Selected Expositions from the Pitāputrasamāgama Sūtra

Original Text: Great King, in the immeasurable, countless kalpas of the past, there was a wheel-turning king named Boundless Renown. He was wealthy, noble, and self-sovereign, possessing great majestic virtue. He had elephants, horses, chariots, and carriages, as well as palanquins adorned with various jewels. He possessed the supreme wheel treasure, which none could destroy. He had already drawn near and made offerings to immeasurable Buddhas. At the places of those Buddhas, he planted numerous roots of goodness. Whatever he thought of in his mind, he achieved according to his will.

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, in the immeasurable, boundless kalpas of the past, there was a wheel-turning sage king named Boundless Renown. He was exceedingly wealthy, noble, and self-sovereign, possessing great majestic power. He had elephants, horses, chariots, carriages, and jeweled palanquins adorned with various treasures. He possessed the seven treasures in full, including the supreme, indestructible wheel treasure. This King Boundless Renown had previously drawn near and made offerings to immeasurable Buddhas. At the places of so many Buddhas, he planted extremely numerous roots of goodness. Consequently, due to the blessings and virtues accumulated from these roots of goodness, whatever arose in his mind according to his will was accomplished; all his thoughts were fulfilled.

The World-Honored One recounted this story to instruct and alert King Suddhodana, urging him not to cling to wealth, nobility, and sensual pleasures, for a mind that knows no contentment inevitably leads to future calamity. The story illustrates the karmic retribution for insatiable greed in the mundane world and the consequences of an unsatisfied mind. This story indeed proves that the human mind is never satisfied; those who have not eradicated greed find it difficult to know contentment regarding the five desires and six dusts. Even King Boundless Renown, who had planted numerous roots of goodness at the places of immeasurable Buddhas, was no exception.

The Indian terms "countless koṭis of nayutas of kalpas" refer to an extremely long, distant period of time. The formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness of one Earth constitute one great kalpa, equivalent to 80 times 16.8 million years. An immeasurable number of great kalpas ago, there was a wheel-turning king named Boundless Renown. Wheel-turning kings are divided into four types: gold-wheel king, silver-wheel king, copper-wheel king, and iron-wheel king. The lowest-ranking iron-wheel king rules only over one great continent, such as exclusively governing the Earth's Jambudvīpa continent or solely ruling the Pūrvavideha continent. A copper-wheel king rules over two continents, a silver-wheel king rules over three continents, and a gold-wheel king rules over all four continents. At the base of Mount Sumeru, there are four great continents surrounding it. All small worlds around Mount Sumeru possess these four great continents. Our Saha World comprises one billion Mount Sumerus. That is to say, in Śākyamuni Buddha's Saha World, one trichiliocosm contains one billion Earths, one billion Jambudvīpa continents, one billion Pūrvavideha continents, one billion Aparagodānīya continents, and one billion Uttarakuru continents. Thus, there would be one billion gold-wheel kings, while the number of copper-wheel kings and iron-wheel kings would exceed one billion. The karmic rewards attained by these wheel-turning sage kings were all obtained through making offerings to immeasurable thousands of koṭis of nayutas of Buddhas. These are the mundane blessings within conventional reality.