Fragment from my
Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra. It is a work in progress and
under constant revision. Click here to read the other
chapters.
“Shakyamuni used the
five grave offenses in which Vaidehi, Devadatta, and Ajatasatru
were involved as compassionate means to cause women and those who
have committed the five grave offenses in the last Dharma age to
aspire to birth in the Land of Serene Sustenance (the Pure Land of
Amida); He assured us that even such people would unfailingly
attain birth in the Land of Serene Sustenance if they took refuge
in the inconceivable Primal Vow. This you should know.”[1]
Shinran already went even further than Rennyo in this matter and considered that all the events presented in the Contemplation Sutra were a play by enlightened actors to create the proper conditions for the teaching on Amida Buddha in its implicit and explicit aspect to appear in our world. In chapter I of his Kyogyoshinsho, he said,
“I reflect within myself: The universal Vow difficult to fathom is indeed a great vessel bearing us across the ocean difficult to cross. The unhindered Light is the sun of wisdom dispersing the darkness of our ignorance. Thus it is that, when conditions for the teaching of birth in the Pure Land had matured, Devadatta provoked Ajatasatru to commit grave crimes. And when the opportunity arose for explaining the pure act by which Birth (in the Pure Land) is settled, Shakyamuni led Vaidehi to select the land of peace. In their selfless love, these incarnated ones - Devadatta, Ajatasatru, Vaidehi - all aspired to save the multitudes of beings from pain and affliction, and in His compassion, Shakyamuni, the great hero, sought indeed to bless those committing the five grave offenses, those slandering the Dharma, and those lacking the seed of Buddhahood. We know, therefore, that the auspicious Name embodying the perfectly fulfilled supreme virtues is true wisdom that transforms our evil into virtue, and that the diamond-like shinjin so difficult to accept is true reality that sweeps away doubt and brings us to attainment of Enlightenment”.[2]
And Ananda, Maudgalyayana, Purna, Vaidehi,
Devadatta, King Ajatasatru, Bimbisara,
Jivaka[3], Candraprabha[4], Varsakara, and others –
By various means, brought the most foolish and lowest
Of evil people to enter the Vow
That does not neglect people of grave offenses and transgressions.
Of evil people to enter the Vow
That does not neglect people of grave offenses and transgressions.
Shakyamuni and Vaidehi, manifesting compassionate means,
Led the minister Varsakara to bear witness
And King Ajatasatru to commit grave offenses.
Which vary with each practicer;
Let us aspire to enter into shinjin (faith)
That arises from Amida’s benefiting of others.
Shinjin: the true and real shinjin of the Primal Vow.”[5]
Just to give you another example – the King Anala, who was actually a Bodhisattva in disguise, admitted in the Gandavyuha Sutra (final part of the Avatamsaka Sutra) that He sometimes manifests illusory evil people who experience the effect of their bad karma to help existing samsaric beings to avoid evil and aspire for Enlightenment,
Noble one, when in that way I have used that method and see that these beings are distressed, terrified, and alarmed, I then turn them away from the path of the ten bad actions, cause them to possess the path of the ten good actions, and establish them in the path to omniscience, which is the ultimate attainment of joy and happiness and the cessation of all suffering.”[7]
Noble one, I do not generate the qualities of a bad action in my dreams, let alone deliberately.”[8]
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[1]Rennyo Shonin Ofumi IV-3, BDK English Tripitaka 105-II, 106-I, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 1996, Berkeley USA, p.104-105
[2]The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.3
[3] Jivaka was a nephew of king Bimbisara who served as a royal minister. Also, a famous and skilled physician who once cured the Buddha of a serious illness. The Three Pure Land Sutras - A Study and Translation from Chinese by Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and Numata Centre for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p.129
[4] Candraprabha (“Moonlight”): the name of one of King Bimbisara’s ministers. The Three Pure Land Sutras - A Study and Translation from Chinese by Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, Bukkyo Dendo Kyokai and Numata Centre for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p.123
[5]The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.346
[6]“The devas, humans, and asuras in all the worlds all think that the present Buddha, Śhakyamuni, left the palace of the Sakyas, sat on the terrace of Enlightenment not far from the city of Gaya, and attained highest, complete Enlightenment. However, O sons of a virtuous family, immeasurable, limitless, hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas have passed since I actually attained Buddhahood. […]Since then I have constantly been residing in the Saha world, teaching the Dharma and inspiring sentient beings. I have also been leading and benefiting sentient beings in incalculable hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of other worlds”
The Lotus Sutra, chapter 16 (Taishō Volume 9, Number 262), translated from the Chinese of Kumarajiva by Tsugunari Kubo and Akira Yuyama, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, 2007, p223-224
[7]Gaṇḍavyūha (The Stem Array), Translated by Peter Alan Roberts under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, https://84000.co/translation/toh44-45#UT22084-037-007-4236
[8]Gaṇḍavyūha (The Stem Array), Translated by Peter Alan Roberts under the patronage and supervision of 84000: Translating the Words of the Buddha, https://84000.co/translation/toh44-45#UT22084-037-007-4236
