, it is called supreme among the wisdoms), the Buddha Pure Name King (the afflictions of the five abodes and the two kinds of birth-and-death are purified away entirely, and there is sovereignty, and so this supreme name is set up), the Buddha Wisdom Accomplished (both wisdoms, the expedient and the real, are brought to accomplishment), the Buddha Unsurpassed (a title of the utmost honor; one who still has something to cut off is called one with something above him, and one who has nothing left to cut off is called unsurpassed), the Buddha Wondrous Sound (in mountain valleys and open wastes there are many kalaviṅka birds that give out a wondrous sound, which neither gods and men nor kiṃnaras can match — the Tathāgata’s voice alone excepted), the Buddha Full Moon and the Buddha Moon Face (these two buddhas are much the same in sense — like the moon of the fifteenth day, round and full and complete, king among the host of stars; and so too is a buddha’s face, pure and round and full), and buddhas such as these, beyond all telling.

〔15 · One name and many names〕（0786b01）“World-Honored One! Among all the beings of the present and of ages to come, whether god or human, whether man or woman, if one can but recite the name of a single buddha, the merit of it is already measureless — how much more the reciting of many names?

〔16 · At the time of birth and at the time of death they gain great benefit of themselves〕（0786b03）“Such beings as these, at the time of birth and at the time of death, gain great benefit of themselves, and in the end do not fall into the evil destinies.

〔17 · At the end of life another recites one buddha’s name for him〕（0786b04）“If there be a person coming to the end of life, and among the kindred in his house there be even one who recites aloud the name of a single buddha for this sick person, then for this person at the end of life the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are taken away, and the remaining karmic retributions and the rest of them are all extinguished.

〔18 · Even the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are gradually extinguished〕（0786b07）“These sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds, though they are heavy in the utmost degree, and though a koṭi of kalpas may pass and one still cannot get out of them at all, yet by the strength of another’s calling and reciting a buddha’s name for him at the end of life, even within these sins there is a gradual extinguishing.

〔19 · How much more when he calls and recites for himself〕（0786b09）“How much more when beings call and recite for themselves? The blessings gained are measureless, and the sins extinguished are measureless.”

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. He judges the closing stretch of the sūtra as so many great sections, and this chapter is the head of one of them: 「大章第四，明成佛因分」—“The fourth great section, making plain the part on the causes of attaining buddhahood.” 〔X21n0384 0734b24〕; and beneath it he divides two branches — 「初、示成佛正行；二、顯成佛助道」—“first, the right practice for attaining buddhahood is shown; second, the auxiliary path to attaining buddhahood is disclosed.” 〔X21n0384 0734b24〕 Reciting the names of the buddhas is the right practice, and the weighing of giving in the next chapter is the auxiliary path. How the chapter walks he opens out plainly as well: 「品文。分三。初、地藏為說利益；二、如來許救罪苦；三、大士正稱佛名」—“The text of the chapter divides into three: first, Kṣitigarbha would speak of the benefit; second, the Tathāgata grants the rescue of the guilty and suffering; third, the great being properly recites the names of the buddhas.” 〔X21n0384 0734c03〕; and the passage of properly reciting the names of the buddhas divides again into two, 「初、稱名；二、結益」—“first, the reciting of the name; second, the concluding upon its benefit.” 〔X21n0384 0735b18〕 What is said below still begins by watching how the sūtra itself walks.

A Whole Chapter, and Only a Roster

This chapter is short. From the chapter title to the close, the sūtra does three things only: Kṣitigarbha asks leave to speak, the Buddha grants it and urges him to be quick, and Kṣitigarbha calls out a string of buddha-names.

A string of buddha-names. The first ten have a passage each, and each carries its number of kalpas, its way of practice, and the benefit gained by it; the last nine are crowded into a single sentence with their names alone, no kalpas and no benefit. Ten and nine make nineteen names. The roster called out, the sūtra turns to the difference between reciting one name and reciting many, then turns to the last hour, and then closes.

A sūtra that has to speak of hells, of the retribution of karma, of ghost kings — and into the middle of it comes a chapter like this, with no scene, no exchange of question and answer, no story. Only names.

The reading handed down gives an account of this at the outset: the reason this chapter had to be set up on its own is that the reciting of the names of buddhas and bodhisattvas has already been spoken of over and over above, and only now are there 「略出十名」—“ten names brought out in brief.” 〔X21n0384 0734c10〕 to serve as a target, 「次顯多佛，以至沙河也」—“and next many buddhas are disclosed, on out to the sands of the river.” 〔X21n0384 0734c10〕 — first ten actual names for a mark to aim at, and then the range pulled open to the sands of the Ganges. The roster, then, is not the whole of it; it is a doorway.

