Important Knowledge in the Pure Land Teaching
淨土小常識
181. The Profound Meaning of the Fifty-Three Buddhas (continued 4 /4)
Only Bodhisattva Dharmakara, described as “lofty in ability, courageous, wise, and surpassing the world;” generated a compassion that surpasses all sages and saints, great or small. With this compassion he vowed to save sinful beings who even other Buddhas could not rescue.
Not only did the vows he made in the causal stage surpass those of other Buddhas; when he attained Buddhahood, he became the King of all Buddhas, praised by the Buddhas throughout the ten directions.
If Bodhisattva Dharmakara had not stepped forward to make vows on our behalf, then with our inferior capacities and karmic nature, we would in the future, through immeasurable kalpas, continue just as in the past—missing the deliverance of the Buddhas again and again, never finding a way out.
This is something we must clearly recognize, awaken to, and contemplate with great seriousness.
唯有法藏菩薩「高才勇哲，與世超異」，以超越一切大小諸聖的悲心，要 救度諸佛救不了的罪惡眾生。不僅因地所發誓願超越諸佛，果上成佛也是諸 佛之王，為十方諸佛所讚歎。
如果沒有法藏菩薩站出來為我等發願，以我們這樣的劣根種性，未來無 量大劫又將會像過去一樣漏於諸佛救度，永無出頭之日，這是我們要知警覺 而慎重考慮的地方。
Namo Amituofo!
