A Bowl of Water, and the Mind's Own Ripples
Shandao supplies a method concrete enough to try today: a bowl of water, a small white mark held between the brows, and a practitioner's own reflection watched until it steadies. What follows is a small, physical experiment — grains of rice dropped in one at a time — that becomes a precise metaphor for exactly how a wandering thought disturbs a settled mind.
The Method: A White Mark on Still Water
又問曰：「既教想水以住心，轉水以成氷，轉氷以成瑠璃地者。云何作法而令境現？」答曰：「若住身威儀一同前日觀中法，又欲觀水以取定心者，還須對相似之境而觀，即易可得定。行者等於靜處取一椀水，著床前地上好滿盛之，自身在床上坐，當自眉間著一白物如豆許大，低頭臨面水上，一心照看此白處，更莫異緣。又水初在地波浪不住，臨面觀之不見面像，為觀不休漸漸面現。初時面相不住，乍長、乍短、乍寬、乍狹、乍見、不見，此相現時更須極細用心。不久之間，水波微細，似動不動，面相漸得明現。雖見面上眼耳鼻口等，亦未須取、亦不須妨，但縱身心知有勿取也。唯取白處了了觀之，正念守護勿令失意異緣。當見此時心漸得住，水性湛然也。又行者等欲識知自心中水波浪不住者，但觀此水動不動之相，即知自心境現不現明闇之相也。
A further question: "Having thus been taught to visualize water so as to settle the mind, and then to transform that water into ice, and finally to transform that ice into a ground of lapis lazuli — by what method is this practice actually to be carried out, so that the object may appear?"
Answer: "As for one's own bodily bearing, this should follow the same method as in the earlier sun contemplation. But for one who wishes to contemplate water in order to attain a settled mind, one must further set before oneself an actual, similar object to contemplate, and only then can settled concentration be easily attained. Let the practitioner, in a quiet place, take a bowl of water, and set it, well filled, upon the ground before their own seat, while they themselves sit upon that seat. Placing between their own brows a small white object, about the size of a bean, let them lower their head toward the surface of the water below their own face, and single-mindedly gaze upon this white mark, allowing no other distraction to arise. At first, the water resting upon the ground will still be rippling and unsettled, and, gazing down toward one's own face, no reflection will yet be seen — but through sustained, unceasing contemplation, the face gradually begins to appear. At first, this reflected form will not remain fixed, now lengthening, now shortening, now widening, now narrowing, now appearing, now vanishing — and when this mark first appears, one must apply the very finest and most careful attention to it. Before long, the ripples of the water grow subtle, seeming to move and yet not to move, and the reflected face gradually becomes clear and distinct. Though one may see, upon this reflected face, the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the rest, there is no need either to grasp at these features or to be troubled by them — simply let body and mind rest at ease, aware that they are present, without grasping at them. Attend only to the white mark, observing it clearly and completely, guarding it with right mindfulness, and allowing no distraction to cause it to be lost. At the very moment one beholds this, the mind gradually attains settledness, and the very nature of the water becomes still and clear. Further, should practitioners wish to recognize whether the ripples of water within their own mind have yet ceased or not, they need only observe whether this water's own mark is moving or unmoving, and they shall thereby know whether their own mind's object is appearing clearly or remaining obscured.
The instruction to neither grasp at nor be troubled by one's own reflected features — "the eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and the rest" — appearing incidentally alongside the actual object of attention, the white mark, is a small but precise piece of meditation instruction easy to read past. It distinguishes the practice's real goal, sustained attention on a single chosen object, from the much easier trap of following whatever else happens to appear in the field of awareness. The practitioner's own face, staring back at them from the water, becomes a live test of exactly this discipline.
Grains of Rice, and What the Ripples Mean
「又待水靜時取一米許，當水上信手投之水中，其水波即動遍於椀內，自面臨上觀之，其白者即動。更著豆許投之，水波更大，面上白者或見不見，乃至棗等投之於水，其波轉大，面上白者及自身頭面，總皆隱沒不現，猶水動故也。言椀者即喻身器也。言水者，即喻自心水也。言波浪者，即喻亂想煩惱也。言漸漸波浪息者，即是制捨眾緣住心一境也。言水靜境現者，即是能緣之心無亂，所緣之境不動，內外恬怕所求之相顯然。
「又細想及麁想，心水即動，心水既動，靜境即失。又細塵及以麁塵投之寂靜水中，其水波浪即動。又行者等但看此水動不動相，即識自心住不住也。又境現失不失、邪正等，一同前日觀也。又天親讚云：『觀彼世界相，勝過三界道，究竟如虛空，廣大無邊際。』此即總明彼國地之分量也。」
"Further, once the water has grown still, take a single grain of rice, and, without particular aim, drop it into the water. The water's own ripples will at once spread throughout the whole bowl, and, gazing down at one's own face from above, the white mark will be seen to move. Drop in something the size of a bean instead, and the ripples grow larger still, the white mark upon the face now appearing and vanishing by turns. Drop in something the size of a jujube, and the ripples grow larger yet, until the white mark, and even one's own head and face entirely, vanish from sight altogether — all because the water itself has been set into motion. As for the bowl: this is itself an analogy for the vessel of one's own body. As for the water: this is itself an analogy for the water of one's own mind. As for the ripples: this is itself an analogy for confused thought and affliction. As for the ripples gradually subsiding: this is itself the restraining and relinquishing of every outer condition, so as to settle the mind upon a single object. As for the water growing still and the object appearing: this is itself the mind that grasps at objects being free of confusion, and the object grasped remaining unmoving, so that, both within and without, all is calm and at peace, and the very mark one seeks becomes manifest.
"Further, should even a subtle thought or a coarse thought arise, the water of the mind is thereby set into motion; and once the water of the mind has been set into motion, the still object is thereby lost. Likewise, whether a fine grain of dust or a coarse one is dropped into water that had been perfectly still, the water's own ripples are set into motion at once. Let practitioners, then, simply observe whether this water's own mark is moving or unmoving, and they shall thereby recognize whether their own mind remains settled or not. As for whether the object appears or is lost, and whether the practice is correct or mistaken, this follows entirely the same principle already given in the earlier sun contemplation. Further, Vasubandhu's own verse of praise says: 'Contemplating the marks of that world, it surpasses the paths of the three realms entirely, ultimate like empty space itself, vast and boundless, without limit.' This, in general, makes plain the very measure of that land's own ground."
What makes this passage more than a devotional metaphor is its calibration: a single grain of rice, a bean, a jujube — three deliberately graduated sizes, each producing a visibly larger disturbance. Shandao's gloss makes the scaling explicit rather than incidental: a subtle thought stirs the mind's own water only slightly, while a coarse thought overwhelms it entirely, exactly as a jujube dropped into the bowl erases the reflected face altogether. The equation he supplies — bowl as body, water as mind, ripples as affliction — turns a simple household object into a working model a practitioner can return to at any time, checking their own settledness against something as available as a cup of water on a table.
Part 33 Complete
This closes Part 33, and with it the first of the water contemplation's six points. Part 34 turns to the second point: the underground adornments of the pure land itself — seven jeweled banners upholding the ground, each radiating countless colors of light, celebrated in three verses of praise.
Continue to Part 34 — Seven Jeweled Banners Beneath the Ground →