佛說觀無量壽佛經 水想

Placement of the passage as a whole. This unit is the second of the sixteen contemplations. The sūtra begins from 「初觀成已」 (once the first contemplation has been accomplished), closing what precedes and giving rise to what follows; it then teaches the forming of the image of water, of ice, and of the ground of beryl, and thereafter sets out layer by layer the golden banners beneath the ground, the golden cords and the boundaries of the seven precious substances upon the ground, and the daises of light with their towers, flower banners and instruments of music in the air; it closes with eight kinds of pure wind that issue from the light and sound those instruments, setting forth the sounds of suffering, emptiness, impermanence, and non-self; it gathers all this up as the image of water, the second contemplation, teaches how what has been accomplished is to be held afterward, and ends by judging right from wrong. The whole passage runs to three hundred and thirty-three characters. The point of this contemplation is that 「水」, water, is only the place of entry and not the object contemplated — what is contemplated is the ground of beryl, while water and ice are taken up, for the marks of levelness and of shining through that they carry, as steps toward it. In the Section on the Profound Meaning, Shandao’s Commentary in Four Fascicles accordingly takes the image of the sun, the image of water, and the image of ice as 「假依」, the provisional support, and takes everything from the ground of beryl down to the contemplation of the jeweled towers as 「真依」, the true support; this contemplation is exactly the border at which the provisional support passes over into the true. The chief items of collation in this unit are six, of which the first and the last (the twelve characters at the opening and the sixteen at the close) are absent from, or read otherwise in, the Song, Yuan, and Ming witnesses and the current-circulation printing; see the ninth topic.

I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement

Shandao’s Commentary in Four Fascicles divides this contemplation into six segments:

「二、就水觀中，亦先舉，次辯，後結。即有其六。」—“Second, within the contemplation of the water there is likewise first the raising, next the distinguishing, and last the conclusion — there are six in all” 〔T37n1753 0262b18〕.

The difference in the unit boundary (recorded without adjudication) — Shandao’s contemplation of the water stops at 「是為水想，名第二觀」—“this is called the image of water, and it is named the second contemplation”; what follows, from 「此想成時，一一觀之」—“when this image is accomplished, contemplate them one by one” onward, he attaches within the next contemplation, the contemplation of the ground: 「一、從此想成時者，正明結前生後。」—“First, ‘when this image is accomplished’ directly clarifies the closing of what precedes and the giving rise to what follows” 〔T37n1753 0263c07〕; 「二、從一一觀之下，至不可具說已來，正明辨觀成相。」—“Second, from ‘contemplate them one by one’ down to ‘cannot be told in full,’ directly clarifies the distinguishing of the sign that the contemplation is accomplished” 〔T37n1753 0263c07〕 — his span runs from 「一一觀之」 in this unit across into 「不可具說」 in the next. The unit boundaries of this edition follow the sections of the Taishō text itself, and so segments 〔七〕 and 〔八〕 are still gathered into this unit; Shandao attaches them otherwise, and that is recorded here verbatim, with no judgment as to which is right. This difference of boundary bears upon the first and the last items of variant reading in the ninth topic.

The witness column · Zhiyi’s outline of this passage (recorded without adjudication):

「第二水觀，初、作水想者舉所觀境界。從「見水澄清」下，正起觀行。「是為水想」下，結觀也。」—“The second, the contemplation of the water. First, ‘forming the image of water’ raises the object to be contemplated. From ‘seeing the water clear and pure’ onward, the practice of contemplation is directly set going. From ‘this is called the image of water’ onward is the conclusion of the contemplation” 〔T37n1750 0191c23〕.

Zhiyi further marks its sequence by four turnings:

「一作水想；二變水成氷；三變氷為瑠璃；四觀瑠璃以成大地內外映徹，地下寶柱承擎，地上諸相莊嚴，以眾寶間錯其地，一一寶出雜色光明。」—“First, form the image of water; second, change the water into ice; third, change the ice into beryl; fourth, contemplate the beryl so that it becomes the great ground shining through within and without, with jeweled pillars bearing it up beneath, and upon it all the aspects of adornment, the ground inlaid with the manifold jewels, each single jewel sending forth rays of mingled colours” 〔T37n1750 0191c24〕. 「光明成諸樓觀，樓觀兩邊有華幢，幢上多有樂器宣說妙音也。」—“The rays of light form the storied towers; on both sides of the towers are flower banners, and upon the banners are many instruments of music proclaiming wondrous sounds” 〔T37n1750 0191c28〕.

