“If, when I attain Buddhahood,
innumerable Buddhas in the lands of the ten directions should not all praise
and glorify my Name, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment.”[1]
the 17th Vow
In this
vow Dharmakara promised that when He becomes Amida Buddha, His Name will be
praised by all Buddhas so that sentient beings are encouraged to entrust to it
and say it in faith. Thus, the 17th Vow supports the 18thVow (the Primal Vow) in which the saying of Amida’s Name in faith and aspiration
to be born in His Pure Land are mentioned. As Shinran said in Notes on
Essentials of Faith Alone:
“This Vow of Compassion [the 17th] already shows that the Primal Vow, which
encourages the saying of the Name, is the true cause of Birth[2]
selected by Amida”. [3]
The method of saying the Name in
faith, which is mentioned in the Primal Vow of Amida (18th Vow), is
the easiest of all methods created by any Buddha to bring sentient beings to
supreme Enlightenment. As it requires no special spiritual capacities or merit
on the part of the practitioner, it means that all beings can attain freedom
from birth and death through it. The true reason of any Buddha’s appearance in
the world is to save everybody, with no distinction whatsoever, letting no one
outside. Buddhas have only this goal in mind, to help all beings attain Buddhahood,
and so they develop various methods and do their activities in many forms and
places.
Seeing Amida’s method of salvation
contained in the 18th Vow (Nembutsu of faith) all Buddhas praise it
because they realize that in comparison with the methods created by them this
is the easiest and most effective in all times and places, especially when the
capacities of beings are very low or actually inexistent like in this last
Dharma age. They all praise and glorify the Name of Amida in order to encourage
beings everywhere to say it themselves. Thus the Buddhas become living
witnesses of the efficacy of saying Amida’s Name in faith.
This vow shows that Amida has the
perfect method among all methods and so He is the supreme Buddha among all
Buddhas. To be the supreme Buddha does not mean He is the boss of all Buddhas,
but that He has the best method of saving sentient beings. Not only other
Buddhas praise Amida’s Name, thus encouraging beings everywhere to say it in
faith, but they also work in many hidden and unknown ways to guide us and make
us all accept Amida’s method of salvation. This is also the meaning of the 17th
Vow.
The passage showing the fulfilment of
this vow is found in section 22 of this sutra:
“All
Buddha Tathagatas in the ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges
River, together praise the inconceivable, supernal virtue of Amitayus (Amida).”[4]
This vow
also shows that the Name of Amida Buddha is not just another name like for
example, “John” or “Smith” and saying of this Name is not an ordinary saying of
any name. On the contrary, it is the Name that all Buddhas say and glorify.
Buddhas are supreme in the universe, no one is their equal in Wisdom,
Compassion or anything else, and so if the Name of Amida is recited and
glorified by all Buddhas it means that this Name is also supreme in the
universe.
The Name, Namo Amida Bu, contains
all the merits and virtues of Amida Buddha and is the manifestation of His
Enlightenment. Through Amida’s Name ultimate Buddhahood is made accessible to
all beings upon birth in the Pure Land. Ordinary unenlightened beings can
attain Buddhahood and freedom from birth and death only through Amida Buddha’s
Name said in faith.
[1] The Three Pure Land sutras, translated
into English by Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, revised
second edition, BDK English Tripitaka12-II, II, IV, Numata Center for Buddhist
translation and Research, 2003, p.15
[2] Birth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha.
[3] Shinran
Shonin, Notes on Essentials of Faith
Alone, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation
Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.673
[4] The Three Pure Land sutras, translated
into English by Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, revised
second edition, BDK English Tripitaka12-II, II, IV, Numata Center for Buddhist
translation and Research, 2003, p.35
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