The Jeweled Trees Begin
The fourth contemplation opens with Shandao correcting a possible literalism before it can take hold: "seven rows" of trees was never a count to be taken at face value. A single tree may combine seven different jewels across seven layers each — forty-nine combinations in one tree alone — and this is only the simplest possible pattern.
Naming This Contemplation
四、就寶樹觀中，亦先舉，次辨，後結。即有其十。一、從佛告阿難下，至次觀寶樹已來，正明告命總舉觀名，結前生後。
Fourth, within the jeweled tree contemplation, the text likewise first raises the matter, next distinguishes it in detail, and finally concludes it. There are ten points in all.
First, from "the Buddha told Ānanda" down through "next contemplate the jeweled trees," this makes plain the issuing of this command, generally naming this contemplation, concluding what precedes and opening what follows.
"Seven Rows" Is Not a Count
二、言觀寶樹者，重牒觀名也。言一一觀之已下，生後觀相，正教儀則，此明彌陀淨國廣闊無邊，寶樹寶林豈以七行為量也。今言七重者，或有一樹，黃金為根，紫金為莖，白銀為枝，碼碯為條，珊瑚為葉，白玉為華，真珠為果，如是七重互為根莖乃至華果等，七七四十九重也。或有一寶為一樹者，或二三四乃至百千萬億不可說寶為一樹者，此義《彌陀經》義中已廣論竟。故名七重也。言行者，彼國林樹雖多，行行整直而無雜亂。言想者，未閑真觀自在隨心，要藉假想以住心，方能證益也。
Second, as for "contemplate the jeweled trees": this repeats and cites the very name of this contemplation once more. As for "observing each and every one of these" and what follows: this opens the mark of the contemplation that comes next, directly teaching its own method and procedure. This makes plain that Amitābha's own pure land is vast and boundless, and its jeweled trees and jeweled groves could never be measured merely by "seven rows." As for what is here called "sevenfold": it may be that a single tree has gold for its root, purple gold for its trunk, white silver for its branches, agate for its twigs, coral for its leaves, white jade for its flowers, and pearl for its fruit — and, in this way, these seven kinds, taken as root, trunk, and so on through flower and fruit, in every combination, come to seven times seven, forty-nine layers in all. Or it may be that a single tree is formed of but one single jewel; or it may be formed of two, three, four, and so on, up to a hundred thousand myriad koṭis of jewels beyond all description — this very meaning has already been discussed at length within the commentary on the Amitābha Sūtra. It is for this reason that it is called "sevenfold." As for "rows": though that land's own groves and trees are many, row upon row stands perfectly straight and orderly, without the slightest confusion. As for "contemplative thought": since one is not yet skilled in true, spontaneous contemplation that follows the mind freely, one must rely instead upon this deliberately constructed visualization to settle the mind, and only thus can benefit actually be attained.
Shandao's own explanation of "sevenfold" turns what might read as a simple inventory into a combinatorial claim: seven materials (gold, purple gold, silver, agate, coral, jade, pearl), assigned across seven structural parts of a single tree (root, trunk, branch, twig, leaf, flower, fruit), yield forty-nine possible layers in one tree alone — and this, he insists, is merely the simplest pattern among countless others, some trees formed of a single jewel, others of numbers "beyond all description." His closing gloss on the word "contemplative thought" itself is worth noting for what it admits about the entire practice up to this point: the visualization the practitioner constructs is explicitly a substitute for "true, spontaneous contemplation that follows the mind freely," a scaffolding used precisely because that freer capacity has not yet been developed.
Part 39 Complete
This closes Part 39. Part 40 continues with the substance of these trees — flowing directly from Amitābha's own undefiled mind, and therefore themselves undefiled — their vast and perfectly uniform dimensions, and the beginning of their manifold, endlessly varied adornment.
Continue to Part 40 — Trees Born From an Undefiled Mind →