華嚴經 品三十一 壽量品Avataṃsaka Sūtra · The Span of Life
你覺得漫長的那一劫，在隔壁只是天亮到天黑。
這一品全文不足三百字，心王菩薩一人說到底，沒有問答、沒有偈頌，只做一件事：換算。娑婆的一劫，是極樂的一晝夜；極樂的一劫，是下一界的一晝夜——如此十重相望，一層層把上一層整個吞掉。走完十重，還只是「舉略」；真正的量是百萬阿僧祇世界之後那最後一剎。
而經文到此收手，不再說更長，改說誰住在那裡：「普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中。」古德說，過此則剎海平等，無有優劣——沒有更長可比了，因為刻度本身沒了。
所以這一品量的從來不是佛的年歲，是『你所在的位置』。長短是眾生所見的分限，不是佛的分限。
時間你追不上。行，今天就能起。
The kalpa you find so long is, next door, only daybreak to dusk.
This chapter runs to less than three hundred graphs; Mind-King Bodhisattva speaks it through from beginning to end alone, with no question and answer and no verses, and it does one thing only: it converts. One kalpa of the Sahā world is one day and night of Ultimate Bliss; one kalpa of Ultimate Bliss is one day and night of the world beyond it — ten layers set thus in mutual regard, each layer swallowing the whole of the one before it. Having gone through all ten, one has still only been given ‘the brief’; the real measure is that last land beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds.
And at this point the scripture stays its hand. It does not go on to say ‘longer’; it changes over to saying who lives there: “Samantabhadra Bodhisattva together with the great bodhisattvas who practise along with him fill the whole of it.” After this, say the ancient masters, the ocean of lands is the same, with neither better nor worse — there is no longer anything longer left to compare, because the scale itself is gone.
So what this chapter measures was never the Buddha's years. It is the place where you stand. Length and shortness are the bound allotted to what sentient beings see; they are not a bound upon the Buddha.
Time you will never overtake. Practice you can begin today.
〔T10 0241〕 爾時，心王菩薩摩訶薩於眾會中告諸菩薩言：「佛子！此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於極樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜；極樂世界一劫，於袈裟幢世界金剛堅佛剎為一日一夜；袈裟幢世界一劫，於不退轉音聲輪世界善勝光明蓮華開敷佛剎為一日一夜；不退轉音聲輪世界一劫，於離垢世界法幢佛剎為一日一夜；離垢世界一劫，於善燈世界師子佛剎為一日一夜；善燈世界一劫，於妙光明世界光明藏佛剎為一日一夜；妙光明世界一劫，於難超過世界法光明蓮華開敷佛剎為一日一夜；難超過世界一劫，於莊嚴慧世界一切神通光明佛剎為一日一夜；莊嚴慧世界一劫，於鏡光明世界月智佛剎為一日一夜。佛子！如是次第，乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界，最後世界一劫，於勝蓮華世界賢勝佛剎為一日一夜，普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中。」
The canonical text stands in Chinese only. This edition renders the essence, the plain reading, the exposition and the apparatus into English — never the sūtra itself. Switch to 漢讀本 or 並行雙語 above to read it.
心王菩薩告眾：十重劫量之校量
那時，心王菩薩摩訶薩在大眾集會之中，告訴在座的諸位菩薩說：
「佛子！這個娑婆世界（我們所住的、堪能忍受眾苦的世界）釋迦牟尼佛剎土中的一劫（劫＝極長的時間單位），在極樂世界阿彌陀佛的剎土中，只是一個白天一個夜晚；
第二重至第五重：極樂・袈裟幢・不退轉音聲輪・離垢
「極樂世界的一劫，在袈裟幢世界金剛堅佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；袈裟幢世界的一劫，在不退轉音聲輪世界善勝光明蓮華開敷佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；不退轉音聲輪世界的一劫，在離垢世界法幢佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；離垢世界的一劫，在善燈世界師子佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；
第六重至第九重：善燈・妙光明・難超過・莊嚴慧
「善燈世界的一劫，在妙光明世界光明藏佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；妙光明世界的一劫，在難超過世界法光明蓮華開敷佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；難超過世界的一劫，在莊嚴慧世界一切神通光明佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚；莊嚴慧世界的一劫，在鏡光明世界月智佛的剎土中，是一個白天一個夜晚。
舉略顯廣·舉玄極：最後世界與普賢充滿
「佛子！像這樣依次遞進，一直越過百萬阿僧祇（無央數）那麼多的世界，那最後一個世界的一劫，在勝蓮華世界賢勝佛的剎土中，也只是一個白天一個夜晚——普賢菩薩以及種種與他同修同行的大菩薩們，充滿在那個剎土之中。」
Mind-King Bodhisattva Addresses the Assembly: The Comparison of the Ten Layers of Kalpa-Measure
At that time Mind-King Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, in the midst of the great assembled multitude, said to the bodhisattvas seated there:
“Sons of the Buddha! One kalpa (a kalpa is a unit of time of the utmost length) in the land of Śākyamuni Buddha in this Sahā world (the world we dwell in, the world able to bear the many sufferings) is, in the land of Amitābha Buddha in the world Ultimate Bliss, only a single day and a single night;
The Second Layer through the Fifth: Ultimate Bliss · Kāṣāya Banner · Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound · Stainless
“one kalpa of the world Ultimate Bliss is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Vajra-Firm in the world Kāṣāya Banner (the kāṣāya is the monastic robe, and the world is named from a robe raised as a banner); one kalpa of the world Kāṣāya Banner is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Excellent and Supreme Light, Lotus Blossoming Open, in the world Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound; one kalpa of the world Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Dharma Banner in the world Stainless; one kalpa of the world Stainless is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Lion in the world Good Lamp;
The Sixth Layer through the Ninth: Good Lamp · Wondrous Light · Hard to Surpass · Adorned Wisdom
“one kalpa of the world Good Lamp is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Treasury of Light in the world Wondrous Light; one kalpa of the world Wondrous Light is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Light of the Dharma, Lotus Blossoming Open, in the world Hard to Surpass; one kalpa of the world Hard to Surpass is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Light of All Spiritual Penetrations in the world Adorned Wisdom; one kalpa of the world Adorned Wisdom is a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Moon Wisdom in the world Mirror Light.
Raising the Brief to Display the Vast, Raising the Profound Ultimate: The Last World and the Filling by Samantabhadra
“Sons of the Buddha! Advancing in this order one after another, on and on past worlds as many as a million asaṃkhyeyas (asaṃkhyeya means a number beyond reckoning), one kalpa of that very last world is likewise only a single day and a single night in the land of the Buddha Worthy and Supreme in the world Supreme Lotus — and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, together with all the great bodhisattvas who cultivate and practise along with him, fill that land throughout.”
這一品在問什麼——壽與量
佛有多長的壽命？這問題聽起來像在問年歲，其實不是。澄觀釋這一品的名字，只用兩句話就把方向撥正了：「壽謂報命，量即分限。」壽，是這一期受報之命；量，是分限——是被劃出來的界線。他接著說，這是「染淨土之報壽，隨機見之分限」，用它來顯出「無盡之命、無限之量」。
要排掉一個常見的誤讀：這一品不是說佛的壽命有長有短，也不是說極樂的佛比娑婆的佛活得久。長短是眾生所見的分限，不是佛自身的分限。法藏釋六十本的品名說得更貼近字面：往業所引的報果叫壽，任持色心不斷叫命。可他隨即在宗趣門裡分出佛命三義——約德、就實、就權：就實則命根無盡、盡於未來；就權才是「隨機所感現脩短」。李通玄一句話收得最狠：如來實無長短壽命，性無生滅故。
所以讀這一品，眼睛要放在「量」字上，不放在「壽」字上。它要教的是：你所見的時間刻度，本身就是你所在位置的標記。
為什麼是心王菩薩來說
這一品全文只有一位說法者，心王菩薩摩訶薩，於大眾會中告諸菩薩。沒有如來加持，沒有請問，沒有重頌——一人獨白到底。為什麼是他？
三家古德各給了一個理由，方向一致而入手不同。澄觀說：「以領旨故，佛壽自在故」——心王能領佛旨，而佛壽本自在，故以他說之。法藏說：心王菩薩說者，「顯世識自在故，有劫數也」——世間的時劫本是識所安立，識若自在，劫數之長短便隨之而轉。李通玄則從表法直取：以心王菩薩說者，明佛壽量以心為體，以心王表命自在故。
排一個誤解：這裡不是說『心王菩薩比別人懂壽命』，而是說法者本身就是義理的一部分。時劫的伸縮不由外物決定，由心決定；所以講時劫伸縮的這一品，交給名為「心王」的菩薩來說。落到修行上，這句話的分量是：你覺得日子長還是短，從來不是日曆的事。
第一重：娑婆一劫，是極樂的一晝夜
第一句就把尺度掀了：「此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於極樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜」我們這個堪忍世界的一整劫——長到眾生數不清、佛經要用比喻才說得動的一段時間——在極樂世界那裡，只是天亮到天黑再到天亮。
要小心一個誤讀：這不是說極樂的人『過得慢』。劫與日夜是同一段時間在兩處的不同刻度，不是同一刻度下的不同長度。晉譯六十本此處作「安樂世界」，與八十本「極樂世界」同指阿彌陀佛剎，是譯名之異，誌之。
法藏在此設了一問：安樂等世界拿什麼當晝夜？他出二釋：一是以蓮花的開與合分晝夜，一開一合便當娑婆一劫；二是把娑婆一劫中所有的日夜總數拿來，以此數再數一劫為一日夜。這是疏家所設的算例，經文並無此文，讀時要記得繫在法藏名下。
落地處在這裡：同一段光陰，在不同的心量裡是不同的單位。你覺得漫長難捱的一段人生，換一個位置看，可能還不到一個白天。
第二重：極樂一劫，是袈裟幢的一晝夜
「極樂世界一劫，於袈裟幢世界金剛堅佛剎為一日一夜」第一重已經讓人吃驚，第二重把吃驚本身再壓縮一次：剛才那個作為『一晝夜』的極樂世界，它自己的一整劫，到袈裟幢世界又只是一晝夜。
這裡要排掉的誤解是『加法』。十重不是把時間一段段接起來，是一層層作為底數再乘上去。所以澄觀說「以劫為日，未歷十重，則劫不可說」——還沒走完十重，數目已經到了說不出來的地步。
袈裟幢，是以袈裟為幢幡而立名的佛土；佛號金剛堅，堅固不壞之義。六十本此重作「聖服幢世界金剛佛」，界名佛名擇字皆異而所指一，並錄不判。
落地處：修行人最容易在第一重就滿足——『原來還有比我大得多的尺度』。這一品不許你停在第一重。它要你在剛剛被震動之處，再被震動一次。
第三重：袈裟幢一劫，是不退轉音聲輪的一晝夜
「袈裟幢世界一劫，於不退轉音聲輪世界善勝光明蓮華開敷佛剎為一日一夜」
這一重的界名值得停一下：不退轉音聲輪。輪，是轉而不停；音聲之輪不退轉，說的是這個佛土中法音相續、無有斷絕。佛號善勝光明蓮華開敷——以蓮華之開敷表法之顯了。六十本作「善樂光明清淨開敷佛」，「善勝」與「善樂」、「蓮華」與「清淨」互出，誌錄不判。
要排的誤讀是：這些名字不是裝飾。經文在同一句式裡換的只有兩樣東西——世界名與佛名——名字就是這一重的全部內容。既然句式恆定，讀者的注意力自然被逼到名相所表之德上去。
落地處：一個法音不退轉的地方，它的一晝夜要抵前一重的整整一劫。這在說：法相續不斷之處，時間才真正『密』得起來。斷斷續續的修行，過的是稀薄的時間。
第四重：不退轉音聲輪一劫，是離垢的一晝夜
「不退轉音聲輪世界一劫，於離垢世界法幢佛剎為一日一夜」
