佛說觀無量壽佛經 遍觀一切色想

Placement of the passage as a whole. This unit is the ninth of the sixteen contemplations; Shandao’s Commentary in Four Fascicles calls it 「真身觀」, the contemplation of the true body, and it is that toward which the provisional support and the provisional direct recompense of the eight contemplations before it tend. The sūtra first concludes the contemplation of the image before it and raises the contemplation of the true body; next it speaks of the colour of the body, the measure of the body, the white tuft, the Buddha’s eyes, the pores, the circular radiance, and the manifested Buddhas and manifested bodhisattvas; next of the eighty-four thousand marks and excellences and of the light that gathers in the sentient beings who recollect the Buddha; next it concludes with the few to show the many and exhorts the holding of the image in mind; next it sets up the sentence 「以觀佛身故亦見佛心」—“because he contemplates the Buddha’s body he also sees the Buddha’s mind,” which together with 「是心作佛，是心是佛」—“this mind makes the Buddha; this mind is the Buddha” in the eighth contemplation is the pivot of the doctrine of the whole sūtra; and last it exhorts entry by a single mark or excellence, the contemplation of the white tuft between the brows alone, settles the name of the contemplation, and judges wrong from right. The whole passage runs to four hundred and fifty-seven characters. The two lines of the Imperially Composed Praise of the Buddha of Measureless Life at the head of the fascicle, 「沙有八萬四千相，一一相中復如是」—“each grain of sand has eighty-four thousand marks, and within each single mark it is so again” and 「以觀佛身見佛心」—“by contemplating the Buddha’s body one sees the Buddha’s mind,” are gathered up out of the text of this very unit; see the eighth topic.

I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement

Shandao’s Commentary in Four Fascicles divides this contemplation into twelve sentences:

「九、就真身觀中，亦先舉，次辨，後結。即有其十二。」—“Ninth, within the contemplation of the true body there is likewise first the raising, next the distinguishing, and last the conclusion — there are twelve in all” 〔T37n1753 0267c20〕.

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

「第九觀佛真法身。中有五：一、明結上」—“The ninth is the contemplation of the Buddha’s true dharma-body. It has five parts: first, clarifying the conclusion of what precedes” 〔T37n1750 0192b25〕. 「第二、「次當更觀」下，正觀佛身」—“Second, from ‘next you should further contemplate’ onward, the direct contemplation of the Buddha’s body” 〔T37n1750 0192b25〕. 「第三、從「作是觀」下，正明觀於佛心」—“Third, from ‘makes this contemplation’ onward directly clarifies the contemplating of the Buddha’s mind” 〔T37n1750 0192b26〕. 「第四、從「作此觀者捨身他世」下，舉利勸修」—“Fourth, from ‘one who makes this contemplation, casting off the body, in the world to come’ onward raises the benefit and exhorts cultivation” 〔T37n1750 0192b27〕. 「第五、從「作是觀者」下，顯觀邪正」—“Fifth, from ‘makes this contemplation’ onward shows the contemplation to be wrong or right” 〔T37n1750 0192b28〕.

The outlines of the two commentaries on this contemplation agree broadly, and the sameness and difference in the naming of the last topic may be recorded: Shandao gives 「辨觀邪正之相」, distinguishing the sign of whether the contemplation is wrong or right, and Zhiyi gives 「顯觀邪正」, showing the contemplation to be wrong or right; both houses set up this topic in this contemplation (at the first contemplation, of the image of the sun, Zhiyi sets up none — see the first topic of that unit). Zhiyi further sets up a topic of his own, 「正明觀於佛心」, directly clarifying the contemplating of the Buddha’s mind, for which Shandao has no separate topic, gathering it instead into the five meanings of his eighth sentence. Recorded without adjudication.

II. Collation with the Alternate Translations — recorded without adjudication

There is no second Chinese translation of this sūtra. The titles of the sūtras in the twelfth volume of the Taishō canon, T12n0360 through T12n0396, have been searched: this is the only such text, and there is no alternate translation against which to collate. Recorded honestly.

