佛說觀無量壽佛經 八功德水想

Placement of the passage as a whole. This unit is the fifth of the sixteen contemplations, and the whole passage runs to two hundred and thirty-one characters. From 「樹想成已」—“once the image of the trees has been accomplished” the sūtra cites what precedes and gives rise to what follows; it gives the number of the eight pools of water and their source (made of the seven precious substances · born from the king of wish-fulfilling pearls); next the division of the channels into fourteen branches and the sand of their bed; next the number and measure of the lotus flowers in the pools and the pouring of the maṇi water; next the Dharma that the sound of the water expounds; and last the birds of a hundred jewel-colours into which the king of wish-fulfilling pearls is transformed, ever praising the three recollections, before it concludes generally and judges right from wrong. The name of this contemplation is given differently by the sūtra and by the two commentaries — the sūtra marks it of itself as 「八功德水想」, the image of the water of the eight excellent qualities; Shandao’s Commentary in Four Fascicles names it 「寶池觀」, the contemplation of the jeweled pools; and Zhiyi’s commentary names it 「池觀」, the contemplation of the pools; while the Taishō collation notes further record that a note in the Ming witness reads 「水」, water, as 「池」, pool, in the Song canon. All four are set out together, recorded without adjudication (the ninth topic). Further, for the 「八功德」, the eight excellent qualities of this contemplation, the sūtra does not give the list; the two commentaries each give one and their order differs, which is the most important point of collation in this unit (the fifth topic). There are six items of collation; see the ninth topic.

I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement

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

「五、就寶池觀中，亦先舉，次辨，後結。即有其七。」—“Fifth, within the contemplation of the jeweled pools there is likewise first the raising, next the distinguishing, and last the conclusion — there are seven in all” 〔T37n1753 0264c27〕.

The commentary’s outline begins at 「次當想水」, next one should form the image of the water, and does not take as its starting point the 「佛告阿難及韋提希」, the Buddha told Ānanda and Vaidehī, and the 「樹想成已」, once the image of the trees has been accomplished, that follow upon it; and its seven topics stop at the general conclusion, so that at the end of this contemplation it sets up no separate topic for showing the contemplation to be wrong or right. Both matters are set side by side with the variant readings of the ninth topic, recorded without adjudication.

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

「第五池觀。中有五：一明池體、二明池相、三明隨心適意、四明利益、第五結觀。」—“The fifth, the contemplation of the pools. Within it there are five: first, clarifying the substance of the pools; second, clarifying the appearance of the pools; third, clarifying that they follow the mind and suit its wish; fourth, clarifying the benefit; fifth, the conclusion of the contemplation” 〔T37n1750 0192a11〕.

Zhiyi’s five topics likewise stop at the conclusion of the contemplation and set up no topic for showing the contemplation to be wrong or right. Recorded without adjudication.

II. Collation with the Alternate Translations — recorded without adjudication

There is no second Chinese translation of this sūtra — there is no alternate translation against which to collate. Recorded honestly.

Parallel passages in the other sūtras of this same axis (not alternate translations, recorded without adjudication) — the text of pools of the seven precious substances and of water of the eight excellent qualities is present in both, and Xuanzang’s recension alone gives the list of the eight qualities:

The difference among the three sūtras (recorded without adjudication): (1) The number of the pools — this sūtra reads 「有八池水」, there are eight pools of water, while both of the others read 「七寶池」, pools of the seven precious substances, and give no number of pools. (2) The measure of the lotus flowers — this sūtra reads 「團圓正等十二由旬」, round and full, exactly equal in length and breadth, twelve yojanas, while the others read 「大如車輪」, as large as chariot wheels, and 「量如車輪」, in measure like chariot wheels. (3) The Dharma expounded by the sound of the water — this sūtra reads 「苦、空、無常、無我、諸波羅蜜」, suffering, emptiness, impermanence, non-self, and the perfections, together with 「讚歎諸佛相好」, praising the marks and excellences of the buddhas, whereas in the other two the expounders of the Dharma are the birds and not the water. (4) The list of the eight excellent qualities is given by Xuanzang’s recension alone:

「何等名為八功德水？一者澄淨，二者清冷，三者甘美，四者輕軟，五者潤澤，六者安和，七者飲時除飢渴等無量過患，八者飲已定能長養諸根四大」—“What is called water of the eight excellent qualities? First, clear and pure; second, clear and cool; third, sweet; fourth, light and soft; fifth, moistening; sixth, calm and harmonious; seventh, when drunk it removes hunger, thirst and measureless other troubles; eighth, once drunk it surely nourishes the faculties and the four great elements” 〔T12n0367 0348c24〕.