離垢，垢染已離；佛號法幢，以法為幢，高建而眾所歸仰。這一重的界名佛名，八十本與六十本完全相同——十重之中，界名佛名俱同者唯第四、第五兩重，餘皆有異（第八重佛名六十作「一切明光明」、八十作「一切神通光明」）。這是對勘上一個乾淨的事實，誌之。
要排的誤解是：讀到這裡容易生出『愈後面愈高級』的階級想像。但澄觀在宗趣門已先下了一個限：就同教說，這是「積劣之勝」；若就別教，則「修短圓融」——長短本身就是圓融的，不是排成一列的高低。法藏「顯次第」門三判亦然：約漸教、約同教、約別教三種讀法各成一軌，並錄不判。
落地處：「離垢」被安在中段，不在末位。乾淨不是終點，只是能進一步的條件。
第五重：離垢一劫，是善燈的一晝夜
「離垢世界一劫，於善燈世界師子佛剎為一日一夜」
善燈——燈者破暗；師子佛——師子吼者無畏說法。此重界名佛名亦是兩本全同。
到第五重，正好走完一半。這裡要排一個心理上的誤讀：讀者往往在此開始『麻木』，覺得句子在重複。可經文的重複正是它的方法。澄觀把這一整段判為「初別舉十剎相望」——相望二字是眼目：不是十個世界各自被介紹，是一個挨一個地互相對看，每一次對看都把上一次的結果整個吞掉。麻木恰恰是被吞掉的感覺尚未到位。
落地處：燈破一室之暗，師子吼破一眾之疑。這一重把『破暗』放在中途，是說黑暗不是一次破盡的——破了一層，才看得見下一層的暗。
第六重：善燈一劫，是妙光明的一晝夜
「善燈世界一劫，於妙光明世界光明藏佛剎為一日一夜」
從善燈到妙光明，從一燈到光明之藏：燈是一處之明，藏是含攝無盡之明。六十本此重作「善光明世界盧舍那藏佛」——以盧舍那為佛名，八十本作「光明藏」，正是盧舍那之義譯所在。兩本互出，誌錄不判。
要排的誤讀是把「光明」讀成譬喻性的形容。在這一品的體例裡，佛名即是這一重時劫之所以更密的理由：光明成藏之處，一晝夜自然抵得住前一重的一劫。
落地處：修行上的「燈」是一次一次點的，「藏」是點到不必再點。從燈到藏的距離，就是一劫到一日的距離。
第七重：妙光明一劫，是難超過的一晝夜
「妙光明世界一劫，於難超過世界法光明蓮華開敷佛剎為一日一夜」
界名忽然變了口氣：難超過。前六重的名字都在說這個佛土『是什麼』，這一個在說它『難以被越過』。佛號法光明蓮華開敷，法之光明如蓮華開敷而顯。六十本作「超出世界法光明清淨開敷蓮華佛」——六十本從「超出」立名，八十本從「難超過」立名，語勢一正一反，並錄不判。
要排的誤解：「難超過」不等於『不可超過』。經文緊接著仍有第八、第九重，可見仍被超過。它標的是接近極處時的坡度——愈近極位，每一重的跨越愈難。
落地處：修行到後段，長進看起來變慢了，其實是刻度變密了。慢，是因為你在一個一晝夜抵前一劫的地方。
第八重：難超過一劫，是莊嚴慧的一晝夜
「難超過世界一劫，於莊嚴慧世界一切神通光明佛剎為一日一夜」
莊嚴慧——以慧為莊嚴，不以他物為飾；佛號一切神通光明。六十本界名亦作「莊嚴慧」，全同；佛名作「一切明光明佛」，與八十本「一切神通光明」互出。
這一重要教的是位次上的一件事：到了名為「慧」的世界，前面所有的光明、破暗、開敷才有所歸。要排的誤解是把神通讀成異能——經文把神通與光明連為一名，安在「莊嚴慧」的世界裡，其義自明：神通是慧的光，不是慧以外的本事。
落地處：一個人若把神異當成進境的指標，這一重會令他難堪——連神通都只是慧的莊嚴之一。
第九重：莊嚴慧一劫，是鏡光明的一晝夜
「莊嚴慧世界一劫，於鏡光明世界月智佛剎為一日一夜」
十重相望的最後一組具名者。鏡光明——鏡之為明，不是自己發光，是照而現物；佛號月智，月之智清涼而遍映。六十本作「覺月佛」，與八十本「月智」互出，誌錄不判。
這裡有一個要緊的排誤：走了九重，愈往後名字愈不像『更強』，反而愈像『更靜』——從燈、從光明藏，到鏡、到月。愈近極位，愈不是加法而是減法：鏡不自明，月不自熱。這與澄觀所說「修短圓融」的別教讀法相應——到極處不是最長，是長短不再對立。
落地處：修行的高處不長成一個更亮的東西，長成一面更乾淨的鏡子。
舉略顯廣：如是次第，乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界
具名者到第九重就停了。經文接著說：「佛子！如是次第，乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界，最後世界一劫，於勝蓮華世界賢勝佛剎為一日一夜」澄觀判此為「舉略顯廣」——舉出十重之略，顯出百萬阿僧祇之廣。
要排的誤讀是以為經文『省略了』。它不是省略，是移交：前十重是讓你親手把尺度換算九次，換到手感成立；手感一成立，「百萬阿僧祇」四字才真正有重量。澄觀說「且如以劫為日，未歷十重，則劫不可說」，正是這個次序——不先歷十重，說再大的數也只是數字。法藏亦推此算：至最後世界之一劫，回望最初世界，當是不可說不可說劫。
還要排一個字面的事：六十本作「乃至百萬阿僧祇世界」，八十本多一「過」字，作「乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界」，並錄不判。
落地處：信心不是被大數字說服的，是被親手換算過的比例說服的。
舉玄極：普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中
全品最後一句，忽然不說時間，改說人：「普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中。」澄觀判此為「舉其玄極」，並釋：「舉普賢等充滿，明極位所居。」
為什麼校量到第十重就停？澄觀給的理由是「沈百萬僧祇則最後之剎，已隣剎海平等故」。法藏說：「至賢首剎已後，則剎海平等，無有優劣」——再往上沒有『更長』可比，因為刻度本身消失了。所以第十重不是最大的一級，是最後一級：過此即入平等。法藏又釋何以獨舉普賢：以望下最極故；以普賢為量，望上猶在數中故不說。
要排的誤解：這句不是在給極樂淨土之外再添一個更好的去處。經文以『誰住在那裡』代替『那裡有多長』，是把量的問題收在人上——極位不是一段更長的時間，是一種行。六十本作「普賢菩薩等諸大菩薩充滿其中」，八十本明出「同行」二字，誌錄不判。
落地處：一品講盡了時劫的深不可測，末了只給你一個可以效法的東西——普賢之行。時間你追不上，行你今天就能起。
承衍
本品之義，前後有繫。澄觀判其來意，繫於前一品：前品〈阿僧祇品〉「上品彰其實德」，此品則辨隨機所見之分限——一實一機，相形而顯。法藏同判此近意，並把後一品也繫上：〈住處品〉別辨菩薩法用，約機明住處差別；佛德言畢，次言菩薩之所住。李通玄則只取次第之便：前品既是阿僧祇，此即合便有壽量。三家所繫不同，並錄不判。
法藏又出一遠意：此品為遠答普光明殿十頂之問，以十重相望各為終極、得名為頂。他並誌古釋以此品答佛壽命之問，而自云「文勢不順」，理由是壽命問在十地等前，不合答在此處——古德自有之判語，逐字誌之，不加評騭。
本品之別行單本，古德兩處誌之：澄觀云別行經名無邊佛土，經即以處顯人；法藏云玄奘法師別翻一卷，名顯無邊佛土經，是此品也，並記《大佛名經》中亦說唯佛充滿此諸世界。本編誌錄其名，未取為校本。
至於華嚴宗之六相、十玄，本品經文並無直文；世親《十地經論》為十地品專釋，亦不涉此品——皆據實標闕，不以他品之文充之。這一品所留下的，是一個極樸素而極難忘的算法：一劫作一日，十重相望，過此則剎海平等。
What This Chapter Is Asking — Life, and Measure
How long is the Buddha's life? The question sounds as though it were asking after years, but it is not. Chengguan, explaining the name of this chapter, sets the direction straight in two clauses: “life means the life of recompense; measure is the allotted bound.” Life is the life received as recompense within one span; measure is the allotted bound — the line that has been drawn. He goes on to say that this is “the life of recompense in a defiled or a pure land, the allotted bound seen according to capacity,” and that it is used to display “the life without end, the measure without limit.”
One common misreading must be cleared away: this chapter is not saying that the Buddha's life is long in one place and short in another, nor that the buddha of Ultimate Bliss lives longer than the buddha of the Sahā world. Length and shortness are the bound allotted to what sentient beings see; they are not a bound upon the Buddha himself. Fazang, explaining the name of the chapter in the sixty-fascicle text, keeps closer to the letter: the fruit of recompense drawn on by past deeds is called life, and the holding on of form and mind without break is called the living. Yet under the gate of tenet and aim he at once divides the buddhas' life into three senses — with respect to virtue, with respect to the real, with respect to the provisional: with respect to the real, the faculty of life is without end and exhausts the whole of the future; only with respect to the provisional is it “shown long or short according to what capacities call forth.” Li Tongxuan closes the matter most sharply of all in a single clause: in truth the Tathāgata has no long or short life, for the nature is without birth and cessation.
So in reading this chapter the eye is to be set on the word ‘measure,’ not on the word ‘life.’ What it means to teach is this: the scale of time you see is itself the mark of the place where you stand.
Why It Is Mind-King Bodhisattva Who Speaks
This chapter has only one speaker throughout — Mind-King Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, addressing the bodhisattvas in the midst of the great assembly. There is no empowerment by the Tathāgata, no one who asks, no repeated verses: one voice from beginning to end. Why should it be he?
Three of the ancient masters each give a reason, agreeing in direction and differing in the door by which they enter. Chengguan says: “because he apprehends the purport, and because the Buddha's life-span is sovereign” — Mind-King can apprehend the Buddha's purport, and the Buddha's life-span is of itself sovereign, and so it is he who speaks it. Fazang says that Mind-King Bodhisattva speaks it because it “displays the sovereignty of the consciousness of the world, and hence there are numbers of kalpas” — the times and kalpas of the world are set up by consciousness, and if consciousness is sovereign, the length and shortness of kalpas turns with it. Li Tongxuan takes it straight from the symbolizing of dharmas: that Mind-King Bodhisattva speaks it makes clear that the Buddha's span of life has mind for its substance, and that the mind-king symbolizes the sovereignty of life.
Set out one misunderstanding: this is not saying that Mind-King Bodhisattva understands life-spans better than others do. It is saying that the speaker is himself a part of the doctrine. The stretching and shrinking of times and kalpas is not settled by anything outside; it is settled by mind — and therefore the chapter that speaks of that stretching and shrinking is given to a bodhisattva whose name is Mind-King. Brought down to practice, the weight of this is: whether your days feel long or short has never been a matter of the calendar.
The First Layer: One Kalpa of the Sahā World Is One Day and Night of Ultimate Bliss
The very first clause overturns the scale: “one kalpa in the land of Śākyamuni Buddha in this Sahā world is one day and one night in the land of Amitābha Buddha in the world Ultimate Bliss.” One entire kalpa of this world of ours that bears with suffering — a stretch of time so long that sentient beings cannot count it and the scriptures must move it by simile — is over there, in Ultimate Bliss, only daybreak to dusk and back to dawn.
Be careful of one misreading here: this is not saying that the people of Ultimate Bliss ‘pass their time more slowly.’ Kalpa and day-and-night are two different scales laid on one and the same stretch of time; they are not two different lengths under one scale. The Jin rendering, the sixty-fascicle text, has here the world Peace and Bliss, which with the eighty-fascicle text's world Ultimate Bliss points to the one land of Amitābha Buddha; the difference is one of rendered names, and it is set down.
