Six Directions of Buddhas, and Ouyi's Own Postscript

Third, the Transmission. Faith, vow, and practice, these three, now stand complete as the essential purport of the entire sūtra. This unsurpassed Dharma-gate is so profound that it is difficult to believe; hence, having already spoken it entirely unprompted, without being asked, in order to open its own occasion, the Buddha now further calls upon the buddhas of the six directions, putting forth their broad, long tongues together, to bear witness to it, in order to broadly transmit it. Were it not for the power of the Transmission, how could this wondrous Dharma's own device avoid being obstructed from reaching ages yet to come, and the perfect and sudden essential teaching of the mind be forever transmitted to those who have not yet heard it? The text divides into five parts: first, citing the buddhas of the six directions praising it, exhorting faith, and transmitting it; second, re-citing the name and explaining it, exhorting faith and transmitting it; third, speaking in terms of past, present, and future rebirth, exhorting the vow and transmitting it; fourth, citing the buddhas' own praise of how difficult a matter this is, urging faith and transmitting it; fifth, the assembly rejoicing, believing, and accepting it, transmitting it.

The first has six parts: first, the east, up to sixth, above. Xuanzang's translation gives ten directions — one should understand that the text differs in fullness of detail, though its meaning gains and loses nothing. Here is the first. Carrying forward from the Main Teaching above, which broadly praised Amitābha Buddha's dependent and direct adornments, exhorting people to hold the name with faith and vow and thereby ascend directly to non-retrogression — this, among the great benefits of merit that transcend the world, is especially inconceivable; hence it is not only I, the Tathāgata Śākyamuni, who praise it, but every buddha of the six directions, without exception, praising it with one and the same voice. As for "inconceivable," there are, in brief, five senses: first, transcending the three realms directly, without waiting to sever affliction; second, at this very West already possessing all four kinds of land side by side, not attained through gradual realization; third, merely holding the name, requiring no reliance on meditative contemplation or other skillful means; fourth, a period of only one to seven days, requiring no reliance on many kalpas, many lifetimes, or many years and months; fifth, holding a single buddha's name is itself already being kept in mind and protected by every buddha, no different from holding every buddha's name at once. Akṣobhya translates as "Unmoving"; the rest may be understood similarly. A buddha possesses immeasurable virtues, and so should possess immeasurable names — names established according to capacity, sometimes taken from cause, sometimes from fruit, sometimes from nature, sometimes from characteristic, sometimes from practice or vow, and so on; though each name singles out only one particular facet, each nonetheless carries all four siddhāntas within it. Each and every name reveals the virtue it designates; to speak of them for a whole kalpa's lifespan could still not exhaust them — one can only grasp their meaning and let the rest be understood. Since the east's empty space cannot be exhausted, its worlds too cannot be exhausted; since its worlds cannot be exhausted, the buddhas presently dwelling in the world there, too, cannot be exhausted — five names are given only in brief, to stand for buddhas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges. Buddhas such as these, each putting forth the sign of the broad and long tongue, speaking true words to exhort belief in this sūtra — and yet sentient beings still fail to give rise to faith — how utterly obstinate and benighted this is! As for the sign of the broad and long tongue: an ordinary person who has not spoken falsely across three lifetimes has a tongue able to reach to the tip of the nose; a buddha, the fruit of the deepest root, having gone without false speech for three great asaṃkhyeya kalpas, has a tongue thin and broad, long enough, once put forth, to cover the entire face.

Now, in bearing witness to this wondrous gate of the Mahāyāna Pure Land, the tongue covers an entire billion-world universe, precisely in order to represent that these words are certainly true and sincere, by no means false or mistaken. This sūtra's own proper title is "The Sūtra of Praising the Inconceivable Merit that All Buddhas Keep in Mind and Protect." Master Kumārajīva, according with this land's own preference for brevity, translated it simply as "The Buddha's Discourse on Amitābha"; Master Xuanzang, taking the middle course between the two, translated it instead as "The Sūtra of Praising the Pure Land, Received by the Buddha." One should understand that here, too, the text differs in fullness of detail, though its meaning gains and loses nothing.