There is a further line that matters more: these buddhas 「皆指過去者，自地藏發心已來所值之諸佛也」—“all point to the past: they are the buddhas Kṣitigarbha has met with since he first raised the thought of awakening.” 〔X21n0384 0735c01〕, and moreover 「凡所舉佛名，皆後遠於前」—“of the buddha-names raised, each later one is more distant than the one before.” 〔X21n0384 0735c02〕

Read so, this roster is not merely a roster. It is Kṣitigarbha’s own history — the buddhas he met with all along his way. Every gate he brings out for beings to use is a gate he has gone through himself.

The four characters at the head of each entry are not a formula either. Nineteen buddhas, and each is led in with “there was a buddha who appeared in the world”; the reading handed down says that these four characters are 「慶幸之語」—“words of feeling fortunate.” 〔X21n0384 0735c03〕, and borrows a figure from the Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra — only when a buddha appears in the world can the sun of wisdom be opened out and the gate of sweet dew be opened, 「故喻如優曇華，時一現耳」—“and so it is likened to the udumbara flower, which appears but once in an age.” 〔X21n0384 0735c05〕 The udumbara appears once in a long, long while. Every name upon this roster is one such appearing.

The Buddha Answers with an Urgent Word

Kṣitigarbha opens his mouth to ask leave, and the Buddha grants it with the greatest speed: “set forth inconceivable matters — now is just the time; only speak of it quickly.”

And then the Buddha adds a line that is abrupt anywhere in this sūtra: “I am about to enter nirvāṇa, so that you may finish this vow of yours the sooner; and then I shall have no anxiety for any being of the present or of ages to come.”

I am about to enter nirvāṇa.

The commentator of old stops a moment here, saying of this line that it is 「人不忍聞」—“more than a man can bear to hear.” 〔X21n0384 0735b07〕, and explains why the Buddha presses so: 「如來化緣將熄，滅度靡常，不此申救，更待何時」—“the Tathāgata’s conditions for transforming are about to go out, and his passing is not fixed; if the rescue be not set forth now, what other time is to be waited for?” 〔X21n0384 0735a24〕 As for “so that you may finish this vow of yours the sooner,” he reads it as a way of speaking that grants for argument’s sake — how could Kṣitigarbha’s vow ever be finished early? The Buddha’s meaning is: even if I were to enter nirvāṇa this instant, and even if your vow could truly be finished early, I should still have no anxiety for any being of the present or of ages to come. And why no anxiety? 「有此稱名之法，人人可不墮苦」—“because there is this method of reciting the name, and every person may thereby not fall into suffering.” 〔X21n0384 0735b15〕

With that the standing of this chapter becomes plain. It comes after the praise of the ghost kings and before the weighing of giving, and it is the thing the Buddha hands over when his time is nearly used up. The chapters before said how beings fall, how the hells are undergone, how great karma is; here the sūtra hands over a thing that could not be smaller — remember one name.

Nineteen Gates, and No Two Thresholds Alike

The roster is worth going through slowly, because it is not even.

For the ten buddhas the ways of practice are: reverence arising for a moment; raising the thought and taking refuge in the space of a finger-snap; hearing the name of this buddha so that it passes through the faculty of hearing; taking refuge in a single thought; gazing and bowing with the whole of one’s mind, or praising him besides; hearing the name of this buddha; hearing the name of this buddha; giving rise to a heart of reverence; hearing the name of this buddha; hearing the name of this buddha.

And what is gained by each is: passing beyond the grave sins of birth and death of forty kalpas; never falling back upon the unsurpassed way; being born a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire; meeting measureless buddhas who lay their hands upon one’s head and give the prediction; being a Great Brahmā King in the assembly of the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa and receiving the highest prediction; never falling into the evil destinies but always born among humans and gods; in the end not falling into the evil destinies but always in the heavens; gaining before long the fruit of an arhat; passing beyond the sins of birth and death of a hundred great kalpas; meeting buddhas as many as the sands of the Ganges who expound the Dharma at length, and certainly accomplishing awakening.

The way of practice descends all the way from reverence arising for a moment to passing through the faculty of hearing; and what is gained climbs from passing beyond forty kalpas up to certainly accomplishing awakening. The two are not in proportion. The few gates with the lowest thresholds are not the ones that give least.

The four characters of the first gate are worth stopping over most of all. The sūtra says: 「若有男子女人，聞是佛名，暫生恭敬，即得超越四十劫生死重罪」—“if there be a man or a woman who hears the name of this buddha and gives rise to reverence for even a moment, that one at once passes beyond the grave sins of birth and death of forty kalpas.” 〔T13n0412 0786a01〕 — reverence arising for a moment: four characters.

