Happy Amitabha Buddha Day!
Today is November 17 of the Lunar calendar. This day is regarded as the birthday of Amitabha Buddha, founder of Western Land of Ultimate Bliss. However, Amitabha became a Buddha long time ago. So long ago that it is impossible to estimate and there is no historical record. In this case, why do we have a date for Amitabha Buddha’s birthday?
This day is actually the birthday of Zen Master Yongming Yanshou, a monk in the Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty. Yongming Yanshou, also known as Zen Master Yongming, has been regarded as the manifestation of Amitabha since the Ming Dynasty.
Interestingly, it is clear that Zen Master Yongming lived during the Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty, but why did he not become the incarnation of Amitabha in the Five Dynasties and early Song Dynasty, but in the Ming Dynasty?
In particular, there was a time gap of more than 400 years between the time he lived and when Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty. How did Zen Master Yongming travel through 400 years of time and space to the Ming Dynasty and become the incarnation of Amitabha Buddha? Isn’t this because Master Hanshan wrote the book Master Hanshan’s Sleepwalking Collection in which there is such a story? What exactly did Master Hanshan write?
Around 950 AD, King Zhongyi of the Wuyue Kingdom celebrated his birthday by holding a meeting for monks at Yongming Temple to make offerings to the monks from all directions. After being invited by the king, many monks came to Yongming Temple to accept the offerings. One of them was a long-eared monk wearing ragged clothes and covered in scabies. Without the king’s invitation, he sat in a VIP seat, which stunned and disgusted everyone present. After seeing him, King Zhongyi was very unhappy and sent someone to drive the long-eared monk out of Yongming Temple.
When the meeting was over, King Zhongyi asked Zen Master Yongming, “There were so many monks here today. I wonder if any of them is the incarnation of Buddha?”
Zen Master Yongming said, “Yes, the monk with long ears is the incarnation of Buddha Dipankara.”
Hearing this, King Zhongyi was filled with deep remorse and regret, thinking that not only had he disrespected the monk, but he even drove him out of the temple! In order to express his sincere repentance, he personally went to find the incarnation of Buddha Dipankara and, while bowing, he said, “My apologies! My mortal eyes didn’t recognize you, so I came here to repent to Buddha Dipankara and ask for forgiveness.”
At that moment, Buddha Dipankara only said one sentence, “Amitabha is chatty (talkative).” Then he died.
When people heard this, they were confused. Clearly, the person who revealed the identity of Buddha Dipankara was Zen Master Yongming, but why did Buddha Dipankara blame Amitabha for his chattiness?
However, King Zhongyi was not stupid. He knew at once that Buddha Dipankara implied that Amitabha Buddha was Zen Master Yongming. After hearing the words of Buddha Dipankara, Zhongyi immediately went back to Yongming Temple to find Amitabha Buddha. As soon as he entered the temple gate, he heard that Zen Master Yongming was also dead.
This story led people to regard Zen Master Yongming as the incarnation of Amitabha Buddha. Since Master Hanshan named this book “Sleepwalking Collection”, it is difficult for ordinary people to understand where the contents of the book came from. However, since Master Hanshan wrote this story, people regarded Zen Master Yongming as the incarnation of Amitabha Buddha and naturally set his birthday as Amitabha Buddha’s birthday.
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