Earth Store Bodhisattva - Ksitigarbha
The Bodhisattva who went to Hell
What is a Bodhisattva?
A Bodhisattva is a Tibetan Buddhist Monk who takes the vows laid out in the text A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life, also known as the Bodhisattvacharyavatara. In this text, a Bodhisattva will take a vow to reincarnate until the end of time or until living being have been liberated from this world of suffering, illness, disease and death.
Buddhist Cosmogony
Although many would be surprised to know this, Buddhist Cosmogony is not that different from Catholic Cosmogony. In Catholicism, there is a heaven, hell and a purgatory, an intermediate world wherein a soul is purified before entering the all holy heaven of God. Hell being reserved for those who have not made the grade so to speak, a place of eternal torment.
In Buddhism, there is a similar cosmogony; heaven, hell and an intermediate world not unlike purgatory. But in Buddhism, heaven is not the highest goal. Heaven is considered a world where sense pleasure is still the goal, therefore, it is Nirvana which far surpasses it in attainment.
Earth Store Bodhisattva, the Bodhisattva who was sent to Hell
Earth Store Bodhisattva is a literal translation from the name – Ksitigarbha, and in the Buddhist world, he remains one of the most popular bodhisattvas.
Shortly after he took the vows of the Bodhisattva’s, he began contemplating the karmic conditions of living beings and he was called to an unusual service in that he began taking mystical journeys into the various hells. In his experiences, he found that there were many hells which corresponded to the various sins, again very much like the doctrine of purgatory in Catholicism or the cosmogony taught by Hermes Mercurius Trismegistus in The Divine Pymander of Egyptian Religion. But in his unique experiences, it was his job to liberate souls from the hells.
“The Great Iron Ring Mountain is one of the mountains outside Mount Sumeru, and beyond it is hell. Hell exists and is not merely a human fiction. The only ways to reach hell are through spiritual penetrations and virtuous conduct or by committing offenses.” The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva
Much of his time was spent in examining what would be required of individual souls in order to liberate them from their time in the lower regions. He said of them:
“The Three Karmic Vehicles are the body, the mouth and the mind. There are three evils enacted by the body: killing, stealing and sexual misconduct. There are three of the mind: greed, hatred and stupidity. The mouth can commit four foul deeds: vulgar speech, false speech, harsh speech and duplicity.” The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva
The Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva
Although the primary writing of Earth Store Bodhisattva is nearly unknown in the West, it is a primary Buddhist Scripture in Tibet. The unique journeys of Ksitigarbha are laid out in picturesque detail and allow a reader to truly experience the hells as he saw them.
His whole life was dedicated to going into the hells and lower worlds to liberate souls from these places and teach the rest of humanity the reasons for various hells, the means in which we get there, and the path to liberate ourselves from such misconduct.
Another Tibetan saint of great interest is Milarepa. And the lives of the Zen Masters of the Soto Zen Tradition are reminiscent of Kstigarbha
Sources: Sutra of the Past Vows of Earth Store Bodhisattva – Collected Lectures ofTripitaka Master Hsuan Hua, A Guide to the Bodhisattva’s Way of Life - Shantideva
Ksitigarbha - Earth Store Bodhisattva
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