Lecture Notes on the Sūtra of the Collection of the Father and Son (222)

The roots of goodness and merit of King Anantakīrti (King of Boundlessness)

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, in the past, countless kalpas ago, there was a wheel-turning king named Anantakīrti (Boundless Acclaim), who was wealthy, at ease, and possessed great majestic power. He had elephants, horses, chariots, and palanquins adorned with many jewels, and the most supreme wheel treasure that no one could destroy. This King Anantakīrti had in the past drawn near and made offerings to immeasurable Buddhas, planting abundant roots of goodness in the presence of those Buddhas. Due to the roots of goodness and merit he had cultivated, whatever he wished in his mind would be accomplished—all his thoughts could be realized.

The World-Honored One told this story in order to teach and alert King Śuddhodana not to keep craving wealth, honor, and pleasure, for a person whose mind is never content will surely suffer future calamities. The story describes what kind of retribution comes from craving worldly things without satisfaction, and what kind of retribution comes from a discontented mind. This story indeed proves that when people's minds are not content, and they have not eradicated greed, it is not easy for them to properly know contentment with regard to the five desires and the six sense objects—even King Anantakīrti, who had planted many roots of goodness in the presence of immeasurable Buddhas, was like this.

The Indian terms "nayuta" and "kalpa" refer to an extremely, extremely long span of time. One complete cycle of the earth's formation, abiding, destruction, and emptiness is one great kalpa, equivalent to 80 times 16.8 million years. Immeasurable great kalpas ago, there was a wheel-turning king named Anantakīrti. Wheel-turning kings are divided into four kinds: golden 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 on our earth, or exclusively the eastern continent of Pūrvavideha, ruling only one continent; a copper wheel king rules two continents, a silver wheel king rules three continents, and a golden wheel king rules four continents. Around the base of Mount Sumeru there are in total four great continents. All the small worlds have these four great continents surrounding their Mount Sumeru. Our Sahā world has in total one billion Mount Sumerus, which means that Śākyamuni Buddha's Sahā world—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 golden wheel kings, while copper wheel kings and iron wheel kings would number even more than one billion. The blessings these wheel-turning sage kings attained all came from having made offerings to immeasurable thousands of millions of kotis of Buddhas—these are worldly blessings of mundane dharma.

The wheel-turning king was extremely wealthy and at ease, possessed power and authority, great majestic virtue, and the seven treasures: the elephant treasure, horse treasure, chariot treasure, gold, silver, and jewels, palanquins, and so forth. Riding upon his seven-jeweled palanquin, the wheel-turning king could fly instantly from Jambudvīpa on our earth to the other continents, and could even fly instantly to Śakra, the lord of the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. This is the result of the golden wheel king's blessings—whatever he wished to obtain he could obtain, of course within the material scope of the desire realm.