Most Americans live with the abundance of the heavenly realm. We are really never hungry. We might complain that we’re “starving” but we’re not, not for food. We can choose among Chinese, Lebanese, Vietnamese, Mexican, Texas BBQ, and southern home cooking. We spend millions on cures for excess weight, but we won’t face the simple truth: too many calories entering the mouth. We have good health, with a life span double that of our ancestors, but still we strive for immortality. We buy vitamin C, ginkgo, and hypericum, and choose among twenty-five kinds of olive oil.
If we wish to be entertained we can choose books, three hundred channels, movies, and thousands of videos. For education we have free schools and libraries plus the World Wide Web, which people could spend a lifetime exploring. We can travel by bike, car, van, truck, RV, ATV, or humvee; by bus, train, plane, and boat. Pretty much anywhere we want to go, we can. Are we happier than the Buddha and his itinerant monks and nuns? than the wandering Jizo?
A Polish student told me that Poles cannot imagine that Americans suffer. People in other countries see us as living in the heavenly realms. They want to live here. There’s a great press of people at our borders, dying, sometimes literally, to cross over into this heavenly realm.
The BBC once sent a newsman to Sri Lanka, a Buddhist country for over two thousand years, for a special broadcast. He interviewed an old Singhalese woman in her small hut. “I come from London,” he said grandly. “Have you ever been to London?” “No,” she said. “I work for a television station. Have you ever seen London on television?” “No,” she said. “In London there are lots of trains and buses, so you can go anywhere quite rapidly, and everyone has a television in their home,” he announced. “You must have very bad karma,” she said, shaking her head sadly. A Singhalese friend of mine who was watching this broadcast in America stood up at this point and cheered.
Unhappiness in the Heavenly Realm
Jizo Bodhisattva moves among all the realms, including the heavenly realm, to save beings. Why do we and other denizens of the heavenly realm, need saving? Why are we not happy?
There are several reasons. The first is because there’s no contrast. It’s only a lack of something that makes that thing delicious or warm or happy. We have to experience becoming dirty and sweaty and stinky with no way to wash for a week before we appreciate warm water and soap. Taking a bath becomes the heavenly realm—we feel so light, clean, and smooth. If there’s no contrast, even the most wonderful things become boring. Chocolate mousse is heavenly, maybe through the first two helpings.
When there’s no contrast we have to create it so we again can experience happiness and pleasure. We advertise “more” or “special.” More flavor! Limited editions! The most luxurious! Rare! More excitement! Sometimes we try to create our own contrast by purposefully depriving ourselves. We go camping or to a meditation retreat. By depriving ourselves we appreciate again the simplest things—a warm fire, cool water in a brook, the breeze moving leaves of grass.
The second reason that there is dissatisfaction in the heavenly realm is that there are no hardships, no deprivations. It is in encountering difficulties and going through them that we feel worthwhile as human beings. We want to be challenged, tested, and to come through. The deva realm, the realm of the gods, is no test of our true substance. Anyone can live there and be calm and beneficent.
Part of the sense of accomplishment that comes from doing a long retreat is accepting and rising to the challenge. Sitting quietly side by side on our cushions in misery and joy, a camaraderie develops, even among strangers, as we work hard together in that revealing silence.
A student once said sesshin is like the boot camp of Zen practice. True. Until you have sat down for five or seven days, watched what the mind is doing, and done battle with the ego with its millions of tricks, you’ve barely begun the practice of the Buddha.
There’s a third reason why the gods are dissatisfied. The sutras tell us that everything is fine for hundreds of years in the heavenly realms until one day the gods look in a mirror and see one gray hair! Then they begin to clutch at what they have and to be anxious for the future. Thus begins the slide into the hell realms. The highest realm becomes the lowest and heaven turns into hell with the realization of impermanence.
The Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra describes this and the help available through Jizo (Earth Store) Bodhisattva:
The Buddha told the Bodhisattva “Contemplator of the World’s Sounds,” “In the world of the present and future there will be gods whose heavenly merit has ended, who manifest the five signs of decay and who are about to fall into the evil paths. When these signs appear, those gods whether male or female, see Earth Store Bodhisattva’s image, hear his name, gaze at him, or bow once to him, they will increase their heavenly blessings, receive great happiness and never again fall into the retribution of the three evil paths.”
Master Hsuan Hua lists the signs whose appearance heralds the imminent fall of a god. The five major signs are:
1. The ever-fresh flower headdresses of the gods begin to wilt.
2. The permanently clean clothes of the gods become soiled.
3. The gods never sweat, but when signs of their decay occur, they perspire under their arms.
4. The normally fragrant bodies of the gods begin to stink when the signs of decay appear.
5. The gods normally sit still and composed as if in samadhi. When the signs of decay appear they begin to fidget.
Familiar? We sit in sesshin “as if in samadhi,” feeling a blissful heavenly state of mind. Along comes an anxious thought and we “begin to fidget.” Oops.
There are additional minor signs:
1. The subtle voices of the gods become coarse.
2. The shining light of their bodies fades.
3. Their bodies usually repel water like glass. When the signs of decay appear they become soaked by rain.
4. They become unable to renounce certain states of existence and become strongly attached to them.
5. They become weak and devoid of energy. At this time their eyes, which normally remain fairly steady, begin to flit about.
These are the signs of human illness and old age that will happen to all of us even in the heavenly realm called the United States. The rounded curves, the sculpted bodies begin to sag. Our voices crack. The light of our bodies will begin to fade. Skin loses its luster, nails their natural shine, eyes grow dim with cataracts. We are no longer impervious to rain, cold, or germs. If we use mouthwash, deodorant, perfume, and aftershave we might smell good right up until the moment we die. But within a few hours the body begins to stink. The nature of any body, even a god’s body, is to disintegrate and die. One day something happens to us—a gray hair, a young person dismissing us as an “old fogey”—and we realize this truth. The movie’s star begins to fall.
The Path into and out of the Heavenly Realm
How do people end up in the heavenly realm? The first part of the path to the heavenly realm is fortunate circumstances. How were we born in a wealthy country? How did we end up intelligent enough to read and understand this book? Not, as we subtly and arrogantly assume, primarily under our own power. Rather this fortune came to us as a result of choices made by people many generations before we were born, choices such as whether or not to migrate, whom to marry, how to eat, when to wage war, and whether education is important. This is the second part of the path to the heavenly realms, good choices. At certain crossroads we and others have made choices that had a favorable outcome.
The path out of the heavenly realm is fear and grasping. We fear, quite correctly, that our good fortune will reverse. We try to ignore this or grab onto something to prevent those inevitable changes.
Jizo Bodhisattva’s Teaching in the Heavenly Realm
As Jizo Bodhisattva moves through the heavenly realm, what can he teach the languid, well-fed, beautiful inhabitants to save them from future suffering? Impermanence. The gods actually know this truth, but they push it away, like
the students in Santa Barbara. The sick and dying are kept out of sight. Only the beautiful people live in our movies and magazines. Jizo Bodhisattva knows that if we deny and fear impermanence we are doomed to fall out of the heavenly realm. We will descend into bitterness over our aging, anger over our death. Only if we are able to look at impermanence square on and enter its flow will we be saved.
Jizo Bodhisattva stands at the crossroads where four paths lead out of the heavenly realm. Three are the “evil paths” in the Earth Store Sutra. One, anger and aversion, leads to hellish existence. The next, greed and grasping, leads to the domain of the hungry ghosts. The third, ignoring, leads to the animal realm. The figure of Jizo, a monk, points out the fourth and least-traveled path—the path of practice, the path to freedom. Can we do what the sutra asks, see his image, bow once to him, and then choose his path?
