The Ugliness or Beauty of One's Appearance Causes All Kinds of Problems

The fourth is the Vow of No Distinction Between Beautiful or Ugly Form and Complexion in My Buddha-Land. Bodhisattva Dharmākara made this vow: “When I attain Buddhahood, all devas and humans in my buddha-land will have equally fine form and complexion, with no one considered prettier or uglier than another. If this vow is not fulfilled, I will not attain Buddhahood.” You can see how carefully Bodhisattva Dharmākara thought this through. There’s a reason he made this vow. Bodhisattva Dharmākara saw that all the conflict, strife, and even war among sentient beings in other buddha-lands stems from mutual jealousy. The most common, everyday form of this jealousy is simple: competition over who is better looking, and who is less so. People seen as less attractive often feel self-conscious, and that self-consciousness curdles into resentment. Those seen as more attractive, meanwhile, tend to grow arrogant, looking down on others from a place of perceived superiority. This is how even trivial distinctions of beautiful or ugly appearance can spiral into all kinds of problems. Take the incident that came to light at Tsinghua University some time back. Two female students in the chemistry department: the less attractive of the two grew envious when she saw the prettier one receiving constant attention from their male classmates. She began slipping slow-acting poison into the other’s tea, slowly destroying her looks and her health. The crime was not uncovered until much later. This is how destructive jealousy can be: it can drive a person to ruin another entirely. Or take the kings of old, who would stop at nothing to fight over a beautiful woman. You can find countless such stories in ancient Chinese history, as well as in Western history. Take Wu Sangui, who famously “bristled with rage for the sake of a beauty”: if not for his beloved concubine Chen Yuanyuan, the course of history might have been entirely different. It’s said he only opened the gates to let the Qing army into the Central Plains on her account, and history is full of stories just like this. The Western Pure Land is a harmonious, strife-free society. First, it erases all distinctions of high or low, superior or inferior, beautiful or ugly when it comes to one’s form – everyone is exactly the same. And what level of sameness is this? It is identical to the Buddha’s own form, bearing the Buddha’s 32 major marks, 80 minor marks, and vajra-narayana body. You can see that Amitabha Buddha, the Pure, Equal, and Awakened One, is the very embodiment of perfect equality. This equality is nothing like the sort promised by the God of Abraham, who tells his followers: “You are all equal, but I stand apart from you.” Amitabha’s “pure, equal, and awakened” nature grants all beings reborn in his land full equality with him, starting with equality of appearance. If we look at the Transformation of the Western Pure Land murals, we can see that sentient beings in our world are marked by distinctions: bodies reborn from lotus flowers are somewhat smaller, the Buddha is the tallest, bodhisattvas are smaller still, and so on. We rely on these size differences to tell them apart – without them, it would be nearly impossible. But in the Western Pure Land, all are equal, and no such differences exist.