The Five Turbidities, and the Close of Fascicle 2
The Buddha explains, in the starkest terms yet, why he will not remain forever — a deliberate diminishing of his own boundless lifespan, undertaken specifically to teach impermanence by example. Then the five turbidities and eight sufferings that touch every being without exception, and the queen's own question, now fully formed, closes the entire narrative preface: the whole of Fascicle 2, at last complete.
A Lifespan Deliberately Diminished, and Five Turbidities
七、從若佛滅後下，至極樂世界已來，正明夫人悲心為物，同己往生，永逝娑婆，長遊安樂。此明如來期心運度，徹窮後際而未休。
但以世代時移，群情淺促，故使如來減永生之壽，泯長劫以類人年，攝憍慢以示無常，化剛強同歸於磨滅。故云若佛滅後也。言諸眾生者，此明如來息化，眾生無處歸依。蠢蠢周慞，縱橫走於六道。言濁惡不善者，此明五濁也。一者劫濁，二者眾生濁，三者見濁，四者煩惱濁，五者命濁。言劫濁者，然劫實非是濁，當劫減時諸惡加增也。言眾生濁者，劫若初成，眾生純善；劫若末時，眾生十惡彌盛也。言見濁者，自身眾惡總變為善，他上無非見為不是也。言煩惱濁者，當今劫末眾生惡性難親，隨對六根貪瞋競起也。
言命濁者，由前見惱二濁，多行殺害無慈恩養，既行斷命之苦因、欲受長年之果者，何由可得也。然濁者，體非是善。今略指五濁義竟。
Seventh, from "should the Buddha, after his own final nirvāṇa" down through "the World of Ultimate Bliss," this makes plain the queen's own compassionate heart extending outward toward all beings, wishing that they too, alongside herself, might attain rebirth there, forever departing this Sahā world to journey at length within that Land of Peace and Bliss. This makes plain that the Tathāgata's own intent to ferry beings across extends all the way to the very furthest limit of time, and never once comes to rest.
Yet, as the generations of the world shift and pass, and the capacities of the multitude grow ever more shallow and constrained, the Tathāgata therefore diminishes his own boundless lifespan, compressing what might have been an unending kalpa down to the span of an ordinary human life, so as to gather in the arrogant and the proud by showing them impermanence, and to transform even the most stubborn and unyielding among them by returning, alongside them, into extinction. Hence it is said, "should the Buddha, after his own final nirvāṇa." As for "sentient beings": this makes plain that, once the Tathāgata's own transformative teaching has ceased, sentient beings shall have nowhere left to take refuge, and shall wander about in blind confusion, running here and there without direction through the six destinies. As for "defiled, evil, and unwholesome": this makes plain the five turbidities. The first is the turbidity of the kalpa itself. The second is the turbidity of sentient beings. The third is the turbidity of views. The fourth is the turbidity of affliction. The fifth is the turbidity of lifespan. As for the turbidity of the kalpa: the kalpa itself is in truth not turbid, but, as the kalpa declines, every evil increases within it. As for the turbidity of sentient beings: when a kalpa first comes into being, sentient beings are purely good; but as the kalpa nears its end, the ten evils among sentient beings grow ever more rampant. As for the turbidity of views: beings take their own many evils and recast them entirely as good, while regarding every view but their own as mistaken. As for the turbidity of affliction: now, at the very end of this kalpa, sentient beings' own evil natures grow difficult to draw near, and greed and anger arise competing with one another at every one of the six sense faculties in turn.
As for the turbidity of lifespan: on account of these two prior turbidities, of views and of affliction, beings for the most part engage in killing and harm, without compassion or care for others — and, having thus created the bitter cause of cutting short another's life, how could they possibly hope to receive, in turn, the fruit of a long life for themselves? Turbidity itself, in its own essence, is never something good. This brings to a close this brief account of the meaning of the five turbidities.