Is there a parallel text of the contemplation of the true body in the other sūtras of this same axis? Nothing was found — the whole of The Amitābha Sūtra, T12n0366, and of Xuanzang’s The Sūtra on Praising the Pure Land and the Buddha’s Embrace, T12n0367, has been searched, and of such words as 「白毫」 (the white tuft) and 「八萬四千」 (eighty-four thousand) not one is found. Those two sūtras speak of that Buddha’s light and lifespan but not of the measure of his body or of his marks and excellences; what is set out in this contemplation belongs to this sūtra alone. Recorded honestly.

The text of this passage as cited in Tanluan’s Commentary on the Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land, T40n1819, differs from the base text of this edition in certain places; it is a citation and not an alternate translation, and it is recorded at the end of the ninth topic.

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

The place of the contemplation of the true body within the direct recompense — Shandao distinguishes the true from the provisional in the direct recompense in the Section on the Profound Meaning:

「言真正報者，即第九真身觀是也。」—“As for ‘the true direct recompense,’ it is the ninth contemplation, of the true body” 〔T37n1753 0246c29〕. 「此由前假正，漸以息於亂想、心眼得開，粗見彼方清淨二報種種莊嚴以除昏惑，由除障故得見彼真實之境相也。」—“It is that by the provisional direct recompense before it, scattered images are gradually stilled and the eye of the mind opens; the twofold pure recompense of that quarter with its manifold adornments is roughly seen, and thereby dullness and delusion are removed; and because the obstruction is removed one comes to see the real objects of that land” 〔T37n1753 0247a01〕.

The eighth, the contemplation of the image, is the provisional direct recompense, and this one is the true direct recompense; a figure is provisionally set up so that scattered images may be stilled, and only when they are stilled does the true object appear. This is the doctrinal ground on which this contemplation stands after that one.

The three conditions of 「念佛眾生攝取不捨」, gathering in the sentient beings who recollect the Buddha and not forsaking them — Shandao poses a question here and answers with the intimate condition, the proximate condition, and the dominant condition; it is the weightiest passage of meaning brought out in this contemplation:

「問曰：「備修眾行但能迴向皆得往生，何以佛光普照唯攝念佛者，有何意也？」」—“Question: ‘Those who fully cultivate the many practices, if only they can dedicate and direct the merit, all attain birth in that land. Why then does the Buddha’s light, which shines everywhere, gather in only those who recollect the Buddha? What is the intent of this?’” 〔T37n1753 0268a04〕. The commentary answers — 「此有三義。一明親緣」—“There are three meanings in this. The first clarifies the intimate condition” 〔T37n1753 0268a06〕.

What he cites as warrant are three sūtras, all of this same axis:

「如《無量壽經》四十八願中，唯明專念彌陀名號得生。」—“As in the forty-eight vows of The Sūtra of Measureless Life, it is clarified only that by singly recollecting Amitābha’s name one attains birth” 〔T37n1753 0268a15〕. 「又如《彌陀經》中，一日七日專念彌陀名號得生。」—“Again, as in The Amitābha Sūtra, by singly recollecting Amitābha’s name for one day or for seven days one attains birth” 〔T37n1753 0268a17〕. 「又此經定散文中，唯標專念名號得生。此例非一也。」—“Again, in the texts of the good done in concentration and of the good done in a scattered mind in this sūtra, it is marked only that by singly recollecting the Name one attains birth. Instances of this kind are not one alone” 〔T37n1753 0268a18〕. 「廣顯念佛三昧竟。」—“The extensive display of the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha is herewith finished” 〔T37n1753 0268a20〕.

That the light of that Buddha is the most honoured comes from the larger sūtra:

「無量壽佛威神光明最尊第一，諸佛光明所不能及。」—“The majestic light of the Buddha of Measureless Life is the most honoured and the first; the light of the other buddhas cannot reach it” 〔T12n0360 0270a23〕.

The sūtras and treatises Zhiyi attaches to this contemplation — he cites five, all sūtras and treatises handed down by the masters of old:

What the two houses attach here is not the same meaning: Shandao explains by the three conditions why the light gathers in those who recollect the Buddha alone, and returns it to the uttering of the Name; Zhiyi explains the Buddha’s mind by the three kinds of kindness of the Explanatory Treatise, and returns it to the substance of the kindness that is without object. Recorded without adjudication.

