Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta
觀音觀、勢至觀、普觀想、雜想觀
Amitāyus's two great bodhisattvas, contemplated mark by mark; the practitioner is then taught to picture their own arrival in a lotus in Sukhāvatī; and, for anyone who cannot hold a boundless body in mind, the sūtra offers a smaller image instead — equally real, equally sufficient.
- This part covers
- Avalokiteśvara contemplated in full bodily detail (第十觀); Mahāsthāmaprāpta likewise, with the origin of both his names explained (第十一觀); the practitioner's own rehearsed arrival and rebirth within a lotus in Sukhāvatī (第十二觀, the "general contemplation"); and a smaller, sixteen-foot image offered as an accommodation for anyone unable to hold Amitāyus's boundless true body in mind (第十三觀, the "miscellaneous contemplation").
- Why it matters
- This closes the thirteen contemplations that Shandao calls "meditative good" (定善) — the practices requiring a stilled, single-pointed mind — before the sūtra turns, in the final three contemplations, to the nine grades of rebirth open even to those whose minds are never stilled at all.
17. The Tenth Contemplation: Avalokiteśvara
佛告阿難及韋提希：「見無量壽佛了了分明已，次亦應觀觀世音菩薩。此菩薩身長八十億那由他恒河沙由旬，身紫金色，頂有肉髻，項有圓光，面各百千由旬。其圓光中有五百化佛，如釋迦牟尼。一一化佛，有五百菩薩，無量諸天，以為侍者。舉身光中五道眾生，一切色相皆於中現。頂上毘楞伽摩尼妙寶，以為天冠。其天冠中有一立化佛，高二十五由旬。觀世音菩薩面如閻浮檀金色；眉間毫相備七寶色，流出八萬四千種光明；一一光明，有無量無數百千化佛；一一化佛，無數化菩薩以為侍者，變現自在滿十方界。臂如紅蓮花色，有八十億微妙光明，以為瓔珞；其瓔珞中，普現一切諸莊嚴事。手掌作五百億雜蓮華色；手十指端，一一指端有八萬四千畫，猶如印文。一一畫有八萬四千色；一一色有八萬四千光，其光柔軟普照一切，以此寶手接引眾生。舉足時，足下有千輻輪相，自然化成五百億光明臺。下足時，有金剛摩尼花，布散一切莫不彌滿。其餘身相，眾好具足，如佛無異，唯頂上肉髻及無見頂相，不及世尊。是為觀觀世音菩薩真實色身相，名第十觀。」 佛告阿難：「若欲觀觀世音菩薩當作是觀。作是觀者不遇諸禍，淨除業障，除無數劫生死之罪。如此菩薩，但聞其名，獲無量福，何況諦觀！若有欲觀觀世音菩薩者，當先觀頂上肉髻，次觀天冠。其餘眾相亦次第觀之，悉令明了，如觀掌中。作是觀者，名為正觀。若他觀者，名為邪觀。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī: "Once you have seen Amitāyus Buddha utterly clear and distinct, you should next contemplate Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva. This bodhisattva's body is eighty koṭi nayutas of Ganges-sands of yojanas in height, purple-gold in color, with a fleshy crown-protuberance on his head and a halo about his neck, his face measuring a hundred thousand yojanas across. Within this halo appear five hundred transformation-buddhas, each like Śākyamuni, and each transformation-buddha has, in turn, five hundred bodhisattvas and countless devas as attendants. Within the light radiating from his whole body, beings of all five destinies, in every form, appear. On his crown is a wondrous Śakra-abhilagna maṇi jewel, forming a heavenly crown, and within this crown stands a single transformation-buddha, twenty-five yojanas tall. Avalokiteśvara's face is the color of Jāmbūnada gold; the tuft between his brows shines with all seven treasure-colors at once, streaming forth eighty-four thousand kinds of light, and within each ray of light are immeasurable, countless hundreds of thousands of transformation-buddhas, each attended by countless transformation-bodhisattvas, manifesting freely and filling all ten directions. His arms are the color of red lotus flowers, adorned with eighty koṭis of wondrous rays of light forming ornaments, within which every kind of adornment appears in full. His palms are the color of five hundred koṭis of intermingled lotus flowers; at the tip of each of his ten fingers are eighty-four thousand markings, like the impressions of a seal, and each marking has eighty-four thousand colors, and each color has eighty-four thousand rays of light, this light soft and gentle, shining upon everything, and with these jeweled hands he draws beings in and delivers them. When he lifts his foot, the thousand-spoked-wheel mark beneath it transforms, of itself, into five hundred koṭis of platforms of light; when he sets his foot down, vajra maṇi flowers scatter everywhere, filling every space completely. In every other bodily mark, he is fully endowed with every excellent feature, no different from a buddha — except that his crown-protuberance, and the mark of his unseeable crown, do not quite equal the World-Honored One's own. This is the contemplation of Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva's true bodily form, called the tenth contemplation." The Buddha said to Ānanda: "Whoever wishes to contemplate Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva should make this contemplation. Whoever makes it will not meet with any calamity, will purify and remove karmic hindrances, and will remove the karmic offenses of countless aeons of birth and death. Merely hearing this bodhisattva's name obtains immeasurable blessings — how much more so contemplating him carefully! Whoever wishes to contemplate Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva should first contemplate the crown-protuberance on his head, then his heavenly crown; every other mark should likewise be contemplated in sequence, until each is utterly clear, as if seen in the palm of your own hand. To contemplate in this way is called right contemplation; to contemplate otherwise is called wrong contemplation."