Shandao's own explanation for why the Buddha does not simply remain in the world forever is deliberately unsentimental: not that his own lifespan is naturally limited, but that he chooses to diminish it, specifically "to gather in the arrogant and the proud by showing them impermanence." A buddha who never died would, in this reading, teach the wrong lesson by his own permanence — and so the entire fact of the Buddha's eventual absence, the very anxiety behind Vaidehī's question in the previous part, turns out to be itself a deliberate act of compassion rather than an unfortunate limitation. The five turbidities that follow are worth reading as a diagnosis rather than a complaint: each one names a specific mechanism of decline — the era itself, the beings within it, their views, their afflictions, their shortened lives — building a causal chain in which corrupted views and afflictions directly produce the final turbidity, a shortened lifespan, through the plain arithmetic of violence begetting violence.
Eight Sufferings, and a Question Finally Complete
言五苦所逼者。八苦中取生苦、老苦、病苦、死苦、愛別苦，此名五苦也。更加三苦即成八苦。一者五陰盛苦，二者求不得苦，三者怨憎會苦，總名八苦也。此五濁、五苦、八苦等，通六道受，未有無者，常逼惱之。若不受此苦者，即非凡數攝也。言云何當見已下，此明夫人舉出苦機。此等罪業極深，又不見佛，不蒙加備，云何見於彼國也。
上來雖有七句不同，廣明定善示觀緣竟。
初明證信序，次明化前序，後明發起序。上來雖有三序不同，總明序分竟。
觀經序分義卷第二
As for "pressed upon by the five sufferings": among the eight sufferings, taking only the suffering of birth, the suffering of old age, the suffering of sickness, the suffering of death, and the suffering of separation from what one loves, these together are called the five sufferings. Adding three further sufferings completes the full eight. The first is the suffering of the five aggregates' own flourishing. The second is the suffering of not obtaining what one seeks. The third is the suffering of meeting with what one hates. Together, these are called the eight sufferings. These five turbidities, five sufferings, and eight sufferings alike are experienced throughout all six destinies without exception — there is not one being who lacks them, and they press upon and afflict every being constantly. Whoever does not experience these sufferings is not, in fact, to be counted among ordinary beings at all. As for "how, then, shall I behold it" and what follows: this makes plain the queen raising up this very suffering as her own occasion for asking. These offenses and this karma run so exceedingly deep, she reasoned, and, no longer beholding the Buddha, no longer receiving his own assistance, how then could she possibly behold that land at all?
Though the above has unfolded across seven distinct points, this concludes the full explanation of the condition showing the contemplative practice.
The first section explained the preface of verified faith; the second explained the preface preceding the transformative teaching; the third explained the preface of the arising occasion. Though the above has unfolded across three distinct prefaces, this concludes, in full, the meaning of the preliminary section entire.
End of Fascicle Two: The Meaning of the Preliminary Section
Vaidehī's final question here completes a full circle from where this fascicle began: her own imprisonment first produced grief, then a renunciation of this world, then a chosen destination, then a requested method — and now, having learned that the Buddha's own presence will not last forever, she names the exact fear that gives the coming sixteen contemplations their entire reason for existing. Shandao's closing tally — three prefaces (verified faith, the events preceding the teaching, and the arising occasion itself) gathered into one preliminary section — is worth pausing on for what it reveals about the shape of this whole fascicle: everything from Ajātaśatru's rebellion through this final question was, technically, still only preface. The teaching proper, the sixteen contemplations themselves, has not yet begun. That it takes an entire fascicle merely to set the stage is itself a measure of how much weight Shandao believed this narrative carries — not decoration before the real teaching, but the very reason the real teaching had to be given at all.
Fascicle 2 Complete
This closes Fascicle 2, Xufen Yi (序分義, "the Meaning of the Preliminary Section") in its entirety — 21 parts, covering the sūtra's complete narrative preface from Ajātaśatru's rebellion through Vaidehī's final question. Fascicle 3, Dingshan Yi (定善義, "the Meaning of the Contemplative Good"), begins Shandao's commentary on the sixteen contemplations themselves — starting with the first, the contemplation of the setting sun.