Neither this sūtra nor Kumārajīva’s recension of The Amitābha Sūtra gives the list; and the lists given by the two commentaries differ again from Xuanzang’s (see the fifth topic). All three lines are recorded, and no judgment is made as to which is the settled account.

The expressions 「如意珠王」, 「十四支」 and 「六十億七寶蓮花」 yield nothing in either of the other two — 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. Recorded honestly.

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

The place of this contemplation among the dependent recompense — by Shandao’s judgment in the Section on the Profound Meaning, this contemplation lies within the domain of the true support. Within the six contemplations of the common support he distinguishes the true from the provisional: 「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 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〕.

Why the pools come after the trees:

「此明寶樹雖精，若無池水，亦未名好。」—“This clarifies that fine and excellent as the jeweled trees are, without the water of pools they could still not be called good” 〔T37n1753 0264c29〕. 「一為不空世界，二為莊嚴依報，為斯義故，有此池渠觀也。」—“First, that the world may not be empty; second, that the dependent recompense may be adorned. It is for this meaning that there is this contemplation of the pools and channels” 〔T37n1753 0265a01〕.

The commentary states of itself that it has expounded the meaning of the eight qualities at length in its exposition of the Amitābha Sūtra:

「此八德之義已在彌陀義中廣說竟。」—“The meaning of these eight qualities has already been expounded at length in the exposition of Amitābha” 〔T37n1753 0265a12〕.

— Shandao himself marks the gloss of this contemplation’s terms as standing in his exposition of the Amitābha Sūtra, one clear proof of the cross-reading of two editions on this axis. The point of cross-reading within this axis: the apparatus layer of the Amitābha Sūtra volume.

Why the three recollections are set up — here the commentary explains the Buddha, the Dharma and the Saṅgha as the objects of recollection:

「然佛是眾生無上大師，除邪向正。法是眾生無上良藥，能斷煩惱毒病，法身清淨。僧是眾生無上福田」—“Now the Buddha is the unsurpassed great master of sentient beings, removing what is wrong and turning them toward the right. The Dharma is the unsurpassed good medicine of sentient beings, able to cut off the poisonous sickness of the afflictions, so that the dharma-body is pure. The Saṅgha is the unsurpassed field of merit of sentient beings” 〔T37n1753 0265b12〕. 「但使傾心四事不憚疲勞，五乘依果自然應念所須而至。」—“If only one bends one’s whole heart to the four requisites and does not shrink from weariness, the fruits on which the five vehicles depend will of themselves come as needed in answer to the thought” 〔T37n1753 0265b15〕.

The Dharma spoken by the sound of the water has its stages — the commentary opens it into four levels:

「或說眾生苦事，覺動菩薩大悲，勸令引他。或說人天等法，或說二乘等法，或說地前地上等法，或說佛地三身等法。」—“Now it speaks of the sufferings of sentient beings, stirring a bodhisattva’s great compassion and urging him to lead others; now it speaks of the dharmas of gods and men; now of the dharmas of the two vehicles; now of the dharmas before the grounds and upon the grounds; now of the dharmas of the ground of buddhahood and its three bodies” 〔T37n1753 0265b05〕.

The scriptural warrant Zhiyi attaches to this contemplation: nothing was found in this passage — Zhiyi’s outline of this contemplation in the Commentary on the Sūtra on Contemplating the Buddha of Measureless Life, T37n1750 (0192a11–0192a15), has been searched, and apart from his gloss of 「摩尼」 and his list of the eight qualities it cites neither sūtra nor treatise. Recorded honestly.

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

The third and fifth of the five matters concerning the number of the pools and their source:

「三明一一池岸七寶合成，正由寶光映徹通照，八德之水一同雜寶之色，故名寶水也。」—“The third clarifies that the bank of each pool is formed of the seven precious substances; and just because the jewel-light shines through and illumines all, the water of the eight qualities takes on the very colour of the mingled jewels, and is therefore called jewel water” 〔T37n1753 0265a05〕. 「五明八池之水皆從如意寶中出，即名如意水。」—“The fifth clarifies that the water of the eight pools all comes forth from the wish-fulfilling jewel, and is therefore called wish-fulfilling water” 〔T37n1753 0265a07〕.