The next chapter will unfold Kshitigarbha as the Earth Store Bodhisattva. We look to the Sutra on the Past Vow of Earth Store Bodhisattva to understand more about the origin, vow, and functioning of Earth Store Bodhisattva. Then we can consider in a deliberate way what our own origins, vows, and true life-function are.
chapter eleven
Earth Store Bodhisattva
The colors of the mountains,
The sound of the valley streams
Just the body and voice of
My Shakyamuni Buddha.
Dōgen Zenji
The Origins of Earth Store Bodhisattva
The original name of Jizo Bodhisattva was Kshitigarbha. This Sanskrit name comes from ksiti (earth) and gharba (womb). It has been translated as Earth Store Bodhisattva, Earth Womb Bodhisattva, or the Bodhisattva of the Mysteries of the Earth. The name may have its origins in the Indian legend of the earth as witness to the Buddha’s enlightenment. This is one version:
When Siddhartha, the future Buddha, sat upon his meditation seat, vowing not to move until he was enlightened, Mara the Evil One was distressed. He sent armies of terrifying beings to attack the Buddha, who remained unafraid and unmoved. The light radiating from the Buddha shivered the swords and dented the battle axes. As arrows and weapons fell to the ground they turned into flowers. Mara, dismayed, questioned how he could be defeated by the Buddha. He asked his fleeing troops to bear witness that he, Mara, has been kind and generous. They respond that he has. Mara then asks about the Buddha,
“And he, what proof has he given of his generosity? What sacrifices has he made? Who will bear witness to his kindness?”
Whereupon a voice came out of the earth, and it said, “I will bear witness to his generosity.” Mara was struck dumb with astonishment. The voice continued: “Yes, I, the Earth, I, the mother of all beings, will bear witness to his generosity. A hundred times, a thousand times, in the course of his previous existences, his hands, his eyes, his head, his whole body have been at the service of others. And in the course of this existence, which will be the last, he will destroy old age, sickness and death. As he excels you in strength, Mara, even so does he surpass you in generosity.” And the Evil One saw a woman of great beauty emerge from the earth, up to her waist. She bowed before the hero, and clasping her hands, she said: “Oh most holy of men, I bear witness to your generosity.” Then she disappeared. And Mara, the Evil One, wept because he had been defeated.
In the legend above the “woman of great beauty” is Prithivi, the Hindu goddess of the earth, a probable precursor in India to the Buddhist bodhisattva called Kshitigarbha. A number of other connections between Kshitigarbha and the earth have developed over time. As Mahayana Buddhism spread to China, each of its bodhisattvas developed an association with one of the five elements: Avalokiteshvara with water, Samantabhadra with fire, Manjushri with air or space, and Kshitigarbha with the earth. In China Kshitigarbha was also designated the overlord of the lower regions of hell, deep in the earth. In Japan Jizo Bodhisattva is thought to descend regularly into hell to rescue the treasure buried there. This treasure is suffering human beings who, if dug out of samsara and set upon the path to liberation, will eventually become Buddhas. In Japan, Jizo also has a more literal relationship to the earth. He watches over the fields from his many shrines among the rice paddies and sometimes ventures out at night to give secret help with planting. The annual Jizo festival in Japan is a time to celebrate the first harvest of fruits given by the earth to support human life.
Chinese beliefs about the origins of Earth Store Bodhisattva are recounted in the Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva. This sutra is the oldest sutra about Kshitigarbha that has survived and is recited and venerated today. While some sources say that it was translated from Sanskrit into Chinese in the seventh century by Sikshananda, an Indian monk from Khotan, most scholars believe the sutra was composed in China several centuries later.
Jizo Bodhisattva sitting on a turnip in the rain, by Mayumi Oda.
Sutra is a Sanskrit word meaning “thread.” A sutra is a collection of essential teachings, “lovely to hear,” that are strung together just as flowers and leaves are strung to make a beautiful garland. The original Indian sutras were collections of the teachings of the Buddha. Written on palm leaves, they were threaded together to make books.
