A Mirror, and "You Are an Ordinary Being"

Fourth, from "the Tathāgata now" down through "attained the acceptance of non-arising," this makes plain the exhortation to cultivate, and the marks of the benefit thereby gained. This makes plain that the Tathāgata wished, for the sake of the queen and of beings still to come, to reveal the expedient means of contemplation — fixing one's thought upon the West, casting off and wearying of this Sahā world, delighting in and longing for the Land of Ultimate Bliss. As for "through the Buddha's own power" and what follows: this makes plain that sentient beings' own karmic obstructions leave them blind before what is right in front of their own eyes — they take even the palm of their own hand to be distant, and, separated from some other place by no more than a bamboo screen, still imagine it a thousand miles away. How much more so, then, for an ordinary being, entirely beyond their own capacity, to peer with their own mind into a realm belonging to the buddhas themselves — unless the hidden power of the sages should come to their aid, how could that land ever be beheld at all? As for "as one holds up a bright mirror and beholds one's own reflection" and what follows: this makes plain that the queen, and sentient beings generally, entering contemplation and settling their own minds, their spirit fixed and unwavering, find that mind and object correspond to one another and both appear together in full — and, at the very moment that object appears, it is exactly as though one saw a thing reflected in a mirror, no different at all. As for "because the mind rejoices, one thereby attains this acceptance": this makes plain that Amitābha's own pure and radiant land suddenly appears before one's own eyes — what joy could surpass this? And it is on account of this very joy that one attains the acceptance of non-arising, also called the acceptance of joy, also called the acceptance of awakening, also called the acceptance of faith. This, however, is a profound and mysterious matter, and the precise stage at which it is attained is not here specified. The intent is only to cause the queen and others to set their own hearts hopefully upon this benefit, so that, striving with courage and single-minded diligence, at the very moment their own contemplative vision appears, this should indeed be understood as the acceptance of awakening. This is, for the most part, the acceptance belonging to the ten stages of faith, not the acceptance belonging to the stages of understanding and practice above them.

Fifth, from "the Buddha told Vaidehī" down through "and cause you to behold it," this makes plain that the queen is herself an ordinary being, not a sage. Precisely because she is not a sage, she must look up in reliance upon the hidden power of the sages themselves, and only thus, though that land lies so distant, is she able to behold it. This makes plain that the Tathāgata, fearing that sentient beings might fall into doubt, thinking that the queen must herself already be some sage rather than an ordinary being, and that, giving rise to this very doubt, they might then grow timid and lose heart themselves — since Vaidehī, they might think, is in truth already a bodhisattva, merely manifesting an ordinary body for our sake, while we, sinful beings that we are, could never hope to compare to her — in order to cut off this very doubt, the Buddha therefore said directly: "You are an ordinary being." As for "your own power of thought is weak and inferior": this is precisely because, being an ordinary being, she had never yet given rise to any vast aspiration. As for "not yet having attained the heavenly eye": this makes plain that the queen's own physical eyes, whatever they might behold near or far, are hardly worth speaking of at all — how much less, then, could they behold the pure land, lying at so much greater a distance still? As for "the buddhas and tathāgatas possess some further, extraordinary skillful means" and what follows: this makes plain that, if the splendor and adornment of that land is to be beheld through the mind at all, this is never something an ordinary being could accomplish through their own power alone — the entire credit for it belongs to the Buddha.

Sixth, from "at that time, Vaidehī addressed the Buddha" down through "behold that land," this makes plain the queen reiterating her own gratitude for this earlier grace, so as to give rise to the intent behind the question that follows. This makes plain that the queen, now understanding the Buddha's own intent, realized that what she had earlier beheld upon that radiant platform, she had at the time mistaken for her own ability — but only now, having heard the World-Honored One's own explanation, did she come to understand that it was, in truth, the Buddha's own gracious skillful means. If this is so, she reasoned, then now, while the Buddha remains in the world, sentient beings, receiving his own mindful attention, might indeed be caused to behold the West. But should the Buddha enter final nirvāṇa, and beings no longer receive this assistance, how then could they ever behold it at all?