Question: "Is this buddha "Infinite Life," named among the west's own buddhas, the very same Amitābha Buddha of the World of Utmost Bliss?" Answer: "It may be granted that he is the same, and it may equally be granted that he is not. That he may be granted as the same is because a buddha has no mark of self, and so, for the sake of liberating beings, there is no harm in praising himself — just as Śākyamuni, too, praises himself. That he may be granted as not the same is because, throughout the ten directions, buddhas sharing an identical name are immeasurable — it is not only a single buddha who is named "Infinite Life.""

As for "below": beneath this world's own wheel of water, wheel of gold, and wheel of wind, there is, further below, yet another world with its own peak of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, and so on, layer upon layer without end, beyond all telling, beyond all telling. "Dharma" [達磨] means precisely "Dharma"; the rest may be understood similarly. As for "above": above this world's own peak of neither-perception-nor-non-perception, there is, further above, yet another world with its own wheel of wind, wheel of silver, and the three realms again, and so on, layer upon layer without end, beyond all telling, beyond all telling.

Second, re-citing the name and explaining it, exhorting faith and transmitting it. Anuttara translates as "unsurpassed"; samyaksaṃbodhi translates as "perfect and complete awakening" — this is precisely the fruit-realization of the Mahāyāna. This Mahāyāna sūtra alone expounds the simple, easy, direct, perfect and sudden essential teaching of the mind; and moreover, the buddhas' names, every one of them, expound the unsurpassed, perfect, complete, ultimate ten thousand virtues — hence whoever hears this sūtra and upholds it, and whoever hears the names of these buddhas, is, without exception, kept in mind and protected by all buddhas, and, without exception, attains non-retrogression from great bodhi.

Third, speaking in terms of past, present, and future rebirth, exhorting the vow and transmitting it. Whoever has already vowed has already been born; whoever is now vowing is being born now; whoever will vow will be born then — this directly reveals that the vow, made in dependence on faith, is a vow never made in vain, but certain to bear its fruit. Without faith one cannot make the vow, and even having faith, if one does not make the vow, one still cannot be reborn — hence the earnest, repeated exhortation to make the vow. Vow is the pledge of faith, and, as the pivot of practice, is a matter of especial importance; raise up the vow, and faith and practice are already contained within it.

Fourth, citing the buddhas' own praise of how difficult a matter this is, urging faith and transmitting it. Again in two parts: first, citing the buddhas' own joint praise; second, concluding by lamenting how difficult it is to believe. Here is the first. Although the merit and wisdom of every buddha alike are equal, the ease or difficulty of their converting activity nonetheless varies. Attaining bodhi in a pure land is easy; attaining bodhi in a turbid world is difficult. Teaching the Dharma to beings of a pure land is easy; teaching beings of a turbid world is difficult. Teaching a gradual dharma to beings of a turbid world is still relatively easy; teaching a sudden dharma is especially difficult. Teaching some other sudden dharma to beings of a turbid world is still relatively easy; teaching this Pure Land's directly-transcending sudden dharma is especially difficult. Teaching beings of a turbid world the Pure Land's directly-transcending, suddenly-cultivated, suddenly-realized wondrous contemplation is, in itself, already no easy matter — but teaching this dharma that requires no toilsome cultivation and realization at all, merely holding the name and directly ascending to non-retrogression, extraordinary and supremely wondrous, surpassing all conceivable thought, the foremost of all skillful means — this is harder still, the most difficult of the difficult. It is for this reason that it is hard to believe throughout every world of the nine dharma-realms, and is therefore called an extremely difficult and rare thing. And every buddha of the ten directions, without a single exception, praises and extols this, crediting me, Śākyamuni, with a valor uniquely my own.