The reading handed down takes those four characters apart and glosses each: 「暫謂歷時不久」—“for a moment means that the time it lasts is not long.” 〔X21n0384 0735c14〕; 「生謂當下發心，恭謂束身翹仰，敬謂心無異緣」—“arising means raising the thought on the spot; reverent in bearing means drawing the body together and looking up; reverent in mind means that the mind has no other object to reach after.” 〔X21n0384 0735c14〕 A moment is a time not long; arising is raising this thought on the spot; the one word of reverence is gathering the body up and lifting the face; the other is having nothing else in the mind to reach for. Two of the four speak of the body and two of the mind, and the whole of it lasts only a moment.

And then comes the weightiest judgment in the chapter. He says that within so small a thought of understanding, 「即此一念微解，無非本性佛法」—“this one slight understanding in a single thought is nothing other than the buddha-dharma of one’s own original nature.” 〔X21n0384 0735c15〕, and therefore 「故於暫生恭敬心中，早已成名字佛」—“and so within the mind in which reverence arises for a moment, one has already become a buddha at the identity in name.” 〔X21n0384 0735c16〕

A buddha at the identity in name — to hear this name and thereby know that there is such a dharma is already to stand upon that first rank of buddhahood, the rank of the name. And he adds a limit below it: 「然此聞名暫敬，但得理性初開，便能超極重罪」—“yet in this hearing of the name and this momentary reverence, one gains only the first opening of the principle-nature, and with that can already pass beyond the gravest sins.” 〔X21n0384 0735c17〕 The principle-nature has opened by no more than a thread, and no fraction of practice has yet been done, and the gravest sins are already passed beyond.

This line answers the most basic doubt of the whole chapter: how can hearing one name count for anything? The answer is not that the name has some power outside; it is that the very thought of hearing is already the buddha-dharma. What the name does is only to let one recognize what was there already.

The lowest of them all is the third. In the passage of the Tathāgata Red Lotus Supreme the sūtra says only 「聞是佛名，歷於耳根」—“hears the name of this buddha, so that it passes through the faculty of hearing” — a name going in at the ear, and no more than that; and what is gained is birth a thousand times over among the six heavens of desire. The sūtra then adds a question of its own turned back: how much more one who recites it with the whole of his mind?

The reading handed down borrows the lotus here: the red lotus 「處泥不染，出水恒芬」—“stands in the mud and takes no stain, and rising from the water is always fragrant.” 〔X21n0384 0736b09〕, so that one who hears the name, though born in the heavens of desire, is in fact not attached to the five objects of desire there; and as to the number a thousand, he binds it to 「佛蓮千瓣，表千法明門，故云千返」—“the buddha’s lotus has a thousand petals, figuring the thousand bright gates of the Dharma, and so it is said a thousand times over.” 〔X21n0384 0736b13〕 That matching may be consulted. But the thing the sūtra itself brings out is harder: the threshold may come down to no more than hearing.

The second, the Tathāgata Jewel Nature, is the same sense said another way. In the space of a finger-snap one raises the thought and takes refuge, and upon the unsurpassed way one never falls back. The commentator of old sets it over against the long road of the three vehicles: 「三乘之士，歷僧祇劫而功行無成」—“men of the three vehicles pass through asaṃkhyeya kalpas and their practice comes to no accomplishment.” 〔X21n0384 0736a05〕, whereas 「念佛之門，於彈指頃而位階不退」—“by the gate of reciting a buddha’s name, in the space of a finger-snap the rank one stands in does not fall back.” 〔X21n0384 0736a06〕 He borrows the old similes besides to say why it can be so fast — like the poor woman with a treasure-store already in her house, like the strong man with a bright jewel already in his forehead: once it is pointed out, 「貧女發藏，受用靡窮。力士見珠，歡喜無量」—“the poor woman opens her store and the use of it is without end; the strong man sees the jewel and his joy is measureless.” 〔X21n0384 0736a24〕 Nothing new has been gained; what was there already has been pointed out.

For the weight of the two words taking refuge he brings in another sūtra for comparison: 「教四天下，及六欲天，得四果，不如三歸依功德多」—“to teach the four continents and the six heavens of desire so that they gain the four fruits is not so much merit as the threefold refuge.” 〔X21n0384 0736a07〕 — to bring all the people of the four continents and the six heavens of desire to the four fruits is still less merit than one taking of the threefold refuge; and he ties a verse to it, 「諸有歸依佛，不墮三惡趣」—“all those who take refuge in the Buddha do not fall into the three evil destinies.” 〔X21n0384 0736a09〕 And whom this gate takes refuge in he makes plain as well: 「此憑自性佛寶，以歸寶性，故於無上之道，永不退轉」—“this relies upon the buddha-jewel of one’s own nature in order to take refuge in Jewel Nature, and therefore upon the unsurpassed way one never falls back.” 〔X21n0384 0736a10〕 Relying on the buddha-jewel within one’s own nature, one takes refuge in the buddha whose name is Jewel Nature — the names are the same, and so the refuge holds.

