Toh 98The Sūtra Teaching the Array of the Buddhafields

The Sūtra Describing the Array of the Buddhafields (Buddhakṣetravyūhanirdeśasūtra)

Background

The Sūtra Describing the Array of the Buddhafields is a work gathered within the Northern Transmission, expressing the Mahāyāna doctrinal foundation of the Buddhafields (Buddhakṣetra), the pure lands created by Buddhas over immeasurable eons of practice. This sūtra was compiled during the period when Mahāyāna Buddhism was flourishing, when the concept of Buddhafields became an important means of teaching, helping sentient beings see destinations that can be attained through aspiration and practice.

In the Northern tradition, this sūtra is regarded as a guide to how Buddhas and bodhisattvas establish Buddhafields with distinct characteristics, serving different classes of sentient beings. The setting of the teaching is often in paradises or sacred places, where the Buddha, or Buddhas and bodhisattvas, expound the Dharma concerning the structure of the Buddhist cosmos.

Main Content

The Sūtra Describing the Array of the Buddhafields reveals that each Buddha, while still practicing as a bodhisattva, made countless great aspirations, vowing to create a Buddhafield with marvelous qualities in order to liberate sentient beings. These Buddhafields are described in detail according to material and spiritual features: terrain, scenery, time, the kinds of beings present there, the natural virtues of that environment, and the Buddhist teachings proclaimed there.

In particular, this sūtra emphasizes that Buddhafields are not arbitrary or groundless lands, but the direct result of pure aspirations and of the bodhisattvas' practice of generosity, discipline, patience, diligence, meditative concentration, and wisdom, the pāramitās. Every detail within the Buddhafields, such as rows of four kinds of trees, pools of the seven precious substances, and obedient heavenly kings, is an expression of virtues accumulated over immeasurable past ages.