The Story of Sumedha and Dipankara Buddha
In the Lotus Sutra, there are two references to a buddha named Burning Light, which is the Kumarajiva’s translation of the Dipamkara. The first reference is in Chapter One, wherein the story is told of the eight sons of Sun Moon Light Buddha, a buddha who had taught the Lotus Sutra in a past age. These sons were taught the Lotus Sutra by Wonderful Light Bodhisattva after that Sun Moon Light Buddha’s final nirvana. Having inherited the Wonderful Dharma by being taught the Lotus Sutra, these eight sons eventually became buddhas as well, and the last of them became Burning Light Buddha. The second reference is in Chapter Sixteen, wherein Shakyamuni Buddha reveals that he actually attained buddhahood in the remotest past and since that time he has been appearing in various ways in the world using skillful means to lead sentient beings to buddhahood. In one of these appearances, he was known as Burning Light Buddha. So who is Burning Light Buddha?
Burning Light or Dipankara Buddha is very significant. Burning Light or Dipamkara is supposed to be the buddha who gave the assurance of future buddhahood to the bodhisattva who would become Shakyamuni Buddha. One of the earliest versions of this story, from perhaps the first or second century BCE, is in a portion of the Pali canon called the Buddhavamsa or Chronicle of the Buddhas, which tells the story in verse of twenty-five buddhas, beginning with Dipankara and ending with Gautama Buddha (aka Shakyamuni). At the very beginning of the chronicle the story is told of how a young brahmin named Sumedha left the home life to seek liberation from suffering, encountered Dipankara Buddha, aspired to buddhahood himself, and after performing an act of self-abnegation to serve that buddha was given the assurance that in a future life, he will attain buddhahood and be known as Gautama Buddha, who is also known to us as Shakyamuni Buddha.
This story presents a model for how a person can aspire to buddhahood and go on to accomplish it. It goes over what the Pali literature believed were the necessary conditions that must be present to receive an assurance of future buddhahood.
Later versions of this story appear in other discourses and treatises, several of which were translated into Chinese. In these other versions, Sumedha is sometimes called Manava, which was translated with Chinese characters that mean Young Scholar. Nichiren seems to have been familiar with a version of the story from The Sutra of the Buddha Expounding of the Origin of the Auspicious Response of the Crown Prince. That story may or may not be the one the Lotus Sutra itself is referring to.
In any case, the Lotus Sutra’s reference to this story puts it in a radical new perspective. In terms of Burning Light actually having once been a son of another buddha but having been taught the Lotus Sutra by a bodhisattva, one is to understand that the important thing is not so much receiving the transmission of the Dharma from a buddha (even if that buddha is one’s biological father) but receiving the Lotus Sutra, even if the sutra is transmitted by someone who is not yet a buddha themselves. The reference to the story in Chapter Sixteen is a bit mind bending, because if Burning Light is actually a past appearance of Shakyamuni Buddha who actually had already attained buddhahood in the remotest past, then who is Young Scholar (or Sumedha) who is supposed to be the past life of the historical Shakyamuni Buddha? Apparently, the Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha transcends any such division into self and other, giver or assurances and receiver of assurances of buddhahood. The Eternal Shakyamuni Buddha is not an entity to be pinned down into a single linear identity.
In any case, I present below my own abridgement and paraphrase of the story of Sumedha as it appears in the verses of the Chronicle of Buddhas, up to the point where he receives his assurance of future buddhahood from Dipankara Buddha
A hundred thousand kalpas and four incalculable kalpas ago, there was a city named Amaravati, good to look upon and delightful. It resounded with the sounds of elephants, horses, drums, and chariots, and people selling food and drink. It was possessed of many treasures, filled with people, and was as prosperous as a city of the gods. It was a home for doers of merit.
In Amaravati lived a wealthy brahmin named Sumedha. He was a master of the Three Vedas, and educated in all the sciences of that time. Sitting in seclusion, he thought, “The cycle of constant rebirth is nothing but suffering. I, who am subject to birth, aging, illness, and death, should seek for the unborn, unaging, unailing, and deathless, supreme security from bondage to this cycle. There must be a way out of the cycle. I shall seek that way for the utter release from the cycle of becoming. Just as there is suffering, there must be happiness. Just as there are the fires of greed, hatred, and delusion, there must be a way to extinguish those fires. If there is a pool of the deathless for washing away the defilements and afflictions that bind us to birth and death, it is not the fault of the pool if I do not seek it out. Why shouldn’t I cast away all material comforts and even risk my life to seek it?’
