佛說無量壽經 願成與上卷成就
問的人並不困在自己的疑惑中
安樂國沒有須彌山，四天王與忉利天要依哪裡住？阿難把這個問題問得很具體。佛反問更高諸天依何而住，他隨即明白：「行業果報不可思議。」〔T12n0360 0270a19〕
可是明白以後，阿難沒有撤回問題。他說：「我不疑此法，但為將來眾生欲除其疑惑，故問斯義。」〔T12n0360 0270a22〕 真正站在佛前的是阿難，真正被他帶到佛前的，卻是一切尚未出生、將來會讀到這裡的人。
不可思議，沒有封住發問的口
如果不可思議只是禁止追問，佛只須叫阿難相信。經中的對答卻讓問題完整出現，再把它帶回因果：國土之所以如此，是因為「其諸眾生功德善力住行業之地，故能爾耳。」〔T12n0360 0270a20〕
不可思議不是無因，也不是含混。它提醒有限的世界經驗不能窮盡願行所成之果；同時又守住功德、善力與行業，使信心不必以放棄因果為代價。
一個替後人問出的現在
阿難先問法藏已成佛、未成佛，還是現在住世。佛的回答把超世願、不可思議長劫的修行與今日成就接在一起：那位佛在西方，安樂世界已經成立，而且「成佛已來凡歷十劫」〔T12n0360 0270a07〕。
願沒有停在往昔的誓言中；長劫眾行使願成為力，已成國土又讓這股力量成為眾生可遇的光、聲、水與風。後來者雖未在法會，卻因阿難一問得到方所、國名與時間；疑問被說清，回答才可能在未來重新發生。
整座國土都在回答不同的人
接下來，經沒有只給一套抽象說明。有人從光明得柔軟，有人從樹音得忍，有人入池而聽見相應的聲音。水波所演的法門不同，卻「隨其所應莫不聞者」〔T12n0360 0271b16〕。差別不是阻隔，正是應機的入口。
連風與蓮華也把回答送向遠方。風動便有法音，蓮光中諸佛「普為十方說微妙法」〔T12n0360 0272a28〕。十方之中，也包括法會以後才來到世間的人。
為未到場者留一個座位
一個好問題，不只顯出提問者懂多少，也顯出他願意為誰多走一步。阿難已不疑，仍把未來眾生的疑惑放在自己口中；佛已回答，國土仍以光、聲、水、風繼續回答。
因此，後來者不是經外的旁觀者。當阿難說「將來眾生」〔T12n0360 0270a22〕時，他早在法會之中，便為每一位後來聞法者留下一個座位。
The Questioner Is Not Confined within His Own Doubt
If the land of Peace and Bliss has no Mount Sumeru, upon what do the Four Heavenly Kings and the devas of Trāyastriṃśa dwell? Ānanda makes the question very concrete. The Buddha asks in return what supports the heavens from Yāma up through Akaniṣṭha. Ānanda immediately understands: “The results of action are inconceivable.”
Yet after understanding, Ānanda does not withdraw the question. He says, “I do not doubt this Dharma. I ask about it only to remove the doubts of sentient beings in the future.” Ānanda is the one actually standing before the Buddha, but the ones he brings before the Buddha are all those not yet born who will one day read this passage.
The Inconceivable Does Not Seal the Mouth That Asks
If inconceivable merely prohibited further questions, the Buddha would need only to tell Ānanda to believe. The exchange in the sūtra allows the question to appear in full and then brings it back to cause and effect: the land is as it is because “its sentient beings, through the good power of merit, dwell upon the ground established by their actions.”
The inconceivable is neither causeless nor vague. It reminds us that experience bounded by this world cannot exhaust a result established by vows and practice. At the same time, it preserves merit, good power, and action, so that trust does not require abandoning cause and effect.
A Present Question Asked for Those Who Will Come Later
Ānanda first asks whether Dharmākara has attained buddhahood and entered extinction, has not yet attained buddhahood, or is now present. The Buddha’s answer joins the transcendent vows, cultivation through inconceivably long kalpas, and present accomplishment: that buddha is in the west, the world of Peace and Bliss has been established, and “ten kalpas have passed since he attained buddhahood.”
The vows did not remain within promises made in the past. Practice through long kalpas made vow into power, and the accomplished land lets that power become light, sound, water, and wind that sentient beings can encounter. Those who come later were not at the Dharma assembly, yet Ānanda’s question gives them direction, the name of the land, and a measure of time. Only when the doubt is articulated clearly can the answer happen again in the future.
The Whole Land Answers Different People
The sūtra does not proceed with only one abstract explanation. Some become gentle through light, some attain patience through the sounds of the trees, and some enter the pools and hear the sound that accords with them. The Dharma-gates sounded by the waves differ, yet “none fails to hear what accords with them.” Difference is not an obstruction; it is precisely the entrance that accords with capacity.
Even the wind and lotuses carry the answer far away. When the wind moves, Dharma-sounds arise; within the lotus-light, buddhas “universally teach the subtle Dharma throughout the ten directions.” Those ten directions also include people who enter the world only after the assembly has ended.
Leaving a Seat for Those Not Yet Present
A good question reveals not only how much the questioner understands, but also for whom that person is willing to take one more step. Ānanda no longer doubts, yet he lets the doubts of future sentient beings speak through his own mouth. The Buddha has answered, yet the land continues answering through light, sound, water, and wind.
Those who come later are therefore not observers standing outside the sūtra. When Ānanda says “sentient beings in the future,” he has already left a seat in the Dharma assembly for every person who will later hear the Dharma.
大正藏 T12n0360〔起 T12 0269b07〕。段／行首〔T12 …〕＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨。
〔T12 0269b07〕佛告阿難：「爾時，法藏比丘說此願已，而說頌曰： 「『我建超世願，必至無上道， 斯願不滿足，誓不成等覺。 我於無量劫，不為大施主， 普濟諸貧苦，誓不成等覺。 我至成佛道，名聲超十方， 究竟靡所聞，誓不成等覺。 離欲深正念，淨慧修梵行， 志求無上道，為諸天人師。 神力演大光，普照無際土， 消除三垢冥，明濟眾厄難。 開彼智慧眼，滅此昏盲闇， 閉塞諸惡道，通達善趣門。 功祚成滿足，威曜朗十方， 日月戢重暉，天光隱不現。 為眾開法藏，廣施功德寶， 常於大眾中，說法師子吼。 供養一切佛，具足眾德本， 願慧悉成滿，得為三界雄。 如佛無量智，通達靡不遍， 願我功德力，等此最勝尊。 斯願若剋果，大千應感動， 虛空諸天人，當雨珍妙華。』」 佛語阿難：「法藏比丘說此頌已，應時普地六種震動，天雨妙華以散其上，自然音樂空中讚言：『決定必成無上正覺。』於是法藏比丘具足修滿如是大願，誠諦不虛，超出世間深樂寂滅。 「阿難！法藏比丘於彼佛所諸天、魔、梵、龍神八部大眾之中發斯弘誓，建此願已，一向專志莊嚴妙土。所修佛國開廓廣大，超勝獨妙，建立常然，無衰、無變。於不可思議兆載永劫積殖菩薩無量德行，不生欲覺、瞋覺、害覺，不起欲想、瞋想、害想，不著色、聲、香、味、觸之法。忍力成就，不計眾苦。少欲知足，無染恚癡，三昧常寂，智慧無礙。無有虛偽諂曲之心，和顏軟語先意承問，勇猛精進志願無惓，專求清白之法。以慧利群生，恭敬三寶，奉事師長；以大莊嚴具足眾行，令諸眾生功德成就。住空、無相、無願之法，無作、無起，觀法如化。遠離麁言、自害、害彼、彼此俱害，修習善語，自利、利人、彼我兼利。棄國、捐王，絕去財色。自行六波羅蜜，教人令行。 「無央數劫積功累德，隨其生處在意所欲，無量寶藏自然發應，教化安立無數眾生。住於無上正真之道，或為長者、居士、豪姓、尊貴，或為剎利國君、轉輪聖帝，或為六欲天主乃至梵王。常以四事供養恭敬一切諸佛，如是功德不可稱說。口氣香潔如優鉢羅華，身諸毛孔出栴檀香，其香普熏無量世界；容色端正，相好殊妙，其手常出無盡之寶，衣服、飲食珍妙華香，諸蓋幢幡莊嚴之具。如是等事超諸人天，於一切法而得自在。」 〔T12 0270a02〕阿難白佛：「法藏菩薩為已成佛而取滅度、為未成佛？為今現在？」 佛告阿難：「法藏菩薩今已成佛，現在西方，去此十萬億剎，其佛世界名曰安樂。」 阿難又問：「其佛成道已來為經幾時？」 佛言：「成佛已來凡歷十劫。其佛國土自然七寶——金、銀、琉璃、珊瑚、琥珀、車𤦲、瑪瑙——合成為地，恢廓曠蕩不可限極。悉相雜廁，轉相入間，光赫焜耀，微妙奇麗，清淨莊嚴超踰十方一切世界眾寶中精，其寶猶如第六天寶。又其國土無須彌山及金剛圍一切諸山，亦無大海、小海、溪渠、井谷。佛神力故，欲見則見。亦無地獄、餓鬼、畜生諸難之趣。亦無四時——春、秋、冬、夏——不寒、不熱，常和調適。」 爾時，阿難白佛言：「世尊！若彼國土無須彌山，其四天王及忉利天依何而住？」 佛語阿難：「第三炎天乃至色究竟天皆依何住？」 阿難白佛：「行業果報不可思議。」 佛語阿難：「行業果報不可思議，諸佛世界亦不可思議。其諸眾生功德善力住行業之地，故能爾耳。」 阿難白佛：「我不疑此法，但為將來眾生欲除其疑惑，故問斯義。」 佛告阿難：「無量壽佛威神光明最尊第一，諸佛光明所不能及。或有佛光照百佛世界、或千佛世界，取要言之，乃照東方恒沙佛剎，南、西、北方四維，上、下亦復如是。或有佛光照于七尺，或照一由旬，二、三、四、五由旬，如是轉倍乃至照一佛剎。是故，無量壽佛號無量光佛、無邊光佛、無礙光佛、無對光佛、炎王光佛、清淨光佛、歡喜光佛、智慧光佛、不斷光佛、難思光佛、無稱光佛、超日月光佛。 「其有眾生遇斯光者，三垢消滅，身意柔軟，歡喜踊躍，善心生焉。若在三塗勤苦之處，見此光明，皆得休息，無復苦惱；壽終之後皆蒙解脫。 「無量壽佛光明顯赫照曜十方諸佛國土，莫不聞知。不但我今稱其光明，一切諸佛、聲聞、緣覺、諸菩薩眾咸共歎譽，亦復如是。若有眾生聞其光明威神功德，日夜稱說至心不斷，隨意所願得生其國，為諸菩薩、聲聞大眾所共歎譽稱其功德；至其然後得佛道時，普為十方諸佛菩薩歎其光明亦如今也。」 佛言：「我說無量壽佛光明威神巍巍殊妙，晝夜一劫尚不能盡。」 佛語阿難：「無量壽佛壽命長久不可稱計，汝寧知乎？假使十方世界無量眾生皆得人身，悉令成就聲聞、緣覺，都共集會禪思一心，竭其智力於百千萬劫悉共推算，計其壽命長遠劫數，不能窮盡知其限極。聲聞、菩薩、天、人之眾，壽命長短亦復如是，非算數譬喻所能知也。又聲聞、菩薩其數難量不可稱說，神智洞達威力自在，能於掌中持一切世界。」 佛語阿難：「彼佛初會，聲聞眾數不可稱計，菩薩亦然。能如大目揵連百千萬億無量無數，於阿僧祇那由他劫乃至滅度悉共計挍，不能究了多少之數。譬如大海深廣無量，假使有人析其一毛以為百分，以一分毛沾取一渧。於意云何？其所渧者於彼大海，何所為多？」 阿難白佛：「彼所渧水比於大海多少之量，非巧歷算數、言辭譬類所能知也。」 佛語阿難：「如目連等於百千萬億那由他劫計彼初會聲聞菩薩，所知數者猶如一渧，其所不知如大海水。 「又其國土，七寶諸樹周滿世界——金樹、銀樹、琉璃樹、頗梨樹、珊瑚樹、瑪瑙樹、車𤦲樹——或有二寶、三寶乃至七寶轉共合成。或有金樹，銀葉、華、果；或有銀樹，金葉、華、果；或琉璃樹，頗梨為葉，華、果亦然；或水精樹，琉璃為葉，華、果亦然；或珊瑚樹，瑪瑙為葉，華、果亦然；或瑪瑙樹，琉璃為葉，華、果亦然；或車𤦲樹，眾寶為葉，華、果亦然。或有寶樹，紫金為本、白銀為莖、琉璃為枝、水精為條、珊瑚為葉、瑪瑙為華、車𤦲為實；或有寶樹，白銀為本、琉璃為莖、水精為枝、珊瑚為條、瑪瑙為葉、車𤦲為華、紫金為實；或有寶樹，琉璃為本、水精為莖、珊瑚為枝、瑪瑙為條、車𤦲為葉、紫金為華、白銀為實；或有寶樹，水精為本、珊瑚為莖、瑪瑙為枝、車𤦲為條、紫金為葉、白銀為華、琉璃為實；或有寶樹，珊瑚為本、瑪瑙為莖、車𤦲為枝、紫金為條、白銀為葉、琉璃為華、水精為實；或有寶樹，瑪瑙為本、車𤦲為莖、紫金為枝、白銀為條、琉璃為葉、水精為華、珊瑚為實；或有寶樹，車𤦲為本、紫金為莖、白銀為枝、琉璃為條、水精為葉、珊瑚為華、瑪瑙為實。行行相值、莖莖相望、枝枝相準、葉葉相向、華華相順、實實相當，榮色光曜不可勝視。清風時發，出五音聲，微妙宮商自然相和。 〔T12 0271a02〕「又無量壽佛其道場樹，高四百萬里，其本周圍五千由旬，枝葉四布二十萬里。一切眾寶自然合成，以月光摩尼持海輪寶——眾寶之王——而莊嚴之。周匝條間垂寶瓔珞，百千萬色種種異變，無量光炎照曜無極。珍妙寶網羅覆其上，一切莊嚴隨應而現。微風徐動出妙法音，普流十方一切佛國。其聞音者得深法忍，住不退轉至成佛道，不遭苦患；目覩其色、耳聞其音、鼻知其香、舌甞其味、身觸其光、心以法緣，一切皆得甚深法忍，住不退轉至成佛道，六根清徹無諸惱患。 「阿難！若彼國人天見此樹者，得三法忍：一者、音響忍，二者、柔順忍，三者、無生法忍。此皆無量壽佛威神力故、本願力故、滿足願故、明了願故、堅固願故、究竟願故。」 佛告阿難：「世間帝王有百千音樂，自轉輪聖王乃至第六天上，伎樂音聲展轉相勝千億萬倍；第六天上萬種樂音，不如無量壽國諸七寶樹一種音聲千億倍也。亦有自然萬種伎樂，又其樂聲無非法音，清暢哀亮，微妙和雅，十方世界音聲之中最為第一。 「又，講堂、精舍、宮殿、樓觀皆七寶莊嚴，自然化成，復以真珠、明月摩尼眾寶以為交露，覆蓋其上。內、外、左、右有諸浴池，或十由旬，或二十、三十，乃至百千由旬，縱廣深淺各皆一等，八功德水湛然盈滿，清淨香潔味如甘露。黃金池者底白銀沙，白銀池者底黃金沙，水精池者底琉璃沙，琉璃池者底水精沙，珊瑚池者底琥珀沙，琥珀池者底珊瑚沙，車𤦲池者底瑪瑙沙，瑪瑙池者底車𤦲沙，白玉池者底紫金沙，紫金池者底白玉沙，或二寶、三寶乃至七寶轉共合成。其池岸上有栴檀樹，華葉垂布，香氣普熏。天優鉢羅華、鉢曇摩華、拘物頭華、分陀利華，雜色光茂彌覆水上。 「彼諸菩薩及聲聞眾若入寶池，意欲令水沒足，水即沒足；欲令至膝，即至于膝；欲令至腰，水即至腰；欲令至頸，水即至頸；欲令灌身，自然灌身；欲令還復，水輒還復。調和冷煖自然隨意，開神悅體蕩除心垢，清明澄潔淨若無形。寶沙映徹無深不照，微瀾迴流轉相灌注，安詳徐逝不遲不疾。波揚無量自然妙聲，隨其所應莫不聞者，或聞佛聲，或聞法聲，或聞僧聲，或寂靜聲、空無我聲、大慈悲聲、波羅蜜聲，或十力無畏不共法聲、諸通慧聲、無所作聲、不起滅聲、無生忍聲，乃至甘露灌頂眾妙法聲。如是等聲，稱其所聞歡喜無量，隨順清淨離欲寂滅真實之義、隨順三寶力無所畏不共之法、隨順通慧菩薩聲聞所行之道。無有三塗苦難之名，但有自然快樂之音，是故其國名曰極樂。 「阿難！彼佛國土諸往生者，具足如是清淨色身、諸妙音聲、神通功德，所處宮殿、衣服、飲食、眾妙華香莊嚴之具，猶第六天自然之物。若欲食時，七寶應器自然在前，金、銀、琉璃、車𤦲、瑪瑙、珊瑚、虎珀、明月真珠如是眾鉢隨意而至，百味飲食自然盈滿。雖有此食實無食者，但見色、聞香，意以為食，自然飽足，身心柔軟，無所味著。事已化去，時至復現。 「彼佛國土清淨安隱，微妙快樂，次於無為泥洹之道。其諸聲聞、菩薩、人、天，智慧高明，神通洞達。咸同一類，形無異狀，但因順餘方，故有人、天之名。顏貌端正，超世希有，容色微妙，非天、非人，皆受自然虛無之身、無極之體。」 佛告阿難：「譬如世間貧窮乞人在帝王邊，形貌容狀寧可類乎？」 阿難白佛：「假令此人在帝王邊，羸陋醜惡無以為喻，百千萬億不可計倍。所以然者？貧窮乞人底極廝下，衣不蔽形，食趣支命，飢寒困苦，人理殆盡。皆坐前世不殖德本，積財不施、富有益慳，但欲唐得、貪求無厭，不信修善、犯惡山積。如是壽終，財寶消散，苦身積聚為之憂惱，於己無益，徒為他有。無善可怙，無德可恃，是故，死墮惡趣，受此長苦。罪畢得出生為下賤，愚鄙斯極示同人類。所以世間帝王人中獨尊，皆由宿世積德所致，慈惠博施，仁愛兼濟，履信修善，無所違諍。是以壽終，福應得昇善道，上生天上享茲福樂。積善餘慶今得為人，遇生王家自然尊貴，儀容端正眾所敬事，妙衣珍膳隨心服御。宿福所追，故能致此。」 佛告阿難：「汝言是也。計如帝王，雖人中尊貴，形色端正，比之轉輪聖王，甚為鄙陋，猶彼乞人在帝王邊。轉輪聖王威相殊妙天下第一，比忉利天王，又復醜惡不得相喻萬億倍也。假令天帝比第六天王，百千億倍不相類也。設第六天王比無量壽佛國菩薩、聲聞，光顏容色不相及逮，百千萬億不可計倍。」 〔T12 0272a06〕佛告阿難：「無量壽國其諸天人，衣服、飲食、華香、瓔珞、諸蓋幢幡、微妙音聲，所居舍宅、宮殿、樓閣，稱其形色、高下、大小，或一寶、二寶，乃至無量眾寶，隨意所欲，應念即至。又，以眾寶妙衣遍布其地，一切人天踐之而行。無量寶網彌覆佛土，皆以金縷、真珠、百千雜寶、奇妙珍異莊嚴絞飾，周匝四面垂以寶鈴，光色晃曜盡極嚴麗。自然德風徐起微動，其風調和，不寒、不暑；溫涼柔軟，不遲、不疾；吹諸羅網及眾寶樹，演發無量微妙法音，流布萬種溫雅德香。其有聞者，塵勞垢習自然不起，風觸其身皆得快樂，譬如比丘得滅盡三昧。 「又，風吹散華遍滿佛土，隨色次第而不雜亂，柔軟光澤馨香芬烈，足履其上陷下四寸，隨舉足已還復如故。華用已訖地輒開裂，以次化沒清淨無遺，隨其時節風吹散華，如是六反。 「又眾寶蓮華周滿世界，一一寶華百千億葉，其葉光明無量種色，青色青光，白色白光，玄、黃、朱、紫光色亦然，煒燁煥爛，明曜日月。一一華中出三十六百千億光；一一光中出三十六百千億佛，身色紫金，相好殊特；一一諸佛又放百千光明，普為十方說微妙法；如是諸佛各各安立無量眾生於佛正道。」 無量壽經卷上
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.