The list of the eight qualities (as Shandao gives it):

「此水即有八種之德。一者清淨潤澤，即是色入攝。二者不臭，即是香入攝。三者輕，四者冷，五者軟，即是觸入攝。六者美，是味入攝。七者飲時調適，八者飲已無患，是法入攝。」—“This water has eight kinds of excellence. First, pure and moistening, which is gathered under the entry of form. Second, without stench, which is gathered under the entry of smell. Third, light; fourth, cool; fifth, soft — these are gathered under the entry of touch. Sixth, sweet, which is under the entry of taste. Seventh, harmonious and suitable when drunk; eighth, without ill once drunk — these are under the entry of dharmas” 〔T37n1753 0265a08〕.

The channels and the sand of the bed: 「言金剛者，即是無漏之體也。」—“As for ‘adamant,’ it is the substance that is free of outflows” 〔T37n1753 0265a23〕.

The unobstructed course of the water: 「五明寶水從渠而出尋諸寶樹上下無礙。故名如意水也。」—“The fifth clarifies that the jewel water comes forth out of the channels and follows the trees of every jewel up and down without obstruction. It is therefore called wish-fulfilling water” 〔T37n1753 0265a28〕.

The two matters of the water’s speaking the Dharma:

「一明寶水華間流注，微波相觸即出妙聲，聲中皆說妙法。」—“The first clarifies that the jewel water pours in among the flowers, and where its slight waves touch one another a wondrous sound at once comes forth, and in that sound the wondrous Dharma is spoken” 〔T37n1753 0265b02〕. 「二明寶水上岸尋樹枝條華果葉等，或上或下，中間相觸皆出妙聲，聲中皆說妙法。」—“The second clarifies that the jewel water rises up the bank and follows the twigs, flowers, fruit and leaves of the trees, now up and now down; and where they touch in between a wondrous sound comes forth, and in that sound the wondrous Dharma is spoken” 〔T37n1753 0265b03〕.

The third of the four matters of the maṇi jewel’s divine powers: 「三明鳥聲哀雅天樂無以比方。」—“The third clarifies that the voices of the birds are plaintive and pure, and that the music of the heavens affords no comparison for them” 〔T37n1753 0265b11〕.

The two uses of the pearl, before and behind:

「其寶珠前生八味之水，後出種種金光，非直破闇除昏，到處能施佛事。」—“That jewel-pearl gives birth in front to water of eight flavours and sends forth behind every kind of golden light; and not merely does it break the dark and dispel the dim — wherever it reaches it can perform the deeds of a buddha” 〔T37n1753 0265b16〕.

The commentary gives one long hymn at this contemplation:

「又讚云：「極樂莊嚴安養國，八德寶池流遍滿，四岸含暉間七寶，水色分明映寶光，體性柔軟無堅觸，菩薩徐行散寶香。寶香寶雲成寶蓋，寶蓋臨空覆寶幢，寶幢嚴儀圍寶殿，寶殿寶鈴垂珠網，寶網寶樂千重轉，隨機讚歎寶宮樓。一一宮樓有佛會，恒沙聖眾坐思量，願此有緣常憶念，捨命同生彼法堂。」」—“Again the hymn says: ‘Ultimate Bliss, the adorned land of Peace and Nurture, where jeweled pools of the eight qualities flow and fill it everywhere; the four banks hold radiance, the seven precious substances set among them, and the colour of the water is clear and distinct, reflecting the jewel-light. Its very nature is soft, with no hard touch in it, and bodhisattvas walking slowly scatter jeweled fragrance. Jeweled fragrance and jeweled clouds become jeweled canopies; the jeweled canopies overhang the sky and cover jeweled banners; the jeweled banners in solemn array encircle jeweled halls; in the jeweled halls jeweled bells hang down amid pearl nets; the jeweled nets and jeweled music turn through a thousand rounds, praising the jeweled palaces and towers as each occasion requires. In every palace and tower there is an assembly of a buddha, and holy hosts as many as the sands of the Gaṅgā sit in contemplation. May those with this affinity keep it ever in mind, and when life is laid down be born together in that Dharma hall’” 〔T37n1753 0265a13〕.