The turbidity of the kalpa is the time when turbid dharmas gather and converge. The turbidity of views is the flourishing of the five sharp afflictive views — namely, the view of self, extreme views, the clinging to views, the clinging to precepts and rituals, and every other wrong view — dark, confused, and drowning, hence called turbid. The turbidity of afflictions is the flourishing of the five dull afflictive delusions — namely, greed, hatred, delusion, arrogance, and doubt — agitating and afflicting the mind, hence called turbid. The turbidity of beings is the coarse, defiled coming-together of the five aggregates brought about by views and affliction, provisionally called "a sentient being," both form and mind being base and inferior, hence called turbid. The turbidity of lifespan is where both cause and effect are inferior, and lifespan itself is short and pressing, not even reaching a full hundred years, hence called turbid.

Second, concluding by lamenting how difficult it is to believe. With faith, vow, and holding the name, ten thousand out of ten thousand who practice it depart there — forever free of the five turbidities, perfectly purifying all four kinds of land. A wondrous dharma such as this is truly difficult to believe; hence it is not only the buddhas who praise it, but he himself, too, laments how extremely difficult it is. Were it not for a great compassionate vow that has steeped his mind across kalpas as numerous as motes of dust, how could he ever accomplish so difficult a matter? To fail to believe this would be to gravely betray the compassionate lord. This closes the fourth part: urging faith and transmitting it.

Fifth, the assembly rejoicing, believing, and accepting it, transmitting it. This Dharma-gate is inconceivable, hard to believe, and hard to know — hence no single person was able to raise a question about it. The Buddha's own wisdom, discerning capacity, knew that capacity had already ripened, and so he spoke it entirely unprompted, without being asked, causing beings to obtain the four benefits. Having now heard it, they were transformed like plants by seasonable rain — hence they rejoiced, believed, and accepted it. Body and mind at ease and delighted is called "rejoicing"; utterly without doubt or confusion is called "believing"; receiving and holding it without forgetting is called "accepting"; moved by the great debt of kindness, casting oneself down and entrusting one's very life, is called "making obeisance"; and cultivating in accordance with the teaching, going forth without ever turning back, is called "departing."

Postscript to the Essential Explanation of the Buddha's Discourse on Amitābha.

A sūtra says: "In the age of the Dharma's decline, among a hundred million upon a hundred million who practice, rarely is even a single one who attains the path — only by relying on buddha-recollection can one be liberated." Alas! Now is precisely that very time! Setting aside this inconceivable Dharma-gate, by what other means could one possibly be made whole? When I, Zhixu, first left the household life, I too, proud of my own grasp of the doctrinal vehicles, looked down upon the teaching-canon, foolishly supposing that the Dharma-gate of holding the name was fit only for the middling and the lesser. Later, on account of a grave illness, I set my mind on returning to the West; and thereafter I studied and sought out the two commentaries, the Miaozong Chao and the Yuanzhong Chao, together with Yunqi's Shuchao and other such works, and only then came to know that the samādhi of buddha-recollection is truly worthy of the title "unsurpassed jewel king." Only then was I willing to set my mind to rest and hold fast to the name — a resolve ten thousand oxen could not have dragged away.

It happened that my friend the great being Qubing, who had long devoted himself to pure karma, wished this sūtra's own essential meaning to be made brilliantly clear without excessive elaboration, and asked me to set forth this Essential Explanation. I myself had long wished to be reborn together in Utmost Bliss with every sentient being throughout the whole Dharma-realm, and so, by reason itself, could not decline. I took up the brush on the twenty-seventh day of the ninth month of the year dinghai [1647], and completed the draft on the fifth day of the tenth month — nine days in all before it was finished. My wish is that every single phrase and word may serve as provisions for the journey; that every seeing, every hearing, may equally ascend to non-retrogression; that whether one believes or doubts, a seed of the path is planted either way; that whether one praises or reviles it, both alike return to liberation. I look up in reverence to every buddha and bodhisattva to receive and bear witness to this, and to my fellow students and friends to rejoice in it and lend their support. Written and set down by the Way-farer of Xiyou, Zhixu of Ouyi, who lays down his brush with this postscript, at the age of forty-nine.