Selected Lectures on the Sūtra of the Father and Son Assembly

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, countless immeasurable kalpas ago, there was a wheel-turning king named King of Boundlessness (Anantarāja), who was wealthy, at ease, and possessed great majestic virtue. He had elephants, horses, and carriages, along with litters adorned with many jewels, and the most supreme wheel-treasure that no one could destroy. This King of Boundlessness had in the past drawn near and made offerings to immeasurable Buddhas, and at the sites of those Buddhas he had planted abundant wholesome roots. Due to the wholesome roots and merit he had accumulated, whatever he thought of in his mind would be accomplished—all of his wishes could be realized.

The World-Honored One told this story with the purpose of teaching and alerting King Śuddhodana not to be greedy again for wealth, pleasure, and enjoyment, for one whose mind knows no contentment will surely suffer future calamity. The story describes what kind of retribution results from greedily clinging to the world without satisfaction, and what kind of retribution results when the human mind is never satisfied. This story indeed proves that when the human mind is not content, those who have not eradicated greed will find it difficult to properly know contentment regarding the five desires and the six sense objects—even King of Boundlessness, who planted wholesome roots at the sites of immeasurable Buddhas, was no exception.

In the Indian language, "koṭi-nayuta kalpas" means an extremely, extremely long span of time. One complete cycle of the earth's formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness constitutes one great kalpa, equal to 80 times 16.8 million years. Immeasurable great kalpas ago, there was a wheel-turning king named King of Boundlessness. Wheel-turning kings are divided into four types: gold wheel kings, silver wheel kings, copper wheel kings, and iron wheel kings. The iron wheel king, the lowest in rank, can only govern one great continent—for example, governing exclusively the southern continent of Jambudvīpa of this earth, or exclusively the eastern continent of Pūrvavideha, ruling only a single continent. A copper wheel king rules two continents, a silver wheel king rules three continents, and a gold wheel king rules four continents. At the foot of Mount Sumeru, there are four great continents in total on all sides. Around the Mount Sumeru of every small world there are these four great continents. Our Sahā world has a total of one billion Mount Sumerus, which means that the Sahā world of Śākyamuni Buddha—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 gold wheel kings, while copper wheel kings and iron wheel kings would number more than one billion. The blessings and rewards attained by these wheel-turning sage kings all came from having made offerings to immeasurable thousands of millions of koṭis of Buddhas—these are worldly blessings of mundane dharma.