Amitabha Buddha's Vow That All Buddhas Proclaim and Praise His Name

The Vow of All Buddhas Proclaiming and Praising His Name.

"If I attain Buddhahood, and the countless Buddhas throughout the worlds of the ten directions do not all extol and call upon my name, I shall not accept supreme enlightenment."

The meaning is this: when I become a Buddha, the countless Buddhas throughout the worlds of the ten directions — countless as the sands of the Ganges — shall all proclaim and praise the merit of my name. If this vow is not fulfilled, I shall never attain Buddhahood.

This is one of Amitabha's vows for gathering the Dharma Body, and it is truly necessary. The Pure Land that Dharmākara Bodhisattva established is supremely magnificent, utterly transcendent, and foremost among all lands. All the merit he accumulated in delivering sentient beings is extraordinary. But none of it matters if no one knows about it.

It's like a businessperson who develops a brilliant flagship product but also pours resources into promotion — sparing no expense. When the product launches, if it's genuinely high quality and widely recognized, it quickly opens up the market. Amitabha, too, during his causal ground, had to plan this in advance. He designed it with great wisdom; it flowed naturally from his enlightened nature. As for the task of publicizing the merit of his name and of the Pure Land, he didn't go and do it himself. He could have said, "During my practice I can emanate bodies throughout other worlds to do it," but he didn't.

Why? Because promoting your own work invites criticism. You can't very well go on about how remarkable you are — that's like Old Wang selling melons and praising his own wares. Though the Buddha is selfless, sentient beings still have a sense of self; they'd think you were praising yourself with some ulterior motive. So he didn't do his own promotion.

He also didn't ask śrāvakas and bodhisattvas to do it, because they hadn't yet perfected their cultivation and might not carry much credibility. Instead, he arranged for the countless, boundless Buddhas of the ten directions to do it — and that makes all the difference. A Buddha is omniscient; when a Buddha endorses something, sentient beings gain faith.

So once Amitabha's great vow was complete, the Buddhas of the ten directions truly extended their broad, long tongues in their own lands, proclaiming and praising the merit of Amitabha's name, proclaiming and praising the merit of the Land of Ultimate Bliss, and urging the practitioners in their assemblies to go to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. This is no small feat. Unless Amitabha's great vow, his fundamental aspiration, and his merit had surpassed those of all other Buddhas to a remarkable degree, it would have been impossible to make the Buddhas of the ten directions willingly send their own disciples there.

This is truly "the Brahma voice awakening the deep and distant; so subtle and wondrous, heard throughout the ten directions." The pure renown of Amitabha's name can awaken beings in the most profound and far-reaching places. It draws out the boundless roots of goodness within sentient beings' hearts — so subtle, so wondrous — and enables beings throughout the ten directions to give rise to faith upon hearing it.

Because the merit of his name is selfless — not for his own fame or gain — the Buddhas of the ten directions recognized that this name's merit and the splendor of his Pure Land bring the greatest benefit to sentient beings. The Buddhas of the ten directions are themselves selfless, devoted entirely to maximizing benefit for sentient beings. Here was one Buddha who had already achieved the greatest possible benefit for beings. The other Buddhas, though they have their own Dharma methods, none match Amitabha's merit in delivering beings. So the Buddhas of the ten directions step back and place Amitabha at the forefront. He is the principal; the Buddhas of the ten directions are his companions — principal and companion in perfect interpenetration, a Dharma-gate where principal and companion are fully united in virtue.

So you see, as a result of this vow, Amitabha has the highest name recognition in the entire Dharma realm. That's why in this world of ours, whether people believe in Buddhism or not, they all recite Namo Amituofo — they recite Amituofo. Even if they don't know what Amitabha is about, they call on his name when they're happy, when they're sad, when they're frightened, when they're praising something, even when greeting or seeing off a guest. The name has such broad reach. When they're afraid, Amituofo stands in for calling out to father, mother, or heaven. When praising something — "Oh, what a wonderful thing!" And it can even be used mockingly: "That person is completely useless — Amituofo" — turning the name into a code word with a negative meaning. That's how far-reaching it is.

So in our world, even non-Buddhists recite Amitabha's name. By contrast, not many people in this realm recite the name of Śākyamuni Buddha. This strange phenomenon is precisely the fulfillment of this great vow. Someone might object: "Buddhism teaches selflessness and doesn't pursue fame. So why is Amitabha pursuing name recognition?" There is, you could say, a negation of negation at work here. For us ordinary practitioners, we do need to keep our distance from fame and reputation. "Fame and gain are like a sword that severs one's head." People fear fame the way pigs fear growing fat — once you're famous, it's no blessing. Some celebrities, once famous, end up with no freedom at all, sighing helplessly, "Isn't there some way to stop being famous?"

Yet everyone still wants to be famous, because the pursuit of name recognition is ego-clinging and vanity in action. Someone with no real talent hums a few songs, gets a little praise, and is overjoyed — "I've got fans now!" Some people are even willing to pay to get into a Who's Who of World Celebrities. "Give me this much money and I'll make you a world celebrity." A vegetable chopper becomes a first-class chef and nutrition expert. A barber becomes a beauty consultant. Pay a few hundred yuan, your name goes in the directory, and you walk away saying, "I'm a world celebrity now!"

The affliction of pursuing fame runs deep. But Amitabha is not like this. He has already broken through both ego-clinging and attachment to dharmas. His fame exists entirely for the benefit of sentient beings. For a Buddha, personal fame is irrelevant, but for the sake of delivering beings, if no one knows the name, he cannot save them. For this reason, he established the vow.

So everything turns on the hearts of sentient beings. It's not that Amitabha still clings to vanity and must pursue recognition — and not just ordinary recognition, but fame throughout the entire ten-direction Dharma realm. If that were mere vanity, his craving for fame would be enormous. But his "craving" for fame is great only because his compassion is great, because his wish to benefit sentient beings is great. Don't measure this vow by the standards of ordinary beings.