The outlines of the two commentaries broadly agree in this passage: both take everything from 「是為水想」—“this is called the image of water” onward as the conclusion, and neither sets up at the close of this contemplation a separate topic for showing the contemplation to be wrong or right (Zhiyi does set one up from the third contemplation, the contemplation of the ground, onward — 「「作是觀」下，顯觀邪正。」—“from ‘makes this contemplation’ onward shows the contemplation to be wrong or right” 〔T37n1750 0192a04〕). This is set side by side with the last item of variant reading in the ninth topic, recorded without adjudication.

II. Collation with the Alternate Translations — recorded without adjudication

There is no second Chinese translation of this sūtra. The Sūtra on Contemplating the Buddha of Measureless Life stands alone, and there is no alternate translation against which to collate. Recorded honestly.

Parallel texts in the other sūtras of this same axis (not alternate translations; recorded without adjudication) — the ground of beryl, the jeweled towers, and the instruments that speak the Dharma, all set out in this passage, are each given in brief in The Amitābha Sūtra, T12n0366, and in The Sūtra on Praising the Pure Land and the Buddha’s Embrace, T12n0367; yet neither sūtra has the contemplative sequence of forming the image of water, of ice, and of the ground of beryl, nor the words 「八種清風」 (eight kinds of pure wind):

The three sūtras name different items of Dharma: this sūtra has 「苦、空、無常、無我」 (suffering, emptiness, impermanence, non-self); Kumārajīva’s Amitābha Sūtra has the latter part of the thirty-seven limbs of awakening; Xuanzang’s version has the foundations of mindfulness and what follows. Recorded without adjudication.

As for the words 「琉璃地」 (the ground of beryl), both sūtras yield nothing — the whole of The Amitābha Sūtra, T12n0366, and of The Sūtra on Praising the Pure Land and the Buddha’s Embrace, T12n0367, has been searched: 「琉璃」 occurs only as the name of a precious substance (in the stepped paths and as an ornament of the towers), and never as a ground. Recorded honestly.

III. Scriptural and Treatise Grounding (the “eye”)

The place of this contemplation within the dependent recompense — the border where the provisional passes into the true:

「又就此六中即有真有假。言假者，即日想、水想、氷想等是其假依，由是此界中相似可見境相故。」—“Again, within these six there is the true and there is the provisional. As for ‘the provisional,’ the image of the sun, the image of water, the image of ice and the like are its provisional support, because they are objects of this world that resemble it and can be seen” 〔T37n1753 0246c17〕. 「言真依者，即從瑠璃地下至寶樓觀已來是其真依。由是彼國真實無漏可見境相故。」—“As for ‘the true support,’ from the beryl ground down to the contemplation of the jeweled towers is its true support, because they are the real, outflow-free, visible objects of that land” 〔T37n1753 0246c19〕.

By this judgment the first half of this contemplation (the image of water and the image of ice) belongs to the provisional support, and from 「見琉璃地」—“seeing the ground of beryl” onward it enters the true support, whose domain runs on as far as the sixth contemplation, that of the jeweled towers. This unit is the one passage in the sūtra’s contemplation of the dependent recompense at which the provisional and the true join.