Fazang sets a question at this point: what do the world Peace and Bliss and the rest take for their day and night? He gives two explanations: one, that the opening and closing of the lotus marks off day from night, one opening and one closing answering to a kalpa of the Sahā world; two, that one takes the whole sum of days and nights within one kalpa of the Sahā world, and counts by that number, taking one kalpa as one day and night. This is a reckoning set up by a commentator; the scriptural text has no such passage, and in reading it one must remember to tie it to Fazang's name.
Where it comes home is here: one and the same stretch of light and shade is a different unit within a different measure of mind. A stretch of your life that you feel to be long and hard to bear may, seen from another position, not amount to a single day.
The Second Layer: One Kalpa of Ultimate Bliss Is One Day and Night of Kāṣāya Banner
“One kalpa of the world Ultimate Bliss is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Vajra-Firm in the world Kāṣāya Banner.” The first layer was already startling; the second compresses the startlement itself once more: that world Ultimate Bliss which was just now serving as ‘one day and night’ has an entire kalpa of its own, and in the world Kāṣāya Banner that kalpa is again only one day and night.
What must be cleared away here is the idea of ‘addition.’ The ten layers are not stretches of time joined end to end; they are layer upon layer taken as a base and multiplied up again. This is why Chengguan says “taking a kalpa for a day, before one has passed through the ten layers, the kalpas are already unspeakable” — the ten layers are not yet walked and the number has already gone past all saying.
Kāṣāya Banner is a buddha-land named from a monastic robe raised as a banner; the buddha's name, Vajra-Firm, means firm and indestructible. The sixty-fascicle text has at this layer the world Holy Robe Banner and the Buddha Vajra; the choice of graphs differs in both world-name and buddha-name while the thing pointed to is one, and both are recorded without adjudication.
Where it comes home: a practitioner is most easily satisfied at the first layer — ‘so there is a scale far larger than mine.’ This chapter will not let you stop at the first layer. It means to shake you a second time at the very place where you have just been shaken.
The Third Layer: One Kalpa of Kāṣāya Banner Is One Day and Night of the Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound
“One kalpa of the world Kāṣāya Banner is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Excellent and Supreme Light, Lotus Blossoming Open, in the world Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound.”
The world-name of this layer is worth pausing over: the Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound. A wheel is what turns without stopping; that the wheel of sound does not fall back says that in this buddha-land the sound of the Dharma continues on without any break. The buddha's name, Excellent and Supreme Light, Lotus Blossoming Open, displays the manifesting of the Dharma by the blossoming open of the lotus. The sixty-fascicle text has the Buddha Good and Joyful Light, Pure Blossoming Open; ‘excellent and supreme’ and ‘good and joyful,’ ‘lotus’ and ‘pure,’ stand over against each other, and both are recorded without adjudication.
The misreading to be set out is this: these names are not decoration. Within one and the same sentence-pattern the scripture changes only two things — the name of the world and the name of the buddha — and the names are the entire content of the layer. Since the pattern holds constant, the reader's attention is driven of necessity onto the virtue that the names symbolize.
Where it comes home: in a place where the sound of the Dharma does not fall back, one day and night is worth the whole kalpa of the layer before. This is saying that only where the Dharma continues unbroken does time become truly ‘dense.’ Practice taken up and dropped and taken up again passes through thin time.
The Fourth Layer: One Kalpa of the Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound Is One Day and Night of Stainless
“One kalpa of the world Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Dharma Banner in the world Stainless.”
Stainless: the defilement of stain has been left behind. The buddha's name, Dharma Banner, takes the Dharma for a banner, raised high so that the multitude looks up to it. At this layer the world-name and the buddha-name are wholly the same in the eighty-fascicle and the sixty-fascicle texts — among the ten layers, the only two in which both world-name and buddha-name agree are the fourth and the fifth, all the rest differing (at the eighth layer the sixty has the buddha-name Light of All Clarity, the eighty Light of All Spiritual Penetrations). This is one clean fact of the collation, and it is set down.
The misunderstanding to be set out is this: reading thus far, one easily conceives a picture of rank, ‘the further on, the higher the grade.’ But Chengguan has already set a limit under the gate of tenet and aim: with respect to the common teaching, this is “a heaping of the lesser toward the greater”; with respect to the distinct teaching, then “length and shortness are fused in perfect roundness” — length and shortness are of themselves fused, not ranged in a file of high and low. Fazang's gate of ‘displaying the order’ is likewise threefold: with respect to the gradual teaching, to the common teaching, to the distinct teaching, each reading forms its own track, and all are recorded without adjudication.
Where it comes home: ‘Stainless’ is set in the middle stretch and not at the last place. Cleanness is not the end; it is only the condition of being able to go further.
The Fifth Layer: One Kalpa of Stainless Is One Day and Night of Good Lamp
“One kalpa of the world Stainless is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Lion in the world Good Lamp.”
Good Lamp — a lamp breaks the dark; the Buddha Lion — the lion's roar is the fearless preaching of the Dharma. At this layer too the world-name and buddha-name are wholly the same in both recensions.
At the fifth layer one has come exactly halfway. Here a misreading of a psychological kind must be set out: readers often begin at this point to go numb, feeling that the sentences are repeating. But the scripture's repetition is precisely its method. Chengguan judges this whole passage to be “severally raising the ten lands in mutual regard” — the two words ‘mutual regard’ are the eye of it: it is not that ten worlds are each introduced in turn, but that one after another they look upon each other, and each looking swallows the result of the last one whole. The numbness is exactly the feeling of being swallowed before it has fully arrived.
Where it comes home: a lamp breaks the dark of one room, the lion's roar breaks the doubt of one assembly. That this layer sets ‘breaking the dark’ midway is to say that darkness is not broken through all at once — one layer broken, and only then does the dark of the next become visible.
The Sixth Layer: One Kalpa of Good Lamp Is One Day and Night of Wondrous Light
“One kalpa of the world Good Lamp is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Treasury of Light in the world Wondrous Light.”
From Good Lamp to Wondrous Light, from one lamp to a treasury of light: a lamp is the brightness of one place, a treasury is a brightness that gathers in without end. The sixty-fascicle text has at this layer the world Good Light and the Buddha Rocana Treasury — taking Rocana for the buddha-name, where the eighty-fascicle text has Treasury of Light, which is just the rendering of the sense of Rocana. The two recensions stand over against each other, and both are recorded without adjudication.
The misreading to be set out is that of taking ‘light’ for a figure of speech. In the pattern of this chapter the buddha's name is itself the reason why the times and kalpas of this layer are denser: where light has become a treasury, one day and night naturally holds up against a whole kalpa of the layer before.
Where it comes home: the ‘lamp’ of practice is lit one time and one time again; the ‘treasury’ is what is lit once and needs no further lighting. The distance from lamp to treasury is the distance from a kalpa to a day.
The Seventh Layer: One Kalpa of Wondrous Light Is One Day and Night of Hard to Surpass
“One kalpa of the world Wondrous Light is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Light of the Dharma, Lotus Blossoming Open, in the world Hard to Surpass.”
The world-name suddenly changes its tone: Hard to Surpass. The names of the first six layers all said what that buddha-land is; this one says that it is hard to get past. The buddha's name, Light of the Dharma, Lotus Blossoming Open, means that the light of the Dharma manifests as a lotus blossoming open. The sixty-fascicle text has the world Surpassing Beyond and the Buddha Light of the Dharma, Pure Blossoming Open, Lotus — the sixty names it from ‘surpassing beyond,’ the eighty from ‘hard to surpass,’ the one turn of speech positive and the other negative, and both are recorded without adjudication.
The misunderstanding to set out: ‘hard to surpass’ does not amount to ‘cannot be surpassed.’ The scripture goes straight on to an eighth and a ninth layer, so it is plainly surpassed. What the name marks is the steepness near the utmost place — the closer to the utmost station, the harder the crossing of each layer.
Where it comes home: in the later stretch of practice, progress looks as though it had slowed; in fact the scale has grown dense. It is slow because you are in a place where one day and night is worth the whole kalpa before.
The Eighth Layer: One Kalpa of Hard to Surpass Is One Day and Night of Adorned Wisdom
“One kalpa of the world Hard to Surpass is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Light of All Spiritual Penetrations in the world Adorned Wisdom.”
Adorned Wisdom — adorned with wisdom, and not decked out with anything else; the buddha's name is Light of All Spiritual Penetrations. The sixty-fascicle text has the same world-name, Adorned Wisdom, wholly agreeing; its buddha-name is the Buddha Light of All Clarity, standing over against the eighty's Light of All Spiritual Penetrations.
What this layer means to teach is a matter of order of station: on reaching a world named for wisdom, all the light and dark-breaking and blossoming that came before at last has somewhere to belong. The misunderstanding to set out is the reading of spiritual penetration as a strange ability — the scripture joins penetration and light into one name and sets it within a world named Adorned Wisdom, and its sense is plain: spiritual penetration is the light of wisdom, not some accomplishment outside wisdom.
Where it comes home: anyone who takes marvels for the index of his progress will be put to shame by this layer — even spiritual penetration is only one of the adornments of wisdom.
The Ninth Layer: One Kalpa of Adorned Wisdom Is One Day and Night of Mirror Light
“One kalpa of the world Adorned Wisdom is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Moon Wisdom in the world Mirror Light.”
The last of the named members of the ten in mutual regard. Mirror Light — a mirror's being bright is not its shining of itself, but its reflecting and displaying of things; the buddha's name, Moon Wisdom, is a wisdom cool as the moon and reflected everywhere. The sixty-fascicle text has the Buddha Awakened Moon, standing over against the eighty's Moon Wisdom, and both are recorded without adjudication.
There is an important error to set out here: having gone through nine layers, the names look less and less like ‘stronger’ the further on they go, and more and more like ‘stiller’ — from lamp, from treasury of light, to mirror, to moon. The nearer the utmost station, the less it is addition and the more it is subtraction: a mirror is not bright of itself, a moon is not hot of itself. This answers to the reading of the distinct teaching that Chengguan called “length and shortness fused in perfect roundness” — at the utmost place it is not the longest, but the place where long and short no longer stand opposed.
Where it comes home: the high ground of practice does not grow into a brighter thing; it grows into a cleaner mirror.
Raising the Brief to Display the Vast: In This Order, on to Passing Beyond a Million Asaṃkhyeya Worlds
The named members stop at the ninth layer. The scripture then says: “Sons of the Buddha! In this order, on to passing beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds, one kalpa of the last world is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Worthy and Supreme in the world Supreme Lotus.” Chengguan judges this to be “raising the brief to display the vast” — raising the brief of the ten layers so as to display the vastness of a million asaṃkhyeyas.
The misreading to be set out is the supposition that the scripture has ‘left something out.’ It has not left out; it has handed over. The first ten layers make you convert the scale nine times with your own hands, until the feel of it stands; and only once that feel stands do the words ‘a million asaṃkhyeyas’ carry any real weight. Chengguan's saying that “taking a kalpa for a day, before one has passed through the ten layers, the kalpas are already unspeakable” is exactly this order — without first passing through the ten layers, any larger number spoken is only a figure. Fazang carries the reckoning on as well: one kalpa of the last world, looked back upon from the first world, answers to unspeakably unspeakable kalpas.
One matter of the letter is also to be set out: the sixty-fascicle text has ‘on to a million asaṃkhyeya worlds,’ while the eighty has one graph more, ‘passing,’ giving ‘on to passing beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds’; both are recorded without adjudication.
Where it comes home: faith is not persuaded by a large number, but by a ratio one has converted with one's own hands.
Raising the Profound Ultimate: Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and the Great Bodhisattvas Who Practise Along with Him Fill the Whole of It
The last clause of the chapter suddenly stops speaking of time and speaks instead of persons: “Samantabhadra Bodhisattva together with the great bodhisattvas who practise along with him fill the whole of it.” Chengguan judges this to be “raising its profound ultimate,” and explains: “raising the filling by Samantabhadra and the rest makes clear what the utmost station dwells in.”
