Delivering All Souls from the Netherworld: The Vow of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva

From Jin Qiaojue, a member of the Silla royal family, to a Buddhist monk who entered the Tang dynasty, and finally to Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva, who vowed, “Until hell is empty, I will not become a Buddha,” he crossed borders and the divide between life and death, knocking on the gates of the underworld with boundless compassion. Beneath the ancient Buddha and the solitary lamp on Mount Jiuhua, he once entered the underworld to save his mother. There he witnessed countless ghosts suffering punishment and came to understand the pain of all living beings. In the murky world of mortals, he took the forms of the poor, the sick, and the elderly to guide the lost back to the right path. In the depths of the underworld, he discussed ways to save the dead with Yama, using the “power of vows” to overcome “karmic force” and help evil spirits recover their kind intentions. From saving himself to saving others, from one vow to ten thousand, he spent a thousand years putting his promise into practice, becoming an eternal beacon between the underworld and the mortal realm, lighting the way for all beings to escape the cycle of reincarnation.