The Renunciate King

Incalculable aeons ago, a monk by the name of Dharmakara vowed to attain enlightenment in order to help all beings escape the interminable cycle of birth, death and rebirth, known as Samsara. Over innumerable lifetimes, Dharmakara practiced meditation and mindfulness and accrued an infinite store of karmic merit capable of cancelling out the karmic debts of all sentient beings. Dharmakara attained enlightenment and became known as Amitabha Buddha. Amitabha Buddha also fashioned his Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, where all who call his Name can be reborn and attain Buddhahood.

'The Renunciate King' is an original Pure Land Buddhist free verse poem based on the Larger Sutra of Infinite Life. Written from the viewpoint of Lokeshvararaja, the Buddha to whom Dharmakara made known his aspiration to save all creatures, the poem is both an imagining of the events that led Dharmakara to make his great Vow, and a celebration of the unconditional compassion of this greatest of the Buddhas, Amitabha.