Shandao lingers on one small, deliberate imperfection in an otherwise buddha-equaling description: Avalokiteśvara's crown-protuberance and the "unseeable crown mark" — a mark, found on a buddha's body, so exalted that not even his closest attendants can see its summit — fall short of the World-Honored One's own. Every other feature of this bodhisattva is described as indistinguishable from a buddha's. Shandao reads this single, carefully placed exception as the sūtra's own way of marking rank without breaking the visualization's grandeur: Avalokiteśvara has not yet completed the vow and fruition that separate a bodhisattva from full buddhahood, and this text builds that distinction into the very image the practitioner is asked to hold in mind, rather than stating it as a separate doctrinal aside.
18. The Eleventh Contemplation: Mahāsthāmaprāpta
佛告阿難及韋提希：「次觀大勢至菩薩。此菩薩身量大小亦如觀世音，圓光面各二百二十五由旬，照二百五十由旬。舉身光明照十方國，作紫金色。有緣眾生皆悉得見。但見此菩薩一毛孔光，即見十方無量諸佛淨妙光明，是故號此菩薩名無邊光。以智慧光普照一切，令離三塗，得無上力，是故號此菩薩名大勢至。此菩薩天冠有五百寶蓮華；一一寶華有五百寶臺。一一臺中，十方諸佛淨妙國土廣長之相，皆於中現。頂上肉髻如鉢頭摩花。於肉髻上有一寶瓶，盛諸光明，普現佛事。餘諸身相如觀世音，等無有異。此菩薩行時，十方世界一切震動，當地動處各有五百億寶花。一一寶花莊嚴高顯，如極樂世界。此菩薩坐時，七寶國土一時動搖。從下方金光佛剎，乃至上方光明王佛剎，於其中間無量塵數分身無量壽佛，分身觀世音、大勢至，皆悉雲集極樂國土，側塞空中坐蓮華座，演說妙法，度苦眾生。作此觀者，名為觀見大勢至菩薩；是為觀大勢至色身相。觀此菩薩者名第十一觀，除無數劫阿僧祇生死之罪；作是觀者不處胞胎，常遊諸佛淨妙國土。此觀成已，名為具足觀觀世音及大勢至。作是觀者，名為正觀。若他觀者，名為邪觀。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī: "Next contemplate Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva. This bodhisattva's bodily measure is the same as Avalokiteśvara's; his halo measures two hundred and twenty-five yojanas across, shining two hundred and fifty yojanas. The light of his entire body illuminates the lands of the ten directions, purple-gold in color, and any being with the karmic connection to see it will see it. Merely seeing the light from a single one of this bodhisattva's pores reveals the pure and wondrous light of the immeasurable buddhas of the ten directions — for this reason he is called Boundless Light. Because his light of wisdom illuminates all things, freeing beings from the three evil destinies and granting them unsurpassed power, he is for this reason called Mahāsthāmaprāpta, 'Great Power Arrived.' This bodhisattva's heavenly crown has five hundred jeweled lotus flowers, and each jeweled flower has five hundred jeweled platforms, and within each platform appear the vast and far-reaching forms of the pure and wondrous lands of every buddha of the ten directions. His crown-protuberance is shaped like a padma flower, and above this protuberance is a single jeweled vase, holding every kind of light and manifesting a buddha's work everywhere. In every other bodily mark, he is exactly the same as Avalokiteśvara, with no difference at all. When this bodhisattva walks, all the worlds of the ten directions tremble, and wherever the ground trembles, five hundred koṭis of jeweled flowers appear, each one adorned and rising as high as Sukhāvatī itself. When this bodhisattva sits, the land of the seven treasures shakes all at once, and from the buddha-land of Golden Light below to the buddha-land of the King of Light above, immeasurable dust-mote-numbers of emanation-bodies of Amitāyus, together with emanation-bodies of Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, all gather like clouds into the land of Sukhāvatī, filling the open sky, seated on lotus thrones, proclaiming the wondrous Dharma and delivering suffering beings. Whoever makes this contemplation is said to behold Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva; this is the contemplation of Mahāsthāmaprāpta's bodily form, called the eleventh contemplation. It removes the karmic offenses of countless incalculable aeons of birth and death; whoever makes this contemplation will never again dwell in a womb, and will forever wander freely through the pure and wondrous lands of every buddha. When this contemplation is complete, it is called the full contemplation of both Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta together. To contemplate in this way is called right contemplation; to contemplate otherwise is called wrong contemplation."
