Date: 12/20/2025 12/21/2025
Location: Star River Meditation Center
Teacher: Yunquan Huang
Dharma Talk
The Bodhisattva Gladly-Seen Who Longed to Become a Buddha
Thus have I heard:
In ages long past, there was a Bodhisattva named Gladly-Seen. With a single-hearted resolve he sought Buddhahood, and for its sake he endured uncountable kalpas of hardship, cultivating practice for twenty thousand years, until he attained supernatural powers.
At one time, he beheld the worlds of the Ganges sands: rivers dried up, earth cracked, and no life remained. Moved with great compassion, he employed his power and caused a rain to fall. Waters filled the rivers, mountains grew green again, and from the sky descended mandārava blossoms and sandalwood fragrance.
The people, beholding this, cried out in joy:
“Compassionate Buddha, who grants rain, flowers, and incense to all beings!”
“O Buddha, you have saved us!”
Then Gladly-Seen Bodhisattva, standing upon a mountainside, raised his hand and said:
“Give no thanks. This is but a small offering of mine.”
Seeing their joy, his resolve for Buddhahood grew ever stronger. At dusk, he wrapped his body in celestial robes, poured fragrant oil upon them, and set himself aflame.
At that instant, the heavens blazed with fire, illuminating eighty billion Ganges-sand worlds. All beings felt his light and warmth. His body burned unceasingly for one thousand two hundred years, and countless beings were moved to arouse the Bodhi-mind.
In a later life, he was born into the house of King Pure-Virtue. Upon reaching maturity, he left the palace and came before the Buddha Sun-Moon-Pure-Bright-Virtue, to whom he had formerly made offerings.
The Buddha, seeing him, said joyfully:
“Gladly-Seen, you come at the right time. I have a great task for you.”
The Bodhisattva knelt and said:
“What is this task, O Blessed One?”
The Buddha said:
“My time among men is ended. Tonight I shall enter Nirvāṇa. I entrust to you my relics. Bear them to the human world and build stūpas and temples in countless places, that the Dharma may spread without measure.”
The Bodhisattva answered:
“Be at peace, World-honored One. I shall fulfill your charge.”
That night, the Buddha entered Nirvāṇa. At dawn, Gladly-Seen gathered sandalwood branches into a pyre and set it alight. The flames consumed the Buddha’s body. When all was burned, he collected the relics and placed them in eighty-four thousand jeweled vessels. With these, he journeyed throughout the worlds, building eighty-four thousand stūpas.
Thus in all the lands, people came to pay homage and make offerings. Beholding the vast throngs seeking merit, Gladly-Seen was moved with fervent resolve, and thought again to sacrifice himself.
Before the stūpas he took a blade, cut off his left arm, then his right, placed them together, poured fragrant oil upon them, and set them aflame as an offering.
This fire burned for seventy-two thousand years, bringing light and warmth to beings, and many awakened the resolve for Bodhi.
Yet in all these years, Gladly-Seen had not yet attained Buddhahood. In grief he cried aloud to the heavens:
“O Buddha! You are supreme. For seventy-two thousand years I have offered my arms. Surely I should become a Buddha! If it be true that I shall attain Buddhahood, let my arms be restored!”
Then the earth shook, and flowers rained down from the sky. His body grew warm, and looking down he beheld his arms whole once more.
Overjoyed, he lifted his arms high and cried:
“I have become a Buddha! I have become a Buddha! I go now to the Buddha’s presence.”
The Blessed One said to Bodhisattva King of Healing Powers:
“That Bodhisattva Gladly-Seen is none other than the present Buddha Bhaiṣajyarāja, the Medicine King. Know that if one, seeking the Supreme Path, should burn even a single finger or toe as an offering before the stūpa of the Buddha, the merit is measureless and boundless.”
