The Amitāyus Sutra

A sutra book (okyō) showing passages from the Sukhāvatīvyūha. Obtained from Nishi Honganji temple in Kyoto, Japan.

The Amitāyus Sutra (Sanskrit), simplified Chinese: 佛说无量壽經; traditional Chinese: 佛說無量壽經; pinyin: Fóshuōwúliàngshòujīng; Sutra of Immeasurable Life Spoken by Buddha; Vietnamese: Phật Thuyết Kinh Vô Lượng Thọ; Japanese: Taisho Tripitaka no. 360) also known as the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, is one of the two Indian Mahayana sutras which describe the pure land of Amitābha (also known as Amitāyus, "Measureless Life"). Together with the Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, this text is highly influential in East Asian Buddhism. It is one of the three central scriptures of East Asian Pure Land Buddhism, and is widely revered and chanted by Pure Land Buddhists throughout Asia.

The title is often translated in English as either the Sutra [on the Buddha] of Immeasurable Life, or simply the Immeasurable Life Sutra.

History and translations

Some scholars believe that the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra was compiled in the age of the Kushan Empire in the first and second centuries by an order of Mahīśāsaka monastics who flourished in the Gandhāra region. It is likely that the longer Sukhāvatīvyūha owed greatly to the Lokottaravāda sect as well for its compilation, and in this sūtra there are many elements in common with the Mahāvastu.

The earliest of the Chinese translations show traces of having been translated from the Gāndhārī language, a prakrit used in the Northwest. It is also known that manuscripts in the Kharoṣṭhī script existed in China during this period.

Traditionally the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra is believed to have been translated into Chinese twelve times from the original Sanskrit from 147 to 713 CE. Only five translations are extant in the Chinese Buddhist canon.

The five Chinese translations are (in order of translation date):

• Foshuo amituo sanyesanfo saloufotan guodu rendao jing (佛説阿彌陀三耶三佛薩樓佛檀過度人 道經; T. 362) - traditionally attributed to the translator Zhi Qian, but it is likely a translation of Lokakṣema (2nd century CE) or someone in his lineage.
• Foshuo wuliangqingjing pingdengjue jing (佛説無量清淨平等覺經; T. 361), most likely the work of Zhi Qian. It is likely a revision of T.362 which introduces some verse passages.
• Fóshuō Wúliángshòu Jīng (佛説無量壽經; T. 360) in two fascicles, by Buddhabhadra (359–429 ce) and his assistant Baoyun (寶雲; 376–449 ce). Traditionally it has also been attributed to Saṅghavarman, though modern scholars now disagree with this.
• Wuliangshou rulai hui (無量壽如來會; T. 310), which is part of the composite Mahāratnakūṭasutra, which was translated by Bodhiruci II (late 6th-century and early 7th-century). This text reflects a "later recension" of the text than the previous three.
• Foshuo dasheng wuliangshou zhuangyan jing (佛説大乘無量壽莊嚴經; T. 363), by Faxian (法賢; Dharmabhadra; also known as Tianxizai [天息災]; fl. 980–1000).

Furthermore, there is a Tibetan translation, which is similar to the last two later recensions in Chinese. This is the ’Phags pa ’od dpag med kyi bkod pa (*Āryāmitābhavyūha; D 49/P 760) translated in the 9th century by Jinamitra, Dānaśīla, and Ye shes sde.

In addition to the translations, the Sūtra is also extant in Sanskrit, surviving in a late Nepalese manuscript. The Sanskrit has been directly translated into English by F. Max Mueller. It is a "late recension" type similar to the Tibetan edition.

There are also several fragments of another version in Sanskrit, along with fragments of Uighur, Khotanese, and Xixia translations.

According to Luis O. Gomez, there are some significant differences between the Sanskrit and the Chinese edition of Buddhabhadra / Saṅghavarman. Gomez writes:

the order of the narrative and the argument deviate, sometimes only on minor points, sometimes in major ways; differences in content occur throughout, and range from a regrouping and rearrangement of important themes (in the content and structure of the verse portions, for instance, and in the vows), to significant omissions and additions. The parallels, however, are more and stronger than the divergences, so that our understanding of one version may still benefit from our reading of the other. Two long passages in Sanghavarman's version have no correspondence in the Sanskrit (or, for that matter, in the Tibetan) versions. These passages are probably "interpolations," but we have no way of knowing for certain today where and when they were added to the text.

