All Buddhas praise Amida's Name (short explanation of the 17th Vow of Amida Buddha)

 last revised September 24 2019

“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 17^th 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 17^th 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 17^th] 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 (18^th 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 18^th 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 17^th 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.

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[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