大正藏 T12n0360，自法藏說超世願頌至上卷卷尾。段首（…）＝大正藏頁·欄·行錨。
〔一·超世願頌〕（0269b07）佛告訴阿難：那時，法藏比丘宣說四十八願以後，又說偈頌：
我已建立超越世間的大願，必定要到達無上佛道；如果這些願不能圓滿，我誓不成就正等正覺。若我經過無量劫，仍不能成為廣大的施主，普遍救濟一切貧窮困苦的眾生，我誓不成就正等正覺。若我到成佛時，名聲不能超越而傳遍十方，乃至最後仍有地方聽不到，我誓不成就正等正覺。
我要遠離欲染，以深切正念、清淨智慧修習清淨梵行，立志追求無上佛道，成為一切天眾、人眾的導師。我要以神通威力放出廣大光明，普遍照耀無邊國土，消除貪、瞋、癡三種垢染的黑暗，明照並救濟眾生的一切危厄災難；開啟他們的智慧眼，滅除昏昧盲闇，堵塞通向一切惡道的路，使通往善趣的門暢行無礙。
願我福德功業圓滿成就，威光照亮十方，使日月收起重重光輝，諸天的光也隱沒不現。我要為眾生開啟佛法寶藏，廣泛布施功德珍寶，常在大眾之中說法，作如獅子般無畏的吼聲。我要供養一切諸佛，具足一切功德根本，使願與智慧全都成滿，成為三界最尊勝的雄傑。
諸佛具有無量智慧，所通達的遍及一切而無所不至；願我功德之力也能等同這位最尊勝的覺者。如果這些願真能結果，三千大千世界應當為之震動，虛空中的諸天眾應當降下珍奇美妙的花。
〔二·瑞應與不可思議長劫的願行〕（0269c02）佛告訴阿難：法藏比丘說完這首頌，當下大地出現六種震動，天上降下妙花，散落在他身上；空中自然奏起音樂，並發聲讚歎：他決定必定成就無上正覺。於是，法藏比丘具足修習、圓滿了這樣的大願，誠實不虛，超出世間，深深愛樂寂滅。
法藏比丘在世自在王佛座前，面對天眾、魔眾、梵眾、龍神與八部大眾發下弘大誓願。建立這些願以後，他一心專注於莊嚴微妙國土。他所修成的佛國開闊廣大、超勝獨妙，長久建立，沒有衰敗，也沒有變異。
他在不可思議、以兆載計的漫長永劫中，積集菩薩無量德行。他不生貪欲的尋思、瞋怒的尋思與傷害的尋思，也不起貪欲、瞋怒與傷害的想法；對色、聲、香、味、觸等境界不起執著。他成就忍耐之力，不計較種種痛苦；少欲知足，不染貪欲、瞋恚與愚癡；三昧恆常寂定，智慧沒有障礙。
他心中沒有虛假、諂媚與曲折，總是容顏和悅、言語柔和，先體察別人的心意而主動問候；勇猛精進，志願從不疲倦，只求清淨潔白之法。他以智慧利益一切眾生，恭敬佛、法、僧三寶，奉事師長；以廣大莊嚴具足一切修行，使眾生也能成就功德。
他安住空、無相、無願三解脫法，了知無造作、無生起，觀察一切法如幻化。他遠離粗惡言語，也遠離傷害自己、傷害他人以及同時傷害彼此的行為；修習善語，使自己得益、他人得益，也使彼此共同得益。他放棄國土、捨去王位，斷絕財物與色欲；自己修行布施、持戒、忍辱、精進、禪定、智慧六波羅蜜，也教導別人一同修行。
〔三·累劫功德與隨處教化〕（0269c21）法藏比丘在無數劫中積聚功德。無論生到哪裡，只要心中有所需要，無量寶藏便自然出現、隨之相應；他教化無數眾生，使他們安住無上正真佛道。
他有時現為長者、居士、名門豪族或尊貴之人，有時現為剎利國王、轉輪聖王，有時現為六欲天主，乃至梵天王。他恆常以衣服、飲食、臥具、醫藥四事供養，恭敬一切諸佛；這些功德無法稱量說盡。
他的口氣清香潔淨，如優鉢羅花；全身毛孔散發栴檀香氣，普熏無量世界。他的容貌端正，相好特別美妙；手中常能生出用不完的珍寶，以及衣服、飲食、珍奇妙花、香品、寶蓋、幢幡等各種莊嚴器具。這一切都超越人間與天上；他對一切法都能運用自在。
〔四·法藏已成佛與安樂國成就〕（0270a02）阿難問佛：法藏菩薩是已經成佛而又入了滅度，還是尚未成佛，或是如今仍然住世？
佛告訴阿難：法藏菩薩如今已經成佛，現在西方，離這裡十萬億佛國；祂的佛世界名叫安樂。阿難又問：那位佛成道以來，已經過了多久？佛回答：祂成佛以來，總共已經歷十劫。
那座佛國自然由七寶合成為大地，七寶就是金、銀、琉璃、珊瑚、琥珀、車𤦲與瑪瑙。國土寬廣空曠，沒有邊際；各種珍寶彼此錯雜、互相間入，光輝明盛，精微奇麗，清淨莊嚴，超越十方一切世界珍寶中的精華；那裡的寶物如同第六天的珍寶。
國中沒有須彌山、金剛圍山以及一切其他山，也沒有大海、小海、溪流、水渠、水井與山谷；但以佛的神力，想見這些景象時仍能看見。國中也沒有地獄、餓鬼、畜生等艱難惡趣，又沒有春、秋、冬、夏四季；氣候不冷不熱，恆常和順舒適。
這時阿難問佛：世尊，如果那座國土沒有須彌山，那裡的四天王天與忉利天依靠什麼居住？佛反問阿難：第三炎天以上，乃至色究竟天，又都依靠什麼而住？阿難回答：眾生的行業與所得果報不可思議。
佛告訴阿難：行業果報不可思議，諸佛世界同樣不可思議；那裡的眾生以自身功德善力，住在行業所成之地，所以能夠如此。阿難稟告佛：我並不懷疑這一法，只是想為未來眾生除去疑惑，所以才提出這個問題。
〔五·十二光名與遇光利益〕（0270a23）佛告訴阿難：無量壽佛的威神光明最為尊勝第一，其他諸佛的光明都不能相比。有的佛光能照一百個佛世界，有的照一千個佛世界；總而言之，有的能照東方如恒河沙數的佛國，南方、西方、北方、東南西南東北西北四維以及上方、下方，也都如此。
諸佛光明所照遠近各有不同：有的只照七尺，有的照一由旬，有的照二、三、四、五由旬，如此逐倍增長，乃至照遍一個佛國。因此，無量壽佛又名無量光佛、無邊光佛、無礙光佛、無對光佛、炎王光佛、清淨光佛、歡喜光佛、智慧光佛、不斷光佛、難思光佛、無稱光佛、超日月光佛。
凡有眾生遇到祂的光明，貪、瞋、癡三種垢染便消滅，身心柔和，歡喜踴躍，生起善心。如果眾生正在地獄、餓鬼、畜生三惡道的勤苦之處，見到這道光明，也都能止息痛苦，不再受苦惱；壽命終結以後，全都得到解脫。
無量壽佛的光明顯赫，照耀十方諸佛國土，沒有一處不曾聽聞知道。不只釋迦牟尼佛現在稱揚祂的光明，一切諸佛、聲聞、緣覺與菩薩大眾，也都共同讚歎祂。
如果眾生聽聞這道光明的威神功德，日夜稱揚講說，至誠之心相續不斷，便能隨自己的願往生安樂國，並得到菩薩、聲聞大眾共同讚歎其功德；將來他成佛時，十方諸佛菩薩也會讚歎他的光明，如同現在讚歎無量壽佛一樣。佛又說：若要完整宣說無量壽佛光明威神的巍巍殊勝，即使晝夜連說整整一劫，仍然說不完。
〔六·無量壽命與如海會眾〕（0270b16）佛告訴阿難：無量壽佛壽命極其長久，不能稱量計算。你可知道嗎？假使十方世界無量眾生全都得到人身，並使每一個人都成就聲聞、緣覺，大家共同集會，入禪定而專一其心，竭盡所有智慧，在百千萬劫中一同推算，也不能窮盡祂壽命的長遠劫數，無法知道極限。
安樂國聲聞、菩薩、天眾與人眾的壽命長短也是如此，不是算數或譬喻所能知道。他們的數目同樣難以測量，無法完整說明；這些聲聞菩薩神妙智慧通達，威力自在，能把一切世界托在手掌中。
佛又告訴阿難：無量壽佛第一次法會中的聲聞人數不可計量，菩薩人數也一樣。假使有百千萬億、無量無數位像大目揵連那樣具有神通智慧的人，在阿僧祇那由他劫中一直共同計算，直到他們滅度，也不能算清初會大眾究竟有多少。
譬如大海深廣無量，有人把一根毛分成一百分，再用其中百分之一的毛端沾取一滴海水。佛問阿難：毛端所沾的那一滴水，與整座大海相比，哪一個多？阿難回答：這滴水與大海的多寡差距，不是精巧曆算、數學、言辭或譬喻所能表明。佛說：像大目揵連等人在百千萬億那由他劫中計算初會聲聞、菩薩，能知道的數目只像毛端一滴水，不能知道的卻像整座大海。
〔七·周滿國土的七寶樹〕（0270c06）安樂國中，七寶樹遍滿整個世界，有金樹、銀樹、琉璃樹、頗梨樹、珊瑚樹、瑪瑙樹與車𤦲樹；有的由兩種寶物、三種寶物，乃至七種寶物互相合成。
有金作樹身而以銀作葉、花與果的樹，也有銀作樹身而以金作葉、花與果的樹；有琉璃樹以頗梨為葉，花果也是頗梨；有水精樹以琉璃為葉，花果也是琉璃；有珊瑚樹以瑪瑙為葉，花果也是瑪瑙；有瑪瑙樹以琉璃為葉，花果也是琉璃；還有車𤦲樹以各種珍寶為葉，花果同樣由眾寶合成。
又有七寶分別構成根本、莖、枝、細條、葉、花與果實的寶樹。第一種以紫金為本、白銀為莖、琉璃為枝、水精為條、珊瑚為葉、瑪瑙為花、車𤦲為果；第二種以白銀為本、琉璃為莖、水精為枝、珊瑚為條、瑪瑙為葉、車𤦲為花、紫金為果；第三種以琉璃為本、水精為莖、珊瑚為枝、瑪瑙為條、車𤦲為葉、紫金為花、白銀為果。
第四種以水精為本、珊瑚為莖、瑪瑙為枝、車𤦲為條、紫金為葉、白銀為花、琉璃為果；第五種以珊瑚為本、瑪瑙為莖、車𤦲為枝、紫金為條、白銀為葉、琉璃為花、水精為果；第六種以瑪瑙為本、車𤦲為莖、紫金為枝、白銀為條、琉璃為葉、水精為花、珊瑚為果；第七種以車𤦲為本、紫金為莖、白銀為枝、琉璃為條、水精為葉、珊瑚為花、瑪瑙為果。
所有樹木一行對著一行，樹莖彼此相望，樹枝彼此整齊，葉片彼此相向，花朵彼此相順，果實彼此相當；繁茂的色彩與光耀，美得無法盡看。清風按時吹起，寶樹發出五種音聲，微妙的宮、商等音階自然和諧。
〔八·道場樹與三法忍〕（0271a02）無量壽佛的道場樹高四百萬里，樹幹周圍五千由旬，枝葉向四方伸展二十萬里。整棵樹由一切珍寶自然合成，又以眾寶之王——月光摩尼持海輪寶——莊嚴。
樹的所有枝條之間，四周垂掛寶珠瓔珞，呈現百千萬種色彩與不同變化；無量光焰照耀到沒有邊際。珍奇妙寶結成的網覆蓋樹頂，一切莊嚴都隨眾生所應而顯現。微風吹動時，樹中發出微妙法音，普遍流傳到十方一切佛國。
聽到樹音的人得到甚深法忍，住於不退轉，直至成佛，不再遭受苦患。眼睛看見樹的色彩，耳朵聽見樹音，鼻子聞到樹香，舌頭嘗到樹味，身體接觸樹光，心中緣念樹所顯的法；六根接觸這六種境界，全都能得甚深法忍，住不退轉直到成佛，六根清淨透徹，沒有任何惱患。
佛告訴阿難：安樂國的人眾、天眾看見這棵樹，便能得到三種法忍：第一是音響忍，第二是柔順忍，第三是無生法忍。這都是由於無量壽佛的威神力、過去本願力、願已圓滿之力、願義明了之力、願心堅固之力與願果究竟之力。
〔九·自然樂音與七寶宮殿〕（0271a18）佛告訴阿難：世間帝王有百千種音樂；從轉輪聖王逐級上至第六天，各處伎樂音聲一層勝過一層，差距達千億萬倍。可是第六天的一萬種樂音，仍不及無量壽國七寶樹所發一種音聲的千億分之一。
安樂國也有自然出現的一萬種伎樂。那裡的樂聲沒有一音不是法音；聲音清澈流暢、哀婉明亮、微妙和雅，在十方世界一切音聲之中最為第一。
國中的講堂、精舍、宮殿、樓閣全都以七寶莊嚴，自然化成；又以真珠、明月摩尼與各種寶物交織成網，覆蓋其上。建築內外與左右都有浴池，有的長廣十由旬，有的二十、三十由旬，乃至百千由旬；每一池的長、寬、深、淺都彼此相稱。八功德水澄靜盈滿，清淨、芳香潔淨，滋味如甘露。
黃金池以白銀作池底細沙，白銀池以黃金作沙；水精池以琉璃作沙，琉璃池以水精作沙；珊瑚池以琥珀作沙，琥珀池以珊瑚作沙；車𤦲池以瑪瑙作沙，瑪瑙池以車𤦲作沙；白玉池以紫金作沙，紫金池以白玉作沙。也有浴池由兩寶、三寶，乃至七寶交互合成。
池岸長有栴檀樹，花葉低垂散布，香氣普遍熏聞。天上的優鉢羅花、鉢曇摩花、拘物頭花、分陀利花，呈現各種色彩與光澤，繁茂地覆滿水面。
〔十·隨意深淺的池水與無量法音〕（0271b09）菩薩與聲聞大眾進入寶池時，心中想讓水只淹到腳，水便到腳；想讓水到膝，便到膝；想到腰，便到腰；想到頸，便到頸；想讓水從上灌沐全身，水便自然灌身；想讓水退回原位，水便立刻恢復。
水的冷暖自然調和，完全隨順各人心意，令人心神開朗、身體喜悅，洗蕩內心垢染。池水清澈明淨，彷彿沒有形體；池底寶沙明徹映照，再深的地方也能照見。細小波紋迴旋流動，彼此灌注；水流安詳徐緩，不太慢也不太急。
水波自然發出無量微妙音聲，眾生隨各自根機，都能聽到相應的法：有的聽見佛聲、法聲、僧聲，有的聽見寂靜聲、空無我聲、大慈悲聲、波羅蜜聲；有的聽見佛的十力、無所畏、不共法之聲，或神通智慧聲、無所造作聲、不起不滅聲、無生法忍聲，乃至甘露灌頂等種種妙法之聲。
眾生聽見各自相應的法音，歡喜無量，隨順清淨、離欲、寂滅、真實的義理，隨順三寶、十力、無所畏與不共法，也隨順神通智慧以及菩薩、聲聞所行之道。國中連地獄、餓鬼、畜生三途苦難的名稱也沒有，只有自然快樂之音；因此，那座國土名叫極樂。
〔十一·自然飲食、平等形色與世間格量〕（0271b25）佛告訴阿難：往生那座佛國的眾生，具足清淨色身、種種妙音、神通與功德；所居宮殿，以及衣服、飲食、各種妙花香和莊嚴用具，都如第六天自然出現的物品。
想用餐時，七寶所成的合宜器皿自然出現在面前。金、銀、琉璃、車𤦲、瑪瑙、珊瑚、虎珀、明月真珠等各種寶鉢都隨心而至，百味飲食自然盛滿。雖然食物現前，實際上沒有人真正吞食；眾生只見食物色澤、聞到香氣，心意便以此為食而自然飽足，身心柔軟，對滋味沒有貪著。用食之事一過，器物飲食自然化去；下次時候一到，又再出現。
那座佛國清淨安穩、微妙快樂，僅次於無為泥洹之道。國中聲聞、菩薩、人眾與天眾，智慧高明、神通透徹；形體全屬同一類，沒有不同形狀，只因順應其他世界的稱呼，所以仍有人、天之名。他們容貌端正，超越世間而稀有，形色微妙，不能以世間天身或人身限定；全都受得自然虛無之身、無極之體。
佛問阿難：譬如世間最貧窮的乞丐站在帝王身邊，兩人的形貌容姿可以相比嗎？阿難回答：這個人站在帝王身旁，羸弱、鄙陋、醜惡，差距大得無法形容，有百千萬億不可計倍。
阿難繼續說：貧窮乞人處在最卑下的境地，衣服不足以遮身，食物只勉強維持性命，受盡飢寒困苦，幾乎失去做人的基本境況。這是因為前世不栽培功德根本，積聚財物卻不肯布施，愈富有反而愈慳吝；只想白白獲得，貪求永不滿足，不信修善，所犯惡業堆積如山。
這種人壽命終結時，財寶全都消散；他辛苦一生所積，只為自己帶來憂惱，對自己沒有利益，最後徒然歸別人所有。他沒有善行可以依靠，也沒有功德可以憑恃，因此死後墮入惡趣，長久受苦。罪業受完，重新出生仍成為下賤之人，愚昧鄙陋到極點，只勉強具有人類形貌。
世間帝王之所以在人中獨享尊貴，則是宿世積德所得。他從前慈悲惠施、仁愛而普遍救濟，守信修善，不做違理諍鬥之事；壽終以後，福報使他升到善道，生於天上享受福樂。其餘善福延續，今生再來做人，生在王家而自然尊貴，儀容端正，得到大眾敬奉；美妙衣服與珍貴飲食隨心受用。這都是過去福業跟隨而來，所以能有如此結果。
佛告訴阿難：你說得對。帝王雖在人中尊貴、形貌端正，與轉輪聖王相比仍然十分鄙陋，就像乞人站在帝王身邊。轉輪聖王的威儀相貌殊勝，天下第一；但與忉利天王相比，又顯得醜陋，無法相比，差距達萬億倍。忉利天帝若與第六天王相比，也有百千億倍的差距。即使第六天王與無量壽佛國的菩薩聲聞相比，其光明容顏仍遠遠不及，差距達百千萬億不可計倍。
〔十二·應念資具、德風與六度散華〕（0272a06）佛告訴阿難：無量壽國的天眾、人眾，所需衣服、飲食、花香、瓔珞、寶蓋、幢幡、微妙音聲，以及所住舍宅、宮殿、樓閣，都配合各自的形色、高低與大小；這些物品或由一寶、二寶造成，乃至由無量珍寶造成，隨心所欲，一動念便立即出現。
國中又以眾寶所成的美妙衣料遍鋪地面，一切人眾、天眾都踏在上面行走。無量寶網覆滿整座佛土，全以金線、真珠、百千種雜寶與奇妙珍寶莊嚴交織；寶網四面周遍，垂掛寶鈴，光明色彩照耀，極盡莊嚴華麗。
自然生起的德風徐徐微動。風勢調和，不冷不熱，溫涼柔軟，不太慢也不太急；它吹動所有寶網與寶樹，發出無量微妙法音，又散布一萬種溫雅的德香。聞到香氣的人，塵勞與染污習氣自然不再生起；風接觸身體，每個人都得到快樂，如同比丘進入滅盡三昧。
風又吹散各種花，使花遍滿佛土。花依色彩次序排列，彼此不相混雜；花瓣柔軟有光澤，香氣濃郁。人走在花上，花毯便下陷四寸；腳一抬起，花又恢復原狀。花的作用結束後，大地自然裂開，花依次化沒，清淨得沒有任何殘留。隨著相應時節，風吹花落，如此反覆六次。
〔十三·寶蓮放光、光中化佛〕（0272a23）眾寶蓮花遍滿整個世界，每一朵寶花都有百千億片花瓣；花瓣放出無量種色光：青色花瓣放青光，白色花瓣放白光，玄色、黃色、紅色、紫色花瓣也各自放出相應色光。光彩明盛燦爛，勝過日月。
每一朵花中放出三十六百千億道光；每一道光中，又出現三十六百千億尊佛。每一尊佛的身色都是紫金色，相好殊勝特別；每一尊佛又放出百千道光明，普遍為十方眾生宣說微妙佛法。這些諸佛各自安立無量眾生，使他們住於佛的正道。
至此，《佛說無量壽經》上卷結束。
Taishō canon T12n0360, from Dharmākara’s verse on the transcendent vows through the end of the first fascicle. The figures at the head of each segment give the Taishō page, register, and line.
〔一 · Verse on the Transcendent Vows〕（0269b07）The Buddha told Ānanda: at that time, after Bhikṣu Dharmākara had proclaimed the Forty-Eight Vows, he spoke these verses:
I have established vows transcending the world and will certainly reach the unsurpassed path. If these vows are not fulfilled, I pledge not to attain perfect awakening. If, through measureless kalpas, I do not become a great donor who universally rescues all sentient beings in poverty and distress, I pledge not to attain perfect awakening. If, when I attain buddhahood, my renown does not transcend and spread throughout the ten directions, so that in the end there is still somewhere it has not been heard, I pledge not to attain perfect awakening.
Free of sensual defilement, I will cultivate pure conduct through profound right mindfulness and pure wisdom, resolve to seek the unsurpassed path, and become a teacher of all devas and humans. With spiritual power I will emit great light that universally illuminates boundless lands, dispels the darkness of the three defilements of greed, anger, and delusion, and brings clear rescue from every danger and hardship. I will open the eye of wisdom, end the darkness of blind ignorance, close the roads into all the evil destinies, and make the gates of the good destinies freely passable.
May my meritorious work be fulfilled and my majestic radiance illuminate the ten directions, causing the sun and moon to draw in their manifold rays and celestial lights to disappear. I will open the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma for sentient beings, widely bestow the jewels of merit, and constantly teach the Dharma in the midst of the assembly with a lion’s fearless roar. I will make offerings to every buddha, fully possess every root of virtue, bring both vow and wisdom to fulfillment, and become the most excellent hero of the three realms.
The buddhas possess immeasurable wisdom, penetrating everywhere without exception. May the power of my merit equal that of the most excellent honored one. If these vows truly bear fruit, the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system should respond by trembling, and the devas in space should rain down precious and wondrous flowers.