A Name Without a Suffix

Among the nineteen names there is one unlike the rest.

For the sixth the sūtra text writes only 「號毘婆尸」—“named Vipaśyin.” It is not the Tathāgata Vipaśyin, nor the Buddha Vipaśyin — it is simply Vipaśyin. Every one of the eighteen names before and after carries the suffix Tathāgata or Buddha; this one alone stands there bare.

This is not a thing to be filled in, and ought not to be filled in. As the sūtra writes it, so it is to be read.

And what this one gives is precisely the most basic thing in the whole chapter: hearing the name of this buddha, one never falls into the evil destinies, but is always born among humans and gods and there enjoys supreme and wondrous bliss. Upon the side of practice there is no added condition at all — no reverence, no taking refuge, no gazing and bowing and praising, only the four characters “hears the name of this buddha.”

The commentator of old is careful here to a rare degree, saying 「聞是佛名，即不墮三惡道。此非易事」—“to hear the name of this buddha and thereby not fall into the three evil destinies — this is no easy matter.” 〔X21n0384 0737b04〕, and citing a treatise to show that Śākyamuni himself passed through long kalpas before he was always parted from the evil destinies. He blocks one thing besides: this one is not to be settled as the very buddha whom Śākyamuni met when he first planted the marks and excellences, because 「以毗婆尸佛甚多，安可專指釋迦種相初逢之勝觀也」—“since the buddhas named Vipaśyin are very many, how can one point exclusively to the Supreme Contemplation whom Śākyamuni first met when planting the marks?” 〔X21n0384 0737b03〕

A name without a suffix, a gate without a condition, and a gloss that refuses to close the matter. These three together make a very singular page in this chapter.

Three Deeds, Three Causes of Buddha-Nature

In the passage of the Buddha Krakucchanda the sūtra gives three things: hearing the name of this buddha, gazing and bowing with the whole of one’s mind, and praising him besides.

The reading handed down matches these three things to body, speech, and mind, and then to the three causes of buddha-nature: 「聞佛名屬意，是顯正因佛性」—“hearing a buddha’s name belongs to mind, and this discloses the direct-cause buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0736c11〕, 「瞻禮屬身，是顯緣因佛性」—“gazing and bowing belong to body, and this discloses the conditioning-cause buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0736c12〕, 「讚歎屬口，是顯了因佛性」—“praising belongs to speech, and this discloses the revealing-cause buddha-nature.” 〔X21n0384 0736c12〕

This matching comes out of the house-rule of the commentator of old, and is not a word the sūtra carries of itself. But it throws light on something the sūtra text is in fact doing: the practice in this chapter uses, from beginning to end, only the three commonest things of body, speech, and mind — hearing, bowing, opening the mouth. All the weight of the hells and all the greatness of karma laid out in the chapters before answer here to three motions that any of us can make.

There is a small block set up in the same passage as well. Krakucchanda, on the usual account, is the first buddha of the Worthy Kalpa, while the sūtra text plainly says 「又於過去」—“again, in the past.” The commentator of old therefore judges: 「此非賢劫第九，減至六萬歲時出世之佛」—“this is not the buddha who appeared in the world in the ninth decrease of the Worthy Kalpa, when the lifespan had come down to sixty thousand years.” 〔X21n0384 0736c08〕 — for if this one be read as the first buddha of the Worthy Kalpa, the words 「過去」—“in the past” above are an obstacle, and the kalpas as many as the sands of the Ganges below are an obstacle too. For this he draws in the Sūtra of the Names of the Myriad Buddhas, the Sūtra of Bhaiṣajyarāja and Medicine Superior, and the accounts of the Fayuan, and argues at length how the thousand buddhas of the Worthy Kalpa can appear in the world at one time; and at the end he comes down only to this: 「恐後賢致疑，略示梗槩耳」—“lest later worthies fall into doubt, I have set out the general shape of it in brief, and no more.” 〔X21n0384 0737a19〕

He does not cover over the doubtful place, nor does he force it to a decision. This is the tone of the gloss upon this chapter.

Each Name Tells Which Face

The roster being a set of gates, no two gates are alike. The nineteen names are not nineteen ciphers; each points to some face of a buddha, and the reading handed down glosses them one by one. The third, Red Lotus Supreme, the fifth, Krakucchanda, and the sixth, Vipaśyin, have been opened above; the rest are gone through here in the order of the roster.

