On the auspicious day of Chötrul Düchen, we were honored to have Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche speak on aspiration in relation to the sūtras!
Key Moments:
[01:25] Recitation of 84000 Aspiration Prayer
[02:55] Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche speaks on Aspiration
[57:22] Questions & Answers
Subscribe to our newsletter to be the first to know our latest update: 84000.co/subscribe
------------------------------------------------------------
During the teaching, Jigme Khyentse Rinpoche told the story of the Buddha’s previous life as Samudrareṇu (“Ocean Particle”) in The White Lotus of Compassion (Karuṇāpuṇḍarīka-sutra, Toh 112). 84000 will be publishing the translation later this year.
The White Lotus of Compassion describes the origin of buddhas and bodhisattvas, focusing in particular on the Buddha Śākyamuni. The “white lotus of compassion” in the title refers to Śākyamuni himself, emphasizing his superiority over all other buddhas, like a fragrant, healing white lotus among a bed of ordinary flowers.
Most of the sūtra’s narrative takes place in the distant past and concerns the cakravartin king Araṇemin, his thousand sons, his chief court priest Samudrareṇu, and Samudrareṇu’s eighty-one sons and his disciples. One of Samudrareṇu’s eighty-one sons is the Buddha Ratnagarbha, who prophesies the buddhahood of all these individuals. He states that King Araṇemin will become the Buddha Amitābha, Samudrareṇu will become Śākyamuni in our fortunate eon, and 999 of Samudrareṇu’s disciples plus his five attendants will become the other 1,004 buddhas of our eon.
The narrative also emphasizes generating the aspiration for the attainment of complete enlightenment. This entails becoming a samyaksambuddha (“one who has attained complete buddhahood”), which means attaining buddhahood in a world where the Dharma does not exist and teaching there. This stands in contrast with the pratyekabuddha, who on attaining buddhahood in a world without the Dharma remains in solitude and does not teach. The sūtra repeats many times the concept of the “highest, most complete enlightenment,” but its main import is to explain how the Buddha Śākyamuni is greater than other buddhas and bodhisattvas who had previously appeared within the Mahāyāna tradition, despite their long lives and pure realms. In fact, it is Śākyamuni’s short life and the impurity of his realm that make him superior. Śākyamuni is shown to accomplish miracles beyond anything previously described in Mahāyāna Buddhist literature-such as bringing trillions of bodhisattvas into his body-and there are narratives of previous lifetimes in which his generosity and self-sacrifice are unparalleled.
In this sūtra, only eight bodhisattvas are said to make the vow to be buddhas with a short life in a kaliyuga-a time of the five degeneracies-one of whom is Śākyamuni. The other seven, along with a considerable number of other personages, appear exclusively in this sūtra and nowhere else.
------------------------------------------------------------
Below are some other sūtras, and passages from sūtras, on aspiration:
On the Buddha’s aspirations:
From The Play in Full, four of the Buddha Śākyamuni’s previous aspirations are listed at 15.29-34: read.84000.co/translation/toh...
A passage on the good and less good ways of aspiring to awakening: in The Absorption of the Thus-Gone One’s Wisdom Seal 1.74-78: read.84000.co/translation/toh...
On the aspirations made by other buddhas:
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Seven Thus-Gone Ones (Toh 503): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Detailed Account of the Previous Aspirations of the Blessed Bhaiṣajyaguru­vaiḍūryaprabha (The Medicine Buddha, Toh 504): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Array of Virtues of Mañjuśrī’s Buddha Realm (Toh 59): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Display of the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī (Toh 115): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
Other texts on aspiration in general:
The Prayer of Good Action (The Stem Array, Toh 44 ch 45, 56.72)
and the whole Samantabhadra Chapter: read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Dedication “Fulfilling All Aspirations” (Toh 285): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Dedication “Protecting All Beings” (Toh 286): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Dhāraṇī of the Six Gates (Toh 526): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
Auspicious Night (Toh 617): read.84000.co/translation/toh...
The Aspiration Prayer from “Destroyer of the Great Trichiliocosm” (Toh 813): read.84000.co/translation/toh...