〔二 · Auspicious Responses and Vow-Practice through Inconceivably Long Kalpas〕（0269c02）The Buddha told Ānanda: as soon as Bhikṣu Dharmākara finished speaking these verses, the earth trembled in six ways. Wondrous flowers rained from the heavens and scattered upon him. Music arose naturally in the sky, and a voice praised him: “He will certainly attain unsurpassed perfect awakening.” Bhikṣu Dharmākara then fully cultivated and fulfilled these great vows. He was truthful and free of falsity, transcended the world, and deeply delighted in quiescence.
Before World-Sovereign King Tathāgata and in the midst of devas, māras, brahmās, dragon spirits, and the eight classes of beings, Bhikṣu Dharmākara made these vast pledges. After establishing the vows, he single-mindedly devoted his resolve to adorning a wondrous land. The buddha-land he cultivated was open and vast, surpassingly excellent and uniquely wondrous, enduring always without decline or change.
Through inconceivably long kalpas reckoned in immense spans, he accumulated the immeasurable virtuous practices of a bodhisattva. He gave rise neither to thoughts of sensual desire, anger, and harm nor to perceptions of desire, anger, and harm. He did not become attached to forms, sounds, fragrances, flavors, or tangible objects. His power of patience was complete, and he did not dwell upon the many sufferings. He had few desires and knew contentment, free of greed, anger, and delusion. His samādhi was constantly still, and his wisdom unobstructed.
His mind held no falsity, flattery, or crookedness. His expression was gentle and joyful, his words soft; he understood another’s intention beforehand and took the initiative in asking after them. Courageous and vigorous, he never tired in his resolve and sought only the pure and undefiled Dharma. Through wisdom he benefited all sentient beings, revered the Three Jewels of Buddha, Dharma, and Saṅgha, and attended upon teachers and elders. With great adornment he fully cultivated all practices and enabled sentient beings to accomplish merit.
He abided in the three liberations of emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, knew that dharmas are neither fabricated nor arisen, and contemplated every dharma as illusory transformation. He kept far from coarse and harmful speech, from harming himself, harming others, and harming both himself and others. He cultivated good speech that benefited himself, benefited others, and benefited both. He abandoned his land, relinquished kingship, and cut himself off from wealth and sensuality. He personally cultivated the six perfections of giving, ethical discipline, patience, vigor, samādhi, and wisdom, and taught others to cultivate them as well.
〔三 · Merit Accumulated through Kalpas and Teaching Wherever He Was Born〕（0269c21）Through innumerable kalpas Bhikṣu Dharmākara accumulated merit. Wherever he was born, whenever his mind required something, immeasurable treasuries of jewels naturally appeared in response. He taught and transformed innumerable sentient beings and established them in the unsurpassed, true, and right Buddha-path.
At times he appeared as an elder, householder, member of a powerful lineage, or honored person; at times as a kṣatriya king or wheel-turning sage king; at times as a lord of one of the six desire heavens, and even as a Brahmā king. He constantly made the four offerings of clothing, food, bedding, and medicine to all the buddhas and revered them. These merits cannot be described or measured.
His breath was fragrant and pure like an utpala flower, and the pores of his body emitted the fragrance of sandalwood, permeating measureless worlds. His countenance was upright and beautiful, and his marks and excellences surpassingly wondrous. His hands constantly produced inexhaustible jewels, clothing, food, precious wondrous flowers, fragrances, canopies, banners, and every kind of ornament. All these surpassed what exists among humans and devas, and he had sovereign freedom in every dharma.
〔四 · Dharmākara Has Attained Buddhahood; the Land of Peace and Bliss Is Accomplished〕（0270a02）Ānanda asked the Buddha: had Bodhisattva Dharmākara already attained buddhahood and then entered extinction, had he not yet attained buddhahood, or was he now present in the world?
The Buddha told Ānanda: Bodhisattva Dharmākara has now attained buddhahood. He is presently in the west, a hundred thousand koṭis of buddha-lands away. His buddha-world is called Peace and Bliss. Ānanda then asked how long it had been since that buddha attained the path. The Buddha answered that ten kalpas had passed since his attainment of buddhahood.
The ground of that buddha-land is naturally formed from the seven precious substances: gold, silver, beryl, coral, amber, mother-of-pearl, and agate. The land is broad, open, and without limit. The many precious substances mingle and enter one another, brilliant with radiance, subtle, rare, beautiful, pure, and adorned. They surpass the finest jewels in every world throughout the ten directions and are like the precious substances of the sixth heaven.
The land has no Mount Sumeru, adamantine encircling mountains, or any other mountains. Nor does it have great or small seas, streams, channels, wells, or valleys, though by the Buddha’s spiritual power one can see such scenes whenever one wishes. It has none of the difficult evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals. Nor does it have the four seasons of spring, autumn, winter, and summer. It is neither cold nor hot, but always harmonious and comfortable.
At that time Ānanda asked the Buddha: World-Honored One, if that land has no Mount Sumeru, upon what do its Four Heavenly Kings and the devas of Trāyastriṃśa dwell? The Buddha asked Ānanda in return: upon what do the heavens from Yāma up through Akaniṣṭha dwell? Ānanda answered: the actions of sentient beings and the results they receive are inconceivable.
The Buddha told Ānanda: the results of action are inconceivable, and the worlds of the buddhas are likewise inconceivable. The sentient beings there dwell upon the ground established by their actions through the good power of their own merit, and therefore it can be so. Ānanda said to the Buddha: I do not doubt this Dharma. I ask about it only because I wish to remove the doubts of sentient beings in the future.
〔五 · The Twelve Names of Light and the Benefits of Encountering the Light〕（0270a23）The Buddha told Ānanda: the majestic spiritual light of the Buddha of Measureless Life is the most honored and foremost; the light of other buddhas cannot equal it. Some buddha-lights illuminate one hundred buddha-worlds and some illuminate one thousand. In brief, some illuminate buddha-lands as numerous as the sands of the Gaṅgā in the east, and likewise those in the south, west, and north, the four intermediate directions, above, and below.
The distances reached by the buddhas’ lights differ. Some illuminate only seven feet, some one yojana, some two, three, four, or five yojanas, doubling in this way until they illuminate an entire buddha-land. Therefore the Buddha of Measureless Life is also called the Buddha of Measureless Light, Buddha of Boundless Light, Buddha of Unobstructed Light, Buddha of Unequaled Light, Buddha King of Blazing Light, Buddha of Pure Light, Buddha of Joyful Light, Buddha of Wisdom Light, Buddha of Unceasing Light, Buddha of Inconceivable Light, Buddha of Ineffable Light, and Buddha of Light Surpassing the Sun and Moon.
Whenever sentient beings encounter his light, the three defilements of greed, anger, and delusion cease. Their bodies and minds become gentle, they rejoice and leap with joy, and wholesome minds arise. If sentient beings are undergoing intense suffering in the three evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, or animals, seeing this light gives them respite and ends their anguish. After their lives end, they all receive liberation.
The light of the Buddha of Measureless Life shines brilliantly throughout the buddha-lands of the ten directions, and nowhere is it unknown. It is not only Śākyamuni Buddha who now praises this light. All buddhas, śrāvakas, pratyekabuddhas, and bodhisattva assemblies likewise praise it together.
If sentient beings hear of the majestic spiritual merit of this light and praise and speak of it day and night with an unbroken mind of utmost sincerity, they attain birth in that land according to their wishes. Bodhisattvas and the great assembly of śrāvakas then praise their merit. When they later attain the Buddha-path, the buddhas and bodhisattvas of the ten directions will also praise their light, just as they now praise the Buddha of Measureless Life. The Buddha further said that even if he spoke day and night for an entire kalpa, he could not finish describing the majestic and wondrous spiritual light of the Buddha of Measureless Life.
〔六 · Lifespan Beyond Measure and an Assembly Like the Ocean〕（0270b16）The Buddha told Ānanda: the lifespan of the Buddha of Measureless Life is so long that it cannot be described or calculated. Do you know this? Suppose the measureless sentient beings throughout the worlds of the ten directions all obtained human bodies and were each brought to the attainment of śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha. Suppose they gathered together, entered meditation, unified their minds, and exhausted all their wisdom in joint calculation through hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas. Even then, they could not exhaust the long kalpas of his lifespan or know its limit.