Shandao draws out something the sūtra states but does not linger on: this passage supplies the origin of both of this bodhisattva's names at once. "Boundless Light" (無邊光) comes from the fact that even the light from a single pore of his body reveals the pure light of every buddha in the ten directions — a single point of contact opening onto the whole; "Mahāsthāmaprāpta," rendered here as "Great Power Arrived," comes from his light of wisdom freeing beings from the three evil destinies with a power that has no superior. Both names, on his reading, describe the same light functioning at two different scales — boundless in its reach, and unsurpassed in what it accomplishes once it reaches someone.
He also addresses a real tension a careful reader might raise: the Amitābha Sūtra states plainly that beings in Sukhāvatī "have no suffering at all, and receive only bliss" — so why does this passage describe Mahāsthāmaprāpta and the gathered emanation-bodies "delivering suffering beings" (度苦眾生)? Shandao's answer distinguishes two entirely different senses of "suffering and bliss." Within saṃsāra, suffering means the three evil destinies and the eight sufferings, and what passes for bliss there — the pleasures of gods and humans, bound up with self-indulgence — is, on inspection, itself a subtle form of suffering, containing not one moment of real, lasting joy. Within the pure land, by contrast, "suffering" and "bliss" are entirely relative terms internal to that land's own hierarchy of attainment: a bodhisattva who has not yet reached the stage above their own regards that lower stage as, relatively, suffering, and the stage above it as bliss. "Delivering suffering beings" in Sukhāvatī, then, means advancing a practitioner from a lower attainment to a higher one — not rescuing anyone from genuine affliction, which no longer exists there at all.
19. The Twelfth Contemplation: Picturing One's Own Rebirth
佛告阿難及韋提希：「見此事時當起想作心，自見生於西方極樂世界，於蓮華中結跏趺坐，作蓮華合想，作蓮華開想。蓮華開時，有五百色光來照身想；眼目開想，見佛菩薩滿虛空中，水、鳥、樹林及與諸佛，所出音聲，皆演妙法，與十二部經合。若出定時憶持不失。見此事已，名見無量壽佛極樂世界。是為普觀想，名第十二觀。無量壽佛化身無數，與觀世音及大勢至，常來至此行人之所。作是觀者，名為正觀。若他觀者，名為邪觀。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī: "On seeing this, you should give rise to this thought, and picture yourself born in the western land of Sukhāvatī, seated cross-legged within a lotus flower; picture the lotus closing, then picture it opening. As the lotus opens, picture five hundred colors of light coming to shine upon your body; picture your eyes opening, and see the buddhas and bodhisattvas filling the whole sky, and the water, the birds, the groves of trees, and every buddha, all sending forth sounds that proclaim the wondrous Dharma, according with the twelve divisions of the scriptures. When you emerge from this absorption, hold it in mind and do not let it be lost. Having seen this, it is called seeing Amitāyus Buddha's land of Sukhāvatī. This is the general contemplation, called the twelfth contemplation. Amitāyus Buddha's countless emanation-bodies, together with Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, will constantly come to wherever this practitioner is. To contemplate in this way is called right contemplation; to contemplate otherwise is called wrong contemplation."
