Hozo Bosatsu- Japanese GodDeity"The Vow-Making Bodhisattva"

The Renunciation

In the distant past, immeasurable kalpas before the present age, a king heard the teaching of the Buddha Lokeśvararāja. He walked away from his throne, took ordination as a monk, and received the name Dharmākara: Treasury of the Dharma. Under Lokeśvararāja's guidance, Dharmākara studied the qualities of innumerable Buddha-lands throughout the cosmos, examining each to understand what made a realm where beings could reach liberation. The study took ages beyond counting.

The Forty-Eight Vows

Before Lokeśvararāja Buddha and the assembled congregation, Dharmākara pronounced forty-eight solemn vows, each describing a quality his own Buddha-land must possess. He declared that if even one condition were not fulfilled, he would not accept complete enlightenment.

The vows ranged from the nature of the land itself to the fate of its inhabitants, but one overshadowed the rest. The Eighteenth Vow, known in Japanese tradition as the Hongan, the Primal Vow, pledged that all beings who sincerely desire birth in his land and call upon his name with as few as ten recitations will be reborn there, excepting only those who commit the five grave offenses or slander the true dharma.

Dharmākara did attain Buddhahood. He became Amida, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life, and his Pure Land, Sukhāvatī, came into being exactly as the vows described. The Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra records both the vows and their fulfillment. Because Amida exists, the vows hold. The path of nembutsu, calling Amida's name, is open to anyone who takes it.