The lifespans of the śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, devas, and humans in the land of Peace and Bliss are likewise beyond calculation or simile. Their numbers are equally difficult to measure and cannot be fully stated. These śrāvakas and bodhisattvas possess penetrating spiritual wisdom and sovereign majestic power; they can hold all worlds in the palms of their hands.
The Buddha further told Ānanda: the number of śrāvakas in the Buddha of Measureless Life’s first Dharma assembly cannot be calculated, and the same is true of the bodhisattvas. Suppose hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis, measureless and innumerable persons with wisdom and spiritual powers like Mahāmaudgalyāyana’s calculated together through asaṃkhya nayutas of kalpas until they entered extinction. They still could not determine how many beings attended that first assembly.
It is like the immeasurably deep and vast ocean. Suppose someone split one hair into one hundred parts and touched one drop of seawater with the tip of one of those hundredth parts. The Buddha asked Ānanda: which is greater, the drop on the hair-tip or the great ocean? Ānanda replied that the difference between that drop and the ocean cannot be expressed through skillful calendrical calculation, mathematics, words, or similes. The Buddha said: what beings like Mahāmaudgalyāyana could know by calculating the śrāvakas and bodhisattvas of the first assembly through hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of nayutas of kalpas would be like the drop on the hair-tip; what they could not know would be like all the water in the ocean.
〔七 · Trees of the Seven Precious Substances Filling the Land〕（0270c06）Trees of the seven precious substances fill the world of Peace and Bliss: trees of gold, silver, beryl, crystal, coral, agate, and mother-of-pearl. Some are formed from two precious substances, some from three, and some from as many as all seven together.
Some trees have trunks of gold with leaves, flowers, and fruit of silver; some have trunks of silver with leaves, flowers, and fruit of gold. Some beryl trees have leaves of crystal, with flowers and fruit likewise of crystal. Some rock-crystal trees have leaves of beryl, with flowers and fruit likewise of beryl. Some coral trees have leaves of agate, with flowers and fruit likewise of agate. Some agate trees have leaves of beryl, with flowers and fruit likewise of beryl. Some mother-of-pearl trees have leaves made of the many treasures, with flowers and fruit likewise formed from the many treasures.
There are also jeweled trees whose roots, trunks, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, and fruit are formed successively from the seven precious substances. The first kind has purple-gold roots, a silver trunk, beryl branches, crystal twigs, coral leaves, agate flowers, and mother-of-pearl fruit. The second has silver roots, a beryl trunk, crystal branches, coral twigs, agate leaves, mother-of-pearl flowers, and purple-gold fruit. The third has beryl roots, a crystal trunk, coral branches, agate twigs, mother-of-pearl leaves, purple-gold flowers, and silver fruit.
The fourth has crystal roots, a coral trunk, agate branches, mother-of-pearl twigs, purple-gold leaves, silver flowers, and beryl fruit. The fifth has coral roots, an agate trunk, mother-of-pearl branches, purple-gold twigs, silver leaves, beryl flowers, and crystal fruit. The sixth has agate roots, a mother-of-pearl trunk, purple-gold branches, silver twigs, beryl leaves, crystal flowers, and coral fruit. The seventh has mother-of-pearl roots, a purple-gold trunk, silver branches, beryl twigs, crystal leaves, coral flowers, and agate fruit.
Every row of trees stands opposite another row; trunk faces trunk, branch aligns with branch, leaf faces leaf, flower accords with flower, and fruit matches fruit. Their luxuriant colors and radiance surpass all seeing. When a clear breeze arises at the proper time, the jeweled trees produce the five tones, and the subtle musical modes naturally harmonize.
〔八 · The Tree at the Site of Awakening and the Three Patiences〕（0271a02）The tree at the site of awakening of the Buddha of Measureless Life is four million li high. Its trunk is five thousand yojanas in circumference, and its branches and leaves extend two hundred thousand li in the four directions. The entire tree is naturally formed from all the treasures and adorned with the king of jewels, the moonlight maṇi jewel that holds the ocean wheel.
Strands of jeweled pearls hang all around among the tree’s branches, showing hundreds of thousands of myriads of colors and many different transformations. Measureless rays of light blaze without limit. Nets woven from precious wondrous jewels cover the crown, and every adornment appears in accord with sentient beings’ needs. When a gentle wind moves the tree, it emits subtle Dharma-sounds that flow throughout every buddha-land in the ten directions.
Those who hear the tree’s sounds attain profound Dharma-patience, abide in non-retrogression until buddhahood, and no longer encounter suffering or harm. Their eyes see its colors, ears hear its sounds, noses know its fragrance, tongues taste its flavor, bodies touch its light, and minds take the Dharma it reveals as their object. Through the six faculties encountering these six objects, they all attain profound Dharma-patience, abide in non-retrogression until buddhahood, and possess faculties that are clear and pure, free of every affliction.
The Buddha told Ānanda: humans and devas in the land of Peace and Bliss who see this tree attain three Dharma-patiences: first, the patience arising from sound; second, the patience of pliant accord; third, the patience of non-arising. These all arise through the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha of Measureless Life, the power of his past original vows, the power of vows fulfilled, the power of vows clearly known, the power of vows made firm, and the power of vows brought to completion.
〔九 · Naturally Arising Music and Palaces of the Seven Precious Substances〕（0271a18）The Buddha told Ānanda: worldly rulers possess hundreds of thousands of kinds of music. From a wheel-turning sage king upward through the sixth heaven, the musical sounds at each level surpass the one below by thousands of koṭis of myriads of times. Yet the myriad kinds of music in the sixth heaven do not equal even one kind of sound from the trees of the seven precious substances in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life by hundreds of thousands of koṭis of times.
The land of Peace and Bliss also has a myriad kinds of music that arise naturally. Every musical sound there is a Dharma-sound—clear and flowing, tender and bright, subtle, harmonious, and elegant, foremost among all sounds throughout the worlds of the ten directions.
Its Dharma halls, monasteries, palaces, and towers are all adorned with the seven precious substances and arise naturally through transformation. Nets woven from pearls, moon-bright maṇi jewels, and other precious substances cover them. Inside, outside, to the left, and to the right are bathing pools. Some measure ten yojanas, some twenty or thirty, and some as many as hundreds of thousands of yojanas. The length, width, depth, and shallowness of each are proportionate. Water of the eight excellent qualities fills them, still and clear, pure, fragrant, clean, and tasting like nectar.
Pools of gold have beds of silver sand; pools of silver have beds of golden sand. Pools of crystal have beds of beryl sand; pools of beryl have beds of crystal sand. Pools of coral have beds of amber sand; pools of amber have beds of coral sand. Pools of mother-of-pearl have beds of agate sand; pools of agate have beds of mother-of-pearl sand. Pools of white jade have beds of purple-gold sand; pools of purple gold have beds of white-jade sand. Some pools are formed from two or three precious substances, and some from as many as all seven together.
Sandalwood trees grow along the banks, their flowers and leaves hanging down and spreading, their fragrance permeating everywhere. Celestial utpala, padma, kumuda, and puṇḍarīka flowers, radiant in many colors, grow thickly across the water’s surface.
〔十 · Pools of Whatever Depth Is Wished and Measureless Dharma-Sounds〕（0271b09）When bodhisattvas and the assembly of śrāvakas enter the jeweled pools and wish the water to reach only their feet, it reaches their feet. If they wish it to reach their knees, it reaches their knees; if their waists, their waists; if their necks, their necks. If they wish it to pour over their bodies, it naturally does so; if they wish it to return, it immediately returns.
Its warmth and coolness naturally harmonize with each person’s wish. It opens and delights the spirit, gives joy to the body, and washes away defilement of mind. The water is lucid and clear, as though without form. The jeweled sand on the bottom shines through it, so that no depth remains unseen. Small waves circle and flow, pouring into one another. The water passes gently and at ease, neither too slowly nor too quickly.
The waves naturally produce measureless subtle sounds, and all sentient beings hear whatever Dharma accords with their capacities. Some hear the sound of Buddha, Dharma, or Saṅgha. Some hear the sound of quiescence, emptiness and no-self, great loving-kindness and compassion, or the perfections. Some hear the sound of the Buddha’s ten powers, fearlessnesses, and exclusive qualities, the sound of spiritual penetration and wisdom, the sound of no fabrication, the sound of neither arising nor ceasing, the sound of the patience of non-arising, and even many kinds of wondrous Dharma-sounds such as the anointment of nectar.
Those who hear the Dharma-sound that accords with them rejoice without measure. They accord with the true meanings of purity, freedom from desire, quiescence, and reality; with the Three Jewels, the ten powers, the fearlessnesses, and exclusive qualities; and with the spiritual wisdom and paths cultivated by bodhisattvas and śrāvakas. Not even the names of the suffering and difficulty of hell beings, hungry ghosts, and animals exist in the land. There are only sounds of natural joy. Therefore that land is called Ultimate Bliss.
〔十一 · Naturally Appearing Food, Equality of Form, and Measures Drawn from the World〕（0271b25）The Buddha told Ānanda: beings born in that buddha-land fully possess pure bodies, wondrous sounds, spiritual powers, and merit. Their palaces, clothing, food, wondrous flowers and fragrances, and implements of adornment all appear naturally like the things of the sixth heaven.
When they wish to eat, suitable vessels of the seven precious substances naturally appear before them. Bowls of gold, silver, beryl, mother-of-pearl, agate, coral, amber, and moon-bright pearls arrive according to their wishes, naturally filled with foods of a hundred flavors. Although the food appears, no one actually swallows it. By seeing its color and smelling its fragrance, they take it as food in their minds and are naturally satisfied. Their bodies and minds become gentle, and they do not become attached to flavor. When the meal is over, the vessels and food disappear through transformation; when the proper time arrives again, they reappear.
That buddha-land is pure and secure, subtle and joyful, second only to the unconditioned path of nirvāṇa. Its śrāvakas, bodhisattvas, humans, and devas possess lofty wisdom and penetrating spiritual powers. Their bodies are all of one kind, without difference of form. They are called humans and devas only in accommodation to the names used in other worlds. Their countenances are upright and beautiful, rare and beyond the world; their forms are subtle and cannot be limited as celestial or human. They all receive naturally arisen bodies of openness and bodies without limit.
The Buddha asked Ānanda: suppose the poorest beggar in the world stood beside a king. Could their figures and appearances be compared? Ānanda replied that beside the king, the person would be weak, lowly, and ugly beyond comparison, differing by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of incalculable times.
Ānanda continued: the poor beggar occupies the lowest condition. His clothing does not cover his body and his food barely sustains life. He endures hunger, cold, hardship, and suffering until his basic human condition is almost lost. This occurs because in former lives he did not plant roots of virtue. He accumulated wealth but refused to give; the richer he became, the more miserly he grew. He desired gain without work, sought greedily without satisfaction, did not trust in or cultivate the good, and piled up evil deeds like a mountain.
At the end of such a person’s life, all the wealth is scattered. What he painfully gathered through life brings him only anxiety, gives him no benefit, and in the end passes uselessly to others. With no goodness to rely upon and no virtue to support him, after death he falls into an evil destiny and suffers there for a long time. When the offense is exhausted and he is born again, he remains lowly, ignorant, and base in the extreme, only outwardly resembling a human being.
A worldly king is uniquely honored among humans because of virtue accumulated in former lives. In the past he gave with kindness, extended benevolence and aid widely, kept faith, cultivated goodness, and did not act contrary to principle or engage in contention. At the end of his life his merit brought him into a good destiny, where he was born in a heaven and enjoyed its happiness. The remaining blessing of his goodness continued, and when he was again born human, he entered a royal family and was naturally honored. His bearing was upright and beautiful, the multitude revered and served him, and fine clothing and precious food were his to use at will. Past merit followed him and brought about these results.
The Buddha told Ānanda: what you say is correct. Though a king is honored among humans and upright in form, beside a wheel-turning sage king he is extremely coarse and lowly, like a beggar beside a king. The majestic marks of a wheel-turning sage king are surpassingly wondrous and foremost in the world, yet beside the lord of Trāyastriṃśa he appears ugly beyond comparison by tens of thousands of koṭis of times. The lord of Trāyastriṃśa differs from the king of the sixth heaven by hundreds of thousands of koṭis of times. Even the king of the sixth heaven falls immeasurably short of the radiant countenances of the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life, by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of incalculable times.
〔十二 · Necessities Appearing in Response to Thought, the Virtuous Wind, and Flowers Scattered Six Times〕（0272a06）The Buddha told Ānanda: the clothing, food, flowers, fragrances, necklaces, canopies, banners, subtle sounds, houses, palaces, and towers of the devas and humans in the land of the Buddha of Measureless Life accord with the form, height, and size of each person. Some are formed from one treasure, some from two, and some from measureless treasures. Whatever they wish appears as soon as they think of it.
Wondrous cloth made from the treasures covers the ground, and all humans and devas walk upon it. Measureless jeweled nets cover the buddha-land, woven and adorned with golden threads, pearls, hundreds of thousands of different treasures, and rare and wondrous jewels. Jeweled bells hang on all four sides, and brilliant colors shine in utter magnificence.
A naturally arising virtuous wind moves softly. It is harmonious, neither cold nor hot, gently warm and cool, neither too slow nor too fast. As it moves the jeweled nets and trees, they produce measureless subtle Dharma-sounds and spread a myriad gentle and elegant fragrances of virtue. In those who smell them, the dust and ingrained habits of defilement naturally cease to arise. When the wind touches their bodies, all experience joy like a bhikṣu entering the Samādhi of Cessation.
The wind also scatters flowers throughout the buddha-land. The flowers are arranged by color in order and do not mingle in confusion. Their petals are soft and lustrous, their fragrance rich. When someone steps upon them, the carpet of flowers sinks four inches; when the foot is lifted, it returns to its former state. When the flowers’ use is complete, the earth naturally opens, and they disappear through transformation in sequence, leaving no trace. At the proper times the wind scatters flowers in this way six times.
〔十三 · Jeweled Lotuses Emit Light; Buddhas Appear within the Light〕（0272a23）Jeweled lotuses fill the whole world. Each flower has hundreds of thousands of koṭis of petals, and the petals emit immeasurable colors of light: blue petals emit blue light, white petals emit white light, and black, yellow, red, and purple petals each emit light of their own color. They blaze in radiant splendor, brighter than the sun and moon.
Each flower emits thirty-six hundreds of thousands of koṭis of rays of light. Within every ray appear thirty-six hundreds of thousands of koṭis of buddhas. Every buddha’s body is purple-gold, with surpassingly wondrous marks and excellences. Each buddha in turn emits hundreds of thousands of rays and universally teaches the subtle Buddha-Dharma to sentient beings throughout the ten directions. These buddhas each establish measureless sentient beings in the Buddha’s right path.
Here the first fascicle of The Sūtra of Measureless Life ends.
