Visualizing One's Own Rebirth
After eleven contemplations of Amitābha and his two attendants, the twelfth turns the practice inward: the practitioner now visualizes not the Buddha, but themselves — reborn there, seated within a lotus, watching it close and then open, until their own eyes see the Buddha directly.
Nine Steps of One's Own Future Rebirth
十二、就普觀中，亦先舉，次辨，後結。即有其六。一、從見此事時已下，正明牒前生後。二、從當起自心下，至皆演妙法已來，正明凝心入觀即常作自往生想。即有其九。一明自生想。二明向西想。三明坐華想。四明華合想。五明華開想。六明寶光來照身想。七明既蒙光照作眼開想。八明眼目既開作見佛菩薩想。九明聞法想。
Twelfth, within the general contemplation, the text likewise first raises the matter, next distinguishes it in detail, and finally concludes it. There are six points in all.
First, from "having beheld this matter" onward, this makes plain the citing of what precedes and the opening of what follows.
Second, from "you should now give rise, within your own mind" down through "all expound the wondrous Dharma," this makes plain that, fixing the mind and entering contemplation, one should constantly visualize one's own future rebirth there. There are nine points within it. First, this makes plain visualizing oneself being born there. Second, this makes plain visualizing oneself facing toward the West. Third, this makes plain visualizing oneself seated within a lotus flower. Fourth, this makes plain visualizing that flower closing. Fifth, this makes plain visualizing that flower opening. Sixth, this makes plain visualizing jeweled light coming to illuminate one's own body. Seventh, this makes plain that, having received this light, one visualizes one's own eyes opening. Eighth, this makes plain that, one's own eyes having opened, one visualizes beholding the Buddha and the bodhisattvas directly. Ninth, this makes plain visualizing hearing the Dharma.
This nine-step sequence marks a genuine shift in the object of contemplation itself: not an external buddha or bodhisattva held in mind, but the practitioner's own future — their own birth, their own posture within the flower, their own eyes opening to receive the light. It is worth noting that this sequence recapitulates, in miniature, the very image first introduced in the water contemplation's own verse of praise — a being confined within an unopened lotus, waiting for it to open — except that here the practitioner rehearses that entire process themselves, in advance, as a deliberate object of present contemplation rather than a future event merely hoped for.
Guarding This Vision, and Its Benefit
三、從與十二部經合下，至不失已來，正明定散無遺守心常憶。一則觀心明淨，二則諸惡不生。由內與法樂相應，外則無三邪之障。
四、從見此事已下，明觀成之益。五、從是為下，總結。六、從無量壽下，至常來至此行人之所已來，正明重舉能觀之人即蒙彌陀等三身護念之益。斯乃群生注念願見西方依正二嚴，了了常如眼見。上來雖有六句不同，廣解普觀竟。
Third, from "according with the twelvefold division of the scriptures" down through "never letting it be lost," this makes plain that, whether in contemplative absorption or in dispersed activity, one guards the mind and constantly holds this in memory, leaving nothing out. First, this causes the contemplating mind to grow bright and pure; second, this prevents every evil from arising. For, inwardly according with the Dharma's own joy, outwardly one is thereby free of the obstruction of the three deviant paths.
Fourth, from "beholding this matter" onward, this makes plain the benefit of this contemplation's own accomplishment. Fifth, from "this, then, is" onward, this gathers together the general conclusion. Sixth, from "Amitāyus" down through "constantly comes to the very place where this practitioner dwells," this makes plain once more that the very person capable of this contemplation thereby receives the protective mindfulness of these three bodies — Amitābha's own and the others. This, then, is sentient beings fixing their own thought, wishing to behold the dependent and direct retribution, the twofold adornment of the West, clearly and constantly, as though seen directly with their own eyes. Though the above has unfolded across six distinct points, this concludes the full explanation of the general contemplation.
The closing point here extends the "guarding the settled mind" principle already established back in the image contemplation into an active, ongoing relationship: it is not merely that the practitioner retains what they have visualized, but that Amitābha and his two attendants themselves "constantly come to the very place where this practitioner dwells," offering protective mindfulness in return. This closes the twelfth of the sixteen contemplations, the shortest since the jeweled tower contemplation, and turns the practice toward its final, most varied stage.
Twelfth Contemplation Complete
This closes Part 67, and with it the general contemplation, the twelfth of the sixteen, in full. Part 68 turns to the thirteenth and final contemplation of Fascicle 3, the miscellaneous contemplation (雜想觀) — a teaching offered specifically for beings whose own minds are too small to grasp the vast scale already described, permitting a modest sixteen-foot image in place of Amitābha's own true, immeasurable body.
Continue to Part 68 — The Miscellaneous Contemplation, for Smaller Minds →