Unimmeasurable Light, Unbounded Light, Unobstructed Light, Incomparable Light, Blazing King Light

We should gain a deep, clear understanding of the Twelve Light Tathagatas. In truth, Amitabha Buddha possesses immeasurable light, which serves as the vehicle carrying the power of his forty-eight great vows. This light arises from his Dharma nature and the depth of his aspirational vows, shining into every place where sentient beings reside.

How, then, can sentient beings come into contact with this light? The Pure Land path offers a skilful means here: it establishes a sacred name that condenses the full merit and virtue of the Twelve Light Tathagatas into this very name. This name is a manifest sign: it appears as written characters, spoken language, and audible sound. Even ordinary, unenlightened sentient beings are able to grasp this form.

When sentient beings hold firmly to this sacred name, they hold firmly to the light; when they hold firmly to the light, they hold to true suchness, the One True Dharmadhatu, and the full, perfect merit and virtue of the Buddha. Without this, the gulf in spiritual realization between sentient beings and the Buddha is far too wide: how could they grasp it? How could they connect with it? How could they interact with it? How could they respond to it? This is a profound challenge, and it is one the Buddha had to take into full consideration.

This is why, during his five eons of contemplation, Bodhisattva Dharmakara had to devise a skilful means to deliver sentient beings. This skilful means ultimately established a shared origin and interactive nature between the sacred name and the Buddha's light, to be transmitted to all sentient beings.

Shakyamuni Buddha selected twelve of Amitabha Buddha’s immeasurable light virtues to present to us, and these twelve lights are specifically tailored to the needs of us sentient beings of this Sahā world.

For this reason, we should know, personally realize, and have faith in and comprehend the inner merit and virtue of these Twelve Lights that deliver sentient beings such as ourselves.

First, let us turn to Unimmeasurable Light. "Unimmeasurable" means it cannot be measured, has no bounds, is ultimately as vast as empty space, and is infinitely expansive. This light represents prajna wisdom, which is the radiance that arises when one realizes the nature of emptiness; thus it necessarily manifests as immeasurable and boundless. We ordinary beings weighed down by karmic defilements do not possess this wisdom light: our light is finite. We are limited and constrained, our minds cannot open wide, and the root of this is our attachment to the self and to dharmas, and our clinging to a false perception of self. Therefore, finite, limited sentient beings urgently need the aid of immeasurable, boundless light to open us up and expand our capacities. Aware that we sentient beings are finite and limited, we require this immeasurable, unrestricted light to empower us and help us open up. Open up what? It opens the prajna wisdom light that is innately present within our hearts, also called true illumination.

The second light is Unbounded Light. Unbounded Light resolves fixations in our views and understanding. All sentient beings are bound by extreme views: among the delusions of wrong view, there is the view of a permanent self, and then there are the two extremes of clinging to either existence or non-existence. The true, correct view of the Middle Way that accords with ultimate truth transcends both the side of existence and the side of non-existence: this is called "simultaneously rejecting both extremes." At the same time, it also contains both the side of existence and the side of non-existence: this is called "simultaneously illuminating both extremes." To be able to reject both extremes while simultaneously illuminating both is to enter into the correct view of the Middle Way that accords with ultimate truth. Therefore, if we wish to gain correctness in our views and understanding, we must accept the empowerment of the Buddha of Unbounded Light. This Buddha of Unbounded Light is also called the Buddha of Equal Enlightenment.

Third is Unobstructed Light. This light is defined by its function: it possesses the unique quality of being entirely free of all obstacles. We in the mundane world have many sources of light: the sun, moon, stars, and the electric lights invented in the past century, but all of these are blocked by obstacles—a single wall can block the light of a lamp or the sun's rays. The light of Amitabha Buddha, by contrast, manifests directly from his Dharma nature, and this light has no obstacles whatsoever: not only can it pass through walls, but it can also pass through high mountains, walls of copper and iron, and any other physical barrier, penetrating straight through. So at any time, this Unobstructed Light can shine upon us, unimpeded by any spatial or physical obstacle. Most importantly, our own greatest obstacles are afflictions and ignorance. This Unobstructed Light can shine even into the deepest, darkest corners of our hearts, into the darkest parts of our alaya consciousness.

Our inner world is extremely complex, full of subtle scheming and calculating thoughts, just like the bottom of the sea, filled with hidden reefs, deluded thoughts, and towering peaks we cannot see. We do not know these things because our hearts are too dark; as the Chan tradition says, our minds are like a pitch-black barrel: we have no idea what lies inside that pitch-black vessel. To truly know ourselves and the state of our own minds, we absolutely need the help of Amitabha Buddha's Unobstructed Light. When we recite the Buddha's name, don't we often feel plagued by countless random thoughts and distractions? If you can notice that you have many random thoughts and distractions, that is already a sign of progress.