這一講以憬興《連義述文贊》的逐文科釋為主，參照慧遠《義疏》對所行、所成與所攝的開合，再以曇鸞《往生論註》的願力成就義照見全段。三家分科有疏密，解三忍也不全同；我們不替古德裁定高下，只循本經看法藏如何從願後長行走到已成佛，又看光、樹、水、風與蓮華如何把莊嚴轉成利益眾生的法事。
超世願，不是把世間留在身後
四十八願已經說完，經為何又讓法藏作頌？因為條列的願目在此被收成一個不可分割的方向。頌首先說：「我建超世願，必至無上道」〔T12n0360 0269b09〕；接著三次以不成等覺作誓。若願不得滿、不能普濟貧苦、佛名不能使十方聞知，他便不取等覺。這不是向天地交換瑞應，而是把成佛與眾生得益鎖在同一誓言裡：只成自己之覺，不足以叫作所求的正覺。
所以「超世」〔T12n0360 0269b09〕不能讀成遠離世人。頌中所超的是欲染、昏闇、惡道與有限光明；所向的卻是貧苦、厄難、智慧眼、善趣門與大眾說法。法藏求無量智，不為擁有一種超人的知識，而為使光明能照、法藏能開、功德寶能施。願愈高，對眾生的承擔愈深；超出世間，不是把世間遺下，而是不再用世間有限的愛取與權力救人。
頌末請大千震動、諸天雨華，地與天隨即現瑞。瑞相所證的是願心誠諦不虛，卻沒有代替後面的修行。若只停在「決定必成」〔T12n0360 0269c04〕的空中讚聲，讀者很容易把淨土看成一句被保證的遠景；經卻立即轉入不可思議長劫，讓已受證明的願接受行的證明。
一朵天華之後，是不可思議永劫
經說法藏「一向專志莊嚴妙土」〔T12n0360 0269c08〕，接著不是描畫宮殿寶樹，而是列出心行：不起欲、瞋、害三覺三想，不著五塵，忍苦而少欲知足，常住寂定而智慧無礙；又離虛偽諂曲，和顏軟語，奉事師長，住空、無相、無願，觀法如化，離自害、害他與俱害，修自利利他，自己行六度，也教人行六度。國土的第一批材料，不是七寶，而是不害、無著、定、慧與利生。
「一向」〔T12n0360 0269c08〕也不是道路狹窄。願心方向不改，所行卻遍及身口意、師資、三寶、三解脫門、六度與教化；專志不是只守一件容易的功課，而是使眾行都不離清淨與眾生。經先說不可思議兆載永劫，又說「無央數劫積功累德」〔T12n0360 0269c21〕，正防止我們把宏願誤成強烈一念便已完成的事情。
長劫中，法藏隨所生處現為長者、國君、轉輪王、天主乃至梵王，供養諸佛，安立無數眾生於正道。先前他棄國捐王，不是從此拒絕一切世間身份；當身份能作教化方便時，仍可現起，卻不再據為自我。其身香、相好、掌出寶物，也都排在積功累德與安立眾生之後。果相不是孤立奇蹟，而是長時施與、供養、教化所結的痕跡。
阿難一問，往昔願行成為現在佛事
敘事至此，阿難忽然問：法藏是已成佛而滅度、尚未成佛，還是現在？佛答：「法藏菩薩今已成佛，現在西方」〔T12n0360 0270a04〕，國名安樂，成佛以來十劫。從這一句起，前文不再只是遠古菩薩的傳記；四十八願與長劫眾行已有一個正在十萬億剎外住持的結果。
這個轉點也改變了後文莊嚴的語法。七寶地、無諸惡趣、不寒不熱，不是法藏曾經想像的藍圖，而是經所宣說的現成願果。阿難追問沒有須彌山，諸天依何而住，佛沒有責備這個空間問題，反以行業果報、諸佛世界與眾生善力皆不可思議回答。淨土超出慣常地理，並不表示無因無據；它住在功德善力與不可思議佛力的因果中。
「自然」〔T12n0360 0270a07〕也由此得到界線。安樂國眾物不待人工營辦、隨應而現，並非沒有前因；前面不可思議長劫的願行，正是這份自然的深因。若我們只看見果上無勞而成，漏掉因上無倦而修，便會把成就錯讀成方便的神話。
光與壽，不以大數炫耀自己
佛先列十二光名。逐文古鏡依次解作：佛光非算數所及，故稱無量；無緣不照，故稱無邊；無人、法能障，故稱無礙；非諸菩薩所及，故稱無對；經名炎王，疏以光明自在、更無為上釋之；光從佛無貪、無瞋、無癡善根而現，又能除眾生相應的貪濁、瞋惱與無明，故分稱清淨、歡喜、智慧；恒常照益，故稱不斷；非二乘所能測度，故稱難思；非其餘乘所能盡說，故稱無稱；日夜恒照、不似娑婆日月二曜，故稱超日月〔T37n1748 0155b26〕。這是古疏對十二名的逐項解讀，不把十二光另造為本經所未說的十二法門。
名稱雖多，用處卻集中在眾生：遇光者「三垢消滅，身意柔軟，歡喜踊躍，善心生焉」〔T12n0360 0270b03〕；即使身在三塗苦處，見光也得休息，命終之後蒙解脫。光的尊勝不只在照得遠，而在沒有把最苦處留在黑暗中。
壽命與會眾之數也不只是宇宙尺度的炫示。十方眾生盡成聲聞、緣覺，共同推算百千萬劫，仍不能窮其壽限；無量大目揵連共同計數初會，只知毛端一滴，不知者如整個大海。經說「所知數者猶如一渧，其所不知如大海水」〔T12n0360 0270c04〕，不是要人放棄理解，而是使有限算智謙退：佛壽長，故攝化不倉促；聖眾無量，故淨土不是少數人的封閉居所。
大數的義理因此仍落在住持與攝受。若壽命只長而不說法，若會眾只多而不入正道，數量本身沒有解脫意義。本段每次把尺度推到不可計，都隨後回到眾生聞光、稱說、往生、得忍與成佛，讓無量成為不捨眾生的時間與空間。
樹、池與音聲，使國土本身作佛事
七寶樹先以純寶、二寶乃至七寶合成，再讓本、莖、枝、條、葉、華、實七位輪流由不同珍寶構成。那份嚴整不是靜止陳設：清風一起，五音自然和鳴。到了道場樹，色、聲、香、味、觸、法六緣都能使六根清徹、得甚深忍而住不退。經直說聞音者「得深法忍，住不退轉至成佛道」〔T12n0360 0271a09〕，樹的價值遂不在多高、多亮，而在能把聞者送向成佛。
經又依次列音響忍、柔順忍、無生法忍，卻沒有在本段自行配定階位。古來一讀不肯把前二忍局限在十信、三賢，另一讀則把三忍分配於三地以下、四至六地、七地以上；兩說不能合成一張位次表。可以守定的是經文自己的界線：三忍由無量壽佛威神與本願等力而得，細部配位仍各屬古註。
宮殿與浴池也循同一方向。水深可以隨願至足、膝、腰、頸，也可灌身或還復；冷暖適意，卻不止提供舒適。經說池水蕩除心垢，古來又守住一層界線：觸水只是發慧之緣，由所發智慧蕩除，不把水本身說成獨立斷惑者。水波再隨所應而成佛、法、僧、寂靜、空無我、大慈悲、波羅蜜、十力無畏、無生忍乃至甘露灌頂等法音。這裡沒有把修行縮成感官享受，反而讓每一感官都不必離開聞法：看樹、聞風、觸水，皆可成為轉心之緣。
如果有人問淨土何以需要如此多樹、池、宮殿與音樂，經文的回答不在奢華，而在無間。穢土中令心散亂的色聲香味觸，在此不再牽引貪著；國土不以沉默保護修行者，而使所有聲音都順清淨、離欲、寂滅、真實之義。不是修行人偶爾走進講堂才聞法，是整個所居世界都不停止指向法。
自然受用，不等於欲望被無限供養
經說飲食、衣服、華香與器物應念即至，隨後立刻加上一道重要限制：「雖有此食實無食者」〔T12n0360 0271c02〕。眾生見色聞香，意已飽足，身心柔軟而無所味著；事畢化去，時至再現。所謂自然，不是想吃多少便貪著多少，而是匱乏已息，取著也息。物來不勞追逐，物去不生占有。
人、天之名同樣只是順應他方而說；往生者咸同一類、形無異狀。經又從乞人與帝王開始，逐層比較轉輪王、忉利天王、第六天王，最後說第六天王的光顏仍遠不及安樂國菩薩聲聞。這段若只讀成美貌競賽，便會重建世間高下；經先長說慳貪與布施的業果，後以不可計倍顯清淨身超越世間福報，重點仍是德本所成，不是以外形羞辱任何眾生。
安樂國的豐足於是有兩面：沒有生存匱乏，也沒有因豐足而增長的味著；沒有身份形色的實質差別，也可暫借人天之名使他方聽懂。你若只取其中一面，淨土便或成享樂之國，或成抽象無物之境；經把兩面並說，使受用與無著、差別名與平等身同時成立。
德風散華，最後仍回到安立眾生
卷末再寫衣服、瓔珞、舍宅、寶網與鈴，但轉軸仍是一陣風。德風不寒不暑、不遲不疾，吹動羅網與寶樹，便發法音、流德香；聞者塵勞垢習不起，觸身如得滅盡三昧。風吹散華，華按色次第而不雜亂，足踏下陷，舉足即復，使用完畢便化去而無遺，一日六次，來去都不留下占有的殘跡。
寶蓮又把這條利生線推至十方：華有無量色光，光中出佛，佛又放光說法。卷上最後一句不是停在煒燁美景，而是「如是諸佛各各安立無量眾生於佛正道」〔T12n0360 0272a29〕。願頌起首所求的無上道，到此不只由法藏一人成就；蓮華光中無量化佛，正在安立無量眾生同入佛道。
所以寶樹、浴池、自然受用、德風與蓮華不是幾組可以抽走的裝飾。它們共同回答篇首之問：願既已成佛，便以住持力使國土處處說法。願沒有在果上停止，反而變成光能照、樹能發音、水能應機、風能除垢、蓮能出佛的攝生作用。成就不是願的終點，而是願開始無間利益眾生的形態。
承衍——願力如何住持一切莊嚴
憬興把所成果分為佛身、眷屬、佛土與攝生所作四面，使光壽、會眾、寶樹浴池與蓮光利物各有所歸；慧遠以事、法、人三種莊嚴收攝國土勝相，使精上受用、純論妙法與勝善眾生不相割裂。兩家分門不同，都不讓莊嚴停在物相。對三忍，憬興不以音響忍局限十信、柔順忍局限三賢，而從樹音另釋；慧遠則判音響忍在三地以下、柔順忍在四至六地、無生忍在七地以上。兩說各守其位，不倒寫成經文自行配定。
曇鸞更以三種莊嚴回到清淨願心，說「因淨故果淨，非無因、他因有也。」〔T40n1819 0841b08〕 又以「願以成力、力以就願，願不徒然、力不虛設」〔T40n1819 0840a14〕說明願與力互成。把三面古鏡放回本經，便可看見超世願頌、不可思議長劫與今日安樂國不是三件事：悲願立其因，眾行使願成力，果上身土眷屬再以此力住持眾生。這也使一切微妙莊嚴有了同一判準——凡所成者，終須成為眾生得法、得忍、住不退而至佛道之緣。
This teaching follows above all the passage-by-passage explanations in Jingxing’s Linked-Meaning Expository Praise. It reads them alongside Huiyuan’s distinctions among what Dharmākara practiced, accomplished, and embraced, and then uses Tanluan’s account of accomplishment through vow-power to illuminate the whole passage. The three masters divide the text with different degrees of detail and do not assign the three patiences in precisely the same way. We do not decide among them. We follow this sūtra to see how Dharmākara moves from the long practice following the vows to present buddhahood, and how light, trees, water, wind, and lotuses transform adornment into the Dharma-work of benefiting sentient beings.
Vows Transcending the World Do Not Leave the World Behind
Why does the sūtra have Dharmākara speak another verse after the Forty-Eight Vows are complete? Because the individually stated vows are here gathered into one indivisible direction. The verse first says, “I have established vows transcending the world and will certainly reach the unsurpassed path.” It then binds Dharmākara three times through the pledge not to attain perfect awakening. If the vows are not fulfilled, if he cannot universally aid beings in poverty and distress, or if his Name cannot be heard throughout the ten directions, he will not attain awakening. This is not an exchange in which he offers the heavens a promise in return for an auspicious sign. It binds buddhahood and the benefit of sentient beings within the same pledge: an awakening completed for oneself alone does not suffice as the perfect awakening being sought.
Thus transcending the world cannot mean abandoning the people of the world. What the verse transcends is sensual defilement, darkness, the evil destinies, and limited light. What it turns toward is poverty and distress, dangers and hardships, the eye of wisdom, the gates of good destinies, and teaching in the midst of the assembly. Dharmākara seeks immeasurable wisdom not to possess superhuman knowledge, but so that light may illuminate, the treasury of Dharma may open, and the jewels of merit may be bestowed. The higher the vow, the deeper the responsibility for sentient beings. To transcend the world is not to leave it behind, but to stop trying to rescue through the limited attachment and power of the world.
At the verse’s end, Dharmākara asks the three-thousandfold great-thousand world-system to tremble and the devas to rain flowers. Earth and heaven immediately respond. The signs attest that the vow-mind is truthful and free of falsity, but they do not replace the cultivation that follows. If we stopped at the voice in the sky saying, “He will certainly attain unsurpassed perfect awakening,” the Pure Land could easily become a distant scene guaranteed by one sentence. Instead, the sūtra immediately enters inconceivably long kalpas and lets a vow already attested receive the further attestation of practice.
After One Celestial Flower Come Inconceivably Long Kalpas
The sūtra says that Dharmākara “single-mindedly devoted his resolve to adorning a wondrous land.” What follows is not a picture of palaces and jeweled trees, but an account of mental and bodily conduct. He does not give rise to the three thoughts or perceptions of desire, anger, and harm. He does not cling to the five objects of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, and touch. He is patient in suffering, has few desires, knows contentment, constantly abides in still concentration, and possesses unobstructed wisdom. He abandons falsity, flattery, and crookedness, speaks gently with a joyful countenance, attends on teachers, abides in emptiness, signlessness, and wishlessness, sees dharmas as illusory, leaves behind harm to self and other, benefits both, personally practices the six perfections, and teaches others to practice them. The first materials of the land are not the seven precious substances, but non-harming, non-attachment, concentration, wisdom, and benefit to beings.
Single-mindedness does not make the path narrow. The direction of the vow-mind does not change, while the practices extend throughout body, speech, mind, relations between teacher and student, the Three Jewels, the three gates of liberation, the six perfections, and teaching and transformation. Single-minded devotion does not mean guarding one easy exercise; it means keeping every practice within purity and the benefit of sentient beings. The sūtra first speaks of inconceivably immense and enduring kalpas and then says that Dharmākara accumulated merit through innumerable kalpas. It thereby prevents us from treating a vast vow as something already completed by one intense thought.
Through those long kalpas, Dharmākara appears wherever he is born as an elder, ruler, wheel-turning king, celestial lord, or Brahmā king, makes offerings to buddhas, and establishes innumerable sentient beings in the right path. Earlier he abandoned his realm and kingship, but this does not mean that he refuses every worldly identity forever. When an identity can serve as a skillful means of teaching, it can appear without again being seized as self. His bodily fragrance, marks and excellences, and hands producing treasures all come only after the account of accumulating merit and establishing beings. These signs of the fruit are not isolated wonders; they are traces of long giving, offering, teaching, and transformation.
One Question from Ānanda Turns Former Vows and Practice into Present Buddha-Work
At this point Ānanda suddenly asks whether Dharmākara has attained buddhahood and entered extinction, has not yet attained buddhahood, or is now present. The Buddha replies that Bodhisattva Dharmākara has now attained buddhahood and is present in the west, that his land is called Peace and Bliss, and that ten kalpas have passed since his attainment. From this sentence onward, the preceding passage is no longer only the biography of a bodhisattva in the distant past. The Forty-Eight Vows and cultivation through long kalpas have a result presently sustained a hundred thousand koṭis of lands away.
This turning point also changes the grammar of the adornments that follow. The ground made from precious substances, absence of the evil destinies, and climate neither cold nor hot are not a design Dharmākara once imagined; they are accomplished fruits of vows proclaimed by the sūtra. Ānanda asks what supports the devas if there is no Mount Sumeru. The Buddha does not rebuke this spatial question. He answers through the inconceivability of the results of action, buddha-worlds, and the good power of sentient beings. The Pure Land transcends familiar geography without becoming causeless. It abides within the causality of meritorious good power and inconceivable buddha-power.
This also sets the boundary of the word natural. The things in the land do not require artificial planning and labor but appear in response to need. This does not mean they have no prior cause. The practice of vows through inconceivably long kalpas is the deep cause of this natural appearance. If we see only effortlessness in the fruit and overlook tireless cultivation in the cause, accomplishment becomes a convenient myth.
Light and Life Do Not Display Great Numbers for Their Own Sake
The Buddha first gives twelve names of light. The ancient passage-by-passage mirror explains them in order. Because the Buddha’s light lies beyond calculation, it is Measureless; because it illuminates without excluding any condition, Boundless; because neither person nor dharma can obstruct it, Unobstructed; because bodhisattvas cannot equal it, Unequaled. The sūtra calls it King of Blazing Light, which the commentary explains through sovereignty in light with none above it. Because the light arises from the Buddha’s good roots free of greed, anger, and delusion and removes the corresponding turbid greed, angry distress, and ignorance of sentient beings, it is separately called Pure, Joyful, and Wisdom Light. Because it constantly illuminates and benefits, it is Unceasing; because those of the two vehicles cannot measure it, Inconceivable; because other vehicles cannot finish expressing it, Ineffable; because it shines constantly by day and night, unlike the two lights of sun and moon in Sahā, Light Surpassing the Sun and Moon. This is an ancient commentary’s item-by-item reading of the twelve names, not twelve new Dharma-gates invented and placed in the sūtra.
Though the names are many, their use converges on sentient beings. When beings encounter the light, the three defilements cease, body and mind become gentle, joy rises, and a wholesome mind is born. Even those in the suffering of the three evil destinies gain respite when they see it and receive liberation at death. The light is supreme not merely because it travels far, but because it leaves no place of deepest suffering in darkness.
The lifespans and the number of beings in the assembly likewise do not merely display cosmic scale. Even if all sentient beings throughout the ten directions became śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas and calculated together for hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas, they could not exhaust the Buddha’s lifespan. Even measureless beings like Mahāmaudgalyāyana, calculating the first assembly together, would know only what resembles one drop on the tip of a hair, while what remained unknown would resemble the entire ocean. This does not instruct us to abandon understanding. It makes limited calculative wisdom humble. The Buddha’s life is long, so his work of embrace and transformation is not rushed. The sacred assembly is beyond measure, so the Pure Land is not a closed dwelling for a small number.
The meaning of these vast numbers therefore still comes to rest in sustaining and embracing. If a lifespan were long without teaching the Dharma, or an assembly immense without entering the right path, quantity alone would have no liberating meaning. Each time this passage carries its scale beyond calculation, it returns to sentient beings encountering the light, praising it, attaining birth in that land, gaining patience, and becoming buddhas. The measureless becomes the time and space in which sentient beings are never abandoned.
Trees, Pools, and Sounds Make the Land Itself Perform Buddha-Work
The jeweled trees first appear as trees of a single substance, mixtures of two through seven substances, and then trees in which roots, trunks, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, and fruit rotate through all seven. Their ordered beauty is not a static display: when a clear breeze arises, the five tones naturally harmonize. At the tree at the site of awakening, the six objects of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, and Dharma enable the six faculties to become clear, attain profound patience, and abide in non-retrogression. The sūtra directly says that those who hear the sound attain profound Dharma-patience and abide in non-retrogression until buddhahood. The tree’s value therefore lies not in height or brightness, but in carrying those who hear toward buddhahood.