Why does the comparison halt at the tenth layer? The reason Chengguan gives is that, “sunk through a million asaṃkhyeyas, the last of the lands already borders upon the sameness of the ocean of lands.” Fazang says: “after the land of Worthy Head, the ocean of lands is the same, and there is neither better nor worse” — beyond this there is no ‘longer’ left to compare, because the scale itself has gone. So the tenth layer is not the largest grade; it is the last grade: past it one enters sameness. Fazang further explains why Samantabhadra alone is raised: because, looked at from below, he is the utmost; and taking Samantabhadra as the measure, looked at from above he is still within number, and so it is not spoken of.
The misunderstanding to be set out: this clause is not adding one still better place to go, over and above the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. By putting ‘who lives there’ in place of ‘how long it is there,’ the scripture gathers the question of measure up into a person — the utmost station is not a longer stretch of time but a kind of practice. The sixty-fascicle text has ‘Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and the great bodhisattvas fill the whole of it,’ while the eighty brings out the two graphs ‘practising along with him’; both are recorded without adjudication.
Where it comes home: a whole chapter has spoken out the unfathomable depth of times and kalpas, and at the end it gives you only one thing you can imitate — the practice of Samantabhadra. Time you will never overtake; practice you can begin today.
Lineage
The sense of this chapter is tied to what comes before and after. Chengguan judges the reason for its coming and ties it to the chapter before: the preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya “displayed its real virtue,” while this chapter sets forth the allotted bound seen according to capacity — the one the real, the other the capacity, each displayed by contrast with the other. Fazang judges this same near intent, and ties on the chapter after as well: the Chapter on the Dwelling Places severally sets forth the bodhisattvas' use of the Dharma, making clear with respect to capacity the differences among their dwelling places; the Buddha's virtue having been spoken, next comes what the bodhisattvas dwell in. Li Tongxuan takes only the convenience of the order: the preceding chapter being Asaṃkhyeya, it is fitting that here there should follow the span of life. The three houses tie it differently, and all are recorded without adjudication.
Fazang further gives a far intent: this chapter answers from afar the question about the ten summits in the Hall of Universal Light, since the ten layers in mutual regard are each an utmost end and so get the name of summit. He also records the ancients' explanation, which took this chapter to answer the question about the Buddha's life-span, and says of it himself that “the momentum of the text does not go that way,” his reason being that the question about the life-span stands before the ten grounds and the rest, and it is not fitting that the answer should come in this place — a judgement the ancient masters made of themselves, recorded verbatim without any appraisal added.
A single separately circulating scripture of this chapter is set down by the ancient masters in two places: Chengguan says that the separately circulating scripture is named Boundless Buddha-Lands, and that the scripture thus displays the persons by the place; Fazang says that the Dharma-master Xuanzang separately rendered one fascicle named the Scripture of the Displaying of Boundless Buddha-Lands, which is this chapter, and records as well that it is also said in the Da foming jing that the buddhas alone fill these worlds. This edition records their names, and has not taken them as witnesses.
As for the six aspects and the ten profound gates of the Huayan house, the scriptural text of this chapter has no direct passage on them; and Vasubandhu's Shidi jing lun is an explanation devoted to the Chapter on the Ten Grounds and does not touch upon this chapter either — in both cases the lack is set down as the facts stand, without filling it from the text of other chapters. What this chapter leaves behind is a reckoning of the utmost plainness and the utmost unforgettableness: one kalpa taken as one day, ten layers in mutual regard, and past this the ocean of lands is the same.
考據Apparatus
全品不足三百字，心王菩薩一人告眾，無問答、無重頌。以『甲界一劫＝乙界一日一夜』十重相望，累至百萬阿僧祇世界之最後剎，普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩充滿其中。澄觀判「壽謂報命，量即分限」，以隨機所見之分限顯無盡之命；法藏開報命・戒命・惠命三命，並約漸教・同教・別教三判其次第。本品所校量者非年壽之長短，是佛壽隨機示現之相與剎海平等之極。
一、科判定位
| 科判系統 | 此品之位 |
|---|---|
| 底本 T279 三十九品 | 品三十一 壽量品（第七會 重會普光明殿）· 品題錨〔T10 0241a16〕· 正文〔T10 0241a17–0241b05〕 |
| 澄觀《華嚴經疏》 | 壽量品疏〔T35n1735 0859a20 起–0859b10 訖〕開四門：來意〔0859a21〕・釋名〔0859a26〕・宗趣〔0859b01〕・正釋文〔0859b03〕 |
| 法藏《探玄記》（六十華嚴疏〈壽命品第二十六〉） | 〔T35n1733 0390b10 起〕開五門（探玄自標序號有重號）：釋名〔0390b11〕・來意〔0390b12〕・宗趣〔0390b21〕・顯次第〔0390c01〕・釋文〔0390c10〕 |
| 李通玄《新華嚴經論》 | 壽量品〔T36n1739 0931a17 起〕約三門：釋品來意〔0931a19〕・釋說教之主〔0931a20〕・隨文釋義〔0931a24〕 |
| 世親《十地經論》T26n1522 | 〔查無〕──本論為十地品專釋，檢索 0 命中，不涉本品 |
正釋文三科（澄觀）——
「次正釋文。初集經者敘。而心王說者，以領旨故，佛壽自在故。二「佛子」下正說。於中三：初別舉十剎相望、次「佛子如是」下舉略顯廣、三「最後世界」下舉其玄極。」〔T35n1735 0859b03–07〕
法藏三科同其骨架而語異：
「四釋文中，心王菩薩說者，顯世識自在故，有劫數也。於中有三。初舉十世界校量漸次、次類顯百萬、後辨最後玄極。」〔T35n1733 0390c10–13〕
來意——澄觀繫於前品〈阿僧祇品〉之實德：
「夫玄鑒虛朗，出乎數域之表，豈有殊形萬狀修短之壽哉？然應物隨機，能無不形而無不壽，故上品彰其實德，此品以辨隨機。」〔T35n1735 0859a21–24〕
又曰：「雖積少至多，顯時無不遍，即前多德之一故粗廣之，亦為遠答壽量海故，所以來也。」〔T35n1735 0859a24–26〕
法藏則分遠近二意，遠意繫普光十頂問：
「一遠意，為答普光十頂問故。以十重相望各為終極，得名頂故，知安樂界為娑婆頂等。」〔T35n1733 0390b13–15〕
近意繫前後二品：「前〈僧祇品〉顯佛菩薩實德平等超過數量；此品別辨佛德，就機示有脩短；後〈住處品〉別辨菩薩法用，約機明住處差別。」〔T35n1733 0390b18–21〕
李通玄之來意：「明前品既是阿僧祇，此即合便有壽量。」〔T36n1739 0931a19–20〕
二、術語
| 漢 | 古德傳梵（羅馬字·發音輔助） | 所徵 | 精義 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 壽量 | —（音寫從闕） | 品題〔T10n0279 0241a16〕 | 澄觀：「壽謂報命，量即分限。」〔T35n1735 0859a26–27〕壽有斯量，故名壽量 |
| 報命 | —（音寫從闕） | 探玄〔T35n1733 0390b22–23〕 | 「煖、識不捨不退，眾同分故，不相應行為性」；三命之一 |
| 戒命 | —（音寫從闕） | 探玄〔T35n1733 0390b23–25〕 | 「經中名淨命，由不破戒故，不失比丘法，以淨戒為性」 |
| 惠命 | —（音寫從闕） | 探玄〔T35n1733 0390b25–26〕 | 「由不放逸故，不退正法，名為惠命，正惠為性」 |
| 一日一夜 | —（音寫從闕） | 本品十重校量句〔T10n0279 0241a18 起〕 | 以前一世界之全劫，當後一世界之一晝夜；校量之單位 |
| 阿僧祇 | asaṃkhyeya（音寫即古傳） | 本品「乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界」〔T10n0279 0241b02–03〕 | 無央數；此處為世界重數之量詞，承前〈阿僧祇品〉 |
| 剎 | —（音寫從闕） | 本品「釋迦牟尼佛剎」等〔T10n0279 0241a17–18〕 | 佛土；一佛所化之世界 |
| 剎海平等 | —（音寫從闕） | 澄觀〔T35n1735 0859b08–09〕・探玄〔T35n1733 0390c19–21〕 | 至賢首（賢勝）剎已後，諸剎無有優劣，故校量至此而止 |
| 玄極 | —（音寫從闕） | 澄觀科名「舉其玄極」〔T35n1735 0859b06–07〕 | 校量之極位；以普賢等充滿表「極位所居」〔0859b09〕 |
| 別行經 | —（音寫從闕） | 澄觀〔T35n1735 0859a29–0859b01〕・探玄〔T35n1733 0390c23–24〕 | 本品之單行別譯，古德誌其名為《無邊佛土》（探玄作「顯無邊佛土經」） |
三、譬喻·修辭
(一) 校量法本身即修辭：以劫為日——本品經文無自設之譬喻句（無『譬如』『猶如』等喻詞）；其修辭全在單位遞換：前界之一劫，於後界僅是一晝夜。澄觀點其力用：
「且如以劫為日，未歷十重，則劫不可說。」〔T35n1735 0859b07–08〕
(二) 蓮花開合辨晝夜（疏家所設之釋例，非經文）——法藏設問後界以何為晝夜，出二釋：
「如安樂世界等，以何為晝夜？釋：或以蓮花開合辨用，當娑婆一劫。又釋：此娑婆一劫中總有若干日夜，依此日夜數數一劫為一日夜，還數王若干劫，方為安樂世界之一劫。」〔T35n1733 0390c13–17〕
- 喻依：蓮花之開與合，一開一合為一晝夜。
- 喻體：安樂等界之晝夜。
- 所顯義：後界之一晝夜，其量當娑婆之一劫。此為疏家釋例，經文無此文，引用時須明繫法藏。
