Commentary on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (222)

The Wholesome Roots and Merit of King Anantakīrti

Original text: 大王。乃往过去。无量俱胝。那由他劫。有转轮王。名无边称。富贵自在。有大威德。象马车乘。众宝辇舆。最胜轮宝。无能坏者。已曾亲近。无量诸佛。于彼佛所。种多善根。随意所念。皆得成就。

Explanation: The Buddha said: Great King, in the past, countless kalpas ago—beyond reckoning—there was a wheel-turning king named Anantakīrti, who was wealthy, at ease, and possessed of great majestic power. He had elephants, horses, and carriages, along with palanquins adorned with many jewels, and the most supreme wheel treasure that no one could destroy. In the past, this King Anantakīrti had drawn near and made offerings to immeasurable Buddhas, and at the places of those Buddhas he had planted abundant wholesome roots. As a result of the wholesome roots and merit he had accumulated, whatever he thought of in his mind would all be accomplished—every wish he had could come true.

The World-Honored One told this story with the purpose of teaching and alerting King Śuddhodana not to keep craving wealth, honor, and pleasure, for one whose mind knows no contentment is bound to suffer calamity later. The story explains what kind of retribution comes from craving the world without satisfaction, and what kind of retribution comes from a mind that is never content. This story indeed demonstrates that when the human mind is never satisfied, those who have not eliminated greed find it difficult to know contentment and moderation with regard to the five desires and the six sense objects—even King Anantakīrti, who had planted wholesome roots at the places of immeasurable Buddhas, was no exception.

The Indian terms koṭi and nayuta kalpas refer to an extremely, extremely long span of time. One complete cycle of the earth's formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness is one great kalpa, equivalent to 80 times 16.8 million years. Immeasurable great kalpas ago, there was a wheel-turning king named Anantakīrti. Wheel-turning kings are divided into four kinds: the golden wheel king, the silver wheel king, the copper wheel king, and the iron wheel king. The iron wheel king, the lowest in rank, can only govern one great continent—for example, governing exclusively the southern continent of Jambudvīpa on our earth, or exclusively the eastern continent of Pūrvavideha, ruling only a single continent. The copper wheel king rules two continents, the silver wheel king rules three continents, and the golden wheel king rules four continents. Around the foot of Mount Sumeru there are in total four great continents. All small world-systems have these four great continents surrounding their Mount Sumeru. Our Sahā world has in total one billion Mount Sumerus, which means that Śākyamuni Buddha's Sahā world—one trichiliocosm—has one billion earths, one billion Jambudvīpas, one billion Pūrvavidehas, one billion Aparagodānīyas, and one billion Uttarakurus, and thus there would be one billion golden wheel kings, while the copper wheel kings and iron wheel kings would number even more than one billion. The blessings and rewards these wheel-turning sage kings attained all came from making offerings to immeasurable thousands of millions of kotis of Buddhas; these are worldly blessings of the mundane dharma.

The wheel-turning king was extremely wealthy and at ease, possessed power and authority, and had great majestic virtue, with the elephant treasure, horse treasure, carriage treasure, gold, silver, and jewels, palanquins, and the other seven treasures. Riding upon his seven-jeweled palanquin, the wheel-turning king could fly instantly from Jambudvīpa on our earth to the other continents, and could even fly in an instant to Śakra, lord of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. This is the result of the golden wheel king's blessings and rewards: whatever he wished to obtain he could obtain—of course, only within the material range of the desire realm.