佛說無量壽經 · 名相Glossary

Huiyuan explains the name through the lofty excellence of their qualities, while noting that Ānanda was still in training and that the scriptural praise describes the majority of the assembly: 「一切大聖，歎其人高。」—“All were great sages: this praises the loftiness of those persons” 〔T37n1745 0093c26〕

A respectful title for Mahāyāna practitioners. The sūtra uses the sixteen noble ones headed by Worthy Protector as the general rubric for a class of bodhisattvas: 「諸菩薩中，隨勝略舉十六正士。」—“Among the bodhisattvas, following those who excel, it briefly names sixteen noble ones” 〔T37n1745 0094c01〕

Manifesting different bodily actions in accordance with what sentient beings require, without obstructing inner realization: 「化行善巧，無形不現，故云行權方便。」—“The activity of teaching and transformation is skillful: there is no form it does not manifest; therefore the text says that they practice provisional skillful means” 〔T37n1748 0134c15〕

Not a simile for a storehouse of fascicles, but the Dharma encompassed by the Buddha’s wisdom, true principle, and qualities: 「入者達解究竟證解，知如實自利及事利他，故云入佛法藏。」—“To enter means to penetrate understanding and attain ultimate realization, knowing self-benefit in accordance with reality and actively undertaking benefit for others; hence the text says they enter the treasury of the Buddha-Dharma” 〔T37n1748 0134c23〕

A simile for bodhisattvas who penetrate the Dharma of transformation and manifest in accordance with what is fitting; the forms displayed possess no fixed substance: 「菩薩顯化巧順物宜，可云幻師。」—“Bodhisattvas’ skill in manifesting transformations accords with what beings require; thus they may be called illusionists” 〔T37n1748 0143b03〕

Offering rescue before sentient beings make a request; the sūtra unfolds the meaning through shouldering the multitude and arousing great compassion: 「作不請之友，荷負群生為之重任。」—“They become friends who come unasked and make it their grave responsibility to shoulder the multitude of beings” 〔T12n0360 0266b19〕

This passage uses the samādhis of emptiness, signlessness, wishlessness, and the Buddha’s Flower Adornment to present the cultivation of concentration; it does not reduce every samādhi to one Dharma: 「百千三昧即總持所依」—“Hundreds of thousands of samādhis are what the dhāraṇīs depend upon” 〔T37n1748 0144c27〕

The first in the succession of past buddhas in this passage. Alternate translations use Dingguang (定光) and Randeng (然燈); the Chinese graphs distinguish 定光 from the base text’s 錠光. Each translation retains its own name; the names are not substituted for one another.

The buddha from whom Dharmākara personally receives the Dharma in this passage; he possesses the ten epithets from Tathāgata through Buddha and is also called the World-Honored One. T361 and T362 use the forms Louyihengluo and World-Abundance King; T310 has World-Sovereign King of the World.

The name received by the king after leaving the household life. Jingxing also records the names Tanmojialiu and Tanmojia from the early translations; no modern Sanskrit reconstruction is used to override the ancient transmissions.

The mind that seeks to attain perfect awakening. T363 and T310 expressly give the equivalent formula “the mind of unsurpassed perfect awakening.” Each Chinese translation retains its own wording.

In the verse, giving and disciplining the mind both belong to the perfection of giving; with ethical discipline, patience, vigor, samādhi, and wisdom, they make the six perfections. Huiyuan explains: 「「布施調意」，是其檀度。修施治慳，名為調意。」—“‘Giving and disciplining the mind’ is his perfection of giving. Cultivating giving to remedy stinginess is called disciplining the mind” 〔T37n1745 0102a16〕. Jingxing likewise summarizes: 「此初、求自利因，即六度也。」—“This first part seeks the causes of one’s own benefit; these are the six perfections” 〔T37n1748 0149a05〕.

The verse describes the land as peaceful and blissful like nirvāṇa, foremost and without an equal. Jingxing gives the ancient transmitted sound and sense: 「梵云匿縛南，唐云圓寂。」—“In the Indic language it is called Ni-fu-nan; in Tang Chinese, perfect quiescence” 〔T37n1748 0149a23〕.

After seeing the causes and results of the many lands, to choose and cultivate the pure practices of a buddha-land. It does not mean compiling a text from other recensions.

