Study of the Great Compassion Sutra

Author: Wu Xinru
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 1998-05-01
Features: In the True Dharma of Shakyamuni, Manjushri represents great wisdom, Samantabhadra represents great action, Maitreya represents great compassion, Avalokite?vara represents great mercy, and only K?itigarbha represents great vows. "I will not enter hell until someone else does"; "Until hell is empty, I will not become a Buddha"; "To save all beings across the six paths, yet none are truly to be saved." Such great vows are the fusion of great wisdom, great action, great compassion, and great mercy, the great vow that suits the needs of all beings in the Six Paths of the Saha World. It is both the ideal of the Buddha and the common aspiration of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, which is why Shakyamuni Buddha earnestly entrusts K?itigarbha with the Six Paths of beings. Only the great vow of K?itigarbha Bodhisattva is expressed through a special vow realm to represent the unique vows of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, just as Samantabhadra represents the universal vows of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas through his special great action. Therefore, they are both called the "King of Great Vows." The origination of all phenomena and the emptiness of their nature are the fundamental teachings of Buddhism. The K?itigarbha Sutra takes the salvation of beings across the Six Paths as the vow realm, proving the emptiness and non-emptiness of Praj?ā through the origination of actions and conditions. Offering to the heavens and helping the earth are the fundamental practices of Buddhism. The K?itigarbha Sutra takes the practice of offerings and charity for the parents of the past seven generations as the vow realm, fundamentally teaching filial piety, charity, vows, and faith, guiding people to be down-to-earth and to practice immediately. Therefore, the K?itigarbha Sutra is a great Dharma that perfectly integrates the small and large, esoteric and exoteric, worldly and transcendent.
The Sutra on the Great Vows of K?itigarbha Bodhisattva has been translated into Chinese since the Tang dynasty by ?ījīnānanda and has been passed down from generation to generation. After the development of the K?itigarbha pilgrimage site on Mount Jiuhua, the belief in K?itigarbha has become increasingly widespread, and the influence of the K?itigarbha Sutra has grown. However, in the past, its propagation was either classified as Hinayana or included in the esoteric texts. Only Qingling Luan classified it as a text between the Lotus Sutra and the Nirvana Sutra and provided annotations, which were quite appropriate. In modern times, due to skepticism about ancient texts, it was doubted to be a spurious scripture, and believers did not accept it. Gu Jingyuan, the head of the two academies, vowed to propagate the K?itigarbha Sutra to save his deceased mother and brother, and thus wrote A Brief Explanation of the Great Vows of K?itigarbha Bodhisattva and A Brief Explanation of the Sutra on the Great Vows of K?itigarbha Bodhisattva. He illuminated the profound and obscure aspects of the K?itigarbha Sutra, which many learners should annotate, revealing what previous masters had not. It is the fundamental text for practicing the K?itigarbha Sutra. I have also served as a teacher and practitioner of the master's teachings, and the experiences have been real and unshakable. In the summer of 1995, at the request of Master Jinghui, I lectured on the K?itigarbha Sutra at Bailing Temple in Zhao County, Hebei. Lady Lai Xiaomei compiled the lectures based on the recordings, and Mr. Li Jiazhen, Mr. Xu Sunming, Mr. Hu Weixin, Mr. Yue Xiaoding, and Mr. Lin Xiangdong proofread and formatted the text. Supported by Master Mengyi and layman Luo Guotian, the Lectures on the Sutra on the Great Vows of K?itigarbha Bodhisattva was finally completed, serving as a supplement to Master Gu's Brief Explanation. I combined the Brief Explanation and the Lectures into this edition, Studies on the K?itigarbha Sutra, as an offering to repay all kindnesses and to record the origins, expressing gratitude to all parties. If there are merits, may they be universally dedicated.