(三) 舉普賢以表極位——澄觀：「舉普賢等充滿，明極位所居。由此名為，兼顯菩薩。」〔T35n1735 0859b09–10〕法藏亦然：「是故此中說普賢等充滿者，以望下最極故。以普賢為量，望上猶在數中故不說。」〔T35n1733 0390c20–22〕──以人表位之修辭。
〔標闕〕：本品無重頌、無問答、無因緣譬喻段；經文譬喻目據實從闕。
四、異譯對勘
本品之漢譯校本：實叉難陀 T279（底本·〈壽量品第三十一〉）· 佛馱跋陀羅 T278（晉譯六十華嚴〈壽命品第二十六〉·〔T09n0278 0589c01–0589c19〕）。別行單本（玄奘《顯無邊佛土經》）唯依古德所誌，未入本目對勘（本編未取為校本·誌其名而已）。
對位判準＝場景結構（心王菩薩告諸菩薩・十重世界劫量相望・末後普賢菩薩充滿其中），非以 80 之字面搜 60。
句一 起句
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 爾時，心王菩薩摩訶薩於眾會中告諸菩薩言：「佛子！此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於極樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜」 | T10n0279 0241a17–19 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 爾時，心王菩薩摩訶薩告諸菩薩言：「佛子！如此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於安樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜」 | T09n0278 0589c02–04 |
異文所繫：(甲) 80 有「於眾會中」四字，60 無。(乙) 80「此娑婆世界」，60 作「如此娑婆世界」。(丙) 80「極樂世界」↔ 60「安樂世界」（同一阿彌陀佛剎之異譯名）。
句二 十重界名·佛名對勘
| 重 | 實叉 T279 | 佛馱 T278 | 60 出處 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 一 | 極樂世界阿彌陀佛 | 安樂世界阿彌陀佛 | 0589c03–04 |
| 二 | 袈裟幢世界金剛堅佛 | 聖服幢世界金剛佛 | 0589c05 |
| 三 | 不退轉音聲輪世界善勝光明蓮華開敷佛 | 不退轉音聲輪世界善樂光明清淨開敷佛 | 0589c06–07 |
| 四 | 離垢世界法幢佛 | 離垢世界法幢佛 | 0589c08 |
| 五 | 善燈世界師子佛 | 善燈世界師子佛 | 0589c09–10 |
| 六 | 妙光明世界光明藏佛 | 善光明世界盧舍那藏佛 | 0589c10–11 |
| 七 | 難超過世界法光明蓮華開敷佛 | 超出世界法光明清淨開敷蓮華佛 | 0589c12–13 |
| 八 | 莊嚴慧世界一切神通光明佛 | 莊嚴慧世界一切明光明佛 | 0589c13–14 |
| 九 | 鏡光明世界月智佛 | 鏡光明世界覺月佛 | 0589c15 |
| 末後 | 勝蓮華世界賢勝佛 | 勝蓮華世界賢首佛 | 0589c17–18 |
異文所繫：袈裟／聖服・妙光明／善光明・光明藏／盧舍那藏・難超過／超出・月智／覺月・賢勝／賢首──皆界名佛名之擇字異；界名佛名俱同者唯第四、第五兩重（餘見表）。全錄不判。
句三 結句（舉略顯廣·舉玄極）
| 校本 | 逐字 | 出處 |
|---|---|---|
| 實叉 T279 | 佛子！如是次第，乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界，最後世界一劫，於勝蓮華世界賢勝佛剎為一日一夜，普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中。 | T10n0279 0241b02–05 |
| 佛馱 T278 | 佛子！如是次第，乃至百萬阿僧祇世界，最後世界一劫，於勝蓮華世界賢首佛剎為一日一夜，普賢菩薩等諸大菩薩充滿其中。 | T09n0278 0589c16–19 |
異文所繫：(甲) 80「乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界」，60 無「過」字。(乙) 80「普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等」，60 作「普賢菩薩等諸大菩薩」──80 明出「同行」二字。全錄不判。
五、宗義之經據〔眼〕
(一) 隨機修短·壽有斯量——品名之義即宗趣所在。澄觀釋名：
「壽謂報命，量即分限。染淨土之報壽，隨機見之分限，以顯無盡之命、無限之量，壽之量故。壽有斯量，通二釋也。」〔T35n1735 0859a26–29〕
宗趣則：「應物修短為宗，顯窮來際無限為趣。」〔T35n1735 0859b01–02〕──所校量者是隨機所見之分限，非佛壽自身有長短。
(二) 同教·別教二判——澄觀於宗趣下即分二教讀此十重：
「以就同教，且積劣之勝；若就別教，則修短圓融故。」〔T35n1735 0859b02–03〕
法藏「顯次第」門三判與之相涉：
「一約漸教，謂娑婆等局為地前，為化佛土故；安樂等通為地上，為報佛土故；乃至賢首剎，當十地後不可說處也。二約同教，謂娑婆等為三乘上，漸漸向細入於一乘，乃至賢首剎等方為究竟。何以故？以就別教，娑婆則是蓮花藏故。三約別教，娑婆是見聞解行處，中間諸土唯解行處，末後佛土通解行滿及證入故，是故信滿位處亦名賢首故也。」〔T35n1733 0390c01–10〕
(三) 剎海平等——校量所以止於第十——澄觀：「沈百萬僧祇則最後之剎，已隣剎海平等故。」〔T35n1735 0859b08–09〕法藏：
「是則至最後世界一劫，於最初世界，當不可說不可說劫也。至賢首剎已後，則剎海平等，無有優劣。」〔T35n1733 0390c17–20〕
(四) 佛命三義（德·實·權）——法藏於宗趣門別定此文：
「諸佛壽命亦有三義：一約德，謂具足如前三種命故，其報命是無盡善根所生故也。二就實，謂命根無盡，盡於未來故。三就權，謂隨機所感現脩短故。今此文中具斯三義。」〔T35n1733 0390b26–0390c01〕
(五) 心即壽體（表法軌）——李通玄以心王表命自在，並歸於根本智之無生滅：
「以心王菩薩說者，明佛壽量以心為體，以心王表命自在故。即明如來心王之命，隨根延促長短任物自在，而實如來命者，無壽命者、無長短者故。」〔T36n1739 0931a21–24〕
又：「如來壽命如根本智，無生無滅、無去無來故。約以十佛之命表之無盡故。」〔T36n1739 0931a28–0931b01〕
〔標闕〕：本品經文無六相、十玄、法界緣起之直文；華嚴宗此二法數於本品無品內經據，據實從闕，不以他品之文充之。
六、諸家異釋（古德·標宗）
澄觀《華嚴經疏》T35n1735（八十華嚴逐文·主）
釋說教之主：「而心王說者，以領旨故，佛壽自在故。」〔T35n1735 0859b04〕
釋品之力用：「且如以劫為日，未歷十重，則劫不可說。」〔T35n1735 0859b07–08〕
釋普賢充滿：「舉普賢等充滿，明極位所居。由此名為，兼顯菩薩。」〔T35n1735 0859b09–10〕
誌別行經：「別行經名無邊佛土，經即以處顯人。」〔T35n1735 0859a29–0859b01〕
《演義鈔》T36n1736 本品專屬釋段〔查無〕（檢索 0 命中，僅他處泛引，未成本品專段）。
法藏《探玄記》T35n1733（六十華嚴疏·判釋淵藪）
釋名：「往業所引報果名壽，任持色心不斷名命，品內辨此，故以為名。」〔T35n1733 0390b11–12〕
來意之古釋與法藏之取捨（古德自有之判語，逐字誌錄）：
「古釋：將答佛壽命問。此名字雖亦相當，文勢不順。謂此壽命問在十地等前，不合答在此處。十頂問在地後，更無別答之文，故知屬此。」〔T35n1733 0390b15–18〕
釋說教之主：「心王菩薩說者，顯世識自在故，有劫數也。」〔T35n1733 0390c10–11〕
誌他典與別譯：「唯佛充滿此諸世界，《大佛名經》中亦說。又玄奘法師別翻一卷，名顯無邊佛土經，是此品也。」〔T35n1733 0390c22–24〕
李通玄《新華嚴經論》T36n1739（表法異軌）
釋隨文之意：
「此之一品經，明佛壽量長短，約未悟者作節級，令知如來壽量無盡，以少顯多、以短顯長。若不如是，云何能知佛之壽量？然實如來無長短壽命，性無生滅故。」〔T36n1739 0931a24–28〕
誌錄不判
- 釋名之軌：澄觀分「壽謂報命，量即分限」而通二釋〔T35n1735 0859a26–29〕；法藏分「往業所引報果名壽，任持色心不斷名命」〔T35n1733 0390b11–12〕──一者釋『壽・量』，一者釋『壽・命』，繫於各自所疏之本（80 作壽量・60 作壽命）。
- 來意之軌：澄觀繫「遠答壽量海」〔T35n1735 0859a25–26〕；法藏繫『遠答普光十頂問』並記古釋繫「佛壽命問」〔T35n1733 0390b13–18〕；李通玄繫前品阿僧祇之次第〔T36n1739 0931a19–20〕。
- 說者之軌：澄觀「以領旨故，佛壽自在故」〔T35n1735 0859b04〕・法藏「顯世識自在故，有劫數也」〔T35n1733 0390c10–11〕・李通玄「以心為體，以心王表命自在故」〔T36n1739 0931a21–22〕。
- 次第之軌：澄觀二判（同教・別教）〔T35n1735 0859b02–03〕；法藏三判（漸教・同教・別教）〔T35n1733 0390c01–10〕。
四軌並錄，皆古德成說，誌錄之。
七、互讀·承衍
- 前品〈阿僧祇品〉：澄觀繫「上品彰其實德，此品以辨隨機」〔T35n1735 0859a23–24〕；法藏繫「前〈僧祇品〉顯佛菩薩實德平等超過數量」〔T35n1733 0390b18–19〕──本品之數量語（百萬阿僧祇）承前品之數法而用。
- 後品〈諸菩薩住處品〉：法藏「後〈住處品〉別辨菩薩法用，約機明住處差別」〔T35n1733 0390b20–21〕──佛德（本品）與菩薩法用（後品）相次。
- 〈普賢行品〉〈如來出現品〉之普賢：本品末以「普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中」〔T10n0279 0241b04–05〕表極位，澄觀讀為「明極位所居……兼顯菩薩」〔T35n1735 0859b09–10〕──以普賢為量之讀法，繫於同會後諸品之普賢，回鏈本編同會單元。
- 別行單本：澄觀誌「別行經名無邊佛土」〔T35n1735 0859a29–0859b01〕；法藏誌「玄奘法師別翻一卷，名顯無邊佛土經，是此品也」〔T35n1733 0390c23–24〕；並誌《大佛名經》亦說唯佛充滿諸世界〔T35n1733 0390c22–23〕。古德所誌，本目誌錄，未取為校本。
- 華嚴宗論《五教章》T45n1866 ・《十玄門》T45n1868 ・《法界玄鏡》T45n1883：本品專屬釋段〔查無〕（檢核三檔皆 0 命中）。據實標闕，不以他品之文充之。
- 十地釋論 T26n1522：〔查無〕（0 命中）。本品無唯識軸承衍之經據，義疏鏡唯華嚴宗義，不另設唯識節。
八、校本定位
- 實叉 T279（底本）：品題〔T10n0279 0241a16〕· 正文起〔0241a17〕–訖〔0241b05〕。心王告眾 0241a17 · 第一重（娑婆／極樂）0241a17–19 · 第二重 0241a19–21 · 第三重 0241a21–22 · 第四重 0241a22–24 · 第五重 0241a24–25 · 第六重 0241a25–27 · 第七重 0241a27–28 · 第八重 0241a28–0241b01 · 第九重 0241b01–02 · 舉略顯廣 0241b02–04 · 舉玄極（普賢充滿）0241b04–05。次品（32 諸菩薩住處品）題起 0241b06。
- 佛馱 T278（晉譯主對校·〈壽命品第二十六〉）：品題〔T09n0278 0589c01〕· 正文起 0589c02 – 訖 0589c19；次品（27 菩薩住處品）題起 0589c20。
- 澄觀《疏》T35n1735：壽量品疏 0859a20 起 – 0859b10 訖。來意 0859a21–26 · 釋名 0859a26–29 · 別行經名 0859a29–0859b01 · 宗趣 0859b01–03 · 集經者敘・說者 0859b03–05 · 正說三科 0859b05–07 · 以劫為日 0859b07–08 · 剎海平等 0859b08–09 · 普賢充滿 0859b09–10。《鈔》T36n1736 本品專段〔查無〕。
- 法藏《探玄記》T35n1733（六十疏）：壽命品 0390b10 起 – 0390c24 訖。釋名 0390b11–12 · 來意（遠・古釋・近）0390b12–21 · 宗趣三命 0390b21–26 · 佛命三義 0390b26–0390c01 · 顯次第三判 0390c01–10 · 釋文・說者 0390c10–11 · 三科 0390c11–13 · 晝夜二釋 0390c13–18 · 剎海平等 0390c18–20 · 普賢為量 0390c20–22 · 別譯誌 0390c22–24。
- 李通玄《論》T36n1739：壽量品 0931a17 起 – 0931b01 訖。三門 0931a18–19 · 來意 0931a19–20 · 說教之主 0931a20–24 · 隨文釋義 0931a24–0931b01。
- 異讀：本單元 T279 範圍〔0241a16〕–〔0241b05〕內大正校記 0 條（依底本
<app>逐條實計）。 - 異讀補記：CBETA 回改 1 條（不入上列大正校記之數）：〔0241a16〕【CB】｜大方廣佛華嚴經【大】。
The whole chapter runs to less than three hundred graphs: Mind-King Bodhisattva alone addresses the assembly, with no question and answer and no repeated verses. By the pattern ‘one kalpa of the former world is one day and one night of the latter,’ ten layers are set in mutual regard, mounting up to the last land beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds, where Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and the great bodhisattvas who practise along with him fill the whole of it. Chengguan judges 「壽謂報命，量即分限」 tr. “life means the life of recompense; measure is the allotted bound,” displaying, by the allotted bound seen according to capacity, a life that is without end; Fazang opens three lives — the life of recompense, the life of the precepts, the life of wisdom — and judges their order by the three rubrics of the gradual teaching, the common teaching, and the distinct teaching. What this chapter compares is not the length or shortness of years, but the aspect under which the Buddha's life-span shows itself according to capacity, and the ultimate that is the sameness of the ocean of lands.
