114 CHAPTER FIVEmore Amitabha is glorified over Sakyamuni, and the fewer the restrictions on
his power.
The spiritual development of Amita begins with a bhik~u named
Dharmakara (Mine or Treasury of Dharma), who countless aeons ago heard a
sermon from the Buddha Loke§vararaja and expressed a fervent desire to be-
come a Buddha like him. He implored the Buddha to teach him the way to
supreme perfect Awakening and the qualities of a pure Buddha-field. The
Tathagata then taught him the excellences and amenities of innumerable Bud-
dha-lands for ten million years. Dharmakara took these good qualities, con-
centrated them all in one Buddha-land, and meditated on them for five aeons.
Then he went to his future Buddha-land, Sukhiivati, the Land of Bliss (Strong
EB, sec. 5.4.1).
In his Buddha-land, said Dharmakara, there would be no evil destinies
(hell, animals, ghosts). There would be only a nominal difference between
human beings and gods. All beings born there would almost, but not quite, be
arhants destined for nirval!a. Unless their bodhisattva vows bound them to
further rebirths, they would be reborn only once. Nevertheless, their life span
in Sukhavati would be unlimited. Evil would not be known there even by
name. All beings would be able automatically to hear whatever Dharma-theme
they wished, yet there would be neither teaching nor learning because all
would be capable of direct cognition and would be able to recite the Dharma
informed by omniscience.
The most crucial question concerning a Buddha-land is how to attain re-
birth there. Dharmakara's vows provide a specific answer, although different
versions of the Sukhiivati-vyuha Sutra vary somewhat. In the (fifth-century?)
Chinese version adopted as orthodox by the Chinese and Japanese Pure Land
sects, Amida's 18th vow states that all living beings in the 10 directions who
with sincere faith desire rebirth in his land will attain it by calling this desire to
mind only 10 times. Only those who have committed atrocities or slandered
the True Dharma are excluded. The 19th vow states that all living beings in
the 10 directions who arouse the thought ofbodhi, cultivate all the virtues,
and wholeheartedly vow to be reborn in Amita's land will, when they die, see
A,mita and a large retinue before them. The 20th vow states that if living be-
ings in the 10 directions hear Amita's name, fix their thoughts on his land (that
is, meditate on it), plant the roots of virtue, and wholeheartedly dedicate the
resulting merit to rebirth there, their desire will be fulfilled.
Although the Pure Land doctrine that developed around this Sutra can be
characterized as one of salvation by faith, the actual conditions for salvation
specified in these vows qualify as a doctrine of faith and works. Salvation is
not affected by Amita's power alone. The candidate must also make an effort
by living a virtuous life. From the point of view of earlier Buddhism, how-
ever, it is obvious that the work requirements for rebirth in this streamwinner
land (see Section 2.3.2) have been considerably relaxed from what they were
in the Sutra Pitaka. Wisdom, in particular, is conspicuous by its absence.
Having proclaimed his vows, Dharmakara practiced the bodhisattva course
for a trillion years until finally, 10 aeons ago, he became the Tathagata