Closing the Image Contemplation
This contemplation closes by naming exactly why it exists in this particular, image-based form at all: sentient beings' own obstructions run too deep to ascend directly to the true, formless contemplation of the Buddha — and so the great sage, out of compassion rather than limitation, offers this visualized image instead.
Too Deep to Ascend Directly: Why an Image at All
十一、從令與脩多羅合下，至見極樂世界已來，辨觀邪正之相。
十二、從是為下，總結。
十三、從作是觀者下，至得念佛三昧已來，正明剋念修觀現蒙利益。斯乃群生障重，真佛之觀難階，是以大聖垂哀，且遣注心形像。上來雖有十三句不同。廣明像觀竟。
Eleventh, from "causing it to accord with the sūtras" down through "behold the World of Ultimate Bliss," this distinguishes the mark of what is correct from what is mistaken in this practice.
Twelfth, from "this, then, is" onward, this gathers together the general conclusion.
Thirteenth, from "one who forms this contemplation" down through "attains the samādhi of buddha-recollection," this makes plain that, through sustained, focused thought in cultivating this contemplation, one comes at once to receive this very benefit. For sentient beings' own obstructions run so deep that the true contemplation of the Buddha himself is difficult indeed to ascend to — and it is for this very reason that the great sage, in his own compassion, sends down this teaching, directing the mind instead toward a visualized image. Though the above has unfolded across thirteen distinct points, this concludes the full explanation of the image contemplation.
This closing line completes the argument Shandao began building back in Part 54, when he explicitly rejected reading "the mind itself is the Buddha" as formless, non-dual consciousness-only doctrine. Here he states outright why: "the true contemplation of the Buddha himself is difficult indeed to ascend to" for beings whose own obstructions run this deep, and so "the great sage, in his own compassion, sends down this teaching" in a form they can actually practice. What might read, out of context, as a lesser or provisional teaching is instead framed as an act of deliberate accommodation — not because the visualized image is somehow inferior to formless contemplation in principle, but because it is the version of this teaching actually reachable by the audience it was given for. This closes the eighth of the sixteen contemplations.
Eighth Contemplation Complete
This closes Part 57, and with it the image contemplation, the eighth of the sixteen, in full — spanning Parts 53 through 57, and containing this fascicle's central doctrinal statement on what "the mind creates the Buddha" actually means. Part 58 turns to the ninth contemplation, that of the Buddha's own true body (真身觀) — no longer a visualized image, but Amitābha's own actual radiant form, its height, its light, and the three kinds of karmic affinity that draw a being into that light and hold them there.
Continue to Part 58 — The True Body Contemplation Begins →