The True Body Contemplation Begins
Having practiced on a visualized golden image, the ninth contemplation turns to something categorically different: Amitābha's own actual body, its scale measured in yojanas beyond ordinary comprehension, its color surpassing even the finest gold this world could ever produce.
From Image to True Body
九、就真身觀中，亦先舉，次辨，後結。即有其十二。一、從佛告阿難下，至身相光明已來，正明告命結成前像觀，生後真身之觀也。二、從阿難當知下，至金色已來，正明顯真佛之身相踰天金之色也。三、從佛身高六十下，至由旬已來，正明身量大小。四、從眉間下，至菩薩為侍者已來，正明總觀身相。即有其六。一明毫相大小。二明眼相大小。三明毛孔光大小。四明圓光大小。五明化佛多少。六明侍者多少。
Ninth, within the true body contemplation, the text likewise first raises the matter, next distinguishes it in detail, and finally concludes it. There are twelve points in all.
First, from "the Buddha told Ānanda" down through "the radiant light of his bodily form," this makes plain the issuing of this command, concluding the image contemplation described above and opening the true body contemplation that follows.
Second, from "Ānanda, you should know" down through "the color of gold," this makes plain the revealing that the true Buddha's own bodily form surpasses even the color of heavenly gold.
Third, from "the Buddha's own body stands sixty" down through "yojanas," this makes plain the size and measure of this body.
Fourth, from "between the brows" down through "the bodhisattvas serve as his own attendants," this makes plain the general contemplation of this bodily form. There are six points within it. First, this makes plain the size of the curl of hair between his brows. Second, this makes plain the size of his own eyes. Third, this makes plain the size of the light emitted from each pore of his own skin. Fourth, this makes plain the size of his own halo of light. Fifth, this makes plain the number of transformation-buddhas present. Sixth, this makes plain the number of his own attendants.
The move from the image contemplation to this one marks a genuine change in kind, not merely a step up in vividness. Part 57 already explained why the practice began with an image rather than the true body directly — sentient beings' own obstructions were too deep to ascend to it at once. Having now built, through the image contemplation, a stable capacity for sustained visualization, the practice turns to what that capacity was training the practitioner toward all along: Amitābha's own actual form, described here in terms — heavenly gold surpassed, dimensions measured in yojanas — that make clear this is no longer a provisional stand-in but the object the entire sequence has been building toward.
Part 58 Complete
This closes Part 58. Part 59 continues with one of this entire commentary's most consequential passages: why the Buddha's own light embraces some beings and not others, answered through three kinds of karmic affinity — intimate, close, and empowering — that together form the theological foundation for why calling the Buddha's own name specifically, rather than any other practice, draws his light directly.
Continue to Part 59 — Three Affinities: Why the Light Embraces →