The first, Boundless Body, looks least of all like a name. The commentator reads it as a sense running through all three bodies, and cites a treatise glossing the body of self-nature: 「一自性身，謂諸如來真淨法界，具無邊際真實功德」—“first, the body of self-nature, which is the true and pure dharma-realm of all tathāgatas, complete in boundless true merits.” 〔X21n0384 0735c06〕; the dharma-body is boundless, the reward-body is boundless, and the response-body is boundless too, and so he concludes 「故知三身即一，一即三身也」—“hence it is known that the three bodies are one, and the one is the three bodies.” 〔X21n0384 0735c12〕 The three taken together are one buddha, and one buddha opened out is three bodies — and this is what the boundless in the name is saying.

The second, Jewel Nature, takes gold. Among the seven jewels gold stands at the head, and gold has four senses — its color does not alter, its substance takes no stain, it may be worked into anything without hindrance, and it makes a man rich — which the commentator matches as 「以譬法身常淨我樂四德」—“as the figure of the four virtues of the dharma-body: permanence, purity, self, and bliss.” 〔X21n0384 0736a04〕 It does not rust, it takes no dye, beat it into what you will and it is still gold, and having it you are not poor: four things figuring permanence, purity, self, and bliss.

The fourth, Lion’s Roar, takes the mark of expounding the Dharma. He cites the Dīrgha Āgama: 「於大眾中，廣說法時，自在無畏，故號師子」—“when he expounds the Dharma at length in the midst of a great assembly he is sovereign and without fear, and therefore he is named the lion.” 〔X21n0384 0736b19〕 What is taken is not ferocity but fearlessness — to say the Dharma out in the midst of a great assembly and not be afraid.

The seventh, Jewel Supreme, is the only one of the nineteen gates that leaves a story behind it. The commentator cites the Golden Light directly: 「光明流水品，十千魚得聞寶勝之名，尚盡生忉利」—“in the chapter of Flowing Water in the Golden Light, ten thousand fish get to hear the name of Jewel Supreme, and even so are all born in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.” 〔X21n0384 0737c07〕 The story runs thus: the elder’s son Flowing Water saw a pool about to dry up with ten thousand fish dying in it, borrowed elephants to carry water and fill the pool, took food from his own house to feed the fish, and at the last went into the water and expounded the twelve links of dependent arising for them, and 「亦當稱說寶勝佛名」—“and he was also to call out the name of the Buddha Jewel Supreme.” 〔T16n0663 0353a22〕 — for he had once heard that 「若有眾生臨命終時，得聞寶勝如來名號即生天上」—“if any being at the end of life gets to hear the name of the Tathāgata Jewel Supreme, he is at once born in the heavens.” 〔T16n0663 0353a20〕 And afterward 「時十千魚同日命終，既命終已生忉利天」—“at that time the ten thousand fish came to the end of life on the same day, and having died were born in the Heaven of the Thirty-Three.” 〔T16n0663 0353b09〕

Those who heard the name were fish. This is the one example outside the roster in which the gaining of benefit by hearing a name is drawn out into a story, and the side that did the hearing did not so much as have a human body.

The eighth, Jewel Mark, is matched to the four wisdoms. He cites the Avataṃsaka on the four blazing great jewels of light, 「日藏，表大圓鏡智」—“the sun-store figures the great perfect-mirror wisdom.” 〔X21n0384 0737c16〕 and so on, each matched to one wisdom, and says 「若如來法海，無此四智饒益眾生，三界六道，悉皆漂沒」—“if in the Tathāgata’s ocean of Dharma there were not these four wisdoms to benefit beings, the three realms and the six destinies would all be swept under and drowned.” 〔X21n0384 0737c17〕; and he judges at the end 「無去無來，法性實相，實相尊貴，故名寶相是也」—“neither going nor coming, the dharma-nature is the mark of reality; and the mark of reality is honored, and therefore the name Jewel Mark.” 〔X21n0384 0737c18〕

The ninth, Kāṣāya Banner, is the one of the nineteen names most like an everyday thing. He cites the Sūtra of Contemplating the Mind-Ground: 「袈裟，即是如來寶幢之相」—“the kāṣāya is the very mark of the Tathāgata’s jewel banner.” 〔X21n0384 0738a14〕, and says that to think of it as a jewel banner when one puts it on can extinguish the multitude of sins and give birth to all blessings, 「猶如甲冑，煩惱毒箭不能害故」—“for it is like armor, so that the poisoned arrows of the afflictions cannot wound.” 〔X21n0384 0738a16〕 A garment sewn of cloth, read as a suit of armor.

