Confession, and a Blind Man's Question

Eighth, from "upon this ground of seven jewels" down through "the visualization of the flower," this makes plain the direct teaching of the expedient means of this contemplation.

Question: "Sentient beings, blind and benighted, laboring after this contemplative thought only increases their own weariness — before their own eyes, all is as dark as one wandering at night. This pure realm, marked out at so great a distance, how could it ever be fully grasped?"

Answer: "Were one to rely merely on sentient beings' own delusion-stirred thought, this would indeed be nothing but futile exhaustion — one must instead look up and rely upon the hidden power of the sages, reaching across that distance, and it is this alone that causes the object being contemplated to be fully beheld. How, then, is this method actually to be practiced, settling the mind so as to attain this vision? For those who wish to practice this method: let every practitioner first, before an image of the Buddha, repent with the utmost sincerity of heart, openly confessing every offense they have committed, giving rise to the deepest shame, weeping and letting their own tears fall. Once this repentance is complete, let them further, with both mind and voice, entreat Śākyamuni Buddha, and the buddhas of the ten directions as numerous as the sands of the river. Let them further call to mind Amitābha's own original vow, saying: 'I, your disciple, so-and-so, born blind, my own offenses heavy, my own obstruction deep, pray only that the Buddha's own compassion might receive and protect me in mindfulness, instructing and opening me to awakening upon the very object I am to contemplate, that it might be accomplished. I now cast aside, all at once, this body and this life, and look up in reliance upon Amitābha alone — whether I behold it or fail to behold it, this rests entirely upon the power of the Buddha's own grace.' Having spoken these words, let them once more repent with the utmost sincerity of heart, until this too is complete. Then, turning to a quiet place, facing directly toward the West, sitting upright, cross-legged, exactly as in the earlier method — once the mind is thus settled, let it slowly turn to visualize that jeweled ground, its manifold colors clear and distinct. In this first stage of visualization, one must not allow scattered thought toward many objects at once, since this makes settled concentration difficult to attain — one should contemplate only a single small area, a square inch or a single foot in extent. This may take a single day, two days, three days, or four, five, six, seven days, or a month, a year, two or three years, and so on. Regardless of day or night, in walking, standing, sitting, and lying down alike, let the karma of body, speech, and mind remain constantly united with this settled concentration. Only by relinquishing every other affair entirely, as though one had become like a person who has lost their own senses — deaf, blind, and dull — can this settled concentration truly be attained with ease. If one does not proceed in this way, the three karmas will simply follow whatever conditions arise, and one's own settled thought will scatter and fly off like foam upon a wave — and though one's life should last a thousand years, the Dharma-eye will never once be opened. Once the mind has attained settled concentration, either some bright mark may first appear, or one may first behold the jeweled ground and other objects, each manifold and distinct, in ways beyond ordinary conception. There are two kinds of seeing. The first is seeing within contemplative thought — since some trace of conscious mental construction still remains, though one beholds this pure object, it has not yet become fully clear and distinct. The second is when both inward and outward conscious awareness are extinguished, and one enters directly into right reception, into samādhi itself — and the pure object thus beheld is no longer seeing within contemplative thought at all, and cannot even be compared to it."