Why the contemplation of water is taught after the contemplation of the sun — the commentary sets up three rounds of question and answer. The first:

「問曰：「前教觀日，為知業相等，故令觀日。今此觀中，又教觀水。有何所以？」」—“Question: ‘Above he taught the contemplation of the sun, so that the appearance of one’s karma and the rest might be known, and therefore directed the contemplation of the sun. Now in this contemplation he further teaches the contemplation of water. What is the reason for it?’” 〔T37n1753 0262b20〕. 「日輪常照，以表極樂之長暉。復恐彼地不平，類此穢國之高下。」—“The sun’s orb shines constantly, and so represents the long radiance of Ultimate Bliss. Then, fearing that the ground there might be uneven, resembling the heights and hollows of this defiled land...” 〔T37n1753 0262b21〕. 「但以娑婆闇宅，唯日能明。此界丘阬未無高下之處，欲取能平之者，無過於水。示斯可平之相，況彼瑠璃之地也。」—“It is only that in the dark house of the Sahā world the sun alone can give light. In this world of hills and hollows there is no place without height and depth; and if one would take up something able to be level, nothing surpasses water. He shows this mark of what can be level, and thereby likens it to the ground of beryl there” 〔T37n1753 0262b23〕.

The second asks how water, being wet and soft, can be like ground:

「又問曰：「此界之水，濕而且軟。未審彼地亦同此水也？」」—“Question again: ‘The water of this world is wet and moreover soft. It is not clear whether the ground there is likewise the same as this water’” 〔T37n1753 0262b26〕. 「此界之平水，以對彼地等無高下。又轉水成氷者，對彼瑠璃之地內外映徹也。」—“The level water of this world is set over against the ground there as being equally without height or depth; and the turning of water into ice is set over against the shining through, within and without, of that ground of beryl” 〔T37n1753 0262b27〕. 「此明彌陀曠劫等行無偏，正習俱亡，能感地輪之映徹。」—“This clarifies that Amitābha’s practice through vast kalpas was even and without partiality, that both the active defilements and their residues were gone, and that he could thereby call forth the shining through of the ground-wheel” 〔T37n1753 0262b29〕.

The cause to which the ground’s freedom from height and depth is attached: the commentary refers it to Amitābha’s practice through vast kalpas, even and without partiality, defilement and residue alike gone — the aspect of the dependent recompense is attached to the practice of the causal stage, and this is the bone of the doctrine of this passage.

A treatise as warrant — the commentary cites Vasubandhu’s praise to set out in general the measure of the ground of that land:

「又天親讚云：『觀彼世界相，勝過三界道，究竟如虛空，廣大無邊際。』」—“Again, Vasubandhu says in praise: ‘Contemplate the aspect of that world: it surpasses the paths of the three realms; ultimate, like space, it is vast and without bound’” 〔T37n1753 0263a04〕.

What Zhiyi attaches to this contemplation lies not in the practice but in the gloss of a number (see the eight kinds of pure wind in the sixth topic); he draws out no separate scriptural warrant here. Recorded honestly.

IV. Essentials of the Commentary on This Passage (the Commentary in Four Fascicles, line by line)

The method of contemplating water — the commentary sets out one concrete and practicable expedient, and it is here that it puts most of its weight in this contemplation:

「若住身威儀一同前日觀中法，又欲觀水以取定心者，還須對相似之境而觀，即易可得定。」—“If the bearing of the body is settled just as in the method of the contemplation of the sun above, and one would further contemplate water so as to take up a concentrated mind, then one must again contemplate over against an object that resembles it, and concentration is easily gained” 〔T37n1753 0262c03〕. 「行者等於靜處取一椀水，著床前地上好滿盛之」—“Let the practitioner and the rest take a bowl of water in a quiet place and set it on the ground before the sitting-couch, filled well to the brim” 〔T37n1753 0262c05〕.

The essential of the method is to let the surface of the water in the bowl reflect a white object fixed between the brows, and to watch whether it moves or does not move, so as to know whether one’s own mind rests or does not rest. The commentary then glosses the simile of itself:

「言椀者即喻身器也。言水者，即喻自心水也。言波浪者，即喻亂想煩惱也。」—“As for ‘the bowl,’ it is a simile for the body as vessel. As for ‘the water,’ it is a simile for the water of one’s own mind. As for ‘the waves,’ they are a simile for scattered images and the afflictions” 〔T37n1753 0262c24〕. 「言漸漸波浪息者，即是制捨眾緣住心一境也。」—“As for ‘the waves gradually coming to rest,’ it is the checking and letting go of the manifold entanglements and the settling of the mind upon a single object” 〔T37n1753 0262c26〕. 「言水靜境現者，即是能緣之心無亂，所緣之境不動，內外恬怕所求之相顯然。」—“As for ‘the water still and the object appearing,’ it is that the mind which apprehends is unscattered and the object apprehended does not move; within and without are calm and quiet, and the appearance that was sought stands out plainly” 〔T37n1753 0262c27〕. 「又細想及麁想，心水即動，心水既動，靜境即失。」—“Again, with a subtle image or with a coarse one, the water of the mind at once stirs; and once the water of the mind has stirred, the still object is lost” 〔T37n1753 0262c29〕.