The tenth, Great Universal Mountain King, stands at the end of the ten names brought out singly, and the commentator takes it apart into cause and fruit: 「山王，即須彌山」—“the mountain king is Mount Sumeru.” 〔X21n0384 0738a23〕, 「此喻報身佛也」—“this is the figure of the reward-body buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0738a24〕; and 「則大通是般若因，山王是報身果」—“then great and universal is the cause that is prajñā, and mountain king is the fruit that is the reward-body.” 〔X21n0384 0738b05〕 One name holding one cause and one fruit; and so the benefit it discloses is stated most fully of all: 「聞一佛名，而得修性一如，因果成就」—“hearing the name of one buddha, one gains that practice and nature are of one suchness, and that cause and fruit are accomplished.” 〔X21n0384 0738b09〕

The last nine are crowded into a single sentence, and the commentator still gives a gloss for each. Pure Moon — 「應物現形，如水中月」—“appearing in form as things require, like the moon in water.” 〔X21n0384 0738b15〕 Mountain King — this one has a Sanskrit name of its own, 「山王，梵名勢禮捺囉惹，此云山王」—“Mountain King: the Sanskrit name is 勢禮捺囉惹, which here means mountain king.” 〔X21n0384 0738b17〕, and it is not the same as the Great Universal Mountain King above. Wisdom Supreme — 「智勝，即一切種智」—“Wisdom Supreme is the wisdom of all modes.” 〔X21n0384 0738b20〕 Pure Name King — 「五住二死淨盡淨，自在故」—“the afflictions of the five abodes and the two kinds of birth-and-death are purified away entirely, and there is sovereignty.” 〔X21n0384 0738b23〕 Wisdom Accomplished — 「智成就，以權實二智悉成就故」—“Wisdom Accomplished: because both wisdoms, the expedient and the real, are wholly accomplished.” 〔X21n0384 0738c01〕 Unsurpassed — 「有所斷者，名有上士。既無所斷，名無上矣」—“one who still has something to cut off is called one with something above him; having nothing left to cut off, he is called unsurpassed.” 〔X21n0384 0738c02〕: while there is still something to cut off he has something above him, and only when there is nothing left to cut is he unsurpassed. Wondrous Sound — he cites the Sūtra of the Right Mindfulness of the True Dharma: 「山谷曠野，其中多有迦陵頻伽，出妙音聲」—“in mountain valleys and open wastes there are many kalaviṅkas, which give out a wondrous sound.” 〔X21n0384 0738c05〕, which neither gods and men nor kiṃnaras can match, 「唯除如來音聲」—“the voice of the Tathāgata alone excepted.” 〔X21n0384 0738c07〕 Full Moon and Moon Face the commentator joins in one item: 「滿月，月面二佛，大意相同」—“the two buddhas Full Moon and Moon Face are much the same in sense.” 〔X21n0384 0738c07〕, the sense being taken from 「如十五日月，圓滿具足，眾星中王，最上最勝」—“like the moon of the fifteenth day, round and full and complete, king among the host of stars, highest and most supreme.” 〔X21n0384 0738c08〕

The nine called out, the commentator states for himself why he no longer sets out kalpas and benefits one by one: 「有如是等不可說佛者，不復具出劫數，及聞名利益，故總結之」—“as for ‘buddhas such as these, beyond all telling,’ the kalpas and the benefit of hearing the name are no longer set out in full, and so they are gathered up together.” 〔X21n0384 0738c09〕

Having gone once through the nineteen gates, one thing can be seen: not one of these names is a title hung up empty. The dharma-body, the four virtues, fearless expounding, the dying brought to birth, the four wisdoms, the kāṣāya, cause and fruit, the moon in water, the wisdom of all modes, nothing left to cut off — the nineteen names divide a buddha’s virtue into nineteen faces; and whichever face one hears, it is a gate one can go in by.

One Name, and Many Names

The roster called out, the sūtra gathers it up in a line of its own: “if one can but recite the name of a single buddha, the merit of it is measureless — how much more the reciting of many names?”

The setting of one over against many opens upward here. The reading handed down brings in a passage from the sūtra of the same honored one but of different text to match it: 「若念一佛，則見一佛。若念多佛，則見多佛」—“if one recites one buddha, one sees one buddha; if one recites many buddhas, one sees many buddhas.” 〔X21n0384 0738c23〕, and further down that reciting a buddha of small body one sees a buddha of small body, reciting a buddha of great body one sees a buddha of great body, reciting a buddha of measureless body one sees a buddha of measureless body. The measure of what is recited is the measure of what is seen.

And the sūtra turns at once from merit to the hour: “such beings as these, at the time of birth and at the time of death, gain great benefit of themselves, and in the end do not fall into the evil destinies.”

At the time of birth, at the time of death. This is the first mention of death in the chapter.

Down and Down to the Lowest

From here the sūtra begins to come down.

First the number of people comes down to the fewest: of the kindred in the house, “even one.” Then what is recited comes down to the least: “recites aloud the name of a single buddha” — one buddha, one name. And the one who recites is not even oneself, but the person beside one.

