Reflections on the Ksitigarbha Sutra Pt. 1
Buddhism is Wilder than I Thought
Upon insistent urging from folks I talk to about spiritual matters, I’ve decided to finally crack open the Ksitigarbha sutra. Despite being a professed Buddhist for over a decade, I was always far more interested in the Westernized, “Zen” Buddhist approach. These writings tended to focus on the core teachings of the Buddha and strip out all of the mythological elements, which in my view is a shame! Just read how this sutra opens:
Thus have I heard: At one time the World-Honoured One sojourned at the Trayastrimsa or Tavatimsa Heaven and was preaching on His mother’s behalf. At that time, innu- merable Buddhas and Maha-Bodhisattvas from infinite world-systems in the ten quarters of space convened har- moniously, admiring the fully Enlightened One, Sakya- muni, for His transcendental wisdom and infinite powers in guiding erring beings to understand the dissimilarity between the bases of happiness and sorrow in the world. They all escorted their attendants to offer homage to the Honoured One.
As a fantasy nerd, I have to say this style appeals to me quite a bit! I’ve often wished that Christian writings had more descriptions of the “Seraphim, six-winged, many-eyed, soaring aloft upon their wings” that clearly populate the Christian universe, but have sadly become a bit more of a footnote to modern Christian metaphysics. Similar to how the West has stripped out many of the mythological elements from Buddhism.
It continues:
The Honoured One smiled and radiated multi-radiant beams of infinite compassion, supreme wisdom, benevolence, etc., despatching forth into space sounds of the six paramitas; sounds of infinite compassion; sounds of char- ity; sounds of emancipation; sounds of bliss; sounds of transcendental wisdom; emitting lion-roars; emitting great lion-roars; emitting thunderous sounds; and a great number of other indescribable sounds
I have to say I’m extremely curious what the sounds of infinite compassion and bliss would be like! There’s almost a synesthesia going on here where… emotions are often transmuted into various sensory outputs that you don’t often see in more Western literature. It’s definitely evocative for me. (I’ll admit to still having a bit of Orientalism rattling around in these bones.)
The sutra goes on for a while talking about all the demons, devas, pretas, kings, rivers, etc. etc. that have gathered to listen to the O.G. Buddha talk. The crux of this story is that they have all gathered to hear him discuss the vows of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, apparently a rare and high honor! (side note: I have to say I’m very tempted to capitalize Him because it seems to me that Sakyamuni Buddha is equivalent to God the Father, or at least a high up angel in some sense. That would be heresy though. ;D)
One piece where Buddhism DOES seem to diverge significantly from Christianity follows:
If beings, both males and females, to be born in the future, shall listen to and hail the name of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, institute homage to Ksitigarbha by chanting his name, communicating offer- ings to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and draw or carve his image or make likenesses of him, all these beings shall be born for one hundred births into a special heaven.
I get the sense that in Buddhism, similar to Judaism, there’s much more of a focus on practicing the “forms” of worship so to speak - chanting the names of the Buddhas, carving likenesses and observing them, and other ritualistic practices. Orthodox Christianity keeps these themes as well - we use the Jesus Prayer and many Saints have attested to the power of invoking Christ’s name. However, Christ himself made a strong point that the spirit of the prayer is far more important than the outward form. He often criticized the Jewish rabbis at the time for spending far too much time caring about their outward appearance than their inner heart.
I’d imagine Buddhism has some more nuance here, but it is interesting to note. It seems to me that older religious constructs tended to be much more focused on this sort of rote, ritualized worship. Over time, perhaps as abstract thought and rationalization became more common, human beings became more adept at separating action and ritual devotion from actual, inner devotion. A separate self grew more and more potent, if you will. And so devotional practice needed to evolve, so to speak. Just a theory.
Tales of Ksitigarbha
After the long winded introduction, the Buddha begins to tell various tales of the lives of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, starting with when there was a Buddha by the name of Lion-Power. Ksitigarbha basically went up and said “hey, you are awesome. How do I become like you?” and the Buddha told him to take vows to relieve the sufferings of all beings, for kalpas and kalpas. A pretty intense vow. Of course our protagonist agreed to do so, immediately.