The judgment of right and wrong is one and the same as in the preceding contemplation: 「又境現失不失、邪正等，一同前日觀也。」—“Again, the object appearing or not, being lost or not, wrong and right and the rest, are one and the same as in the contemplation of the sun above” 〔T37n1753 0263a04〕.

The seven matters of the adornments beneath the ground — the commentary opens up the text from 「下有金剛七寶金幢」 (beneath it there are golden banners of adamant and the seven precious substances) down to 「不可具見」 (they cannot all be seen) into seven:

The adornments upon the ground — the judgment of that which rests and that which is rested upon:

「此明依持圓淨。七寶池林等是能依，瑠璃寶地是所依。地是能持，池臺樹等是所持。」—“This clarifies that what rests and what bears are perfect and pure. The pools and groves of the seven precious substances and the rest are that which rests; the jeweled ground of beryl is that which is rested upon. The ground is that which bears; the pools, terraces, trees and the rest are that which is borne” 〔T37n1753 0263a25〕. 「此由彌陀因行周備，致使感報圓明。明淨之義，即無漏為體也。」—“This is because Amitābha’s practice in the causal stage was complete throughout, and so the recompense it called forth is perfect and bright. The sense of ‘bright and pure’ is that its substance is free of outflows” 〔T37n1753 0263a27〕.

This judgment settles the order of all the contemplations that follow in this sūtra: the ground is that which is rested upon and that which bears, while the pools, terraces, trees and towers upon it are that which rests and is borne — and so the sixteen contemplations take the ground first, and the trees, the pools and the towers after.

The gloss on the golden cords, and one caution:

「言金繩已下，正明黃金作道，狀似金繩也。」—“From ‘golden cords’ onward directly clarifies that gold forms the pathways, whose shape is like golden cords” 〔T37n1753 0263b07〕. 「行者等莫言但有金道，而無餘寶作道也。」—“Let the practitioner and the rest not say that there are only pathways of gold and no pathways made of the other precious substances” 〔T37n1753 0263b14〕.

The simile within the adornments in the air:

「言如華又如星月者，佛以慈悲畏人不識，故借喻以顯之。」—“As for ‘like flowers and again like stars and the moon,’ the Buddha, out of compassion and fearing that people would not recognize it, borrowed a simile to show it forth” 〔T37n1753 0263b23〕.

The Dharma spoken where the wind sounds the instruments: 「三明顯說四倒四真恒沙等法。」—“The third clarifies the setting forth of the four inversions and the four real marks and dharmas as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā” 〔T37n1753 0263c01〕 — the sūtra’s 「苦、空、無常、無我」 (suffering, emptiness, impermanence, non-self) the commentary gathers up as 「四倒四真」 (the four inversions and the four real marks).

V. Divergent Readings of the Commentators (in parallel columns — recorded without adjudication)

Where the two houses put their weight is plainly different: Shandao sets out here a concrete method of practice for taking up concentration over against water, and matches the bowl, the water and the waves one by one to the body as vessel, one’s own mind, and scattered images with the afflictions — all matters of the gate of practice. Zhiyi puts his effort into the names and numbers, glossing alone the eight of 「八種清風」 as the four cardinal and the four intermediate directions, and adding the words 「亦可用對八卦」—“it may also be set against the eight trigrams” — a rare instance, among the two commentaries on this sūtra, of likening that land by the numerical arts of this one. Both readings are recorded, and no reconciliation is imposed.