I. Doctrinal Outline and Placement
| Outline system | The place of this chapter within it |
|---|---|
| The base text T279, in thirty-nine chapters | Chapter thirty-one, The Span of Life (the seventh assembly, the second gathering in the Hall of Universal Light) · the anchor of the chapter title 〔T10 0241a16〕 · the text proper 〔T10 0241a17–0241b05〕 |
| Chengguan, Huayan jing shu | The commentary on the Chapter on the Span of Life, from 〔T35n1735 0859a20〕 to its close at 〔0859b10〕, opening four gates: the reason for its coming 〔0859a21〕 · the explanation of the name 〔0859a26〕 · the tenet and aim 〔0859b01〕 · properly explaining the text 〔0859b03〕 |
| Fazang, Tanxuan ji (the commentary on the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka, the Chapter on the Life-Span, chapter twenty-six) | From 〔T35n1733 0390b10〕, opening five gates (the Tanxuan ji's own numbering repeats an ordinal): the explanation of the name 〔0390b11〕 · the reason for its coming 〔0390b12〕 · the tenet and aim 〔0390b21〕 · displaying the order 〔0390c01〕 · explaining the text 〔0390c10〕 |
| Li Tongxuan, Xin Huayan jing lun | The Chapter on the Span of Life, from 〔T36n1739 0931a17〕, by three gates: explaining the reason for the chapter's coming 〔0931a19〕 · explaining the lord who speaks the teaching 〔0931a20〕 · explaining the sense following the text 〔0931a24〕 |
| Vasubandhu, Shidi jing lun (the Treatise on the Ten Grounds Sūtra) T26n1522 | 〔not found〕 — this treatise is an explanation devoted to the Chapter on the Ten Grounds; the search yields zero hits, and it does not touch upon this chapter |
The three divisions in properly explaining the text (Chengguan) —
「次正釋文。初集經者敘。而心王說者，以領旨故，佛壽自在故。二「佛子」下正說。於中三：初別舉十剎相望、次「佛子如是」下舉略顯廣、三「最後世界」下舉其玄極。」 tr. “Next, properly explaining the text. First, the compiler's narration; and that Mind-King speaks it is because he apprehends the purport, and because the Buddha's life-span is sovereign. Second, from ‘Sons of the Buddha’ onward is the proper statement. Within it there are three: first, severally raising the ten lands in mutual regard; next, from ‘Sons of the Buddha, in this order’ onward, raising the brief to display the vast; third, from ‘the last world’ onward, raising its profound ultimate.” 〔T35n1735 0859b03–07〕
Fazang's three divisions have the same frame with differing words:
「四釋文中，心王菩薩說者，顯世識自在故，有劫數也。於中有三。初舉十世界校量漸次、次類顯百萬、後辨最後玄極。」 tr. “Fourth, within the explaining of the text: that Mind-King Bodhisattva speaks it displays the sovereignty of the consciousness of the world, and hence there are numbers of kalpas. Within it there are three: first, raising ten worlds and comparing them in gradual succession; next, displaying the million by kind; afterward, setting forth the last, the profound ultimate.” 〔T35n1733 0390c10–13〕
The reason for its coming — Chengguan ties it to the real virtue of the preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya:
「夫玄鑒虛朗，出乎數域之表，豈有殊形萬狀修短之壽哉？然應物隨機，能無不形而無不壽，故上品彰其實德，此品以辨隨機。」 tr. “Now the profound mirror is void and bright, standing out beyond the region of numbers — how should it have a life-span of differing shapes and myriad forms, long or short? Yet responding to things and following capacities, it can be without a form it does not take and without a life-span it does not have; therefore the chapter above displayed its real virtue, and this chapter sets forth its following of capacities.” 〔T35n1735 0859a21–24〕
And again he says: 「雖積少至多，顯時無不遍，即前多德之一故粗廣之，亦為遠答壽量海故，所以來也。」 tr. “Though it heaps up from few to many, it displays that there is no time it does not pervade; and being one among the many virtues above, it is here broadened in the rough. It is also in order to answer from afar the ocean of the span of life — and this is why it comes.” 〔T35n1735 0859a24–26〕
Fazang divides the intent into far and near, tying the far intent to the question about the ten summits in the Hall of Universal Light:
「一遠意，為答普光十頂問故。以十重相望各為終極，得名頂故，知安樂界為娑婆頂等。」 tr. “First, the far intent: it is in order to answer the question about the ten summits in the Hall of Universal Light. Since the ten layers in mutual regard are each an utmost end, they get the name of summit; hence one knows that the world Peace and Bliss is the summit of the Sahā world, and so on.” 〔T35n1733 0390b13–15〕
The near intent he ties to the chapters before and after: 「前〈僧祇品〉顯佛菩薩實德平等超過數量；此品別辨佛德，就機示有脩短；後〈住處品〉別辨菩薩法用，約機明住處差別。」 tr. “The preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya displays that the real virtue of buddhas and bodhisattvas is equal and passes beyond number and measure; this chapter severally sets forth the Buddha's virtue, showing with respect to capacity that there is length and shortness; the following Chapter on the Dwelling Places severally sets forth the bodhisattvas' use of the Dharma, making clear with respect to capacity the differences among their dwelling places.” 〔T35n1733 0390b18–21〕
Li Tongxuan's reason for its coming: 「明前品既是阿僧祇，此即合便有壽量。」 tr. “It makes clear that, the preceding chapter being Asaṃkhyeya, it is fitting that the span of life should follow here.” 〔T36n1739 0931a19–20〕
II. Terminology
| Term | Sanskrit as transmitted by the ancient masters (roman letters · an aid to pronunciation) | What is attested | Essential sense |
|---|---|---|---|
| the span of life | — (the transcription is wanting) | The chapter title 〔T10n0279 0241a16〕 | Chengguan: 「壽謂報命，量即分限。」 tr. “Life means the life of recompense; measure is the allotted bound.” 〔T35n1735 0859a26–27〕 The life has this measure, and therefore it is named the span of life |
| the life of recompense | — (the transcription is wanting) | The Tanxuan ji 〔T35n1733 0390b22–23〕 | 「煖、識不捨不退，眾同分故，不相應行為性」 tr. “warmth and consciousness neither abandoned nor falling away, by reason of the common lot of a class; its nature is a formation dissociated from mind” — one of the three lives |
| the life of the precepts | — (the transcription is wanting) | The Tanxuan ji 〔T35n1733 0390b23–25〕 | 「經中名淨命，由不破戒故，不失比丘法，以淨戒為性」 tr. “in the scriptures it is named the pure life; because he does not break the precepts he does not lose the dharma of a bhikṣu; its nature is the pure precepts” |
| the life of wisdom | — (the transcription is wanting) | The Tanxuan ji 〔T35n1733 0390b25–26〕 | 「由不放逸故，不退正法，名為惠命，正惠為性」 tr. “because he is not heedless he does not fall away from the right Dharma; this is named the life of wisdom, and its nature is right wisdom” |
| one day and one night | — (the transcription is wanting) | The ten comparing clauses of this chapter, from 〔T10n0279 0241a18〕 onward | An entire kalpa of the former world answers to one day and night of the latter world; the unit of the comparison |
| asaṃkhyeya | asaṃkhyeya (the transcription is itself what was anciently transmitted) | This chapter: 「乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界」 tr. “on to passing beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds” 〔T10n0279 0241b02–03〕 | A number beyond reckoning; here a measure-word for the layered count of worlds, carried on from the preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya |
| land | — (the transcription is wanting) | This chapter: 「釋迦牟尼佛剎」 tr. “the land of Śākyamuni Buddha” and the like 〔T10n0279 0241a17–18〕 | A buddha-land; the world converted by one buddha |
| the sameness of the ocean of lands | — (the transcription is wanting) | Chengguan 〔T35n1735 0859b08–09〕 · the Tanxuan ji 〔T35n1733 0390c19–21〕 | After the land of Worthy Head (Worthy and Supreme), the lands have neither better nor worse, and therefore the comparison halts here |
| the profound ultimate | — (the transcription is wanting) | Chengguan's outline name 「舉其玄極」 tr. “raising its profound ultimate” 〔T35n1735 0859b06–07〕 | The utmost station of the comparison; the filling by Samantabhadra and the rest displays 「極位所居」 tr. “what the utmost station dwells in” 〔0859b09〕 |
| the separately circulating scripture | — (the transcription is wanting) | Chengguan 〔T35n1735 0859a29–0859b01〕 · the Tanxuan ji 〔T35n1733 0390c23–24〕 | A separate rendering of this chapter circulating on its own; the ancient masters set down its name as the Wubian fotu, Boundless Buddha-Lands (the Tanxuan ji has 「顯無邊佛土經」 tr. “the Xian wubian fotu jing, the Scripture of the Displaying of Boundless Buddha-Lands”) |
III. Similes and Rhetoric
(1) The method of comparison is itself the rhetoric: taking a kalpa for a day — the scriptural text of this chapter sets up no simile-clause of its own (there is no ‘just as,’ no ‘like unto,’ nor any other simile-word); its rhetoric lies wholly in the shifting of the unit: one kalpa of the former world is, in the latter, only a single day and night. Chengguan points to its force:
「且如以劫為日，未歷十重，則劫不可說。」 tr. “Take, for instance, taking a kalpa for a day: before one has passed through the ten layers, the kalpas are already unspeakable.” 〔T35n1735 0859b07–08〕
(2) The opening and closing of the lotus as the mark of day and night (an explanatory instance set up by a commentator, not the scriptural text) — Fazang sets the question of what the latter worlds take for day and night, and gives two explanations:
「如安樂世界等，以何為晝夜？釋：或以蓮花開合辨用，當娑婆一劫。又釋：此娑婆一劫中總有若干日夜，依此日夜數數一劫為一日夜，還數王若干劫，方為安樂世界之一劫。」 tr. “As for the world Peace and Bliss and the rest, what do they take for day and night? Explanation: perhaps the opening and closing of the lotus marks off the use of them, and it answers to one kalpa of the Sahā world. Another explanation: within one kalpa of this Sahā world there is in all a certain sum of days and nights; counting by these days and nights, one takes a kalpa as one day and night, and counts back again a certain number of kalpas — only then is there one kalpa of the world Peace and Bliss.” 〔T35n1733 0390c13–17〕
- The base of the simile: the opening and the closing of the lotus, one opening and one closing making one day and night.
- The body of the simile: the day and night of the world Peace and Bliss and the rest.
- The sense displayed: one day and night of the latter world is in measure one kalpa of the Sahā world. This is a commentator's explanatory instance, and the scriptural text has no such passage; in citing it one must plainly tie it to Fazang.
(3) Raising Samantabhadra so as to display the utmost station — Chengguan: 「舉普賢等充滿，明極位所居。由此名為，兼顯菩薩。」 tr. “Raising the filling by Samantabhadra and the rest makes clear what the utmost station dwells in; by this it is named, and the bodhisattvas are displayed along with it.” 〔T35n1735 0859b09–10〕 So too Fazang: 「是故此中說普賢等充滿者，以望下最極故。以普賢為量，望上猶在數中故不說。」 tr. “Therefore that it here speaks of the filling by Samantabhadra and the rest is because, looked at from below, he is the utmost; and taking Samantabhadra for the measure, looked at from above he is still within number, and so it is not spoken of.” 〔T35n1733 0390c20–22〕 — a rhetoric that displays a station by a person.
〔recorded as absent, as the facts stand〕: this chapter has no repeated verses, no question and answer, and no passage of simile drawn from causes and conditions; the rubric of similes in the scriptural text is wanting, as the facts stand.
