Lesson 5

In Lesson 05 of the Ksitigarbha Sutra, Khenpo Sodargye recounts the story of a careless monk who died and returned to life three days later. Although he had failed to observe the precepts properly, he had once created an image of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.

After death, Ksitigarbha appeared before him and taught him a verse from the Avatamsaka Sutra: all phenomena are created by the mind. When the monk recited this verse before King Yama, numerous beings in the hell realms were liberated, and he was sent back to the human world.

The lesson then begins Chapter Two, “The Assembly of Emanations,” in which countless manifestations of Ksitigarbha gather in the Trāyastriṃśa Heaven. Shakyamuni Buddha describes the difficulty of guiding beings in the degenerate age and entrusts those who remain hardest to liberate to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva.