Sūryaprabha: Your Light Isn't Gone, Just Hidden Behind Clouds
Eastern Three Saints Series
- Medicine Buddha (Bhaiṣajyaguru)
- Sunlight Bodhisattva (Sūryaprabha)
- Moonlight Bodhisattva (Candraprabha)
Those Moments When You Feel "Drained"
Not hungry. Not sick. Just... gray. Like a phone at 5% battery—you don't want to do anything, yet you're anxious about feeling this way.
Buddhism calls the essence of this feeling avidyā—ignorance. It doesn't mean you lack light inside. It means something is blocking the light.
Sunlight Bodhisattva doesn't exist to hand you a new battery. He's here to remind you: your battery has been full all along.
Who Is Sunlight Bodhisattva?
In the Eastern Pure Land of Lapis Lazuli, two great Bodhisattvas stand on either side of Medicine Buddha. On the right is Sunlight Bodhisattva (Sūryaprabha); on the left, Moonlight Bodhisattva (Candraprabha). Together, they're called the Eastern Three Saints, mirroring Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteśvara, and Mahāsthāmaprāpta in the Western Pure Land.
The name Sūryaprabha means "radiance of the sun." If Medicine Buddha is the Great Physician who heals all afflictions of body and mind, Sunlight Bodhisattva is his trusted assistant—specializing in "illumination," leaving no root of illness a place to hide.
Moonlight Bodhisattva represents a different kind of energy: gentle, cool, soothing. One is yang, one is yin. One is strength, one is softness. The beings Medicine Buddha saves are infinitely varied—some need a sharp wake-up call, others need tender companionship. Sunlight and Moonlight meet both needs perfectly.
Why "Pervading Radiance"?
The word "pervading" matters.
The sun doesn't shine more on the rich or less on the poor. It doesn't pick and choose. It sets no conditions. This is light without discrimination.
But the physical sun has limits—it sets at night, clouds block it, rooftops cast shadows. Sunlight Bodhisattva's "pervading radiance" has no such restrictions. The sutras say his light reaches everywhere—even the deepest hells, the darkest corners.
What does this mean? Even when you feel like you've hit rock bottom, even when no one seems to understand or care about you, this light can still reach you there.
You haven't been forgotten. You haven't been abandoned.
When Light Arrives, Darkness Simply Disappears
Buddhism has a fascinating approach to dealing with afflictions.
Imagine you're in a pitch-black room. You don't need to sweep the darkness out with a broom. You don't need to punch it away. You just need to—turn on the light.
The moment the light comes on, the darkness is gone. Not destroyed—it was never really there to begin with. Darkness is simply the absence of light. It has no substance. There's nothing to fight.
This is what Buddhism calls "dispelling darkness with light." The worries, fears, and confusion in our minds work the same way. No need to wrestle with them. No need to suppress them. When the light of awareness shines in, they naturally dissolve.
Sunlight Bodhisattva's blessing is exactly this: turning on that light within us.
The Medicine Buddha Sutra says that those who uphold Medicine Buddha's name will be protected by Sunlight Bodhisattva, Moonlight Bodhisattva, and countless divine beings, so that "all fears shall be liberated." In your darkest hour, a light will come.
Sunlight and Moonlight—You Need More Than One Kind of Energy
Why do the Eastern Three Saints need both a Sun and a Moon Bodhisattva?
Because humans can't run on just one rhythm.
Sunlight represents: drive, clarity, diligence. Like the blazing noon sun—it leaves no shadow unexposed, keeping us alert and active.
Moonlight represents: rest, gentleness, acceptance. Like moonlight in the deep of night—it lets weary hearts find peace, lets tense nerves unwind.
A common modern problem: either we're over-revved, pushing until we burn out—or we're completely flat, unable to move at all. Both extremes are signs of an imbalance between sun and moon.
The wisdom of practice isn't about being the sun forever, or the moon forever. It's learning when to push and when to rest. Sunlight and Moonlight Bodhisattvas standing on either side of Medicine Buddha demonstrate exactly this truth.
The Sun in Your Heart Has Never Gone Out
Buddhism holds a core view: all beings possess Buddha-nature.
This Buddha-nature is like a sun. It has always been radiant. It has always been complete with wisdom and compassion. When we feel darkness, confusion, or pain, it's not because the sun has gone out—it's because clouds have covered it.
Those clouds are our greed, our anger, our ignorance. Our delusions and attachments.
The meaning of Sunlight Bodhisattva isn't to "give" you light, but to "remind" you—you've always had light. His radiance is the spark that ignites what you already carry within.
When outer sunlight and inner sunlight resonate together—that's the true "pervading radiance."
Next time you feel powerless or lost, try closing your eyes. Imagine that above the clouds, a sun hangs eternally. The wind will scatter the clouds. The clouds will drift away on their own. And that sun? It's always been there.
Namo Sunlight Bodhisattva.