The Platform, the Banners, and Light Beyond Counting
The visualization sequence begun in the previous part continues upward: the platform's own adornment, four banners standing upon it, and finally light whose function is not merely to illuminate but to actively perform "the Buddha's own works" — golden platforms, pearl nets, flowered clouds, and jeweled music — wherever it happens to reach.
The Platform, and Four Banners Standing Upon It
十二、從釋迦毘楞伽下，至以為交飾已來，正明臺上莊嚴之相。
十三、從於其臺上下，至妙寶珠以為映飾已來，正明幢上莊嚴之相。即有其四。一明臺上自有四幢。二明幢之體量大小。三明幢上自有寶幔狀似天宮。四明幢上自有眾多寶珠輝光映飾。
Twelfth, from "Śakra-abhilagna" down through "forming their own interwoven adornment," this makes plain the marks of adornment upon this platform.
Thirteenth, from "upon this platform" down through "wondrous jeweled pearls forming their own radiant adornment," this makes plain the marks of adornment upon these banners. There are four points within it. First, this makes plain that, upon this platform, there stand of themselves four banners. Second, this makes plain the size, both large and small, of the very substance of these banners. Third, this makes plain that, upon these banners, there hang of themselves jeweled curtains, resembling in form a heavenly palace. Fourth, this makes plain that, upon these banners, there are of themselves manifold jeweled pearls, their radiant light forming their own adornment.
Light That Performs the Buddha's Own Works
十四、從一一寶珠下，至施作佛事已來，正明珠光有不思議德用之相。即有其五。一明一一珠有多光。二明一一光各作異色。三明一一光色遍於寶土，四明光所至處各作異種莊嚴。五明或作金臺珠網華雲寶樂遍滿十方。
十五、從是為下，總結觀名。
Fourteenth, from "each and every jeweled pearl" down through "performing the Buddha's own works," this makes plain that the light of these pearls possesses the mark of inconceivable virtue and function. There are five points within it. First, this makes plain that each and every pearl gives forth manifold light. Second, this makes plain that each and every ray of this light takes on its own distinct color. Third, this makes plain that each and every color of this light pervades the whole of this jeweled land. Fourth, this makes plain that, wherever this light reaches, it forms its own distinct kind of adornment there. Fifth, this makes plain that it may form golden platforms, nets of pearl, flowered clouds, and jeweled music, filling the ten directions entirely.
Fifteenth, from "this, then, is" onward, this gathers together the general conclusion, naming this contemplation once more.
The phrase "performing the Buddha's own works" (施作佛事), applied here to light emitted from a pearl on a banner atop a lotus throne, is worth pausing on for what it claims: this is not decorative light, admired for its own beauty, but light doing something — accomplishing whatever a given place or being actually needs, wherever it happens to reach, "each forming its own distinct kind of adornment." This is the same principle already seen in the light benefiting the imprisoned king back in Fascicle 2, and in the sensory-calibrated teaching of the water and pond contemplations: benefit in this land is never generic, but always precisely fitted to its recipient.
Part 51 Complete
This closes Part 51. Part 52 completes the lotus throne contemplation in full: how this throne came to exist at all — through a specific monk's own vow rather than spontaneous manifestation — the repeated instruction to hold this sequence firmly without confusion, its twofold benefit of removing offense and securing rebirth, and the formal close of the seventh of the sixteen contemplations.
Continue to Part 52 — Closing the Lotus Throne Contemplation →