Sukhāvatī-vyūha Sūtra

A scripture that is central to the Pure Land schools of China and Japan, as well as other parts of east Asia. This scripture exists in two versions, called the Longer and Shorter Sukhāvatī-vyūha Sūtras. Both describe the merits of the Pure Land (Sukhāvatī, or Land of Bliss) that exists an unimaginable distance to the west of the present world of suffering and was created by the karma generated by the practices of the Buddha Amitābha (‘Boundless Light’, or sometimes Amitāyus, ‘Boundless Life’). The longer version contains the story of how the monk Dharmākara, at the instigation of a previous Buddha, meditatively inspected all the Pure Lands of other Buddhas, and then made a series of 48 vows (the number varies in different recensions) whereby he determined the features that his Pure Land would exhibit upon his attainment of Buddhahood, and without which he would not enter into Buddhahood. Significant for the development of Pure Land practices, he also specified (in the eighteenth vow) that any being could gain access to his land simply by calling out his name or thinking on him only ten times. Even though unenlightened at the time of their death, beings could gain rebirth in the Land of Bliss and there find perfect conditions for practice as well as a Buddha and highly evolved Bodhisattvas to guide them to Buddhahood. The shorter version omits the story of Dharmākara and his vows, and simply has the Buddha Śākyamuni teaching about that land, praising its qualities, and exhorting his disciples to make a vow to seek rebirth there. In fact, it is so short that, in its Chinese translation, it is memorized by Chinese monks and nuns and recited daily as part of morning devotions.

Both sūtras have extant versions in Sanskrit and Chinese, and a Tibetan version of the Shorter Sūtra still exists. In Chinese, there are five different translations of the Longer Sūtra still available (Taishō 362, 361, 360, 310, and 363), and two of the Shorter Sūtra (Taishō 366 and 367). Of these, the translation of the Longer Sūtra by Saṃghavarman (Taishō 360) and that of the Shorter Sūtra by Kumārajīva (Taishō 366), are considered the standard texts in east Asia. These two texts, together with the Amitāyurdhyāna Sūtra, form the ‘Three Pure Land Sūtras’ in east Asian Buddhism.