Ksitigarbha: Bodhisattva’s Vow to Liberate the Wicked

A Vow of a Brahmin Girl 

In another time, there was another Buddha, at a time inconceivably long ago, who was known as the Buddha of the Flower of Meditation and Enlightenment and lived to an extremely great age, spanning millions of kalpas. At the second stage of offering respect to a Buddha, there was a Brahman girl who had practiced great benevolence in past ages. However, her mother refused to acknowledge the truth of the Dhamma and would often utter evil words against the Triple Gems. When the mother died, she was reborn in the Avici Hell. The Brahman girl was fully aware that her mother did not adhere to the Doctrine of Cause and Effect and had committed many evils in her life; by such bad deeds, therefore, she would surely be born into an evil birth in the lower Hells of intense suffering. After learning of her mother's salvation through her acts of filial piety, she then knelt before the Buddha of the Flower of Meditation and Enlightenment and expressed this strong vow, "I shall exercise my best to relieve people of their sufferings forever in my future lives of kalpas to come." That Sacred Girl became Bodhisattva Kshitigarbha.

A Vow of a King

Once, there was a King who befriended a king from a neighboring country, and they both practiced the ten virtues for the benefit of sentient beings. At that period, most of the people in the neighboring country had committed many wicked deeds, hence the two kings hatched a plan to provide extensive suitability, whereby one of the kings made up his mind to achieve Buddhahood early in order to deliver all those wicked people without exception, while the other king took the vow of never becoming a Buddha if he has not first delivered all those sinful and suffering beings, making them comfortable and joyful and enabling them to achieve Bodhi. The king who had made up his mind to become a Buddha earlier became Tathagata Rājāsiddhārtha; and the other king, who vowed to always deliver all suffering beings from sin and did not want to become a Buddha, is now Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha.

A Vow of an Elder’s Son

Once, the Son of an Elder saw a Buddha's excellent form adorned with thousands of blessings. He inquired about the deeds he had performed and the vows he had taken to achieve his present excellent form, so that he might also acquire such a form.  Then that Buddha told the Elder's Son, "If you want to realize this entity, you must help all suffering sentient beings for vast ages." Then the Elder's Son consequently took his vow, saying, 'I now vow that I will provide, throughout incalculable numbers of kalpas in the future, for the sake of all sinful, suffering beings on the six paths of existence, extensive expediencies to cause them all to be delivered and liberated before I realize Buddhahood.' "He took such a great vow in front of that Buddha, and even now, after hundreds, thousands, myriads, millions, and even inconceivable numbers of kalpas, he is still a Bodhisattva.