The long span during which Dharmākara contemplates and selects and adopts the pure practices that adorn a buddha-land. In T360 it stands within the forty-two-kalpa lifespan of World-Sovereign King Tathāgata.

A vow is hopeful seeking of what is to be accomplished; a pledge binds Dharmākara through refusal to attain perfect awakening. They join the opening and ending of each vow rather than forming two separate documents.

The Eleventh Vow says that the humans and devas in the land abide in the rightly fixed group and certainly reach extinction. Tanluan explains: 「緣佛願力故住正定聚，住正定聚故必至滅度無諸迴伏之難，所以得速。」—“Through the power of the Buddha’s vow they abide in the rightly fixed group. Because they abide in the rightly fixed group, they certainly reach extinction without the difficulties of repeated turning back; therefore they attain swiftly” 〔T40n1819 0844a09〕.

The quality of mind directed toward birth there in the Eighteenth Vow, joined to the desire for birth and ten thoughts. Its meaning is not rewritten through modern psychological language.

Tanluan expressly treats these not as a fixed period, but as a continuous recollection in which the mind has no other thought; merely uttering the Name is likewise.

One fruit-position embraced by Vows Eighteen through Twenty-Two. The Twenty-Second further says that those free through their original vows may continue cultivating the virtues of Samantabhadra in order to deliver sentient beings.

The armor is a simile for a great vow protecting a bodhisattva who enters among sentient beings; the sūtra sets it beside accumulating roots of virtue and delivering all beings.

The Thirty-Fourth Vow sets profound dhāraṇīs beside the patience of non-arising; it does not reduce every dhāraṇī to one practice gate.

The concentration of the Forty-Fifth Vow, in which one constantly sees immeasurable tathāgatas. Jingxing explains the name: 「普者即普遍義，等者即齊等義。」—“Universal means all-pervading; equality means equal and even” 〔T37n1748 0153a22〕.

The Forty-Eighth Vow lists the three patiences but does not itself assign them to distinct stages in this passage. Ancient masters offer more detailed judgments, but no one reading is added to the source text.

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.

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〕.

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.

「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.

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.

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.

A group firm in direction and not retreating. Jingxing says universally of that land: 「若生淨土，不問凡聖定向涅槃、定趣善行、定生善道、定行六度，定得解脫故，唯有正定聚而無餘二也。」—“If born in the Pure Land, whether ordinary or noble, they are fixed in direction toward nirvāṇa, fixed in advancing through wholesome conduct, fixed in birth in the good paths, fixed in practicing the six perfections, and fixed in attaining liberation. Therefore only the rightly fixed group exists, and neither of the other two” 〔T37n1748 0158b10〕

The former is decidedly directed toward what is wrong; the latter remains undecided between advance and retreat. The treatises assign their stages differently. The present passage says only that these two groups do not exist in that land and does not rewrite the sūtra according to any single chart of stages.

What is heard in this passage is the Name of the Buddha of Measureless Life. It is joined to the shared praise by the buddhas of the ten directions of his majestic power and merit; the Name is not separated from the Buddha’s virtue.

Sincerely turning the mind and what has been cultivated toward the vow for birth in that land. “Dedication and direction” does not mean merely remembering the Name; the sūtra’s syntax places it between one thought and the vow for birth.

Corresponds before and after with the rightly fixed group. An ancient commentary illuminates it with the transmitted Chinese expression in the shorter sūtra: 「阿鞞跋致即不退故。」—“The transmitted term means precisely non-retrogression” 〔T37n1748 0158b06〕

Huiyuan enumerates them: 「殺父、殺母、殺阿羅漢、破和合僧、出佛身血，此是其五也。」—“Killing one’s father, killing one’s mother, killing an arhat, disrupting the harmony of the saṅgha, and drawing blood from a buddha—these are the five” 〔T37n1745 0107a29〕

Tanluan gives its form as follows: 「若言無佛無佛法、無菩薩無菩薩法。如是等見，若心自解、若從他受，其心決定，皆名誹謗正法。」—“If one says there is no buddha and no Buddha-Dharma, no bodhisattva and no bodhisattva-Dharma—views of this kind, whether understood by one’s own mind or received from another, are all called slander of the right Dharma when the mind is decided in them” 〔T40n1819 0834b04〕. The present passage itself names the offense but does not define it here.