VI. Terms (first occurrences — all glosses drawn from the two mirrors)

The graph 「琉璃」 — the base text of this sūtra writes 「琉璃」, while Shandao’s commentary cites it as 「瑠璃」 〔T37n1753 0262b25〕 and Zhiyi’s commentary likewise writes 「瑠璃」 〔T37n1750 0191c25〕. Each belongs to its own witness, each is recorded verbatim, and the graphs are not made uniform.

The anchor for 「金剛」 stands in the contemplation of the pools — Shandao does not gloss adamant in this contemplation; his gloss stands at the fifth contemplation, that of the jeweled pools (glossing 「雜色金剛以為底沙」, adamant of mingled colours forming the sand of their beds). Since the sūtra uses the word in both places, the gloss from there is taken to serve here, and its actual anchor is marked. Recorded honestly.

Of the transcribed names in this passage (beryl, Ānanda, Vaidehī and the rest), the two commentaries here give neither rendered name nor Sanskrit form, and this edition does not supply one in their stead.

VII. Similes and Rhetoric

Two similes the sūtra uses of itself:

Of the second simile the commentary states of itself why a simile is borrowed: 「言如華又如星月者，佛以慈悲畏人不識，故借喻以顯之。」—“As for ‘like flowers and again like stars and the moon,’ the Buddha, out of compassion and fearing that people would not recognize it, borrowed a simile to show it forth” 〔T37n1753 0263b23〕 — a simile is set up because what is spoken of has never been seen.

Similes set up by the mirror commentaries (not present in the sūtra, recorded here for reference and not to be confounded with the sūtra’s own similes):

Two things may be recorded as rhetoric. First, the whole passage takes 「一一」 (each single one) for the bone of its rhythm — each single side, each single jewel, each single ray, within each single jewel — analysing inward step by step, from the large to the small and from the general to the particular, until at 「五百色光」 (five hundred coloured rays) it turns back from the small to the large and surges up into a dais of light with its thousands and myriads of towers. Second, the three turns of water, ice, and beryl are a stairway that passes from a thing of this world to an object of that land: water is what this world has, ice is what water changes into, beryl is what ice resembles; the three are strung upon one line, and what they point to grows steadily more distant.

VIII. Citation and Carrying Forward

• Kuiji’s Comprehensive Praise Commentary on the Amitābha Sūtra cites the text of the instruments in this passage — 「《觀經》云：無量樂器懸處虛空，不鼓自鳴，或林或幢皆懸樂器，悉自和鳴，隨眾生意皆奏法音」—“The Contemplation Sūtra says: measureless instruments of music hang in empty space and sound of themselves without being struck; whether in the groves or upon the banners, instruments hang everywhere and all sound in harmony of themselves, playing the sound of the Dharma according to the minds of sentient beings” 〔T37n1758 0339c14〕. On examining this sūtra, 「無量樂器」 (measureless instruments of music) stands in this unit 〔T12n0365 0342a17〕, while 「懸處虛空，如天寶幢不鼓自鳴」 (hanging in empty space, like celestial jeweled banners sounding of themselves without being struck) stands in the sixth contemplation, the general contemplation 〔T12n0365 0342c08〕 — what the commentary cites therefore joins the text of two places into one, and is not a verbatim citation. Recorded without adjudication. The point of cross-reading within this axis: the apparatus layer of the Amitābha Sūtra volume.
• How the meaning of this contemplation carries forward inside the sūtra itself: the commentary states outright that the appearing or losing of the object and the judgment of right and wrong here are one and the same as in the preceding contemplation — 「又境現失不失、邪正等，一同前日觀也。」—“Again, the object appearing or not, being lost or not, wrong and right and the rest, are one and the same as in the contemplation of the sun above” 〔T37n1753 0263a04〕; and the ground of beryl accomplished in this contemplation is that upon which the contemplations of the ground, the trees, the pools and the towers all rest — 「地是能持，池臺樹等是所持。」—“The ground is that which bears; the pools, terraces, trees and the rest are that which is borne” 〔T37n1753 0263a26〕.
• The general praise at the end of the Section on the Good of Concentration gathers this contemplation into two lines: 「初教日觀除昏闇，想水成氷淨內心，地下金幢相映發，地上莊嚴億萬重」—“First he taught the contemplation of the sun, to remove the dark; the image of water becoming ice purifies the inner mind; beneath the ground the golden banners shine forth upon one another; upon the ground the adornments lie in a koṭi of myriad layers” 〔T37n1753 0270a18〕.
• Nothing in the remaining editions of this corpus cites this passage. The whole tree has been searched for 「八種清風」 (eight kinds of pure wind), 「成光明臺」 (forming a dais of light), and 「八萬四千色」 (eighty-four thousand colours): apart from the source layer of this edition and the line-by-line mirror files, no other edition yields a single hit. Recorded honestly.