IV. Collation with Parallel Translations
The Chinese recensions to be collated for this chapter: Śikṣānanda T279 (the base text · the Chapter on the Span of Life, chapter thirty-one) · Buddhabhadra T278 (the Jin rendering, the sixty-fascicle Avataṃsaka · the Chapter on the Life-Span, chapter twenty-six · 〔T09n0278 0589c01–0589c19〕). The separately circulating single scripture (Xuanzang's Xian wubian fotu jing) rests only upon what the ancient masters set down, and does not enter this rubric's collation (this edition has not taken it for a witness; its name only is recorded).
The criterion for matching is the structure of the scene (Mind-King Bodhisattva addressing the bodhisattvas · ten layers of worlds in mutual regard as to the measure of kalpas · at the last, Samantabhadra Bodhisattva filling it), and not the searching of the sixty by the letter of the eighty.
Clause one The opening clause
| Recension | Verbatim | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | At that time Mind-King Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva, within the assembled multitude, addressed the bodhisattvas, saying: 「佛子！此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於極樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜」 tr. “Sons of the Buddha! One kalpa in the land of Śākyamuni Buddha in this Sahā world is one day and one night in the land of Amitābha Buddha in the world Ultimate Bliss” | T10n0279 0241a17–19 |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | At that time Mind-King Bodhisattva-Mahāsattva addressed the bodhisattvas, saying: 「佛子！如此娑婆世界釋迦牟尼佛剎一劫，於安樂世界阿彌陀佛剎為一日一夜」 tr. “Sons of the Buddha! One kalpa in the land of Śākyamuni Buddha in this Sahā world here is one day and one night in the land of Amitābha Buddha in the world Peace and Bliss” | T09n0278 0589c02–04 |
What the variants attach to: (a) 80 has the four graphs 「於眾會中」 tr. “within the assembled multitude,” which 60 lacks. (b) 80 has 「此娑婆世界」 tr. “this Sahā world,” while 60 has 「如此娑婆世界」 tr. “this Sahā world here.” (c) 80 has 「極樂世界」 tr. “the world Ultimate Bliss” ↔ 60 has 「安樂世界」 tr. “the world Peace and Bliss” (differing rendered names for the one land of Amitābha Buddha).
Clause two Collation of the world-names and buddha-names of the ten layers
| Layer | Śikṣānanda T279 | Buddhabhadra T278 | Source in 60 |
|---|---|---|---|
| one | the world Ultimate Bliss, Amitābha Buddha | the world Peace and Bliss, Amitābha Buddha | 0589c03–04 |
| two | the world Kāṣāya Banner, the Buddha Vajra-Firm | the world Holy Robe Banner, the Buddha Vajra | 0589c05 |
| three | the world Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound, the Buddha Excellent and Supreme Light, Lotus Blossoming Open | the world Wheel of the Non-Retrogressive Sound, the Buddha Good and Joyful Light, Pure Blossoming Open | 0589c06–07 |
| four | the world Stainless, the Buddha Dharma Banner | the world Stainless, the Buddha Dharma Banner | 0589c08 |
| five | the world Good Lamp, the Buddha Lion | the world Good Lamp, the Buddha Lion | 0589c09–10 |
| six | the world Wondrous Light, the Buddha Treasury of Light | the world Good Light, the Buddha Rocana Treasury | 0589c10–11 |
| seven | the world Hard to Surpass, the Buddha Light of the Dharma, Lotus Blossoming Open | the world Surpassing Beyond, the Buddha Light of the Dharma, Pure Blossoming Open, Lotus | 0589c12–13 |
| eight | the world Adorned Wisdom, the Buddha Light of All Spiritual Penetrations | the world Adorned Wisdom, the Buddha Light of All Clarity | 0589c13–14 |
| nine | the world Mirror Light, the Buddha Moon Wisdom | the world Mirror Light, the Buddha Awakened Moon | 0589c15 |
| the last | the world Supreme Lotus, the Buddha Worthy and Supreme | the world Supreme Lotus, the Buddha Worthy Head | 0589c17–18 |
What the variants attach to: kāṣāya ／ holy robe · Wondrous Light ／ Good Light · Treasury of Light ／ Rocana Treasury · Hard to Surpass ／ Surpassing Beyond · Moon Wisdom ／ Awakened Moon · Worthy and Supreme ／ Worthy Head — all are differences in the choice of graphs for world-names and buddha-names; the layers in which world-name and buddha-name are alike wholly the same are the fourth and the fifth only (for the rest see the table). Recorded in full without adjudication.
Clause three The closing clause (raising the brief to display the vast · raising the profound ultimate)
| Recension | Verbatim | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Śikṣānanda T279 | Sons of the Buddha! In this order, on to passing beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds, one kalpa of the last world is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Worthy and Supreme in the world Supreme Lotus, and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva together with the great bodhisattvas who practise along with him fill the whole of it. | T10n0279 0241b02–05 |
| Buddhabhadra T278 | Sons of the Buddha! In this order, on to a million asaṃkhyeya worlds, one kalpa of the last world is one day and one night in the land of the Buddha Worthy Head in the world Supreme Lotus, and Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and the great bodhisattvas fill the whole of it. | T09n0278 0589c16–19 |
What the variants attach to: (a) 80 has 「乃至過百萬阿僧祇世界」 tr. “on to passing beyond a million asaṃkhyeya worlds,” while 60 lacks the graph 「過」 tr. “passing beyond.” (b) 80 has 「普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等」 tr. “Samantabhadra Bodhisattva together with the great bodhisattvas who practise along with him,” while 60 has 「普賢菩薩等諸大菩薩」 tr. “Samantabhadra Bodhisattva and the rest, the great bodhisattvas” — 80 brings out plainly the two graphs 「同行」 tr. “practising along with him.” Recorded in full without adjudication.
V. Scriptural Grounds of Sectarian Doctrine (the doctrinal eye)
(1) Length and shortness according to capacity; the life has this measure — the sense of the chapter's name is just where its tenet and aim lie. Chengguan explains the name:
「壽謂報命，量即分限。染淨土之報壽，隨機見之分限，以顯無盡之命、無限之量，壽之量故。壽有斯量，通二釋也。」 tr. “Life means the life of recompense; measure is the allotted bound. The life of recompense in a defiled or a pure land, the allotted bound seen according to capacity — by these are displayed the life without end and the measure without limit, for it is the measure of that life. The life has this measure: the two explanations run together.” 〔T35n1735 0859a26–29〕
And as to the tenet and aim: 「應物修短為宗，顯窮來際無限為趣。」 tr. “Length and shortness in response to things is the tenet; displaying that it is limitless to the exhausting of the coming limit is the aim.” 〔T35n1735 0859b01–02〕 — what is compared is the allotted bound seen according to capacity, and not any length or shortness in the Buddha's life-span itself.
(2) The twofold judgement by the common teaching and the distinct teaching — Chengguan, under the tenet and aim, at once divides the reading of these ten layers between two teachings:
「以就同教，且積劣之勝；若就別教，則修短圓融故。」 tr. “With respect to the common teaching, it is for the while a heaping of the lesser toward the greater; with respect to the distinct teaching, then length and shortness are fused in perfect roundness.” 〔T35n1735 0859b02–03〕
Fazang's gate of 「顯次第」 tr. “displaying the order” bears a threefold judgement that touches upon this:
「一約漸教，謂娑婆等局為地前，為化佛土故；安樂等通為地上，為報佛土故；乃至賢首剎，當十地後不可說處也。二約同教，謂娑婆等為三乘上，漸漸向細入於一乘，乃至賢首剎等方為究竟。何以故？以就別教，娑婆則是蓮花藏故。三約別教，娑婆是見聞解行處，中間諸土唯解行處，末後佛土通解行滿及證入故，是故信滿位處亦名賢首故也。」 tr. “First, with respect to the gradual teaching: the Sahā world and the rest are confined to the stage before the grounds, being lands of the transformation-buddha; the world Peace and Bliss and the rest run through to the stage above the grounds, being lands of the reward-buddha; and on to the land of Worthy Head, which answers to the unspeakable place after the ten grounds. Second, with respect to the common teaching: the Sahā world and the rest stand above the three vehicles, going step by step toward the fine and entering the One Vehicle, and on to the land of Worthy Head and the rest, which only then is the ultimate. Why so? Because with respect to the distinct teaching, the Sahā world is itself the lotus treasury. Third, with respect to the distinct teaching: the Sahā world is the place of seeing, hearing, understanding and practice; the lands between are places of understanding and practice only; and the last buddha-land runs through both the filling out of understanding and practice and the entering into realization — and this is why the place of the station of the fullness of faith is also named Worthy Head.” 〔T35n1733 0390c01–10〕
(3) The sameness of the ocean of lands — why the comparison halts at the tenth — Chengguan: 「沈百萬僧祇則最後之剎，已隣剎海平等故。」 tr. “Sunk through a million asaṃkhyeyas, the last of the lands already borders upon the sameness of the ocean of lands.” 〔T35n1735 0859b08–09〕 Fazang:
「是則至最後世界一劫，於最初世界，當不可說不可說劫也。至賢首剎已後，則剎海平等，無有優劣。」 tr. “Thus one kalpa of the last world answers, in the very first world, to unspeakably unspeakable kalpas. After the land of Worthy Head, the ocean of lands is the same, and there is neither better nor worse.” 〔T35n1733 0390c17–20〕
(4) The three senses of the buddhas' life (virtue · the real · the provisional) — Fazang, under the gate of tenet and aim, settles this text severally:
「諸佛壽命亦有三義：一約德，謂具足如前三種命故，其報命是無盡善根所生故也。二就實，謂命根無盡，盡於未來故。三就權，謂隨機所感現脩短故。今此文中具斯三義。」 tr. “The life of the buddhas likewise has three senses. First, with respect to virtue: they are complete in the three kinds of life set out above, and their life of recompense is born of roots of goodness without end. Second, with respect to the real: the faculty of life is without end, exhausting the whole of the future. Third, with respect to the provisional: it shows itself long or short according to what capacities call forth. In the present text all three senses are complete.” 〔T35n1733 0390b26–0390c01〕
(5) Mind is itself the substance of life (a track of the symbolizing of dharmas) — Li Tongxuan takes Mind-King to symbolize the sovereignty of life, and refers it back to the birthlessness and deathlessness of the fundamental wisdom:
「以心王菩薩說者，明佛壽量以心為體，以心王表命自在故。即明如來心王之命，隨根延促長短任物自在，而實如來命者，無壽命者、無長短者故。」 tr. “That Mind-King Bodhisattva speaks it makes clear that the Buddha's span of life has mind for its substance, and that the mind-king symbolizes the sovereignty of life. That is, it makes clear that the life of the Tathāgata's mind-king is drawn out or shortened, long or short, according to the faculties, sovereign in accord with beings; while in truth the Tathāgata's life has no one who lives and has neither length nor shortness.” 〔T36n1739 0931a21–24〕
And again: 「如來壽命如根本智，無生無滅、無去無來故。約以十佛之命表之無盡故。」 tr. “The Tathāgata's life is like the fundamental wisdom, for it is without birth and without cessation, without going and without coming; it is with respect to the life of the ten buddhas that its endlessness is symbolized.” 〔T36n1739 0931a28–0931b01〕
〔recorded as absent, as the facts stand〕: the scriptural text of this chapter has no direct passage upon the six aspects, the ten profound gates, or the dependent origination of the Dharma realm; these two numbered sets of the Huayan house have no scriptural ground within this chapter, and the lack is set down as the facts stand, without filling it from the text of other chapters.
