Fascicle 3 Opens, and "One Body, One Mind"
Shandao opens this fascicle with a claim that quietly redraws the sūtra's own map: everything read so far, all twenty-seven parts of narrative and doctrine, was preface — the correct teaching proper begins only now, with the sun. The first contemplation opens not with technique but with a formula for total, undivided attention.
Redrawing the Map: What Counts as the Teaching Proper
觀經正宗分定善義卷第三
沙門善導集記
從此已下，次辯正宗，即有其十六。還就一一觀中，對文料簡，不勞預顯。今定立正宗，與諸師不同。今直以就法定者。從日觀初句下，至下品下生已來，是其正宗。從日觀已上，雖有多義不同，看此文勢，但是由序也。應知。
Fascicle Three of the Contemplation Sūtra: The Meaning of the Contemplative Good, the Correct Teaching Proper
Compiled and recorded by the śramaṇa Shandao
From this point onward, I shall next explain the correct teaching proper, and this comprises sixteen contemplations in all. Within each individual contemplation, I shall examine the text point by point, and there is no need to explain this in advance. My own determination of what constitutes the correct teaching proper differs from that of other masters. Speaking now directly in terms of the teaching itself: from the opening line of the sun contemplation down through the lowest grade of the lowest rank, this is the correct teaching proper. Everything above the sun contemplation, though it carries many differing meanings, when one examines the flow of the text, is nothing other than preface. This should be understood.
Shandao's own claim here is a genuine departure from other commentators, not a mere summary: he states plainly that his own line dividing preface from teaching proper "differs from that of other masters." What this means concretely is striking given everything just translated: the entire narrative of Ajātaśatru's rebellion, Vaidehī's imprisonment, her vision of every pure land, her choice of Amitābha's own realm, and the three blessings — the whole of Fascicle 2, twenty-one parts of this translation — is classified by Shandao as preface alone. The teaching itself, in his own reckoning, begins only with the sun contemplation and runs through the lowest of the nine grades. This is not a claim that the narrative was unimportant; Shandao has spent an entire fascicle establishing exactly the opposite. It is a claim about what, technically, this sūtra is actually teaching, as distinct from what makes that teaching intelligible in the first place.
The First Contemplation Opens: One Body, One Mind
就初日觀中，先舉，次辨，後結。即有其五。
一、從佛告韋提下，至想於西方已來，正明總告總勸。此明韋提前請彌陀佛國，又請正受之行。如來當時即許為說。但以機緣未備，顯行未周，更開三福之因，以作未聞之益。又如來重告，勸發流通，此法難聞廣令開悟。言佛告韋提汝及眾生者，此明告勸。若欲等出塵勞，求生佛國者，宜須勵意也。言應當專心已下，此明眾生散動，識劇猨猴，心遍六塵，無由暫息。但以境緣非一，觸目起貪亂想，安心三昧何容可得？自非捨緣託靜，相續注心，直指西方簡餘九域。是以一身、一心、一迴向、一處、一境界、一相續、一歸依、一正念，是名想成就，得正受。此世後生，隨心解脫也。
Within the first contemplation, that of the sun, the text first raises the matter, next distinguishes it in detail, and finally concludes it. There are five points in all.
First, from "the Buddha told Vaidehī" down through "fix your thought upon the West," this makes plain the general address, the general exhortation. This makes plain that the queen had earlier requested Amitābha's own buddha-land, and had further requested the practice of right reception — and the Tathāgata had, at that time, already granted to explain it. Yet, since the conditions and capacities were not yet fully prepared, and the practice not yet fully revealed, he further opened up the causal ground of the three blessings, so as to create a benefit never before heard. Now the Tathāgata addresses her once more, exhorting its promulgation and transmission, since this Dharma, so rarely heard, must be spread widely, that understanding might open for all. As for "the Buddha told Vaidehī, you and all sentient beings": this makes plain the address and the exhortation. Those who wish to escape the dust and toil of this world, and seek rebirth in the Buddha's own land, ought indeed to exert their own resolve. As for "you should single-mindedly" and what follows: this makes plain that sentient beings' own minds are scattered and restless, their consciousness as unruly as a monkey, ranging across the six sense-objects without ever pausing to rest even for a moment. Since the objects and conditions before them are never merely one, whatever meets their eye gives rise to greed and confused thought — how, then, could the settled mind of samādhi ever be attained? Unless one casts off these conditions and takes refuge in stillness, sustaining one's own fixed attention without interruption, pointing directly to the West and setting aside the other nine directions entirely — it is thus one body, one mind, one dedication, one place, one object, one continuity, one refuge, one right mindfulness, that is called the accomplishment of contemplative thought, and the attainment of right reception. In this present life and in the life to come, liberation follows according to the mind.
The eightfold list Shandao supplies here — "one body, one mind, one dedication, one place, one object, one continuity, one refuge, one right mindfulness" — is worth reading as a definition of what "single-mindedly" actually requires in practice, not as poetic repetition. Each term names a different axis along which attention could otherwise scatter: across bodily posture, across competing thoughts, across the object of devotion, across physical location, across the mental object held in mind, across time, across where one takes refuge, across the quality of mindfulness itself. His diagnosis of the untrained mind — "consciousness as unruly as a monkey, ranging across the six sense-objects without ever pausing to rest" — is offered not as complaint but as the precise problem this eightfold unification is designed to solve.
Part 28 Complete
This closes Part 28. Fascicle 3's own scope has now been defined, and the first contemplation has opened with its general exhortation. Part 29 continues with the Buddha's reflexive question-and-answer explaining why the sun, of all things, was chosen as the very first object of contemplation.
Continue to Part 29 — Why Begin With the Sun? →