The sūtra next lists the patience arising from sound, the patience of pliant accord, and the patience of non-arising, without itself assigning them to specific stages in this passage. One ancient reading refuses to confine the first two patiences to the ten faiths and the three worthies. Another assigns the three patiences respectively to the third ground and below, the fourth through sixth grounds, and the seventh ground and above. These views cannot be merged into a single chart of stages. What can be held firmly is the boundary of the sūtra itself: the three patiences are attained through the majestic spiritual power of the Buddha of Measureless Life and the powers of his original vows and their fulfillment. Their finer placement remains with the ancient commentaries.
The palaces and bathing pools move in the same direction. The depth of the water accords with each person’s wish, reaching the feet, knees, waist, or neck, pouring over the body, or returning. Its temperature is comfortable, but comfort is not its end. The sūtra says that the pool water washes away defilement of mind. The ancient commentary preserves a further boundary: contact with the water serves as a condition, while the wisdom it gives rise to washes away defilement. The water is not made an independent agent that cuts off affliction. Its waves then become Dharma-sounds that accord with each hearer: Buddha, Dharma, Saṅgha, quiescence, emptiness and no-self, great compassion, the perfections, ten powers and fearlessnesses, the patience of non-arising, and even the anointment of nectar. Cultivation is not reduced to sensory pleasure. Instead, seeing a tree, hearing the wind, and touching water can all become conditions that turn the mind toward Dharma.
If someone asks why the Pure Land needs so many trees, pools, palaces, and kinds of music, the sūtra’s answer lies not in luxury but in continuity. Forms, sounds, fragrances, flavors, and tangible objects that scatter the mind in a defiled land no longer pull it into attachment. The land does not protect practitioners through silence, but makes every sound accord with purity, freedom from desire, quiescence, and reality. One does not hear the Dharma only by occasionally entering a hall. The entire inhabited world ceaselessly points toward Dharma.
Natural Enjoyment Does Not Mean Desire Is Supplied without Limit
The sūtra says that food, clothing, flowers, fragrances, and vessels appear in response to thought and immediately adds an important limit: “Although the food appears, no one actually eats it.” Sentient beings see its color and smell its fragrance; their minds take it as food and are naturally satisfied. Their bodies and minds become gentle, without attachment to flavor. When the event is over, the food disappears, and when the time comes it appears again. Natural does not mean greedily consuming whatever one wants. Lack has ceased, and grasping has ceased as well. Things arrive without pursuit and depart without ownership.
The names human and deva are also used only in accommodation to other lands. Those born there are all one kind, without difference in form. The sūtra then compares a beggar with a king, a king with a wheel-turning sage king, the wheel-turning king with the lord of Trāyastriṃśa, and the latter with the king of the sixth heaven. Finally, even the king of the sixth heaven falls far short of the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas in the land of Peace and Bliss. If we read this only as a contest of beauty, we rebuild worldly ranks. The sūtra first speaks at length about the karmic fruits of stinginess and giving, and then uses differences beyond calculation to show a pure body surpassing worldly merit. The center remains accomplishment through roots of virtue, not humiliating any sentient being for appearance.
The abundance of the land therefore has two sides. There is no lack required for survival, and no attachment to taste produced by abundance. There is no substantial difference in identity or form, and names such as human and deva may still be provisionally borrowed so that those in other lands understand. Taking only one side turns the Pure Land either into a realm of indulgence or an abstract realm without things. The sūtra speaks both, so that enjoyment and non-attachment, conventional names of difference and equality of body, stand together.
The Virtuous Wind Scatters Flowers and Finally Returns to Establishing Sentient Beings
At the close of the fascicle, the sūtra again describes clothing, necklaces, dwellings, jeweled nets, and bells, but the turning point remains a wind. The virtuous wind is neither cold nor hot, neither slow nor fast. When it moves the nets and trees, Dharma-sounds and fragrances of virtue arise. Those who smell it cease to produce ingrained habits of defilement, and those whom it touches experience joy like entry into the Samādhi of Cessation. The wind scatters flowers in order by color. They sink beneath the foot and recover as soon as the foot lifts, then disappear when their use is complete without leaving a trace. They come and go six times without creating anything to possess.
The jeweled lotuses carry this line of benefit into the ten directions. The flowers shine in measureless colors, the light brings forth buddhas, and the buddhas emit light and teach the Dharma. The last sentence of the first fascicle does not stop at radiant beauty. It says that these buddhas each establish measureless sentient beings in the Buddha’s right path. The unsurpassed path sought at the beginning of the verse is now not only Dharmākara’s accomplishment. Measureless manifested buddhas within the lotus-light are establishing measureless beings upon that same path.
Jeweled trees, bathing pools, natural enjoyment, the virtuous wind, and lotuses are therefore not detachable groups of decoration. Together they answer the question in the title. Once vow has become buddhahood, the sustaining power of that buddhahood makes the land teach everywhere. Vow does not stop at the fruit. It becomes an activity of embrace through which light illuminates, trees sound the Dharma, water responds to capacity, wind removes defilement, and lotuses bring forth buddhas. Accomplishment is not the end of vow, but the form in which vow begins to benefit sentient beings without interruption.
Carrying Forward — How Vow-Power Sustains Every Adornment
Jingxing divides what has been accomplished into four aspects: buddha-body, retinue, buddha-land, and the activity of embracing sentient beings. Light and life, the assembly, jeweled trees and pools, and lotus-light benefiting beings thereby each receive their place. Huiyuan gathers the excellence of the land under adornment through things, Dharma, and persons, so that excellent enjoyment, the pure teaching of subtle Dharma, and excellent sentient beings are not separated. The two masters divide the material differently, but neither lets adornment stop at material forms. On the three patiences, Jingxing refuses to confine the patience arising from sound to the ten faiths and the patience of pliant accord to the three worthies, and instead explains them through the sounds of the tree. Huiyuan assigns the patience arising from sound to the third ground and below, pliant accord to the fourth through sixth, and non-arising to the seventh and above. Each view remains in its own place; neither is written backward into the sūtra as though the passage itself had assigned the stages.
Tanluan returns all three kinds of adornment to the pure vow-mind: because the cause is pure, the result is pure, and the result does not arise without a cause or from some other cause. He further says that the vow brings power to completion and power fulfills the vow; the vow is not in vain and the power is not exercised in vain. Placed back beside this sūtra, the three ancient mirrors show that the verse on the transcendent vows, cultivation through inconceivably long kalpas, and the present land of Peace and Bliss are not three separate matters. Compassionate vow establishes the cause, the many practices make vow into power, and the body, land, and retinue at the fruit use that power to sustain sentient beings. Every subtle adornment therefore has one common criterion: whatever has been accomplished must finally become a condition through which sentient beings receive Dharma, attain patience, abide in non-retrogression, and reach the Buddha-path.
考據Apparatus
全段定位 本段自法藏於四十八願後重立超世弘誓、感得地動雨華起，經不可思議長劫修行，至阿難問其成佛現在；以下廣說安樂國之佛身、眷屬與國土成就，以德風散華、寶蓮放光、化佛說法收束卷上。憬興的科判在本單元內由修勝行轉入所成果；這一轉點只據古疏誌錄，不替古德判其應否另立單元。
一、科判定位
憬興《無量壽經連義述文贊》以本段起首為法藏發願後的自誓感瑞：「第四、自誓感瑞，有二：此初、瑣文也。」〔T37n1748 0153b07〕 由超世願頌、請瑞、現瑞、總結，進至「一向專志莊嚴土」〔T37n1748 0153c27〕時，科為正申勝行；先修土行，後修身行。願後長劫之行與所感依正二報，都收在此一大段中。
本單元在科判對盤中須特別留意一處單元內轉點：T360 至 0270a02，阿難問「法藏菩薩為已成佛而取滅度、為未成佛？為今現在？」〔T12n0360 0270a02〕；T1748 於 0154c28–0155a01 判作「第二、申所成果。即身土之果，逐誓願而成故。」〔T37n1748 0154c28〕 換言之，0269b07–0270a02 主要明願後修行與其報，0270a02–0272b02 明今日已成佛及上卷所列身土之果。此為本單元內科轉，誌錄不判；不據此改動本單元既定起訖。
本單元底本範圍共四千六百八十三個字符，分為五十八個原典段塊。在外界上，本單元完整對應 T1748 0153b07–0158a07：起於自誓感瑞，終於蓮華光中化佛「此後、華光利物也」〔T37n1748 0158a05〕。下一單元另從眾生往生因果起，不在本段內。
二、異譯對勘（四譯一會·異同誌錄不判）
四個異譯對應本單元時，篇章排列不一。T361、T362 把願後修行、自然受用、彌勒問答與光明等材料分置四段；T363、T310 會五則大致連續鋪陳。以下範圍與每枚引文均由各本原文重新核取：
| 異譯 | 對應範圍 | 願後修行與成佛之逐字錨 | 結構誌錄 |
|---|---|---|---|
| T361 | A 0281c22–0285c25；B 0287a25–0287b17；C 0289b03–0289c19；D 0290b05–0291c14 | 「無量清淨佛為菩薩時，常奉行是二十四願」〔T12n0361 0281c22〕；後說「無量清淨佛作佛已來凡十八劫，所居國名須摩提」〔T12n0361 0282c28〕 | 自然飲食另起於 B；阿逸問答在 C；常明不闇與光明在 D。成佛年數作十八劫。 |
| T362 | A 0302b15–0306a01；B 0307a04–0307a20；C 0307c15–0308a19；D 0308b23–0309c17 | 「阿彌陀為菩薩時，常奉行是二十四願」〔T12n0362 0302b15〕；後說「阿彌陀作佛已來，凡十小劫。所居國土，名須摩題」〔T12n0362 0303b17〕 | 同樣以四個不連續段承載；自然食、阿逸問、佛頂光各在 B、C、D。成佛年數作十小劫。 |
| T363 | 0320c28–0323a26 | 「爾時作法苾芻，向彼佛前發如是願已，承佛威神，即說頌曰」〔T12n0363 0320c28〕；後說「有世界名曰極樂，佛名無量壽，成佛已來於今十劫」〔T12n0363 0321c14〕 | 願頌、長劫行、成佛、光壽、寶樹與香風散華大致連續；國名作極樂。 |
| T310 會五 | 0094c27–0097c16 | 「彼法處比丘於世間自在王如來前發此願已，承佛威神而說頌曰」〔T11n0310 0094c27〕；後說「西方去此十萬億佛剎，彼有世界名曰極樂。法處比丘在彼成佛，號無量壽，今現在說法」〔T11n0310 0095c15〕 | 願頌、菩薩行、成佛、光壽、菩提樹、河池、資具、德風蓮華順次相承；國名作極樂。 |
四本都保存願後修行、成佛現在、光明與國土莊嚴的場景核；人名、佛名、國名、成佛年數、材料次序及寶物細目各異。T361 的十八劫、T362 的十小劫、T363 與 T310 的十劫，皆照各本誌錄，不以一本到另一本文中補改，也不判哪一數為勝。
三、經論宗依（眼）
本段之眼，在願如何成為力、力又如何使願不落空。曇鸞《往生論註》把三種莊嚴的根明繫清淨願心：「應知此三種莊嚴成就，由本四十八願等清淨願心之所莊嚴。因淨故果淨，非無因、他因有也。」〔T40n1819 0841b07〕 國土、佛與菩薩三種成就都不是無因而有，也不是他因偶然促成。
願與果之間並非只靠一句誓言跨越。論註又說：「願以成力、力以就願，願不徒然、力不虛設，力願相符畢竟不差，故曰成就。」〔T40n1819 0840a14〕 本經在超世願後長列不可思議兆載永劫的菩薩行，正把願成為力的因程顯出；阿難問「為今現在？」〔T12n0360 0270a03〕以後，佛答法藏今已成佛，光壽、眷屬、寶樹、池水、資用、德風與蓮華，則把力所成的果一一顯出。
其根仍是救生。論註直說：「安樂淨土從此大悲生故，故謂此大悲為淨土之根」〔T40n1819 0828c16〕。所以本段的珍寶莊嚴不是從眾生苦處抽離的富麗敘述；超世願頌先說普濟貧苦、消除三垢、明濟厄難，後文的光、聲、水、風皆以除障、生善、得忍、安立佛道為用。
四、本段釋要
本段依經文與逐文鏡可分九層：
- 超世願頌與請瑞：三首反誓先約佛自德、財施化利、法施名聞；其後順誓廣明身口化德、自德與求同佛智。憬興就首頌指出「願必起行故，必至無上道。」〔T37n1748 0153b12〕 末請大千地動、諸天雨華，隨即地動、華雨、天樂出聲作證。
- 願後修土、修身：經先說一向專志莊嚴妙土，又長列離三覺三想、忍力、少欲知足、定慧、和顏軟語、三寶師長、三解脫門、離害修善與自行教他六度。逐文鏡把勇猛精進分成初精進、加行精進與無足精進，並以「修不已故」〔T37n1748 0154b13〕標其不止。
- 長劫行的依正果：法藏隨生處而寶藏發應，安立無數眾生於正道，或現長者、國君、天主、梵王而供佛；身香、相好、掌出眾寶，都不是離開行而獨得的奇相。古疏以「於一切法而得自在」〔T37n1748 0154c26〕收作智德果。
- 法藏已成佛與安樂土已立：阿難三世問後，佛答現在西方、去此十萬億剎、國名安樂，成佛十劫。國土所有是七寶合地、光明清淨；所無是諸山海、惡趣與寒暑失調。阿難再問諸天依住，經先說行業果報與諸佛世界二者不可思議，另說眾生以功德善力住行業之地。
- 光明與壽命：十二光名不是十二件互不相干的飾辭。逐文鏡以無量、無邊、無礙、無對等分釋其不可算、無緣不照、無能障礙與超勝，又把遇光利益收為除障、生善、拔苦、得樂四面：「三垢滅者即除障利，身意歡喜即生善利，苦得休息者拔苦利，皆蒙解脫者即得樂利」〔T37n1748 0155c15〕。壽命與眾壽同樣非算數譬喻能盡。
- 聲聞菩薩之數與德：經先說壽不可計，再說眾數不可稱、神智自在；大目揵連等共算初會，所知如毛端一滴，所不知如大海。此不是只以大數驚人，而是顯初會之眾不能由有限算智窮盡；逐文鏡繫之於聲聞無邊等願果。
- 寶樹、道場樹與法音：純寶樹、雜寶樹、七寶互成之樹行行相值，風起五音自然相和；道場樹更由色、聲、香、味、觸、法六緣令眾生得忍、不退。三忍之義，逐文鏡取樹聲而釋：「尋樹音聲從風而有，有而非實故得音響忍。」〔T37n1748 0156c10〕 柔順忍與無生忍再由不違有而順空、觀諸法生絕四句進深。
- 宮殿、浴池、受用與形色：七寶宮殿自然化成，池水清淨香潔、深淺冷暖隨意；水波所出不是雜亂音響，而是隨應聽見三寶、寂靜、空無我、大慈悲、波羅蜜、十力無畏、無作不起滅等法聲。所謂池水蕩除心垢，古疏限定為「觸水為緣，發慧蕩除故」〔T37n1748 0157a14〕，不是把水本身說成獨立斷惑者。食具雖現，經明說無味著；人天雖有名稱，形類本無差別。
- 德風、散華、寶蓮與化佛：卷末的風不是背景。它吹網樹而出法音、流德香，觸身如入滅盡三昧；又使散華依色次第鋪地，六度來去而清淨無遺。寶蓮各葉具其光色；一一華中出光，光中出佛，諸佛再為十方說法、安立眾生於佛正道。逐文鏡故以「此後、華光利物也」〔T37n1748 0158a05〕收束，而不收在寶物本身。
五、諸家異釋（分欄並錄）
| 義位 | 憬興《連義述文贊》T1748 | 慧遠《義疏》T1745 | 曇鸞《往生論註》T1819 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 願成後的總結構 | 把廣顯所成分為佛身果、眷屬、佛土妙、攝生所作四面：「有四：一、歎佛身果，即願佛身之報也；二、申其眷屬，即願菩薩聲聞之報也；三、歎佛土妙，即求淨土之果也；四顯其所作，即攝生願之果也。」〔T37n1748 0155b19〕 | 先以所行、所成、所攝為全經綱，本段至此入所成；又把後文分佛身、從眾、國土、人民四段 | 以國土十七種、佛八種、菩薩四種功德成就組成三種莊嚴；次第與逐文科判不同 |
| 國土莊嚴 | 於本段列寶樹、伎樂、宮殿、浴池，逐一回繫願果 | 以三類收攝：「一事莊嚴，色香味等五欲精上；二法莊嚴，純論妙法；三人莊嚴，勝善眾生居住其中。」〔T37n1745 0105c18〕 | 國土十七種功德之中，「三種」〔T40n1819 0837a28〕一門再開水、地、虛空三項；列次含清淨、量、性、形相、種種事、妙色、觸、三種（水、地、虛空）、雨、光明、妙聲等 |
| 三法忍 | 反對把音響忍局限於十信、柔順忍局限於三賢；若說未入十信者生彼土不得法忍，便與本願相違，故依樹音另釋三忍 | 依地位判音響忍三地以下、柔順忍四至六地、無生忍七地以上：「忍隨淺深差別為三」〔T37n1745 0106a06〕 | 不逐句判本段三忍地位，重在國土功德不可思議力與本願住持 |
| 願與果 | 每一果德盡量逐願回配，並以滿足、明了、堅固、究竟釋願力 | 明所成「遂前四十八之大願，應別對之」〔T37n1745 0105a21〕，但不逐願盡列 | 三種成就皆由清淨願心莊嚴，故因淨果淨；又以力願相符釋成就 |
三家共同不把國土莊嚴看成無因自現；但分科密度、三忍位次與如何回配願目不盡相同。此處分欄並存，不設今按調停。
六、術語
| 名相 | 所據釋義與範圍 |
|---|---|
| 超世願 | 慧遠釋為「前所發中求法身願、求淨土願，名超世願。興心名建。」〔T37n1745 0103c10〕 超世不是離世不顧，而是法身與淨土二願同建。 |