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

The list of the eight qualities — the two commentaries give them in differing order; both are recorded without adjudication:

Zhiyi’s text verbatim: 「「八功德」者，輕、清、冷、軟、美、不臭、飲時調適、飲已無患。清是色入，不臭香入，輕、冷、軟是觸入，美是味入，調適、無患是法入。」—“As for the eight excellent qualities: light, clear, cool, soft, sweet, without stench, harmonious and suitable when drunk, without ill once drunk. Clear is the entry of form; without stench, the entry of smell; light, cool and soft are the entry of touch; sweet is the entry of taste; harmonious and suitable, and without ill, are the entry of dharmas” 〔T37n1750 0192a13〕.

The eight qualities the two houses list are the same items in a different order (Shandao’s first quality reads 「清淨潤澤」, pure and moistening, where Zhiyi has 「清」, clear; and the names of the remaining seven are fuller in the one and briefer in the other), while their assignment to the five entries agrees throughout — form, smell, touch (three), taste, dharmas (two). Set against the list of eight given in Xuanzang’s Sūtra on Praising the Pure Land and the Buddha’s Embrace (clear and pure · clear and cool · sweet · light and soft · moistening · calm and harmonious · when drunk it removes hunger, thirst and measureless other troubles · once drunk it surely nourishes the faculties and the four great elements) 〔T12n0367 0348c23〕, the three lines differ from one another item by item. All three lines are recorded, no reconciliation is imposed, and no judgment is made as to which is the settled account.

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

The expression 「諸波羅蜜」, the perfections — neither commentary glosses it separately in this passage. The whole of the Commentary in Four Fascicles, T37n1753, has been searched and 「波羅蜜」 yields nothing at all; in Zhiyi’s commentary, T37n1750, it occurs once, in a citation of the Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom at the ninth contemplation 〔T37n1750 0193a06〕, which is not a gloss of this passage. Recorded honestly; this edition does not supply a gloss in its stead.

The transcribed names in this passage are several (yojana, maṇi, pāramitā and the rest), and the only one for which the two commentaries give a rendered name is 「摩尼」 (as transmitted by Zhiyi); 「波羅蜜」 and the remaining names are transmitted by neither, and this edition makes no restoration of Sanskrit forms.

VII. Similes and Rhetoric

Similes the sūtra uses of itself: there is no simile expressly set up in this passage. 「和鳴哀雅」, singing in harmony, plaintive and pure, describes a sound; it does not liken one thing to another. Recorded honestly.

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):

Three things may be recorded as rhetoric. First, the water of this passage is in motion from beginning to end — born (born from the king of wish-fulfilling pearls), divided (dividing into fourteen branches), poured (pouring in among the flowers), following (following the trees up and down), welling (welling up as radiance), transformed (transformed into birds of a hundred jewel-colours) — six verbs strung into a single line, standing in exact contrast to the still-standing trees of the contemplation before. Second, the water comes forth from the pearl and is at last transformed into birds, and the Dharma spoken likewise turns from 「苦、空、無常、無我」, suffering, emptiness, impermanence and non-self, to 「讚歎諸佛相好」, praising the marks and excellences of the buddhas, and then to 「常讚念佛、念法、念僧」, ever praising the recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma and the Saṅgha — passing from the dharmas of contemplative practice into the Three Jewels that are the refuge, which is the momentum on which this passage closes. Third, 「一一」, one by one, occurs four times (each pool of water, each branch, in each pool, each lotus flower), still the sentence-pattern of the contemplations before.