So, after thinking about this, he gave away all his wealth and went up into the Himalayas. He lived in a hermitage deep in the mountains. There, he disciplined his mind and body. At first, he lived in a leaf hut, but then he left that to meditate and sleep under a tree. He gave up his old clothes and wore only a garment of bark. He ate only fruit fallen from the trees. As a result of his yogic practice, after a week he attained the five supernatural powers: 1) the supernatural power of unimpeded bodily actions whereby he could walk on water, swim through the earth, fly through the air, pass through walls, multiply his body, and even touch the sun and moon; the divine ear whereby he could hear things impossibly far away; the power to read the minds of others; the ability to recall his past lives; and the divine eye whereby he could survey the lives of all sentient beings no matter the distance. His mind was tranquil and at ease.
While he was cultivating himself in this way and attaining the five supernatural powers, Burning Light Buddha appeared in the world. One day, he was traveling through the air and saw that the populace of the border country was joyfully clearing the road. He descended and asked them who they were clearing the road for. They told him that the buddha named Burning Light was coming. They were preparing the road for him.
When Sumedha heard that a “buddha,” an “awakened one,” had appeared in the world he was elated and repeated the word “buddha” over and over again to himself. He thought, ‘Here I will sow seeds of merit! I will not let this opportunity pass!’
He said to the people, “If you are clearing the road for a buddha, give me a section. I will also clear this direct way to town for him.” They gave him a section and he set to work, constantly thinking of the Buddha as he cleared the way.
Before he could finish, Burning Light Buddha arrived amid four hundred thousand disciples who had all attained the six supernatural powers, including the sixth, the knowledge that they had extinguished the mental outflows that are the tendencies that cause suffering when the mind flows out into the world deludedly seeking unconditional happiness from conditional things. The people and gods who were present, beating drums, went out to greet him. They applauded, played various musical instruments to express their joy, and followed the Buddha. The people below threw flowers into the air while the gods rained down flowers from above.
Sumedha saw that he did not have time to clear the mud from his section of the road before the Buddha would pass over it. He spread his bark garments over the mud. Seeing that this was not enough to cover the mud, he loosened his hair and stretched out on the road. He said, “Let the Buddha and his disciples walk over me so that you will not have to walk through the mud. It will bring me great merit if you allow me to do this for you.”
As he lay in the mud, he thought to himself, ‘If I wished, I could burn up all my defilements today. But what is the use of realizing the Dharma here and now if it doesn’t help anyone else? If I were to aspire to the complete awakening of a buddha and dedicate this present act of service to Burning Light Buddha, I could someday enable many humans and gods to cross over to the far shore of liberation from suffering. Cutting through the stream of birth and death in the great ship of the Dharma, I will cause all the humans and gods of the world to cross over. Now I have all the advantages that come with birth as a human being, birth as a male, the capacity to extinguish the outflows and realize the sixth supernatural power, being able to meet a buddha, being able to take ordination, having already attained the five supernatural powers, having been able to perform an act of merit such as this, and finally having the will to aspire to buddhahood. If I take this rare opportunity and resolve to attain buddhahood now while I have all these advantages, I will surely succeed!”
Burning Light Buddha, standing by Sumedha’s head, said to everyone, “Do you see this very severe matted hair ascetic? Innumerable kalpas from now he will attain buddhahood. He will depart from the city of Kapilavastu to strive for liberation by undertaking painful austerities. After accepting rice gruel, he will sit beneath the Bodhi tree and there attain awakening. His mother will be named Maya, his father Shuddhodhana; and he will be called Gautama.
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Sources
Horner, I. B., trans., Chronicle of Buddha (Buddhavamsa) in The Minor Anthologies of the Pali Canon, Boston, Pali Text Society, 1975.
Jayawickrama, N.A., trans., The Story of Gotama Buddha (Jataka-nidana). Oxford: Pali Text Society, 2002.