The commentator of old points out that this descent is deliberate: 「乃至一人念一佛名者，此從多人多佛，略至極少也」—“that even one person recites the name of one buddha is a coming down from many people and many buddhas, brought in brief to the very least.” 〔X21n0384 0739a21〕 Above it was said that one buddha is not so much as many buddhas, and here it comes down all the way to one person and one buddha — this is no contradiction; it is pressing the threshold flat to the ground.

The one for whom it is recited is the sort of person with the least room left of any in the whole sūtra: he is at the end of life. He has no time to practice, no time to repent, no time to sell his house and lands and raise offerings at a stūpa-monastery. The people in the chapters before still had time — the brahmin woman could sit upright and recollect the Buddha for one day and one night, and the girl Bright Eyes could seek out an arhat. This one has nothing at all, only one family member beside him willing to speak aloud — and that place, the place of the one who speaks, is a place most of us have sat in.

And the fruit the sūtra gives is: “the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are taken away, and the remaining karmic retributions and the rest of them are all extinguished.”

How the Character 除 Is to Be Read

Those five characters, 「除五無間罪」, leave room for a divergence of reading. 除 may mean to take away, and it may mean to except.

The sūtra text itself gives the answer in the very next sentence: the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds, though heavy in the utmost degree, and though a koṭi of kalpas may pass and one still cannot get out of them, yet by the strength of another’s calling and reciting a buddha’s name at the end of life, “even within these sins there is a gradual extinguishing.” Even the five Uninterrupted are being extinguished; only one word has been added — gradual.

The reading handed down puts a small note in at just this place, and stops the matter dead: 「除者，去之也。非聽除而不銷也」—“to remove is to take away. It is not that they are let off and not extinguished.” 〔X21n0384 0739a24〕 — to remove is to take away, not to set aside and leave alone. His reasons are laid out quite straight: 「更何疑五無間罪之不銷耶」—“what further doubt can there be that the sins of the five Uninterrupted deeds are extinguished?” 〔X21n0384 0739a23〕, 「極重逆罪既銷，餘之中下業報，豈不悉滅哉」—“the gravest sins of rebellion once extinguished, how should the middling and lesser karmic retributions not all be extinguished as well?” 〔X21n0384 0739a23〕

Here is the judgment of old, and it is transmitted as it stands, with no reconciling done on its behalf. And the word gradual that the sūtra left of itself is kept along with it: the heavy are not the unextinguished, they are the slowly extinguished.

As to why one thought at the end of life should weigh against a whole lifetime, the gloss cites a treatise and answers with some interest: 「是心雖少，而力猛利」—“this mind is small, and yet its force is fierce and keen.” 〔X21n0384 0739c09〕, 「如火如毒雖少，能成大事」—“as fire and poison, though small, can accomplish great things.” 〔X21n0384 0739c10〕; it is the mind at the moment of giving up the body, when the faculties are pressed to the utmost, 「是垂死時心，決定猛健，故勝百歲行力」—“this mind at the point of death is fixed and fierce and strong, and therefore surpasses the force of a hundred years of practice.” 〔X21n0384 0739c10〕

How Much More When He Calls and Recites for Himself

The last sentence of the chapter is a question turned back: “how much more when beings call and recite for themselves? The blessings gained are measureless, and the sins extinguished are measureless.”

All the way down it has been coming down, down to another reciting on your behalf; and at this sentence the sūtra turns it back up — if another reciting on your behalf does this much, how much more your reciting for yourself. The commentator of old reads out exactly this turn: 「此況結者，正勸人自念為勝」—“this concluding by ‘how much more’ is precisely an exhortation that reciting for oneself is better.” 〔X21n0384 0739c07〕, 「以它人代念，滅罪尚爾，何況自念者哉」—“if another’s reciting on one’s behalf extinguishes sins to that degree, how much more one who recites for himself.” 〔X21n0384 0739c07〕

The chapter ends here. It does not turn back to speak of the hells again, nor does it promise birth in any pure land. It sets the nineteen names down where they are, and says one thing: recite a single one of them, and the merit of it is already measureless.

And immediately after this chapter the sūtra turns into the weighing of giving — in that division of the outline, reciting the name is the right practice and giving is the auxiliary path. That is how the order is set.

The Two Words Sin and Blessing Must Be Put Down at the Last

All the way through this chapter what has been spoken of is sin and blessing: how many sins are extinguished, how many blessings gained. And at the very end of the chapter the reading handed down turns those two words over itself.