Commentaries

There are over twenty commentaries on this sutra written in China, Korea and Japan, all based on the Buddhabhadra / Saṅghavarman translation which became the standard in Chinese Buddhism.

The Dilun scholar Jingying Huiyuan (淨影慧遠, J. Jōyō Eon) wrote the earliest extant Chinese commentary to the Sutra of Immeasurable Life.

Jizang (549-623) of the Sanlun school, also wrote an early commentary on this sutra.

In Japan, the 12th-century Pure Land scholar Hōnen wrote four separate commentaries on the sutra.

Contents

Statue of Amitābha seated in meditation. Borobudur, Java, Indonesia

In the Longer Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra, the Buddha begins by describing to his attendant Ānanda a past life of the Buddha Amitābha. He states that in a past life, Amitābha was once a king who renounced his kingdom and became a bodhisattva monk named Dharmākara ("Dharma Storehouse"). Under the guidance of the buddha Lokeśvararāja ("World Sovereign King"), innumerable buddha-lands throughout the ten directions were revealed to him.

After meditating for five eons as a bodhisattva, he then made a great series of vows to save all sentient beings, and through his great merit, created the realm of Sukhāvatī ("Ultimate Bliss"). This land of Sukhāvatī would later come to be known as a pure land (Ch. 淨土) in Chinese translation.

The sutra describes in great detail Sukhāvatī and its inhabitants, and how they are able to attain rebirth there. The text also provides a detailed account of the various levels and beings in the Mahāyāna Buddhist cosmology.

The sutra also contains the forty-eight vows of Amitābha to save all sentient beings. The eighteenth vow is among the most important as it forms a basic tenet of Pure Land Buddhism. This vow states that if a sentient being makes even ten recitations of the Amitābha's name (nianfo) they will attain certain rebirth into Amitābha's pure land.

Lastly the sutra shows the Buddha discoursing at length to the future buddha, Maitreya, describing the various forms of evil that Maitreya must avoid to achieve his goal of becoming a buddha as well as other admonitions and advice.

Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra Quotation on the Peace Bell at Hiroshima

Peace Bell at Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park

A Peace Bell with an enclosure was constructed in the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park on September 20, 1964. Among its inscriptions is a Sanskrit quote from Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra:

विपुलप्रभ अतुल्यनन्त नाथ

दिशि विदिशि स्फुरि सर्वबुद्धक्षेत्रा। राग प्रशमि सर्वदोषमोहां

नरकगतिस्मि प्रशामि धूमकेतुम्॥१५॥

The English translation (Müller, Max, trans. 1894):

The lord of vast light, incomparable and infinite, has illuminated all Buddha countries in all the quarters, he has quieted passions, all sins and errors, he has quieted the fire in the walk of hell.

The Chinese translation:

神力演大光

普照無際土 消除三垢冥

明濟眾厄難　

English Translations

• Gomez, Luis, trans. (1996), The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light: Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukhavativyuha Sutras, Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press
• Inagaki, Hisao, trans. (2003), The Three Pure Land Sutras (PDF), Berkeley: Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, ISBN 1-886439-18-4, archived from the original (PDF) on May 12, 2014{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
• Müller, Max, trans. (1894), The Larger Sukhāvatī-vyūha. In: The Sacred Books of the East, Volume XLIX: Buddhist Mahāyāna Texts, Part II. Oxford: Clarendon Press, ISBN 1-60206-381-8

See also

• Shorter Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra (Amitabha Sutra)
• Sukhavati
• Amitābha
• Mahayana sutras

Bibliography

• Nattier, Jan (2003). The Indian Roots of Pure Land Buddhism: Insights from the Oldest Chinese Versions of the Larger Sukhavativyuha, Pacific World (3rd series) 5, 179–201