The first of the three grades in T360. Its complete outline consists of five causal practices, the appearance of the real Buddha and the great assembly, following the Buddha to birth, transformation-birth within a flower, and three benefits after birth. T361 and T362 explicitly call it the first and very highest grade; T363 and T310 do not carry this stage-name.

Firmness of the stage attained after birth in that land. Speaking of the three births in the highest class, Jingxing says: 「今即上品三生雖有遲疾，皆入十信，得無生忍、悟百明門，故云住不退。」—“Although the three births in the highest class may be slower or faster, all enter the ten stages of faith, attain the patience of non-arising, and realize the gate of one hundred illuminations; therefore it says they dwell in non-retrogression” 〔T37n1748 0159b19〕. This is Jingxing’s interpretation of stage; the present passage of the sūtra itself states only dwelling in non-retrogression.

Listed with non-retrogression as attainments after birth. Beyond non-retrogression in stage, wisdom has vigorous activity and supernormal power functions freely. They are not written backward as virtues already complete before life’s end.

The second of the three grades in T360. Its governing structure is inability to become a śramaṇa and cultivate extensively, while still giving rise to the great aspiration, recollecting single-mindedly, practicing good according to capacity, and dedicating, followed by guidance from a manifested Buddha at life’s end. The functional parallels in T363 and Assembly Five do not call themselves the middle grade.

To aspire for birth in that land with a true and fully directed mind. It is the general indication; the aspiration for awakening, recollection, good deeds, and dedication that follow are its unfolding.

The mind directed toward the unsurpassed Buddha-path. An ancient commentary explains it as 「欲顯生彼必發大心」—“intending to show that birth there necessarily requires giving rise to the great aspiration” 〔T37n1748 0158c08〕. It therefore does not belong only to the highest grade.

The measure of practice may vary, but its presence may not. Jingxing describes a limited measure of merit as the middle grade, and Huiyuan lists a limited measure of merit and good as one of its four causes.

To maintain the fasting observance and ethical discipline. T361 and T362 separately speak of scriptural and ethical precepts and the purity of fasting; each recension’s wording remains its own.

To establish stūpas and images of the Buddha. T361 and T362 separately speak of building a buddha-monastery and erecting a stūpa; the graph for “image” in T360 is retained according to the base text.

To supply śramaṇas with food. The verb “food” functions here as the act of providing a meal, not the practitioner eating for themselves.

Four acts of offering listed in sequence. The graph used for “lighting” follows the T360 base text. The two earlier translations include multicolored silk and differ in sequence.

To give the preceding good deeds to others and direct them toward birth in that land. Tanluan explains outgoing dedication as 「以己功德迴施一切眾生，作願共往生彼阿彌陀如來安樂淨土」—“giving one’s own merit to all sentient beings and forming the aspiration that all together be born in the Pure Land of Peace and Bliss of Amitābha Tathāgata” 〔T40n1819 0836a22〕. Aspiration for birth therefore remains inseparable from great compassion.

A manifested body produced by the Buddha of Measureless Life. This passage explicitly states that its radiance and excellent marks are complete just like those of the true Buddha. Assembly Five similarly says that the radiance and marks of the manifested body do not differ from the true Buddha; the recensions illuminate one another at this point.

After birth there, no longer turning back from the Buddha-path. Tanluan explains it through the sustaining power of the Buddha and entry into the rightly fixed group of the Mahāyāna, not as merely failing to return to a former place.

The merit and wisdom attained through the middle grade rank next to those of the highest. This does not make their causal practices or the welcomes at life’s end identical, nor does it classify the middle grade as the ten thoughts or single thought of the lowest.

The third of the three grades. Its practice is briefer and its merit and wisdom rank after those of the middle grade. It does not mean a person without the aspiration for awakening, joyful trust, or utmost sincerity. T363 and Assembly Five do not use this rank-name, so it is not transplanted into them.

The mind’s direction is single and joined to recollection of the Buddha and aspiration for birth. Tanluan’s continuity without another thought or object is the ancient carrying forward of its meaning.

The scripture still expressly says to recollect that buddha and aspire with a mind of utmost sincerity. It is not the accidental passing of a buddha-name through the mind.

Upon hearing the profound Dharma, to receive it with joyful trust and possess a stability marked by freedom from doubt.

A true, earnest, undeceptive mind. In this sentence it directly supports aspiration for birth and is not treated as a passing emotion.