Going further, by allowing the Unobstructed Light of the sacred name to enter our inner world, we can use this light to see what deluded thoughts we are harboring, what our thoughts are, and which of our thoughts are the most deeply entrenched, is that not so? Furthermore, everything you have experienced in this life, and even everything you have experienced across countless past lifetimes, is stored as a mark, a seed, in your alaya consciousness. Empowered by this Unobstructed Light, the long-term memory storehouse of your alaya consciousness can be brought to the surface: things you had long forgotten will suddenly come to mind when you recite the Buddha's name. Has anyone had this experience? Is that so? When these memories come up, first you may remember events from your childhood, even from infancy, and as your recitation becomes more pure, you may even break through to memories from your previous life. So this Unobstructed Light has the power to penetrate the alaya consciousness of our countless past lifetimes. We sentient beings are all obstructed: as the saying goes, "a single leaf blocks the view of Mount Tai," so we cannot see the full picture. Obstructed sentient beings therefore need the empowerment of the Buddha of Unobstructed Light.

Fourth is Incomparable Light. Here, "incomparable" refers to the absence of any opposing counterpart in the world of relational existence we sentient beings live in: the duality of subject and object, or in modern terms, the perceiver and the perceived. Once this duality exists, we immediately form value judgments based on these relational categories: right and wrong, righteous and unrighteous, good and evil, beautiful and ugly—all these distinctions arise naturally. Mundane logical thinking is entirely focused on these relational categories, and these binary dualities grow increasingly rigid and fine-grained the more we engage with them. Remaining in this state constantly will trap and restrict our prajna wisdom; this is what is meant by the saying "when the object of perception is established, the illuminating nature of wisdom is extinguished." As the Shurangama Sutra teaches, once you establish a fixed object of perception, the illuminating function of your prajna wisdom disappears. Therefore, if we wish to possess prajna wisdom, we must transcend this duality. Transcending duality is non-duality, but we cannot cling to the concept of "oneness" either: if you cling to oneness, then duality exists in opposition to it. True non-duality is free of all such clinging. Clinging to duality ties us to the rope of karmic bondage: dualistic thinking is the way of mundane dharmas, while non-duality is the way of Buddhadharma, as the Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch states. Reaching this state of non-duality is to enter into the emptiness of all phenomena—emptiness, formlessness, wishlessness, and non-action—which leaves behind all binary duality. This is called "having no support" or "the ultimate support." Only then can we experience the infinite, boundless realms that Buddhadharma opens up. We cannot understand the true nature of the universe and human life while trapped in the logical thinking of duality; only by entering into the state of non-duality can we see things clearly and fully. This is called Incomparable Light.

Fifth is Tathagata of Blazing King Light. This light is called the Blazing King because its radiance is extremely intense, the sovereign of all lights. This name indicates that this Tathagata's light shines brighter and more supreme than all other sources of light, which is why it is called Blazing King Light. Why is this light established? It is to rescue suffering sentient beings, especially those who have fallen into the three lower realms. Sentient beings in the three lower realms live in darkness: the hell realms, especially the Avici Hell, are the darkest of all. The beings in the darkest places are the most desperate for light, for the light within their own hearts has been completely extinguished, obscured by the heavy weight of their afflictions and karmic obstacles. This Blazing King Light therefore has the power to penetrate to the deepest, darkest depths of the hell realms.

Even though beings in hell have committed extremely grave offenses in this life, such as the five heinous acts and ten evil deeds, the good roots of sentient beings are inconceivable. Perhaps this hell being encountered the Buddhadharma and practiced it in past lives, only to fall back into evil actions due to the weight of their afflictions. Because they have good roots from the past, they have the cause for liberation; we need to provide them with a strong supporting condition. This light is that strong supporting condition for them. If this light reaches the depths of the hell realms, the hell beings, inspired by this light, will realize that the extreme suffering of hell comes from their own extremely grave evil karma, and that this light has come to save them. It is like a person at the bottom of a well suddenly seeing a rope dropped down to them: they will grab the rope tightly, and the rope will pull them up. So when this light shines down, as long as the hell beings are able to recite Amitabha Buddha's name, this light will exert a power to draw and guide them. This power draws them up, up, up, pulling them from the deepest depths of hell, bringing them to the wholesome realms, and even if their aspiration is strong and firm, they can immediately follow this light directly to the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.