The next tale follows the Buddha of Flower and Meditation. I’ll digress here again to say it’s interesting how different ages are split up into Buddhas or heroic figures. It reminds me of the various kings and prophets in the Old Testament - like Elijah, David, Moses, and others. Instead of a historical time frame with specific dates, ages tend to follow specific, incredible people that had special relationships with the divine. It shows a very different way of seeing the history of a people.
That being said, Judaism was distinct in that history was not a cyclical pattern like the kalpas of Buddhism and other Eastern (and frankly most) mythological set ups, but instead a sort of linear unfolding according to God’s Will. Further reading on this for those curious:
A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity and Islam
The Structure of Jewish History: A Radical New Interpretation - by Ellis Rivkin
Anyway, in this story Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is a LADY!!! This actually shocked me - Buddhism tends to be FAR more fluid with gender than other religions. You can be reborn as a man, or a woman, as your karma dictates. What’s interesting is that the sutra makes it clear being a man is way better, there’s a line that says, basically “do these good things and you won’t be born as a woman for like ten thousands centuries,” which… doesn’t make sense to me if this amazing Bodhisattva is a lady in this story and goes on to earn a ton of merit and good karma. I’m curious if anyone has a good explanation for this seeming discrepancy.
So in this tale, the Sacred Daugher’s (Ksitigarbha) mother acts like a real nasty woman. She disregards the Three Gems, talks shit about the Buddha, and is just generally growing bad karma like weeds in a garden run by a distracted soccer mom with more dreams than time on her hands. Luckily, even though she goes to hell and is slated to be punished “in the Avici Hell (Hell of unceasing sufferings), the last of the eight hot Hells where punishment continued without intermission,” she had an awesome daughter who saved her.
After her mother died, the Sacred Daughter went to the current Buddha and begged to save her. The Buddha said… sorry girl your mom was real bad and went to hell. But the daughter vowed to save her anyway. So she ventures down into hell and begs the King there to release her. The King asked who her mother is, and upon hearing says “oh yeah well, you are so awesome we already released her! Great job. Keep up the good work.”
There’s definitely a strong element of ancestor loyalty here, and the idea that your good deeds can reflect well on your ancestors. This sort of idea is paralleled in Orthodox Christianity as well - we are called to pray for our departed parents and loved ones, as we believe that our prayer can still help those suffering in the afterlife. Another quirk of Orthodoxy that modern Western Christianity has mostly done away with.
Not only did Ksitigarbha’s “strong vows” free her mother, but all of the other sinners in the Avici Hell benefitted as well. The King that she asked the question of even became a Bodhisattva of Wealth, which I’m assuming is a big upgrade from being King of a bunch of demons who are tasked with torturing sinners basically forever.
Concluding Thoughts
These initial tales form the first chapter of the sutra, and have some beautiful themes that remind me a lot of Christ’s story. There’s the idea that sacrificing oneself for the sake of others is by far the best thing a human can do. That this sacrifice, if done properly, can not only redeem the person performing the sacrifice and their family, but everyone around them.
Epic scale is one thing I have to admit I love about this sutra so far. Reading things such as:
the four Heavens of the four deva kings, Trayastrimsa Heaven, Tusita Heaven, Nirmanarati Heaven, Paranirmita-vasavartin Heaven, Brahmaparisadya Heaven, Brahmapurohitas Heaven, Mahabrahman Heaven and from numerous other Heavens.
hits me with a sense of vastness that for some reason I often don’t get when reading about Heaven in Christianity. Though I believe that the Heaven Christ reigns from is equally large, epic in scale, and full of various spiritual beings.
Another major difference between this sutra and Christian writings is the focus on rebirth, and multiple lifetimes. It really does change the game when you talk about how if you sin in this lifetime, you’ll go on to suffer for thousands of lives. I’m not sure the effects on the psyche or cultural structures but… it’s a significant difference. Some folks have told me Judaism in the esoteric teachings has reincarnation as well, but I’d have to look more into that.
So here concludes part one. In part two we’re going to dive into something much spicier - the Buddhist hells!