| 三垢 | 本段頌言消除三垢冥，逐文鏡明定：「三垢者，即貪瞋癡也。」〔T37n1748 0153b28〕 |
| 三法忍 | 音響忍、柔順忍、無生法忍。憬興釋柔順為不乖有而順空，無生為觀法之生絕四句；慧遠另以三地段配釋，兩說並錄於目五。 |
| 本願力等五願 | 「本願者，即往誓願之力」〔T37n1748 0156c15〕；滿足是願無缺，明了是所求不虛，堅固是外緣不能壞，究竟是願必遂果。 |
| 八功德水 | 慧遠列為「清、不臭、輕、冷、濡、美、飲時調適、飲已無患」〔T37n1745 0106a25〕；本經本段明出清淨、香潔、甘露味，又以淺深冷暖隨意展其受用。 |
| 自然 | 本段反覆用於寶物、音樂、池水、飲食與德風，說不假人工作意造辦、隨所應而現；經同時以無所味著、時至復現限制其義，不把自然寫成放任貪著。 |
| 人、天之名 | 經先說咸同一類、形無異狀，名稱只是順餘方而立。逐文鏡亦說「但逐穢土業以別人天，故云因順餘方有人天之名。」〔T37n1748 0157b24〕 此是古疏之判，不改經文名相。 |
| 車𤦲 | T360 以 車𤦲 入七寶，依本字形照錄。T1748 牒文作 硨磲；各屬各本，不作正字化會同。 |
七、譬喻·修辭
本段最鮮明的數量譬喻，是毛端一滴與大海。經設想把一毛分為百分，以其中一分沾取一滴，再問滴水與大海何者為多；最後判初會眾中所知「猶如一渧，其所不知如大海水」〔T12n0360 0270c05〕。譬喻不是給出精確比率，而是讓可知與不可盡知的差距成為可見之像。
形色比較則逐級推進：乞人對帝王、帝王對轉輪王、轉輪王對忉利天王、忉利天王對第六天王，最後以第六天王對安樂國菩薩聲聞。經收束為「光顏容色不相及逮，百千萬億不可計倍。」〔T12n0360 0272a04〕 這是一條層層換位的格量修辭；前級雖勝，到了後級仍如前一乞人。
寶樹一段以本、莖、枝、條、葉、華、實七位輪轉七寶，再以「行行相值、莖莖相望、枝枝相準、葉葉相向、華華相順、實實相當」〔T12n0360 0270c28〕形成齊整排比。德風散華則以足陷四寸、舉足復原、六時反覆使柔軟與清淨可觸；蓮華先以諸葉各具光色，再由一一華出光、光中出佛、佛放光說法，形成由一華向十方無量眾生展開的連鎖。
八、徵引承衍
- 願成為力：曇鸞以法藏四十八願與今日如來自在神力相符，建立「願不徒然、力不虛設」〔T40n1819 0840a14〕的成就義；本段願頌、長劫行與現在果德因而可作一條完整因果線讀。
- 三種莊嚴：論註把國土十七句、佛八種、菩薩四種分別立門，最後總說三種成就由清淨願心莊嚴。T360 本段所列光壽、眾數、樹、池、資具與蓮華，遂不只是一串物相，而可歸入佛、土、眷屬三面的願果。
- 國土亦作佛事：論註於水、虛空、雨、光明、妙聲諸功德都反問佛何故起願，再以大悲答其所以；尤其說光明為佛事、妙聲能悟物。這承接本段光使三垢消、樹音令得忍、池聲隨應、德風令垢習不起。
- 會五的同段重述：T310 以菩提樹六緣得益與三忍收束為「此皆無量壽佛本願威神見所加」〔T11n0310 0096c06〕，又以德風、散華、蓮光化佛連續鋪陳；它保存同一願力—法音—不退的承衍線，細目則守其本譯。
九、校本定位
本單元底本為 T12n0360 0269b07–0272b02，末含卷尾題「無量壽經卷上」〔T12n0360 0272b02〕。正文依大正藏底本照錄，不以古疏牒文或異譯改字；以下異文只作定位：
- 超世願頌 T360 作「我於無量劫，不為大施主，普濟諸貧苦」〔T12n0360 0269b11〕。T1748 記經本有「不為大施主普濟諸貧苦」〔T37n1748 0153b16〕與「不為大施主終莫濟貧苦」〔T37n1748 0153b16〕二讀，並取前本為正；原典層仍照 T360。
- T360 作日月戢重暉、天光隱不現；T1748 又記別本作「日月諸光明一切隱不現」〔T37n1748 0153c05〕。二讀義近，仍各守本字。
- 道場樹枝葉 T360 作二十萬里；T1748 記「又有本云「二百萬里」，蓋是正也。」〔T37n1748 0156b21〕 此為古疏所見異本及其判語，誌錄而不回寫底本。
- 德風散華 T360 作馨香芬烈；T1748 牒後說「裂者，宜作烈光也、美也，裂非字體。」〔T37n1748 0157c27〕 今仍依底本作芬烈，不把疏家校語悄然改入原典。
- 七寶字形依本而異。T360 的七寶列作「金、銀、琉璃、珊瑚、琥珀、車𤦲、瑪瑙」〔T12n0360 0270a08〕；T1748 牒寶樹處作硨磲。逐字徵引各守所引本，不作正字化合併。
本範圍校勘標記實測見 <app> 108 處、<note> 206 處（其中定向校注 193 處，另有 <app> 內注 13 處，inline note 0 處）、正文 gaiji 13 處；這 13 處皆以 #CB00006 指向 𤦲，集中在 0270c07–0270c26，而 <app> 高密度支點在 0271a08。因此正文守 T360 主本的 𤦲，不以異讀拼接替換。
本單元內 0270a02 之修行轉成果科點、四譯一會的成佛年數與材料次序、上述古疏異讀，均屬誌錄不判；未據此另定版本優劣、譯者歸屬或本單元起訖。
Placement of the passage as a whole. This passage begins when Dharmākara, after the Forty-Eight Vows, again establishes his transcendent vast pledges and receives the auspicious responses of the earth trembling and flowers raining down. It proceeds through cultivation for inconceivably long kalpas until Ānanda asks whether he has attained buddhahood and is now present. The remainder extensively describes the accomplishments of the Buddha’s body, retinue, and land of Peace and Bliss, closing the first fascicle with the virtuous wind scattering flowers, jeweled lotuses emitting light, and manifested buddhas teaching the Dharma. Within this unit Jingxing’s outline turns from cultivation of the supreme practice to the fruit accomplished. That turning point is recorded from the ancient commentary without adjudicating whether the masters should have made it a separate unit.
I. Doctrinal-Outline Placement
Jingxing’s Linked-Meaning Expository Praise on the Sūtra of Measureless Life takes the opening as Dharmākara’s self-binding pledge and the auspicious response after the vows: 「第四、自誓感瑞，有二：此初、瑣文也。」—“Fourth, he binds himself by pledge and receives an auspicious response. This has two parts; this first is the prose text” 〔T37n1748 0153b07〕. It proceeds through the verse on transcendent vows, request for a sign, appearance of the sign, and conclusion. At 「一向專志莊嚴土」—“single-mindedly devoted his resolve to adorning the land” 〔T37n1748 0153c27〕, the outline enters the direct account of the supreme practice: first cultivation of the land and then cultivation of the body. The long practice after the vows and the dependent and primary fruits it evokes are gathered in one large section.
One turning point within the unit requires particular attention when aligning the outlines. At T360 0270a02, Ānanda asks: 「法藏菩薩為已成佛而取滅度、為未成佛？為今現在？」—“Has Bodhisattva Dharmākara already attained buddhahood and then entered extinction, has he not yet attained buddhahood, or is he now present?” 〔T12n0360 0270a02〕. T1748 0154c28–0155a01 judges: 「第二、申所成果。即身土之果，逐誓願而成故。」—“Second, it explains the fruit accomplished: the fruits of body and land, accomplished in accordance with the pledged vows” 〔T37n1748 0154c28〕. Thus 0269b07–0270a02 chiefly concerns cultivation after the vows and its results, while 0270a02–0272b02 concerns present buddhahood and the fruits of body and land enumerated in the first fascicle. This internal turn in the outline is recorded without adjudication and does not alter the established boundaries of the unit.
The base-text span contains 4,683 characters in fifty-eight source blocks. Externally, the unit corresponds in full to T1748 0153b07–0158a07, beginning with the self-binding pledge and auspicious response and ending with manifested buddhas in lotus-light: 「此後、華光利物也」—“What follows is lotus-light benefiting beings” 〔T37n1748 0158a05〕. The next unit begins separately with the causes and results of birth in that land and does not belong to this passage.
II. Collation with the Alternate Translations (Four Translations and One Assembly) — recorded without adjudication
The four alternate translations arrange the material corresponding to this unit differently. T361 and T362 distribute cultivation after the vows, natural enjoyment, Maitreya’s questions, light, and related material among four sections. T363 and T310 Assembly Five present it in a more nearly continuous sequence. Every span and quotation below has been checked anew against its recension:
| Alternate translation | Corresponding span | Verbatim anchor for cultivation after the vows and attainment of buddhahood | Structural record |
|---|---|---|---|
| T361 | A 0281c22–0285c25; B 0287a25–0287b17; C 0289b03–0289c19; D 0290b05–0291c14 | 「無量清淨佛為菩薩時，常奉行是二十四願」—“When the Buddha of Measureless Purity was a bodhisattva, he constantly practiced these Twenty-Four Vows” 〔T12n0361 0281c22〕; later, 「無量清淨佛作佛已來凡十八劫，所居國名須摩提」—“Eighteen kalpas have passed since the Buddha of Measureless Purity attained buddhahood; the land in which he dwells is called Xumoti” 〔T12n0361 0282c28〕 | Naturally appearing food begins separately in B; Ajita’s questions occur in C; constant brightness without darkness and the account of light occur in D. The time since buddhahood is eighteen kalpas. |
| T362 | A 0302b15–0306a01; B 0307a04–0307a20; C 0307c15–0308a19; D 0308b23–0309c17 | 「阿彌陀為菩薩時，常奉行是二十四願」—“When Amitābha was a bodhisattva, he constantly practiced these Twenty-Four Vows” 〔T12n0362 0302b15〕; later, 「阿彌陀作佛已來，凡十小劫。所居國土，名須摩題」—“Ten small kalpas have passed since Amitābha attained buddhahood; the land in which he dwells is called Xumoti” 〔T12n0362 0303b17〕 | The material is likewise carried in four discontinuous sections. Naturally appearing food, Ajita’s questions, and light from the Buddha’s crown occur respectively in B, C, and D. The time since buddhahood is ten small kalpas. |
| T363 | 0320c28–0323a26 | 「爾時作法苾芻，向彼佛前發如是願已，承佛威神，即說頌曰」—“At that time, after Bhikṣu Zuofa had made these vows before that buddha, he received the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power and spoke these verses” 〔T12n0363 0320c28〕; later, 「有世界名曰極樂，佛名無量壽，成佛已來於今十劫」—“There is a world called Ultimate Bliss, whose buddha is named Measureless Life; ten kalpas have passed since he attained buddhahood” 〔T12n0363 0321c14〕 | The vow-verses, long cultivation, attainment of buddhahood, light and life, jeweled trees, fragrant wind, and scattered flowers form a largely continuous sequence. The land is called Ultimate Bliss. |
| T310, Assembly Five | 0094c27–0097c16 | 「彼法處比丘於世間自在王如來前發此願已，承佛威神而說頌曰」—“After Bhikṣu Fachu had made these vows before World-Sovereign King Tathāgata, he received the Buddha’s majestic spiritual power and spoke these verses” 〔T11n0310 0094c27〕; later, 「西方去此十萬億佛剎，彼有世界名曰極樂。法處比丘在彼成佛，號無量壽，今現在說法」—“In the west, a hundred thousand koṭis of buddha-lands from here, is a world called Ultimate Bliss. Bhikṣu Fachu attained buddhahood there and is named Measureless Life; he is now present and teaching the Dharma” 〔T11n0310 0095c15〕 | The vow-verses, bodhisattva practices, attainment of buddhahood, light and life, tree at the site of awakening, rivers and pools, necessities, virtuous wind, and lotuses follow one another in sequence. The land is called Ultimate Bliss. |
All four preserve the central scene of cultivation after the vows, present buddhahood, light, and the adornments of the land. Personal names, buddha-names, land-names, time since buddhahood, arrangement of the material, and details of the precious substances differ. T361’s eighteen kalpas, T362’s ten small kalpas, and the ten kalpas of T363 and T310 are each recorded according to their own texts. No recension is used to supplement or alter another, and none of the numbers is judged superior.
III. Scriptural and Treatise Grounding (the “eye”)
The eye of the passage is how vow becomes power and power keeps the vow from being empty. Tanluan’s Commentary on the Treatise on Birth in That Land explicitly grounds the three adornments in the pure vow-mind: 「應知此三種莊嚴成就，由本四十八願等清淨願心之所莊嚴。因淨故果淨，非無因、他因有也。」—“Know that the accomplishment of these three kinds of adornment is adorned by the pure vow-mind of the original Forty-Eight Vows and the like. Because the cause is pure, the result is pure; the result does not arise without a cause or from some other cause” 〔T40n1819 0841b07〕. The accomplishments of land, Buddha, and bodhisattvas neither arise without cause nor happen accidentally from another cause.
The distance between vow and fruit is not crossed by one sentence of pledge alone. The Commentary also says: 「願以成力、力以就願，願不徒然、力不虛設，力願相符畢竟不差，故曰成就。」—“The vow brings the power to completion, and the power fulfills the vow. The vow is not in vain and the power is not exercised in vain; power and vow accord and never diverge in the end. Therefore it is called accomplishment” 〔T40n1819 0840a14〕. After the transcendent vows, this sūtra gives a long account of bodhisattva practice through inconceivably immense and enduring kalpas, showing the causal course through which vow becomes power. After Ānanda asks 「為今現在？」—“Is he now present?” 〔T12n0360 0270a03〕, the Buddha replies that Dharmākara has now attained buddhahood. Light and life, retinue, jeweled trees, pool water, necessities, virtuous wind, and lotuses then reveal one by one the fruits accomplished by that power.
The root remains the rescue of sentient beings. The Commentary directly says: 「安樂淨土從此大悲生故，故謂此大悲為淨土之根」—“Because the Pure Land of Peace and Bliss is born from this great compassion, this great compassion is called the root of the Pure Land” 〔T40n1819 0828c16〕. The precious adornments of this passage are therefore not a luxuriant description abstracted from sentient beings’ suffering. The verse on the transcendent vows first speaks of universally aiding the poor and distressed, ending the three defilements, and rescuing from dangers and hardships; the light, sounds, water, and wind that follow all function to remove obstruction, give rise to goodness, bring patience, and establish beings on the Buddha-path.
IV. Essentials of the Commentary on This Passage
The sūtra and its passage-by-passage mirrors disclose nine levels:
- The verse on the transcendent vows and request for an auspicious response. Three opening pledges concern the Buddha’s own virtue, benefit through material giving, and the renown of giving Dharma. Following the pledges, the verse extensively describes bodily and verbal activity of transformation, personal virtue, and the aspiration to equal the Buddha’s wisdom. Jingxing says of the opening verse: 「願必起行故，必至無上道。」—“Because vow necessarily gives rise to practice, he will certainly reach the unsurpassed path” 〔T37n1748 0153b12〕. Dharmākara then asks the great-thousand world to tremble and the devas to rain flowers; earth trembles, flowers rain down, and celestial music voices its attestation.
- Cultivating the land and body after the vows. The sūtra first says that Dharmākara single-mindedly devoted his resolve to adorning the wondrous land. It then gives a long list: freedom from the three thoughts and perceptions, complete patience, few desires and contentment, concentration and wisdom, gentle expression and soft speech, reverence for the Three Jewels and teachers, the three gates of liberation, abandoning harm and cultivating good, and personally practicing and teaching others the six perfections. The passage-by-passage mirror divides courageous vigor into initial vigor, applied vigor, and insatiable vigor, marking its unceasing quality with 「修不已故」—“because cultivation does not cease” 〔T37n1748 0154b13〕.
- Dependent and primary fruits of practice through long kalpas. Wherever Dharmākara is born, treasuries appear in response. He establishes innumerable beings in the right path and manifests as an elder, ruler, celestial lord, or Brahmā king in order to make offerings to buddhas. Bodily fragrance, marks and excellences, and treasures issuing from his hands are not wonders acquired apart from practice. The ancient commentary gathers them as the fruit of wisdom and virtue in 「於一切法而得自在」—“he attains sovereign freedom in every dharma” 〔T37n1748 0154c26〕.
- Dharmākara has attained buddhahood and the land of Peace and Bliss is established. After Ānanda’s threefold question about past, future, and present, the Buddha replies that Dharmākara is present in the west, a hundred thousand koṭis of lands away, in the land called Peace and Bliss, and that ten kalpas have passed since buddhahood. The land possesses ground formed from the seven precious substances, light, and purity; it lacks mountains and seas, the evil destinies, and extremes of heat and cold. When Ānanda asks upon what the devas dwell, the sūtra first states that both the results of action and buddha-worlds are inconceivable, then says that sentient beings dwell upon the ground established by action through their good power of merit.
- Light and lifespan. The twelve names of light are not twelve unrelated ornaments. The passage-by-passage mirror explains Measureless, Boundless, Unobstructed, and Unequaled through being beyond calculation, illuminating every condition, being beyond obstruction, and surpassing all others. It gathers the benefits of encountering the light under removal of obstruction, arising of goodness, rescue from suffering, and attainment of joy: 「三垢滅者即除障利，身意歡喜即生善利，苦得休息者拔苦利，皆蒙解脫者即得樂利」—“The ending of the three defilements is the benefit of removing obstruction; joy of body and mind is the benefit of giving rise to goodness; respite from suffering is the benefit of rescuing from suffering; receiving liberation is the benefit of attaining joy” 〔T37n1748 0155c15〕. The Buddha’s lifespan and the lifespans of beings likewise cannot be exhausted by calculation or simile.
- The number and virtues of śrāvakas and bodhisattvas. The sūtra first says that life is beyond calculation, then that the number of beings cannot be stated and their spiritual wisdom and power are sovereign. Even beings like Mahāmaudgalyāyana calculating the first assembly together would know only what resembles one drop on the tip of a hair, while what they do not know resembles the ocean. The point is not only to astonish through great numbers, but to show that the first assembly cannot be exhausted by limited calculative wisdom. The passage-by-passage mirror joins this to the fruit of the vow that the śrāvakas be without bound.
- Jeweled trees, the tree at the site of awakening, and Dharma-sounds. Trees of single precious substances, mixed substances, and combinations of all seven stand in aligned rows, while the wind gives rise to the naturally harmonized five tones. Through the six objects of form, sound, fragrance, flavor, touch, and Dharma, the tree at the site of awakening gives sentient beings patience and non-retrogression. The passage-by-passage mirror explains the patience arising from sound through the tree: 「尋樹音聲從風而有，有而非實故得音響忍。」—“Examining the sound of the tree, it arises from the wind; it exists yet is not real, and therefore one attains the patience arising from sound” 〔T37n1748 0156c10〕. It deepens pliant accord and non-arising through not opposing conditioned existence while according with emptiness and through contemplating the arising of dharmas as cut off from the four alternatives.
- Palaces, bathing pools, enjoyment, and form. Palaces of the seven precious substances naturally appear through transformation. The pool water is pure and fragrant, and its depth and temperature accord with each person’s wish. The waves do not produce confused noise, but sounds of the Three Jewels, quiescence, emptiness and no-self, great compassion, the perfections, the ten powers, fearlessnesses, no fabrication, and neither arising nor ceasing, all heard in accord with capacity. When the sūtra says the water washes away defilement of mind, the ancient commentary limits the meaning: 「觸水為緣，發慧蕩除故」—“contact with the water serves as the condition, and the wisdom it gives rise to washes defilement away” 〔T37n1748 0157a14〕. The water itself is not made an independent agent that cuts off affliction. Although food vessels appear, the sūtra expressly says that there is no attachment to flavor. Although the names human and deva are used, bodily form is of one kind without difference.
- The virtuous wind, scattered flowers, jeweled lotuses, and manifested buddhas. The wind at the fascicle’s close is not background. It moves nets and trees to produce Dharma-sounds and fragrances of virtue; its touch is like entry into the Samādhi of Cessation. It also arranges scattered flowers by color across the ground; they come and go six times, leaving the land pure and without residue. Every petal of the jeweled lotuses has its light and color. Each flower gives forth light, buddhas appear in the light, and the buddhas teach throughout the ten directions and establish sentient beings in the Buddha’s right path. The passage-by-passage mirror therefore closes with 「此後、華光利物也」—“What follows is lotus-light benefiting beings” 〔T37n1748 0158a05〕, not with the precious substances themselves.
V. Divergent Readings of the Commentators — recorded without adjudication
| Doctrinal position | Jingxing, Linked-Meaning Expository Praise, T1748 | Huiyuan, Commentary on the Meaning, T1745 | Tanluan, Commentary on the Treatise on Birth in That Land, T1819 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Overall structure after fulfillment of the vows | Divides the extensive disclosure of accomplishment into four aspects: 「有四：一、歎佛身果，即願佛身之報也；二、申其眷屬，即願菩薩聲聞之報也；三、歎佛土妙，即求淨土之果也；四顯其所作，即攝生願之果也。」—“There are four: first, praise of the fruit of the Buddha’s body, the result of the vows concerning the Buddha’s body; second, explanation of the retinue, the result of the vows concerning bodhisattvas and śrāvakas; third, praise of the wondrous buddha-land, the fruit of seeking the Pure Land; fourth, disclosure of its activity, the fruit of the vows embracing sentient beings” 〔T37n1748 0155b19〕 | First takes what was practiced, accomplished, and embraced as governing themes of the whole sūtra. At this point the passage enters what was accomplished; he then divides what follows into Buddha-body, attendant assembly, land, and people | Three adornments comprise seventeen kinds of accomplishment of the land, eight of the Buddha, and four of bodhisattvas; their sequence differs from a passage-by-passage outline |
| Adornment of the land | Enumerates jeweled trees, music, palaces, and bathing pools in this passage and joins each to the fruit of a vow | Gathers them under three classes: 「一事莊嚴，色香味等五欲精上；二法莊嚴，純論妙法；三人莊嚴，勝善眾生居住其中。」—“First is adornment through things: forms, fragrances, flavors, and the other objects of the five desires are excellent. Second is adornment through Dharma: only the subtle Dharma is discussed. Third is adornment through persons: excellent and wholesome sentient beings dwell there” 〔T37n1745 0105c18〕 | Within the seventeen virtues of the land, the gate called 「三種」—“three kinds” 〔T40n1819 0837a28〕 opens into water, earth, and space. The sequence also includes purity, measure, nature, form, manifold things, wondrous color, touch, the three kinds, rain, light, and subtle sound |
| Three Dharma-patiences | Rejects confining the patience arising from sound to the ten faiths and pliant accord to the three worthies; saying that those not yet in the ten faiths cannot attain Dharma-patience after birth there would conflict with the original vow, so he explains the three patiences through the sounds of the tree | Assigns the patience arising from sound to the third ground and below, pliant accord to the fourth through sixth, and non-arising to the seventh and above: 「忍隨淺深差別為三」—“Patience differs into three according to shallowness and depth” 〔T37n1745 0106a06〕 | Does not assign the stages of the three patiences passage by passage; emphasizes the inconceivable power of the land’s virtues and the sustaining activity of the original vow |
| Vow and fruit | Relates each virtue of the fruit to a vow as fully as possible and explains vow-power through fulfillment, clarity, firmness, and completion | Says that what has been accomplished 「遂前四十八之大願，應別對之」—“fulfills the preceding great Forty-Eight Vows and should be correlated with them separately” 〔T37n1745 0105a21〕, but does not enumerate every correlation | All three accomplishments are adorned by the pure vow-mind; because the cause is pure, the result is pure, and accomplishment is explained through the accord of power and vow |
All three masters refuse to treat the land’s adornments as causeless appearances. The density of their divisions, placement of the three patiences, and method of correlating accomplishments with individual vows differ. They are preserved side by side without a modern adjudication.
VI. Terms
| Term | Grounded sense and range |
|---|---|
| Vows transcending the world | Huiyuan explains: 「前所發中求法身願、求淨土願，名超世願。興心名建。」—“Among the vows previously aroused, the vows seeking the Dharma-body and the Pure Land are called vows transcending the world. Giving rise to the mind is called establishing” 〔T37n1745 0103c10〕. Transcending the world does not mean leaving the world uncared for; the vows for the Dharma-body and the Pure Land are established together. |
| Three defilements | The verse speaks of dispelling the darkness of the three defilements. The passage-by-passage mirror states: 「三垢者，即貪瞋癡也。」—“The three defilements are greed, anger, and delusion” 〔T37n1748 0153b28〕. |
| Three Dharma-patiences | The patience arising from sound, patience of pliant accord, and patience of non-arising. Jingxing explains pliant accord as not opposing conditioned existence while according with emptiness, and non-arising as contemplating the arising of dharmas as cut off from the four alternatives. Huiyuan separately assigns them to three groups of grounds; both readings are recorded under Topic V. |
| Original vow-power and the other four powers of vow | 「本願者，即往誓願之力」—“Original vow means the power of former pledged vows” 〔T37n1748 0156c15〕. Fulfillment means that nothing is lacking from the vows; clarity that what is sought is not false; firmness that external conditions cannot destroy them; completion that the vows necessarily achieve their fruit. |
| Water of the eight excellent qualities | Huiyuan enumerates: 「清、不臭、輕、冷、濡、美、飲時調適、飲已無患」—“clear, without foul odor, light, cool, soft, pleasant, well-regulated when drunk, and free of harm after drinking” 〔T37n1745 0106a25〕. This passage of the sūtra expressly presents the water as pure, fragrant, and tasting like nectar, and further unfolds its use through depth and temperature according with one’s wishes. |
| Natural | The passage repeatedly uses this for precious things, music, pool water, food, and the virtuous wind. They are not made through artificial intention or labor, but appear in response to what is fitting. The sūtra limits this sense through freedom from attachment to flavor and disappearance followed by reappearance at the proper time; natural does not mean indulgence in grasping. |
| The names human and deva | The sūtra first says that all beings are of one kind and without differences in form; the names are established only in accommodation to other worlds. The passage-by-passage mirror likewise says: 「但逐穢土業以別人天，故云因順餘方有人天之名。」—“Only in accord with the karma of defiled lands are humans and devas distinguished; therefore it says that the names human and deva exist in accommodation to other lands” 〔T37n1748 0157b24〕. This is the ancient commentary’s judgment and does not alter the sūtra’s terms. |
| Mother-of-pearl | T360 includes the graph form 車𤦲 among its seven precious substances, and the form is retained according to its source. T1748 quotes the form 硨磲; each belongs to its own text and they are not normalized into a single Chinese graph form. |
VII. Similes and Rhetoric
The most prominent numerical simile is the drop on a hair-tip and the ocean. The sūtra imagines one hair divided into one hundred parts and one drop touched with the tip of one part, then asks whether the drop or the ocean is greater. It finally judges that what can be known of the first assembly is 「猶如一渧，其所不知如大海水」—“like one drop, while what remains unknown is like the water of the great ocean” 〔T12n0360 0270c05〕. The simile does not supply a precise ratio; it makes the distance between what can be known and what cannot be exhausted visible as an image.
The comparison of bodily forms proceeds level by level: beggar to king, king to wheel-turning sage king, wheel-turning king to lord of Trāyastriṃśa, lord of Trāyastriṃśa to king of the sixth heaven, and finally king of the sixth heaven to the bodhisattvas and śrāvakas of Peace and Bliss. The sūtra concludes: 「光顏容色不相及逮，百千萬億不可計倍。」—“Their radiant countenances and complexions cannot be equaled or reached, differing by hundreds of thousands of myriads of koṭis of incalculable times” 〔T12n0360 0272a04〕. This rhetoric repeatedly shifts the measuring point: although one level surpasses the preceding, before the next it becomes like the earlier beggar.
In the jeweled-tree passage, roots, trunks, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, and fruit rotate through the seven precious substances. The sūtra then forms an ordered parallel: 「行行相值、莖莖相望、枝枝相準、葉葉相向、華華相順、實實相當」—“row faces row, trunk faces trunk, branch aligns with branch, leaf faces leaf, flower accords with flower, and fruit matches fruit” 〔T12n0360 0270c28〕. In the scattering of flowers by the virtuous wind, sinking four inches underfoot, returning when the foot lifts, and recurring six times make softness and purity tangible. The lotuses first give each petal its own light and color, then extend in a chain from every flower to light, from light to buddhas, and from buddhas teaching the Dharma to measureless sentient beings throughout the ten directions.
VIII. Citation and Carrying Forward
- Vow becomes power. Tanluan joins Dharmākara’s Forty-Eight Vows to the present sovereign spiritual power of the Tathāgata and establishes accomplishment through 「願不徒然、力不虛設」—“the vow is not in vain and the power is not exercised in vain” 〔T40n1819 0840a14〕. The vow-verses, long cultivation, and present virtues of the fruit may therefore be read as one complete causal line.
- The three adornments. The Commentary establishes separate gates for the seventeen statements concerning the land, eight concerning the Buddha, and four concerning bodhisattvas, and finally says that all three accomplishments are adorned by the pure vow-mind. Light and life, the number of beings, trees, pools, necessities, and lotuses in this T360 passage are therefore not merely a succession of things; they belong to the vowed fruits of Buddha, land, and retinue.
- The land also performs Buddha-work. For the virtues of water, space, rain, light, and subtle sound, the Commentary repeatedly asks why the Buddha gave rise to each vow and answers through great compassion. In particular, light performs Buddha-work and subtle sound awakens beings. This carries forward the present passage in which light ends the three defilements, tree-sounds bring patience, pool-sounds accord with capacity, and the virtuous wind keeps defiled habits from arising.
- Assembly Five retells the same span. T310 gathers the sixfold benefit through the tree at the site of awakening and the three patiences under 「此皆無量壽佛本願威神見所加」—“all these are bestowed through the original vows and majestic spiritual power of the Buddha of Measureless Life” 〔T11n0310 0096c06〕. It then presents the virtuous wind, scattered flowers, and manifested buddhas in lotus-light as a continuous sequence. It preserves the same carrying-forward line from vow-power through Dharma-sound to non-retrogression, while the details remain those of its own translation.
IX. Placement Among the Recensions
The base text of this unit is T12n0360 0269b07–0272b02, including the fascicle-end title 「無量壽經卷上」—“First Fascicle of The Sūtra of Measureless Life” 〔T12n0360 0272b02〕. The body follows the Taishō base text and is not altered from the wording quoted by an ancient commentary or another translation. The following variants serve only to locate the text:
- In the verse on transcendent vows, T360 reads 「我於無量劫，不為大施主，普濟諸貧苦」—“If, through measureless kalpas, I do not become a great donor and universally aid all the poor and distressed” 〔T12n0360 0269b11〕. T1748 records two scriptural readings, 「不為大施主普濟諸貧苦」—“not becoming a great donor who universally aids the poor and distressed” 〔T37n1748 0153b16〕 and 「不為大施主終莫濟貧苦」—“not becoming a great donor, never in the end aiding the poor and distressed” 〔T37n1748 0153b16〕, taking the former as correct. The source layer still follows T360.
- T360 says that the sun and moon draw in their manifold rays and celestial lights disappear. T1748 also records another text reading 「日月諸光明一切隱不現」—“all the lights of the sun and moon disappear” 〔T37n1748 0153c05〕. The meanings are close, but each reading retains its own wording.
- T360 gives the extension of the branches and leaves of the tree at the site of awakening as two hundred thousand li. T1748 records: 「又有本云「二百萬里」，蓋是正也。」—“Another text says ‘two million li’; this is probably correct” 〔T37n1748 0156b21〕. This is the variant and judgment seen by the ancient commentator; it is recorded without being written back into the base text.
- In the scattering of flowers by the virtuous wind, T360 has a compound meaning intense fragrance. After quoting it, T1748 says: 「裂者，宜作烈光也、美也，裂非字體。」—“The graph lie should be written as the graph meaning intense; it means radiant and beautiful. The former lie is not the proper graph” 〔T37n1748 0157c27〕. The present source still follows the base text and does not silently insert the commentator’s emendation.
- The graph forms for the seven precious substances differ by source. T360 lists 「金、銀、琉璃、珊瑚、琥珀、車𤦲、瑪瑙」—“gold, silver, beryl, coral, amber, mother-of-pearl, and agate” 〔T12n0360 0270a08〕; T1748 uses another graph form when quoting mother-of-pearl in the jeweled-tree passage. Every verbatim quotation retains the form of the text quoted rather than being normalized.
Within this range there are 108 <app> elements and 206 <note> elements: 193 directional collation notes and thirteen notes within <app>, with no inline note. The body has thirteen gaiji, all pointing through #CB00006 to the graph 𤦲. They cluster from 0270c07–0270c26, while the densest <app> locus is 0271a08. The body therefore preserves the T360 base-text graph rather than constructing a new reading from variants.
The internal change at 0270a02 from cultivation to the fruit accomplished, the different numbers of kalpas and arrangements among the four translations and one assembly, and the ancient variants just listed are all recorded without adjudication. None is used to establish a ranking of recensions, a translator attribution, or new boundaries for this unit.