VI. Divergent Interpretations of the Commentators (the ancient masters · with their houses marked)
Chengguan, Huayan jing shu T35n1735 (following the eighty-fascicle text passage by passage · the principal commentary)
Explaining the lord who speaks the teaching: 「而心王說者，以領旨故，佛壽自在故。」 tr. “That Mind-King speaks it is because he apprehends the purport, and because the Buddha's life-span is sovereign.” 〔T35n1735 0859b04〕
Explaining the force of the chapter: 「且如以劫為日，未歷十重，則劫不可說。」 tr. “Take, for instance, taking a kalpa for a day: before one has passed through the ten layers, the kalpas are already unspeakable.” 〔T35n1735 0859b07–08〕
Explaining the filling by Samantabhadra: 「舉普賢等充滿，明極位所居。由此名為，兼顯菩薩。」 tr. “Raising the filling by Samantabhadra and the rest makes clear what the utmost station dwells in; by this it is named, and the bodhisattvas are displayed along with it.” 〔T35n1735 0859b09–10〕
Setting down the separately circulating scripture: 「別行經名無邊佛土，經即以處顯人。」 tr. “The separately circulating scripture is named Boundless Buddha-Lands; the scripture thus displays the persons by the place.” 〔T35n1735 0859a29–0859b01〕
In the Yanyi chao T36n1736 a passage of explanation belonging to this chapter is 〔not found〕 (the search yields zero hits; there are only general citations elsewhere, forming no passage devoted to this chapter).
Fazang, Tanxuan ji T35n1733 (the commentary on the sixty-fascicle text · the deep source of judgements and explanations)
Explaining the name: 「往業所引報果名壽，任持色心不斷名命，品內辨此，故以為名。」 tr. “The fruit of recompense drawn on by past deeds is named life; the holding on of form and mind without break is named the living; the chapter sets these forth within it, and therefore takes them for its name.” 〔T35n1733 0390b11–12〕
The ancients' explanation of the reason for its coming, and Fazang's taking it up or setting it aside (a judgement the ancient masters made of themselves, recorded verbatim):
「古釋：將答佛壽命問。此名字雖亦相當，文勢不順。謂此壽命問在十地等前，不合答在此處。十頂問在地後，更無別答之文，故知屬此。」 tr. “The ancients explain: it is going to answer the question about the Buddha's life-span. Though this designation is also fitting, the momentum of the text does not go that way; that is, this question about the life-span stands before the ten grounds and the rest, and it is not fitting that the answer should come in this place. The question about the ten summits stands after the grounds, and there is no other text answering it — hence one knows that it belongs here.” 〔T35n1733 0390b15–18〕
Explaining the lord who speaks the teaching: 「心王菩薩說者，顯世識自在故，有劫數也。」 tr. “That Mind-King Bodhisattva speaks it displays the sovereignty of the consciousness of the world, and hence there are numbers of kalpas.” 〔T35n1733 0390c10–11〕
Setting down other books and the separate rendering: 「唯佛充滿此諸世界，《大佛名經》中亦說。又玄奘法師別翻一卷，名顯無邊佛土經，是此品也。」 tr. “That the buddhas alone fill these worlds is also spoken of in the Da foming jing. Moreover the Dharma-master Xuanzang separately rendered one fascicle named the Scripture of the Displaying of Boundless Buddha-Lands, which is this chapter.” 〔T35n1733 0390c22–24〕
Li Tongxuan, Xin Huayan jing lun T36n1739 (a differing track, by the symbolizing of dharmas)
Explaining the sense following the text:
「此之一品經，明佛壽量長短，約未悟者作節級，令知如來壽量無盡，以少顯多、以短顯長。若不如是，云何能知佛之壽量？然實如來無長短壽命，性無生滅故。」 tr. “This one chapter of the sūtra makes clear the length and shortness of the Buddha's span of life, setting up gradations with respect to those not yet awakened, so that they may know that the Tathāgata's span of life is without end — displaying the many by the few and the long by the short. Were it not so, how could they come to know the Buddha's span of life? Yet in truth the Tathāgata has no long or short life, for the nature is without birth and cessation.” 〔T36n1739 0931a24–28〕
Recorded without adjudication
- The track of explaining the name: Chengguan divides it as 「壽謂報命，量即分限」 tr. “life means the life of recompense; measure is the allotted bound” and lets the two explanations run together 〔T35n1735 0859a26–29〕; Fazang divides it as 「往業所引報果名壽，任持色心不斷名命」 tr. “the fruit of recompense drawn on by past deeds is named life; the holding on of form and mind without break is named the living” 〔T35n1733 0390b11–12〕 — the one explains ‘life’ and ‘measure,’ the other ‘life’ and ‘the living,’ each tied to the recension he comments upon (80 has the span of life, 60 has the life-span).
- The track of the reason for its coming: Chengguan ties it to 「遠答壽量海」 tr. “answering from afar the ocean of the span of life” 〔T35n1735 0859a25–26〕; Fazang ties it to answering from afar the question about the ten summits in the Hall of Universal Light, and records that the ancients tied it to 「佛壽命問」 tr. “the question about the Buddha's life-span” 〔T35n1733 0390b13–18〕; Li Tongxuan ties it to the order following the preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya 〔T36n1739 0931a19–20〕.
- The track of the speaker: Chengguan, 「以領旨故，佛壽自在故」 tr. “because he apprehends the purport, and because the Buddha's life-span is sovereign” 〔T35n1735 0859b04〕 · Fazang, 「顯世識自在故，有劫數也」 tr. “it displays the sovereignty of the consciousness of the world, and hence there are numbers of kalpas” 〔T35n1733 0390c10–11〕 · Li Tongxuan, 「以心為體，以心王表命自在故」 tr. “it has mind for its substance, and the mind-king symbolizes the sovereignty of life” 〔T36n1739 0931a21–22〕.
- The track of the order: Chengguan's twofold judgement (the common teaching · the distinct teaching) 〔T35n1735 0859b02–03〕; Fazang's threefold judgement (the gradual teaching · the common teaching · the distinct teaching) 〔T35n1733 0390c01–10〕.
The four tracks are recorded side by side; all are settled sayings of the ancient masters, and they are set down.
VII. Cross-Reading and Lineage
- The preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya: Chengguan ties it thus, 「上品彰其實德，此品以辨隨機」 tr. “the chapter above displayed its real virtue, and this chapter sets forth its following of capacities” 〔T35n1735 0859a23–24〕; Fazang ties it thus, 「前〈僧祇品〉顯佛菩薩實德平等超過數量」 tr. “the preceding Chapter on Asaṃkhyeya displays that the real virtue of buddhas and bodhisattvas is equal and passes beyond number and measure” 〔T35n1733 0390b18–19〕 — the language of number and measure in this chapter (a million asaṃkhyeyas) uses the method of counting carried over from the chapter before.
- The following Chapter on the Dwelling Places of the Bodhisattvas: Fazang, 「後〈住處品〉別辨菩薩法用，約機明住處差別」 tr. “the following Chapter on the Dwelling Places severally sets forth the bodhisattvas' use of the Dharma, making clear with respect to capacity the differences among their dwelling places” 〔T35n1733 0390b20–21〕 — the Buddha's virtue (this chapter) and the bodhisattvas' use of the Dharma (the chapter following) come one after the other.
- The Samantabhadra of the Chapter on the Practice of Samantabhadra and the Chapter on the Appearance of the Tathāgata: this chapter closes by displaying the utmost station with 「普賢菩薩及諸同行大菩薩等充滿其中」 tr. “Samantabhadra Bodhisattva together with the great bodhisattvas who practise along with him fill the whole of it” 〔T10n0279 0241b04–05〕, which Chengguan reads as 「明極位所居……兼顯菩薩」 tr. “making clear what the utmost station dwells in … and displaying the bodhisattvas along with it” 〔T35n1735 0859b09–10〕 — this reading, which takes Samantabhadra for the measure, is tied to the Samantabhadra of the later chapters of the same assembly, and links back to the units of that assembly in this edition.
- The separately circulating single scripture: Chengguan sets down 「別行經名無邊佛土」 tr. “the separately circulating scripture is named Boundless Buddha-Lands” 〔T35n1735 0859a29–0859b01〕; Fazang sets down 「玄奘法師別翻一卷，名顯無邊佛土經，是此品也」 tr. “the Dharma-master Xuanzang separately rendered one fascicle named the Scripture of the Displaying of Boundless Buddha-Lands, which is this chapter” 〔T35n1733 0390c23–24〕, and sets down as well that the buddhas alone filling all these worlds is spoken of in the Da foming jing also 〔T35n1733 0390c22–23〕. What the ancient masters set down, this rubric records; it has not been taken for a witness.
- The treatises of the Huayan house, the Wujiao zhang T45n1866 · the Shixuan men T45n1868 · the Fajie xuanjing T45n1883: a passage of explanation belonging to this chapter is 〔not found〕 (the checking of all three books yields zero hits). The lack is set down as the facts stand, without filling it from the text of other chapters.
- The treatise explaining the Ten Grounds T26n1522: 〔not found〕 (zero hits). This chapter has no scriptural ground for a lineage along the consciousness-only axis; the mirror of the exposition holds to the doctrine of the Huayan house alone, and no separate consciousness-only section is set up.
VIII. Edition Location Register
- Śikṣānanda T279 (the base text): the chapter title 〔T10n0279 0241a16〕 · the text proper from 〔0241a17〕 to its close at 〔0241b05〕. Mind-King addressing the assembly 0241a17 · the first layer (Sahā ／ Ultimate Bliss) 0241a17–19 · the second layer 0241a19–21 · the third layer 0241a21–22 · the fourth layer 0241a22–24 · the fifth layer 0241a24–25 · the sixth layer 0241a25–27 · the seventh layer 0241a27–28 · the eighth layer 0241a28–0241b01 · the ninth layer 0241b01–02 · raising the brief to display the vast 0241b02–04 · raising the profound ultimate (the filling by Samantabhadra) 0241b04–05. The title of the following chapter (32, The Dwelling Places of the Bodhisattvas) begins at 0241b06.
- Buddhabhadra T278 (the Jin rendering, the principal parallel for collation · the Chapter on the Life-Span, chapter twenty-six): the chapter title 〔T09n0278 0589c01〕 · the text proper from 0589c02 to its close at 0589c19; the title of the following chapter (27, The Dwelling Places of the Bodhisattvas) begins at 0589c20.
- Chengguan, Huayan jing shu T35n1735: the commentary on the Chapter on the Span of Life from 0859a20 to its close at 0859b10. The reason for its coming 0859a21–26 · the explanation of the name 0859a26–29 · the name of the separately circulating scripture 0859a29–0859b01 · the tenet and aim 0859b01–03 · the compiler's narration and the speaker 0859b03–05 · the three divisions of the proper statement 0859b05–07 · taking a kalpa for a day 0859b07–08 · the sameness of the ocean of lands 0859b08–09 · the filling by Samantabhadra 0859b09–10. In the Yanyi chao T36n1736 a passage devoted to this chapter is 〔not found〕.
- Fazang, Tanxuan ji T35n1733 (the commentary on the sixty): the Chapter on the Life-Span from 0390b10 to its close at 0390c24. The explanation of the name 0390b11–12 · the reason for its coming (far · the ancients' explanation · near) 0390b12–21 · the tenet and aim, the three lives 0390b21–26 · the three senses of the buddhas' life 0390b26–0390c01 · the threefold judgement of displaying the order 0390c01–10 · explaining the text, the speaker 0390c10–11 · the three divisions 0390c11–13 · the two explanations of day and night 0390c13–18 · the sameness of the ocean of lands 0390c18–20 · Samantabhadra as the measure 0390c20–22 · the setting down of the separate rendering 0390c22–24.
- Li Tongxuan, Lun T36n1739: the Chapter on the Span of Life from 0931a17 to its close at 0931b01. The three gates 0931a18–19 · the reason for its coming 0931a19–20 · the lord who speaks the teaching 0931a20–24 · explaining the sense following the text 0931a24–0931b01.
- Variant readings: within the range of T279 covered by this unit, 〔0241a16〕–〔0241b05〕, the Taishō base text carries 0 collation notes (counted note by note from the base text’s
<app>entries). - A further note upon the variant readings: 1 CBETA emendation (not counted among the Taishō collation notes listed above): 〔0241a16〕【CB】｜大方廣佛華嚴經【大】.