VIII. Citation and Carrying Forward

• Kuiji’s Comprehensive Praise Commentary on the Amitābha Sūtra cites the Contemplation Sūtra where it glosses the lotus flowers — 「《觀經》及《平等覺經》云：大者或二十里乃至六百萬里。」—“The Contemplation Sūtra and the Sūtra of Impartial Awakening say: the large ones are twenty li, and on up to six million li” 〔T37n1758 0339b28〕. Examining this sūtra now, the measure of the lotus flowers reads 「一一蓮華團圓正等十二由旬」—“each lotus flower is round and full, exactly equal in length and breadth, twelve yojanas” 〔T12n0365 0342b28〕, and there is no expression 「二十里」, twenty li, or 「六百萬里」, six million li (both yield nothing at all in this sūtra). What the commentary cites is not the verbatim text of this sūtra; it is recorded verbatim and not adjudicated. The point of cross-reading within this axis: the apparatus layer of the Amitābha Sūtra volume.
• Shandao marks the gloss of this contemplation’s terms as standing in his exposition of the Amitābha Sūtra: 「此八德之義已在彌陀義中廣說竟。」—“The meaning of these eight qualities has already been expounded at length in the exposition of Amitābha” 〔T37n1753 0265a12〕.
• The general hymn at the end of the Section on the Good of Concentration gathers this contemplation into one line: 「寶樹垂瓔間雜果，池流德水注華中，寶樓寶閣皆相接」—“jeweled trees hang down their necklaces with fruits set among them; the pools flow with water of excellent qualities, pouring in among the flowers; jeweled towers and jeweled pavilions all join one to another” 〔T37n1753 0270a20〕.
• Nothing among the remaining editions of this corpus cites this passage — the whole tree has been searched for 「如意珠王」, 「六十億七寶蓮花」 and 「團圓正等十二由旬」: apart from the source layer of this edition and the line-by-line mirror files, no other edition yields a single hit. The two expressions 「八功德水」 and 「如意珠王」 do yield hits in other editions, but what those hits attach to is the text of other sūtras — the pools brimming with water of the eight excellent qualities and the body of the king of wish-fulfilling pearls in the Sūtra of Golden Light volume both belong to the Sūtra of Golden Light, and the water of the eight excellent qualities in the Twenty Verses volume comes from a citation of the Abhidharmakośa — and not the text of this sūtra; each is distinguished in its place and none is counted as carrying forward. Recorded honestly.

IX. Placement Among the Recensions

Within the domain of this unit the Taishō collation notes come to six in all (in the currently circulating form):

The first item, together with the last sixteen characters of the preceding unit, makes up the Taishō’s original single item of twenty-eight characters; the last item, together with the first eight characters of the next unit (「佛告阿難及韋提希」), makes up the Taishō’s original single item of twenty-four characters. The collation notes as now current divide each into two items, 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.

A special note on the second item — this item is the Taishō’s transcription of a collation remark belonging to the Ming witness itself (the Ming note says: water, the Song canon reads pool), and what it attests is the reading of the Song canon. It is therefore of a different kind from the other items, which state that such and such a witness reads such and such; its level is recorded verbatim and it is not counted together with the variant readings of the three witnesses.

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

① Both commentaries name this contemplation by 「池」, pool — Shandao has 「就寶池觀中」—“within the contemplation of the jeweled pools” 〔T37n1753 0264c27〕, Zhiyi has 「第五池觀」—“the fifth, the contemplation of the pools” 〔T37n1750 0192a11〕, and his general list of the sixteen contemplations likewise has 「五池觀」—“fifth, the contemplation of the pools” 〔T37n1750 0191c08〕. Yet the sūtra marks it of itself as 「是為八功德水想」—“this is called the image of the water of the eight excellent qualities” 〔T12n0365 0342c04〕. This is set side by side with the 「池」, pool, of the Song canon noted in the Ming witness in the second item, recorded without adjudication, and no causal inference is drawn between them.

② Shandao’s outline begins at 「次當想水」—“next one should form the image of the water” 〔T37n1753 0264c28〕, and does not take as its starting point the 「佛告阿難及韋提希」, the Buddha told Ānanda and Vaidehī, and the 「樹想成已」, once the image of the trees has been accomplished, that follow upon it. This is set side by side with the first item of variant reading, recorded without adjudication.

③ Neither commentary sets up a topic for showing the contemplation to be wrong or right at the end of this contemplation — Shandao’s seven topics on the contemplation of the jeweled pools stop at 「七、從是為下，總結」—“seventh, from ‘this is’ onward is the general conclusion” 〔T37n1753 0265b18〕; Zhiyi’s five topics on the contemplation of the pools stop at 「第五結觀」—“fifth, the conclusion of the contemplation” 〔T37n1750 0192a12〕. This is set side by side with the last item of variant reading, recorded without adjudication.

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: nothing found in this unit.