Date: 12/20/2025 12/21/2025
Location: Star Lake Meditation Center
Teacher: Shilin Long
Dharma Talk
The Past-life Connection of King Guanding Inviting the Buddha
The Buddha was teaching and transforming beings in the Bamboo Grove Monastery at Rājagṛha. During one meditation, he perceived that the people in the neighboring country of Kapila had karmic conditions for liberation that were already mature, so he led sixty-two thousand Arhat disciples to that country.
The people of Kapila were all pure and kind in nature, filial and compassionate, not greedy for fame or profit, and lofty in aspiration. The Buddha thought:
“I should now build a tall and pure multi-storied lecture hall made of ox-head sandalwood trees to propagate the Dharma and guide the virtuous people of Kapila.”
Just as this thought arose, the Heavenly Lord Śakra fully understood the intention of the World-Honored One. He, together with devas, nāgas, yakṣas, kūmāṇḍas and others, brought the rare and precious ox-head sandalwood trees to offer to the Buddha, and built for him a great lecture hall, also offering the finest beds, seats, bedding, and delicious celestial food and drink of the Desire Realm.
The people of Kapila witnessed this unprecedented marvel and said:
“Today the Tathāgata can inspire heavenly beings to offer with such sincerity—he surely possesses immense merit and virtue!”
The people praised the Buddha’s power and virtue and spread the news everywhere. One told ten, ten told a hundred, and soon the entire nation rushed to the Buddha’s residence, respectfully gazing at him, bowing at his feet, and gathering to await the Buddha’s supreme Dharma teaching.
The Buddha expounded the Four Noble Truths to the assembly, explaining the truths of suffering, its cause, its cessation, and the path.
The people of Kapila, endowed with deep wholesome roots, heard the sublime Dharma and immediately gained clarity. Some attained the first fruit of stream-entry, some attained the second fruit of once-returning, some attained the third fruit of non-returning, and others generated the mind of unsurpassed Bodhi.
At that time, the Buddha’s disciples saw the various rare treasures offered by the devas—unprecedented and supremely wondrous—and wished to know the reason behind this event. They asked the Buddha:
“We do not know how the Tathāgata, in past lives, cultivated fields of merit so extensively that today he can inspire the devas to joyfully make such precious offerings?”
Thus the World-Honored One explained the causes from past lives to the great bhikkhus.
In immeasurable kalpas past, in the country of Vārāṇasī, there was a king named Guanding who deeply revered the Triple Gem and delighted in doing good and giving. At that time, a Buddha named Brahmacarya appeared in the world and often led great bhikkhus to travel everywhere, teaching the Dharma.
One day, King Guanding heard that the Buddha and his monastic assembly had arrived in Vārāṇasī. He immediately led sixty-two thousand ministers to the city gate to welcome them and personally bowed before the Buddha with reverence.
He sincerely invited the Buddha Brahmacarya and the monks to the palace to receive offerings and vowed to provide the finest dwellings, robes, beds, and medicines to the Buddha and the Saṅgha for three months.
The ministers likewise expressed their wish to join in the offering. The Buddha Brahmacarya, seeing the king and ministers’ sincerity, accepted the invitation.
King Guanding immediately ordered the construction of a pure multi-storied lecture hall, offered excellent beds, seats, and fine food, and instructed people to sew robes from the best cloth to offer to the Buddha Brahmacarya and each monk.
Afterward, the Buddha expounded various wonderful teachings, and everyone was filled with Dharma joy and elation.
King Guanding further generated the supreme Bodhi resolve, vowing to support and spread the Buddha’s teaching life after life, so that all beings could escape the wheel of suffering.
The Buddha Brahmacarya then bestowed a prediction:
“You have today made this vast vow. In future lives, you shall become a Buddha named Śākyamuni, who will liberate immeasurable beings.”
After relating this past-life cause, the Buddha told his disciples:
“At that time, King Guanding was my former identity. The sixty-two thousand ministers who joyfully offered with the king are all of you. Because of the merit of devoutly offering to the Buddha, you have, through immeasurable lifetimes, not fallen into the evil destinies, have continually enjoyed happiness among devas and humans, and in this life you have left home and attained the fruits of Arhatship—and in future kalpas you will also certainly become Buddhas.
Moreover, because of the merit of my sincere offerings, I receive in this life the offerings of devas in the four requisites. As the saying goes:
‘Such is the cause, such is the result—true and never mistaken.’”
After hearing the Buddha’s words, the great bhikkhus strengthened their faith in practice even more and joyfully upheld the teachings.