The sign at life’s end for this passage. The ancient commentary classifies it only as a sign at death and does not identify the dream-buddha as true or manifested, so no further judgment is added.

Bodhisattvas go before the Buddha of Measureless Life to make offerings, hear and practice the Dharma, and proclaim the path of transformation. The visit is not merely ceremonial.

A verse-name for the Buddha of Measureless Life. The names in alternate recensions retain their own wording.

The vast mind that arises after seeing the Pure Land. Jingxing identifies it as the four immeasurables. This is the commentator’s explanation and is not rewritten as an explicit four-item list in T360.

Knowing the bodhisattvas’ vows and practices, the Buddha predicts that they will become buddhas and accomplish corresponding pure lands. Subject and object remain explicit in English.

One with a single birth remaining before occupying the place of a buddha. The sūtra simultaneously preserves those who manifest through an original vow for sentient beings; the term cannot be read as though every bodhisattva immediately abandons beneficial activity.

The sūtra gives differing accomplishments for dull and keen faculties but does not itself list names for the two patiences. Huiyuan and Jingxing both identify the two as patience concerning sounds and echoes and compliant patience; Jingxing reaches this after rejecting other identifications 〔T37n1745 0109c04〕〔T37n1748 0161a16〕. These are commentators’ names and are not inserted into T360 as though scripture enumerated them.

A place in which bodhisattvas may manifest in accordance with an original vow to deliver beings. The evil world is an environment of transformation, not evidence of retrogression or renewed fall.

The sūtra says the bodhisattvas range in the seven factors of awakening and cultivate the Buddha-Dharma. It does not add a sequence of their seven names in this passage.

Physical, divine, Dharma, wisdom, and buddha eyes unfold in sequence. They are modes of vision possessed by the bodhisattvas of that land, not five unrelated wondrous abilities.

To reflect on the natural benefit obtained through cultivating the path. It must not be divided so as to imply spontaneous attainment without practice: the immediate context expressly says to exert oneself in doing good, strive vigorously, and personally seek it.

Through birth in that land, abruptly leaving cyclic passage through the five destinies. Jingxing does not accept an interpretation that counts women as an evil destiny, nor does he directly equate the causes of the five evils below with the results that are the five destinies.

The land does not resist those who aspire to birth there, yet few people truly cultivate its cause. It does not mean that the land has no inhabitants, or that birth is attained without conditions.

Worldly contention, considered in relation to the great matter of birth and death. This does not mean that clothing, food, and care are wholly unnecessary. What the sūtra criticizes is being driven by craving and never having a moment of peace.

The word translated “while” has the sense of taking the opportunity while it remains: cultivate while the Buddha dwells in the world and while the body is still strong, rather than waiting until impermanence presses close.

Making one’s bearing upright and one’s practice correct does not stop at personal benefit; it also enables others to leave evil and cultivate good. This accords directly with aspiring to birth in that land without seeking pleasure for oneself.

The place of birth for those who doubt and later regret, where for five hundred years they meet an obstruction to seeing and hearing the Three Jewels. This passage invokes it only to exhort the relinquishment of doubt; it does not adjudicate here the questions of womb-birth and transformation-birth treated in the next unit.

At the end of this passage, these are only the general heading of the evil causes to be relinquished and their painful results. Their item-by-item content begins in the next unit and must not be moved forward in full.

The ancient commentaries gather them as killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, and drinking intoxicants. Each scriptural division additionally unfolds a cluster of related bodily, verbal, and mental conduct; the passage cannot be compressed into five isolated words.

Hardship and suffering experienced in the present through the five evils, called preliminary recompense by the ancient commentaries. State law, imprisonment, and hardship undergone by the body in this passage all fall within the term.

「五善即防五惡之戒，由持五戒現無眾苦，故獲福德，反五痛也。」—“The five good deeds are the precepts that prevent the five evils. By upholding the five precepts, one is free of the many pains in the present and therefore gains merit; they reverse the five pains” 〔T37n1748 0166b11〕. The latter half of the unit further unfolds giving, ethical discipline, patience, vigor, meditative concentration, wisdom, and teaching others.

The virtues gained when the five evils have been eliminated. The ancient commentary summarizes: 「滅五惡故獲五德，離痛燒故昇無為之安樂。」—“Because the five evils are eliminated, the five virtues are gained; because pain and burning are left behind, one rises to the peace and bliss of the unconditioned” 〔T37n1748 0168b21〕.

