SUKH?VAT?VY?HA-S?TRA

The title Sukh?vat?vy?ha-s?tra (S?tra Displaying the Land of Bliss) actually denotes two related but distinct texts, both of which narrate aspects of the mythic story of the buddha called Amit?bha or Amit?yus (Chinese, Amito; Japanese, Amida) and the paradise where he resides called Sukh?vat?. Following Chinese precedent, the two texts have commonly been distinguished as the Larger S?tra (Chinese, Wuliangshou jing, Dajing; Japanese, Mury?juky?, Daiky?; S?tra on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life) and the Smaller S?tra (Amito jing, Amidaky?, S?tra on Amit?yus Buddha). These are early Mah?y?na s?tras, probably composed in northwest India, and translations of the Larger S?tra began in China in the second or third century. The pervasiveness of this belief is known by manuscripts of the Larger S?tra also extant in Sanskrit, Tibetan, Khotanese, Uighur, and Xixia. Many core doctrines and practices of the Pure Land school in East Asia are based on the Sukh?vat?vy?ha s?tras, but in fact there are 290 translated scriptures in the Chinese canon that discuss Amit?bha Buddha and his realm.

The s?tras describe a cosmic order containing both a sacred realm inhabited by buddhas and bodhisattvas living in a paradise of fantastic proportions and an mundane realm inhabited by ordinary people, animals, ghosts, and so on, transmigrating but trapped. The s?tras also describe the promise by Amit?bha Buddha to enable beings to transmigrate into his paradise. This is possible through his vows (Sanskrit, pra?idh?na) and the Mah?y?na doctrine of merit-transfer. Orthodox East Asian Pure Land thought views the Buddha's eighteenth vow in the Sanghavarman Chinese translation as the authoritative expression of the Buddha's commitment to help anyone, as it asks only that one sincerely hold in mind (or recite) the Buddha's name a minimum of ten moments in order to be reborn in his Pure Land.

See also:Pure Land Schools

Bibliography

Gómez, Luis, trans. and ed. The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light, Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukh?vat?vy?ha S?tra. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996.

Inagaki, Hisao. The Three Pure Land Sutras: A Study and Translation from Chinese. Kyoto: Nagata Bunshodo, 1995.

Mark L. Blum