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

The six matters of the general contemplation of the bodily form — the commentary divides them beneath its fourth sentence:

「一明毫相大小。二明眼相大小。三明毛孔光大小。四明圓光大小。五明化佛多少。六明侍者多少。」—“The first clarifies the size of the tuft-mark; the second, the size of the eyes; the third, the size of the light of the pores; the fourth, the size of the circular radiance; the fifth, how many the manifested Buddhas are; the sixth, how many the attendants are” 〔T37n1753 0267c27〕.

The five matters of the particular marks whose light benefits —

「一明相多少。二明好多少。三明光多少。四明光照遠近。五明光所及處偏蒙攝益。」—“The first clarifies how many the marks are; the second, how many the excellences; the third, how many the rays; the fourth, how far or near the light shines; the fifth, that where the light reaches, the benefit of being gathered in is received in particular” 〔T37n1753 0268a02〕.

The answer in three conditions (given in full in the third topic) closes with a saying:

「自餘眾行，雖名是善，若比念佛者，全非比校也」—“As for the other practices, though they are called good, if they be set beside the recollection of the Buddha they are altogether past comparing” 〔T37n1753 0268a13〕. 「是故諸經中處處廣讚念佛功能」—“It is for this reason that in sūtra after sūtra, in place after place, the power of recollecting the Buddha is extensively praised” 〔T37n1753 0268a15〕.

The five matters of the benefit of the contemplation achieved — the sentence of this contemplation, 「以觀佛身故亦見佛心」, the commentary attaches here:

「一明因觀得見十方諸佛。二明以見諸佛故結成念佛三昧。三明但觀一佛即觀一切佛身也。」—“The first clarifies that by contemplating he comes to see the buddhas of the ten directions; the second, that because he sees the buddhas the samādhi of recollecting the Buddha is thereby brought to completion; the third, that to contemplate one buddha alone is to contemplate the body of every buddha” 〔T37n1753 0268a25〕. 「四明由見佛身故即見佛心也。五明佛心者慈悲為體，以此平等大慈普攝一切也。」—“The fourth clarifies that because he sees the Buddha’s body he sees the Buddha’s mind; the fifth, that the Buddha’s mind has kindness and compassion for its substance, and that with this level and equal great kindness he embraces all things everywhere” 〔T37n1753 0268a27〕.

Why the white tuft alone is contemplated —

「三明相好眾多不得總雜而觀，唯觀白毫一相，但得見白毫者，一切眾相自然而現也。」—“The third clarifies that the marks and excellences are many and may not be contemplated all mixed together: one contemplates the single mark of the white tuft alone, and once the white tuft can be seen, all the many marks appear of themselves” 〔T37n1753 0268b05〕. 「四明既見彌陀即見十方佛也。五明既見諸佛即於定中得蒙授記也。」—“The fourth clarifies that once Amitābha is seen the buddhas of the ten directions are seen; the fifth, that once the buddhas are seen the prediction is received in concentration” 〔T37n1753 0268b07〕.

The closing words of the whole contemplation —

「斯乃真形量遠毫若五山，震響隨機光沾有識」—“Such is the true form: its measure far-reaching, its tuft like five mountains; its resounding answers to the capacity, and its light touches all that has consciousness” 〔T37n1753 0268b10〕. 「欲使含靈歸命注想無遺，乘佛本弘齊臨彼國」—“It is to make all that bears spirit entrust its life and pour out its imaging without remainder, and, riding the Buddha’s original vastness, come alike to that land” 〔T37n1753 0268b11〕.

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

The plainest difference between the two houses lies in the measure of the body: Zhiyi reckons it by the proportion of a man’s eyes to his body and judges the three characters 「恒河沙」 to be an error of the translator 〔T37n1750 0192c07〕; Shandao sets down not one word of doubt here, and only marks the measure of the body. Both readings are recorded, no reconciliation is imposed, and no judgment is made in their stead as to which is right.

Tanluan’s Commentary on the Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land (Northern Wei) also has something to say on the same sentence, recorded here for comparison (it is not one of the two mirrors of this edition, but a master of old within this corpus who cites the passage; his period is stated as it is):

「如《觀無量壽經》言「阿彌陀如來，身高六十萬億那由他恒河沙由旬，佛圓光如百億三千大千世界。」」—“As The Sūtra on Contemplating the Buddha of Measureless Life says, ‘Amitābha Tathāgata is six hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of the sands of the Gaṅgā of yojanas in height, and the Buddha’s circular radiance is like a hundred koṭis of the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system.’” 〔T40n1819 0831c29〕. 「譯者以尋而言，何其晦」—“That the translator should speak of it in terms of a fathom — how obscure that is” 〔T40n1819 0832a02〕.