In this passage the expression does not mean chance without a cause. In the general explanation of recompense, the ancient commentary states: 「業果之理更無作者，故云天道施張。」—“The principle of karmic cause and result has no separate maker; therefore the text says that the order of heaven unfolds” 〔T37n1748 0168a15〕. Conduct and what is experienced correspond without positing another being who creates karmic result.

The ancient translation term in this passage refers to perfect quiescence. The sūtra speaks of the path that transcends the world, brings long life, and leads to nirvāṇa; it does not identify longevity in the present life with ultimate liberation.

The buddhas throughout the ten directions proclaim and praise the Buddha of Measureless Life without being held or hindered. The base text uses the graph 閡; the alternate graph is recorded in Topic IX.

Birth in a palace in that land followed by five hundred years without seeing the Buddha, hearing the Dharma, or seeing the bodhisattva and śrāvaka assemblies. Doubt causes enclosure, and the condition is like being within a womb. It does not mean that the land contains ordinary physical wombs.

Those who clearly trust Buddha-wisdom, perform meritorious deeds, and dedicate and direct merit with trust naturally arise within lotus flowers made of the seven precious substances. In a brief moment, their bodily marks, light, wisdom, and merit become complete. Tanluan further says: 「彼安樂國土莫非是阿彌陀如來正覺淨華之所化生，同一念佛無別道故」—“Everything in that land of Peace and Bliss is transformation-born from the pure flower of Amitābha Tathāgata’s perfect awakening, because all share the same recollection of the Buddha and there is no other path” 〔T40n1819 0838b02〕.

The sūtra lists Buddha-wisdom, inconceivable wisdom, ineffable wisdom, the vast wisdom of the Great Vehicle, and the unsurpassed supreme wisdom without peer or equal. Ancient commentaries give detailed classifications concerning whether Buddha-wisdom is a general term or each of the five names is distinct. The sūtra itself simply contrasts failure to understand, doubt, and disbelief with clear trust.

Performing meritorious deeds and turning their merit with trust toward birth in that land. The passage joins this with clear trust in Buddha-wisdom; the merit is not retained for present personal enjoyment.

Bodhisattvas who no longer retrogress from awakening. The sūtra first names sixty-seven koṭis from the Sahā world, then thirteen other buddha-lands. Bodhisattvas of lesser practice and those with little merit are likewise innumerable among those born there.

A measure used for the palaces. The passage gives one hundred and five hundred yojanas; the measure indicates the great extent of the dwellings but does not by itself determine ultimate peace and bliss.

More than the Name merely passing by the ear. In this passage it is joined with joy, elation, and even a single thought, and Jingxing further explains its direction through hearing the Name and wishing for birth there.

The sūtra uses it to mark the shortest point of joy upon hearing the Name. Jingxing reads the least and the most reciprocally with the ten thoughts, while Tanluan explicitly says the meaning is not taken from a time measure but emphasizes recollection directed toward its object without another thought.

The passage directly pronounces these as the gain arising from a joyful thought upon hearing the Name. The two phrases continue one another. Great benefit is not reduced to a worldly convenience, and no stage of attainment is added from outside the sūtra.

The four-character Chinese expression after hearing this sūtra is followed by preservation, recitation, explanation, and practice. Alternate translations separately list copying, offerings, and teaching others; each remains within its own wording.

Huiyuan explains this as seeing the four noble truths, while Jingxing identifies it with the fruit of stream-entry. In this passage it stands beside non-returning and liberation through exhaustion of the outflows, preserving distinctions among śrāvaka attainments.

Jingxing explains the two expressions respectively as the exhaustion of obstructions and the completion of wisdom, not merely as a second name for an arhat.

The bodhisattvas hear the Buddha’s accomplished virtues and the many evils of this land, arouse vows of rescue, adorn themselves with those vows, and will attain perfect awakening in the future.

Jingxing explains the scriptural expression as 「芬芬者，亂墜之狀也。」—“‘Fenfen’ describes a disorderly profusion in the falling” 〔T37n1748 0171a02〕. The base text retains 「芬芬」—“in profusion” 〔T12n0360 0279a25〕, while the current-circulation witness records a graphic variant; see Topic IX.