Great Universal Wisdom Excellence
Great Universal Wisdom Excellence
大通智勝仏 (Skt Mahabhijna-jnanabhibhu; Jpn Daitsuchisho-butsu)
A Buddha described in the "Parable of the Phantom City" (seventh) chapter of the Lotus Sutra as having taught the Lotus Sutra in the inconceivably distant past.
According to this chapter, after seating himself in the place of practice and defeating the armies of the devil, he continued to meditate for ten small kalpas and at last attained perfect enlightenment.
At the request of his sixteen sons and the Brahma kings, Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha expounded the four noble truths and the twelve-linked chain of causation.
His sixteen sons renounced secular life to follow him and begged him to reveal the teaching of perfect enlightenment.
After twenty thousand kalpas, he acceded to their request and finally preached the Lotus Sutra for a period of eight thousand kalpas.
Apart from his sixteen sons and a number of voice-hearers, however, many others gave way to doubt and confusion.
At that time, Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha entered into meditation and dwelt in meditation for eighty-four thousand kalpas. During this period, each of his sixteen sons preached the Lotus Sutra in his stead, enabling innumerable people to set their minds upon enlightenment.
Their preaching is called the restatement of Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha's teaching (Jpn Daitsu-fukko ).
After eighty-four thousand kalpas, Great Universal Wisdom Excellence Buddha emerged from meditation and declared that whoever had taken faith in the teaching related by his sixteen sons would surely attain enlightenment.
From then on, the people who had heard the Law from one or another of these sixteen bodhisattvas were always reborn together with their respective teachers.
All sixteen sons later became Buddhas and, according to this chapter, taught the Law in various lands in the ten directions of the universe.
The youngest was reborn in this saha world as Shakyamuni.