What he questions is that 「相好光一尋」, the light of the marks and excellences being one fathom, in the Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land — its 「尋」, its fathom — does not answer to the measure of the body in this sūtra: the place of his question differs from Zhiyi’s, and so does his judgment. All three houses are recorded without adjudication.

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

Terms on which the two mirrors yield nothing, recorded honestly: for the three words 「那由他」 (nayuta), 「夜摩天」 (the Yāma heaven), and 「閻浮檀」 (Jambūnada), neither commentary gives a single word of gloss anywhere in its whole text (each has been searched through); and the word 「無生忍」 (the patience of non-arising) neither commentary glosses separately in this passage. This edition does not supply meanings in their stead.

The transcribed terms in this passage are more than one (yojana, samādhi, Jambūnada, nayuta, the sands of the Gaṅgā, the Yāma heaven, Mount Sumeru, and the rest); in this passage neither commentary gives either a rendered name or a Sanskrit form, and this edition does not supply them in their stead.

VII. Similes and Rhetoric

Three similes the sūtra uses of itself:

All three give the measure of the parts of the body by the measure of mountains and seas; this is the most concentrated such passage among the contemplations of the direct recompense in this sūtra.

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, this passage drives downward layer by layer with 「一一」, each single one — each single manifested Buddha, each single mark, each single excellence, each single ray — four levels nested one within another, and the number at each is eighty-four thousand: it is the deepest nesting of numbers in the whole sūtra. Second, the sūtra turns from 「不可具說」, they cannot be told in full, into 「但當憶想令心明見」, one should only hold the image in mind so that the mind sees it clearly 〔T12n0365 0343b26–b27〕, and then draws in again from 「八萬四千相好」, the eighty-four thousand marks and excellences, to 「但觀眉間白毫」—“he contemplates the white tuft between the brows alone” 〔T12n0365 0343c05〕 — first the many are stated to the utmost, and then one alone is appointed, a form of one letting out and one drawing in, of the same type as the koṭis upon koṭis of the seventh contemplation drawn in to 「如於鏡中自見面像」, as though seeing one’s own face in a mirror.

VIII. Citation and Carrying Forward

• The Imperially Composed Praise of the Buddha of Measureless Life at the head of the fascicle gathers up the text of this unit: what the line of the praise, 「沙有八萬四千相，一一相中復如是」—“each grain of sand has eighty-four thousand marks, and within each single mark it is so again” 〔T12n0365 0340c03〕, is based upon is this passage, 「無量壽佛有八萬四千相；一一相中，各有八萬四千隨形好」—“the Buddha of Measureless Life has eighty-four thousand marks, and within each single mark there are eighty-four thousand secondary excellences conforming to the form” 〔T12n0365 0343b23〕; and what the line 「以觀佛身見佛心」—“by contemplating the Buddha’s body one sees the Buddha’s mind” 〔T12n0365 0340c05〕 is based upon is this passage, 「作是觀者，名觀一切佛身，以觀佛身故亦見佛心」—“to make this contemplation is called contemplating the body of every buddha; and because one contemplates the Buddha’s body one also sees the Buddha’s mind” 〔T12n0365 0343b29〕. These two are two of the four proofs set up in the appended topic of unit 00, where they are recorded item by item; here the place they come from is recorded in the other direction.

• Tanluan’s Commentary on the Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land, T40n1819, cites the text of this passage on the measure of the body and the circular radiance (Northern Wei; found within this corpus): 「如《觀無量壽經》言「阿彌陀如來，身高六十萬億那由他恒河沙由旬，佛圓光如百億三千大千世界。」」—“As The Sūtra on Contemplating the Buddha of Measureless Life says, ‘Amitābha Tathāgata is six hundred thousand koṭis of nayutas of the sands of the Gaṅgā of yojanas in height, and the Buddha’s circular radiance is like a hundred koṭis of the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system’” 〔T40n1819 0831c29〕; and at the end of his commentary he again points to this sūtra as the ground for contemplating the Buddha’s body: 「若欲觀佛身，當依《觀無量壽經》。」—“If one would contemplate the Buddha’s body, one should rely on The Sūtra on Contemplating the Buddha of Measureless Life” 〔T40n1819 0839b20〕.