Shandao names this the contemplation of one's "own rebirth" (自往生想), and breaks it into nine steps he reads as a fixed sequence, worth naming in full because the sūtra compresses them into a single flowing sentence: picture yourself already born there; picture yourself facing west; picture yourself seated within the lotus; picture the lotus closing around you; picture the lotus opening again; picture jeweled light coming to shine upon your own body; picture your own eyes opening in response to that light; picture beholding the buddhas and bodhisattvas now that your eyes are open; picture hearing the Dharma they proclaim.
What distinguishes this contemplation from every one that came before it, on his reading, is a shift in who occupies the scene. The first eleven contemplations all fix the mind on something external — a sun, a tree, a pond, a bodhisattva's body — held at a remove from the one doing the contemplating. Here, for the first time, the practitioner is asked to place themselves inside the very land they have spent eleven contemplations learning to see, and to rehearse, in imagination now, the exact experience of arrival that the later contemplations on the nine grades of rebirth will describe actually happening at the moment of death. It is, in effect, a dress rehearsal conducted while still alive.
20. The Thirteenth Contemplation: The Smaller Image, Equally Real
佛告阿難及韋提希：「若欲至心生西方者，先當觀於一丈六像在池水上。如先所說，無量壽佛身量無邊，非是凡夫心力所及。然彼如來宿願力故，有憶想者必得成就。但想佛像得無量福，況復觀佛具足身相！阿彌陀佛神通如意，於十方國變現自在。或現大身滿虛空中；或現小身丈六八尺。所現之形皆真金色，圓光化佛及寶蓮花，如上所說。觀世音菩薩及大勢至，於一切處身同眾生，但觀首相，知是觀世音，知是大勢至，此二菩薩助阿彌陀佛，普化一切。是為雜想觀，名第十三觀。作是觀者，名為正觀。若他觀者，名為邪觀。」
The Buddha said to Ānanda and Vaidehī: "Whoever wishes, with a sincere mind, to be born in the west should first contemplate a sixteen-foot image standing upon the water of a pond. As was said before, Amitāyus Buddha's true bodily measure is boundless, beyond the reach of an ordinary being's power of mind. But through that Tathāgata's own long-held vow-power, whoever holds him in mind will certainly succeed. Merely picturing an image of the Buddha obtains immeasurable blessings — how much more so contemplating the Buddha's body complete in every mark! Amitābha's spiritual power moves entirely as he wishes, manifesting freely throughout the lands of the ten directions: he may show a great body filling the whole of space, or a small body sixteen or even eight feet tall. Whatever form he shows is true gold in color, with a halo, transformation-buddhas, and jeweled lotus flowers exactly as described before. Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva and Mahāsthāmaprāpta likewise, wherever they appear, may take a bodily form like that of ordinary beings — simply contemplate the mark upon their heads: knowing the standing transformation-buddha marks Avalokiteśvara, and the jeweled vase marks Mahāsthāmaprāpta. These two bodhisattvas assist Amitābha in bringing about the transformation of all beings everywhere. This is the miscellaneous contemplation, called the thirteenth contemplation. To contemplate in this way is called right contemplation; to contemplate otherwise is called wrong contemplation."
Shandao treats this thirteenth contemplation as the sūtra's own acknowledgment of an obvious difficulty: it has just spent three contemplations describing a body sixty koṭi nayutas of Ganges-sands of yojanas tall, and knows perfectly well that this scale lies "beyond the reach of an ordinary being's power of mind." Rather than leaving practitioners who cannot manage that scale with nothing, the sūtra offers a specific accommodation — a modest sixteen-foot standing image, the same conventional scale used for Buddha images throughout the Buddhist world — as a fully valid object of contemplation in its own right, not a lesser consolation prize.
His point about this accommodation is worth stating in his own terms: "it is not that the small form is harder to accomplish, nor that the great form fails to appear — it is simply that Amitābha's vow carries such weight that whoever contemplates him, in whatever form, succeeds." The variation in scale reflects only what a given practitioner's mind can actually hold, never a variation in how real or how effective the resulting vision is. A practitioner picturing a sixteen-foot image is not practicing a diminished version of the ninth contemplation's cosmic body — on Shandao's reading, they are contemplating the same Amitābha, sized to fit.