IX. Placement Among the Recensions

The Taishō collation notes within the domain of this unit come to six in all (as now current):

The Taishō’s original form recorded the last item together with the first twelve characters of the next unit (from 「佛告阿難及韋提希」 to 「水想成已」) as a single item of twenty-eight characters, noting that the three witnesses and the current-circulation printing read here the four characters 如此想者; the collation notes as now current divide this into two items, of sixteen characters and of twelve, and this edition records the boundary according to the current division. Not one character of the base text is altered on that account, and no judgment is made in their stead as to which is the original text.

Three matters bearing on these variants are recorded alongside them (recorded without adjudication):

① Shandao’s commentary, citing the text of this sūtra verbatim in the Section on the Profound Meaning, cites what is the reading of the three witnesses — 「即地觀文中說言『如此想者名為粗見極樂國土』」—“that is, the text of the contemplation of the ground says, ‘one who forms an image in this way is said roughly to have seen the land of Ultimate Bliss’” 〔T37n1753 0247b29〕. The base text reads 「水想成已，名為粗見極樂國地」—“once the image of water is accomplished, this is called roughly seeing the ground of the land of Ultimate Bliss” 〔T12n0365 0342a22〕, while the commentary’s citation reads 「如此想者名為粗見極樂國土」—“one who forms an image in this way is said roughly to have seen the land of Ultimate Bliss,” differing both in the phrase 「如此想者」 (one who forms an image in this way) and in the two graphs 國土 and 國地. Recorded verbatim: the sūtra is not altered by the commentary, nor the commentary by the sūtra.

② Where the sūtra has 「唯除食時」 (only excepting the time of eating), Shandao’s commentary writes 「睡時」 (the time of sleeping) — 「四明身四威儀晝夜常念，唯除睡時憶持不捨。」—“The fourth clarifies that in the four bearings of the body one recollects constantly, day and night, and, only excepting the time of sleeping, holds it in memory without letting go” 〔T37n1753 0263c12〕. This agrees with the reading of the Ming witness and the current-circulation printing. Recorded without adjudication.

③ Neither commentary sets up a topic for showing the contemplation to be wrong or right at the close of this contemplation — Shandao’s six topics for the contemplation of the water stop at 「六、從是為下，總結」—“sixth, from ‘this is’ onward is the general conclusion” 〔T37n1753 0263c04〕; Zhiyi’s three topics for the contemplation of the water stop at 「「是為水想」下，結觀也」—“from ‘this is called the image of water’ onward is the conclusion of the contemplation” 〔T37n1750 0191c24〕. Yet at the close of the third contemplation, that of the ground, both commentaries do set one up (Shandao: 「六、從作是觀已下，正明辨觀邪正」—“sixth, from ‘makes this contemplation’ onward directly clarifies the distinguishing of the contemplation as wrong or right” 〔T37n1753 0264a19〕; Zhiyi: 「「作是觀」下，顯觀邪正」—“from ‘makes this contemplation’ onward shows the contemplation to be wrong or right” 〔T37n1750 0192a04〕). This is set side by side with the variant of the last sixteen characters, recorded without adjudication, and no causal inference is drawn between them.

Gaiji: nothing found in this unit. Inline glosses (place="inline" notes): nothing found in this unit. Ideographic space (U+3000): nothing found in this unit. Newly added CBETA collation notes: one in this unit, namely the 「一」 at 〔T12n0365 0342a12〕 in the table above — the earliest of the five in this sūtra.