He first presses that thought at the end of life to its limit: 「是後心，名大心」—“this last mind is called the great mind.” 〔X21n0384 0739c11〕 — at the moment of giving up the body the faculties are pressed to the utmost, and so a thought of the Buddha at that time makes sins themselves become blessings, 「如耆婆攬草，無非藥者，普能愈病」—“as when Jīvaka gathers grasses, and there is not one that is not a medicine, and all of them can heal.” 〔X21n0384 0739c12〕 Not a blade of grass that Jīvaka picked up was other than medicine. And then he writes down this: 「全心滿日，無非佛境」—“the whole mind and the day filled full, and there is nothing that is not the realm of a buddha.” 〔X21n0384 0739c13〕

When eye and mind are filled with nothing but the realm of a buddha, what then are sin and blessing? He goes on: 「所觀罪福，即是實相」—“the sin and blessing that are contemplated are the mark of reality itself.” 〔X21n0384 0739c14〕, 「既純實相，覓罪福了不可得，復何論有量無量耶」—“being purely the mark of reality, one searches for sin and blessing and cannot find them at all; and then what is there to say of measured or measureless?” 〔X21n0384 0739c14〕 — search for sin and it is not to be found, search for blessing and it is not to be found, and then what is left to argue about measure and measurelessness?

Then how is the sūtra’s own line about measureless blessings gained and measureless sins extinguished to be reckoned? He states it himself: 「今且順俗，故言自稱自念，獲福滅罪」—“here we go along with the common way for the present, and so it is said that calling and reciting for oneself gains blessings and extinguishes sins.” 〔X21n0384 0739c15〕 Going along with the common way for the present — speaking, for now, in the manner of the world.

So the words of this chapter fall into two layers. The layer that goes along with the common way is true: recite one name, and blessings are really gained and sins really extinguished. The layer at the end is true as well: once you are there, the two words sin and blessing will empty themselves out. The first layer is the gate, and the second is what comes after the gate is open — go in at the gate first; there is no need to pull the gate down first.

Transmission — A Chapter on Reciting the Buddha’s Name inside a Classic of Filial Piety

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 judgment of the part on the causes of attaining buddhahood, the threefold division of the chapter’s text, the order of the ten names, the matching of the three deeds to the three causes of buddha-nature, the gloss of the character 除, and the treatise cited on the fierce keenness of a single thought at the end of life.

In glossing this chapter he brings in a stretch of matter seldom met with elsewhere. Coming to the benefit of reciting the name, he first cites scripture to the effect that reciting a buddha’s name surpasses giving, and then writes down a string of names outright: 「以故東土倡始於遠公，西京大盛於善導」—“and so in the eastern land it was Master Yuan who first raised the call, and in the western capital it flourished greatly with Shandao.” 〔X21n0384 0735a07〕, counting on down through Zhizhe, Siming, Yongming, and Ciyun, all the way to Yunqi of the Wanli era of the Ming. The judgment he gives this Dharma-gate is: 「葢由此法門，能橫截惡道，直造本源」—“for it is by this Dharma-gate that one can cut crosswise through the evil destinies and go straight to the fountainhead.” 〔X21n0384 0735a11〕, and what it asks for he states just as plainly: 「然須諦信不疑，精勤無間」—“yet one must believe it truly and not doubt, and be diligent without a break.” 〔X21n0384 0735a13〕

At the passage on reciting the name at the end of life he carries his words even outside the present sūtra. He grants first that the buddhas listed in this chapter are the buddhas Kṣitigarbha himself met with, served, and gained benefit from; and then he writes: 「然諸經論，唯讚西方阿彌陀佛，接引娑婆，願力偏重」—“yet the sūtras and treatises praise the Buddha Amitābha of the west alone, who draws in the Sahā world, and whose power of vow weighs heaviest.” 〔X21n0384 0739a11〕, 「是以普賢行願，獨指彌陀為至」—“and so the Vows and Practices of Samantabhadra point to Amitābha alone as the ultimate.” 〔X21n0384 0739a13〕 He records two old matters besides: a vinaya master who had once slighted and disparaged the Pure Land, and who after a grave illness threw away all he had learned in his life and sought only the teaching-gate of the Pure Land; and a great master who saw Mañjuśrī on Mount Wutai and asked what Dharma-gate was most needful for a common man of the last age, and received the answer 「諸修行門，無如念佛」—“among all the gates of practice, none is like reciting the buddha’s name.” 〔X21n0384 0739b11〕

That light cast from the side sets this chapter within a larger arena. A sūtra whose character is filial piety has in the middle of it one chapter devoted to reciting the names of the buddhas; and those who read it joined it offhand to the Pure Land road. The sūtra itself names no western land — what it lists is nineteen buddhas of the past. Both stand together, and there is no need to reconcile them.

And the sūtra’s own shortest promise is bound to no mirror at all. If one can but recite the name of a single buddha, the merit of it is measureless — and that “one” is still, today, a weight a single person can carry.