The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva (referred to hereafter as the Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra) provides us with more information than any other sutra about Kshitigarbha. It tells of the origins of this bodhisattva and of his many divisions, which are called “transformation bodies.” It describes various hell realms and tells of Kshitigarbha’s promise to the Buddha to work unceasingly to save those who would be left in these hells, still caught in suffering, after the death of the Tathagata. The sutra answers certain questions posed by the Buddha’s mother and others who are in heaven to hear the Buddha teach. The sutra also describes several practices that people can do to access the energy of Kshitigarbha and cultivate his qualities. What follows is a brief summary of the Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra. Passages from the sutra appear in italics.
The sutra tells of four people—a boy, a king, and two young women—who practiced in such a sincere and continuous manner that eventually they all became Earth Store Bodhisattva. The first was a young man who was overwhelmed by the beauty of a radiant Buddha. He asked what one must do to gain such a wondrous and perfect body. The Buddha said, “If you wish to attain such a body, for many eons you should work to liberate all living beings who suffer.” The boy became inspired to make and carry out this vow, thus becoming Jizo Bodhisattva. He will not go on to become a Buddha until all beings have been freed from their unhappiness.
The next account in the sutra is of two friends who were rulers of neighboring countries. These kings were good-hearted and kept the precepts themselves, but many of their subjects fell into evil actions. The two kings worked together to find expedient means to enlighten their citizens. Through diligent practice, the first ruler became a Buddha. The second became Earth Store Bodhisattva.
In two much longer stories the sutra then describes the feminine origins of Earth Store Bodhisattva. Both stories are about devout daughters who were afraid that their mothers, who had recently died, had gone to hell because of previous misdeeds. One mother had been a glutton. As she was especially fond of fish, turtles, and their eggs, she had taken many thousands of lives. The other mother had slandered Buddhism and its monks. Their daughters, called Bright Eyes and Sacred Daughter, sold their possessions to make offerings of food and Buddha images, and prayed for their mothers to be released from suffering. During meditation Sacred Daughter saw her mother’s fate, drowning in a huge sea teeming with millions of men and women who were being torn apart by cruel and horrible beasts. The two daughters were told that due to their steadfast practice, their mothers had been released from this and worse hells. Even though their mothers were released, the girls could not forget the tormented state of all the other people trapped in the hell realms. Through their efforts to help their own mothers they had come to know the power of the sincere spiritual pract
ice of even one person. Thus they vowed to continue to practice unceasingly until the very last being who was in the hell realms was liberated. By the power of their vows and their devotion, both girls were transformed into Earth Store Bodhisattva.
The Division Bodies of
Earth Store Bodhisattva
Jizo Bodhisattva does not have only these four human forms. The Earth Store Bodhisattva Sutra relates that just before his death the Buddha ascended to heaven to preach to his mother, who died soon after his birth and thus was unable to hear the Dharma. Hundreds of thousands of division bodies (manifestations) of Earth Store Bodhisattva then arrived from innumerable worlds wherever suffering existed. Each bodhisattva in this enlightened crowd brought flowers and incense for the Buddha. Suddenly the multitude of bodies assembled into a single body to listen to the Buddha teach.
The sutra tells us that the many aspects of Jizo Bodhisattva are not limited to human forms or origins. In order to teach and transform “obstinate living beings,” Kshitigarbha is able to divide into hundreds of thousands of millions of bodies.
One thousand jizo wood scultures by Enkyu. In 1690, after 38 years of work, Enkyu completed a vow to carve 100,000 images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas.
Perhaps I appear in a male body, or that of a woman, or in the body of a god, or dragon, or that of a spirit or ghost. Or I may appear as mountains, forests, streams and springs, as rivers, lakes, fountains, or wells, in order to benefit people. All of these may save beings. Or I may appear in the body of a heavenly king, a brahma king, a wheel-turning king, a layman, the king of a country, a prime minister, an official, a monk, a nun, . . .in order to teach and rescue beings. It is not only the body of a Buddha that appears before them.
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