Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (177)

The Realm of an Eighth-Bhūmi Bodhisattva

If one contemplates where all the myriad dharmas of the world come from, where the conscious mind comes from, and how the five aggregates and all the myriad dharmas of the world manifest, one can attain a Mahāyāna fruit. It would be even better to further study the example of the World-Honored One's father, achieve the patience of non-arising dharmas (anutpattika-dharma-kṣānti), and become a first-bhūmi bodhisattva. After attaining the first bhūmi, what fruit will one have upon rebirth in the land of bliss (Sukhāvatī)? By personally listening to Amitābha Buddha expound the profound dharma of consciousness-only (vijñapti-mātratā), one can quickly attain the fruit of an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva. An eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva can, within a single thought-moment, transform and create a trichiliocosm; countless planets can be manifested instantly. Holding the earth in one hand and sentient beings in the other, the bodhisattva can move beings to another galaxy without their noticing at all. When an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva opens his mouth, the waters of the four great oceans pour into the bodhisattva's mouth, and the fish, shrimp, dragons, and other beings do not know they have been drawn into the bodhisattva's belly, utterly unable to detect it. When a planet is about to be destroyed, an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva can relocate all the beings of that planet to another planet, and the beings do not know it. One hundred billion earths, one hundred billion Mount Sumerus, one hundred billion six-layer desire-realm heavens—all the heavens total one hundred billion—one hundred billion hells, one hundred billion Yama-lokas, one hundred billion four great oceans: these together constitute one trichiliocosm (three-thousand-great-thousand-world), which is immensely vast, and an eighth-bhūmi bodhisattva can manifest all of it.

The realms of the great bodhisattvas are very difficult for us to imagine. When we cannot imagine them, it is hard to believe that such inconceivable things exist. In fact, when our roots of goodness, merit, and conditions are truly all complete, the realization of these dharmas is not difficult—let alone believing in them. We must have faith in the Buddha and the Dharma, faith in the bodhisattva Saṅgha, and also faith in ourselves. Diligently cultivate precepts, meditation (samādhi), and wisdom; merit is the foundation. We must continually perfect and fulfill the provisions and conditions for practicing the bodhisattva path and being bodhisattvas, so that the causes and conditions for awakening may manifest soon, and our aspirations will be realized.