• How the meaning of this contemplation carries forward inside the sūtra itself: in glossing the measure of the body in this contemplation Zhiyi cites the later text of this sūtra as his warrant — 「故文云「無量壽佛身量無邊，非是凡夫心力所及」」—“therefore the text says, ‘the measure of the body of the Buddha of Measureless Life is boundless, and beyond the reach of the mind-power of ordinary beings’” 〔T37n1750 0193a02〕 — and what he cites is the text of the thirteenth, the contemplation of mixed images 〔T12n0365 0344b27〕. This sūtra states the utmost of the body’s measure in the ninth contemplation and its boundlessness in the thirteenth, the two showing each other.

• This contemplation is what the two that follow take up: the commentary marks the first sentence of the tenth contemplation as 「正明結成前真身觀，生後菩薩觀」—“directly clarifying the concluding of the contemplation of the true body before and the giving rise to the contemplation of the bodhisattvas that follows” 〔T37n1753 0268b15〕; and the sūtra too takes up this contemplation with 「見無量壽佛了了分明已」—“once the Buddha of Measureless Life has been seen clear and distinct” 〔T12n0365 0343c11〕 and opens the contemplation of Avalokiteśvara.

• The point of cross-reading within this axis: the passages of the Contemplation Sūtra cited in the apparatus layer of the Amitābha Sūtra volume do not touch this unit.

IX. Placement Among the Recensions

The collation notes (<app>) within the domain of this unit come to fifteen in all, with two further items carried over by precedent (those carried over by precedent are notes whose base-text entry stands elsewhere while the precedent extends to this place, marked in parentheses in the table below):

Five things may be recorded:

① 〔T12n0365 0343b19〕 In 「佛眼清淨如四大海水」—“the Buddha’s eyes are pure as the water of the four great seas,” the two characters 「清淨」, pure, are absent from all five of the Song, the Yuan, the Ming, the Dunhuang witness, and the current-circulation printing. Zhiyi, glossing this sentence, gives 「眼如四大海水」—“the eyes are like the water of the four great seas” 〔T37n1750 0192c02〕, and what he cites is likewise without the two characters 「清淨」. Recorded without adjudication, and not one character of the base text is altered on that account.

② 〔T12n0365 0343b28〕 In 「令心明見」—“so that the mind sees it clearly,” the character 「明」 is read as 「眼」 by the Yuan, the Ming, the Dunhuang witness, and the current-circulation printing (so that it reads 「令心眼見」, let the eye of the mind see it). Shandao’s commentary cites it as 「但當憶想令心眼見也」—“one should only hold the image in mind and let the eye of the mind see it” 〔T37n1753 0268a23〕, reading 「眼」, in agreement with those four witnesses. Recorded without adjudication.

③ 〔T12n0365 0343c09〕 The three forms of the name of the contemplation — the base text reads 「遍觀一切色想」, the Yuan and the Ming read 色身相, and the Song and the current-circulation printing read 色身想. The unit name carved in this edition follows the base text. All three forms are recorded without adjudication.

④ 〔T12n0365 0343c09〕 In 「作是觀者」—“to make this contemplation,” the character 「是」 is read as 「此」 by the current-circulation printing; Shandao marks his twelfth sentence as 「從作此觀已下」 〔T37n1753 0268b09〕, citing 「此」, in agreement with the current-circulation printing, while Zhiyi marks his fifth topic as 「從「作是觀者」下」 〔T37n1750 0192b28〕, citing 「是」, in agreement with the base text. The recension each commentary followed differs in this one character, and each place is recorded without adjudication.

⑤ The collation notes of the 「敦」 (Dunhuang) witness are dense in this unit — of the fifteen items in this domain the Dunhuang witness accounts for nine. Its readings grow dense from the eighth contemplation onward: before the eighth contemplation the Dunhuang collation notes are nowhere found, and from the eighth onward there are some in every contemplation. The count is recorded honestly.

The variant wording of this passage as cited in Tanluan’s Commentary on the Treatise on Birth in the Pure Land (T40n1819; Northern Wei):

Each item is recorded, and not one character of the base text is altered on that account.

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 (of the five in this sūtra, none falls here).