Fascicle 4 Opens: The Three Blessings Again
The final fascicle opens by naming its own two-part structure outright: the three blessings as the correct cause, the nine grades as the correct practice. Before a single grade is actually translated, Shandao supplies an eleven-gate analytical framework meant to be applied, potentially, one hundred separate times — once for each gate, across each of the nine grades still to come.
The Three Blessings, Once More: Correct Cause
《觀經》正宗分散善義卷第四
唐沙門善導集記
從此已下，次解三輩散善一門之義。就此義中，即有其二。一明三福以為正因。二明九品以為正行。今言三福者。第一福，即是世俗善根。曾來未聞佛法，但自行孝養仁義禮智信，故名世俗善也。第二福者，此名戒善。就此戒中即有人、天、聲聞、菩薩等戒，其中或有具受、不具受，或有具持、不具持，但能迴向盡得往生。第三福者，名為行善。此是發大乘心凡夫自能行行兼勸有緣，捨惡持心迴生淨土。又就此三福之中，或有一人單行世福迴亦得生，或有一人單行戒福迴亦得生，或有一人單行行福迴亦得生；或有一人行上二福迴亦得生，或有一人行下二福迴亦得生；或有一人具行三福迴亦得生。或有人等三福俱不行者，即名十惡邪見闡提人也。言九品者，至文當辨。應知。今略料簡三福差別義意竟。
Fascicle Four of the Contemplation Sūtra: The Meaning of the Dispersed Good, the Correct Teaching Proper
Compiled and recorded by the śramaṇa Shandao of the Tang
From this point onward, I shall next explain the meaning of the single gate of the three ranks of dispersed goodness. Within this meaning, there are two points. First, this makes plain the three blessings as the correct cause. Second, this makes plain the nine grades as the correct practice.
Now, as for these three blessings: the first blessing is itself the root of goodness belonging to the mundane world. One who has never yet heard the Buddha's own teaching, yet of their own accord practices filial devotion, benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness, is thereby called possessed of mundane goodness. The second blessing is called the goodness of the precepts. Within these precepts are found those belonging to laypeople, to gods, to śrāvakas, and to bodhisattvas — and among these, some receive them in full, others not in full; some uphold them in full, others not in full — yet whoever is able to dedicate this merit shall without exception attain rebirth there. The third blessing is called the goodness of practice. This belongs to the ordinary being who has given rise to the Mahāyāna mind, who is able both to practice these very deeds themselves and to exhort others with whom they share affinity, casting off evil and holding fast their own mind, dedicating this merit toward rebirth in the pure land.
Further, among these three blessings, it may be that a single person practices only the mundane blessing, and, dedicating it, still attains rebirth; or a single person practices only the precept blessing, and, dedicating it, still attains rebirth; or a single person practices only the practice blessing, and, dedicating it, still attains rebirth. Or a single person may practice the upper two blessings, and, dedicating them, attain rebirth; or a single person may practice the lower two blessings, and, dedicating them, attain rebirth; or a single person may practice all three blessings in full, and, dedicating them, attain rebirth. Should there be a person who practices none of these three blessings at all, such a person is called one of the ten evils, of deviant views, an icchantika. As for the nine grades, these shall be distinguished when we reach that portion of the text — this should be understood. This brings to a close this brief examination of the distinct meanings of the three blessings.
Shandao's own combinatorial breakdown here — any single blessing alone, or any two together, or all three, each independently sufficient once dedicated toward rebirth — makes an important structural point before a single grade of the nine is described: none of the three blessings functions as a strict prerequisite for the others. What actually disqualifies a person is not the absence of any one blessing, but the absence of all three at once, a state Shandao names directly and without softening: "one of the ten evils, of deviant views, an icchantika." This combinatorial flexibility anticipates the nine grades themselves, which will assign different practitioners, with very different capacities, to different ranks according to exactly this kind of variation.
Eleven Gates, Applied a Hundred Times Over
十四、就上輩觀行善文前總料簡。即為十一門。一者總明告命。二者辨定其位。三者總舉有緣之類。四者辨定三心以為正因。五者正明簡機堪與不堪。六者正明受法不同。七者正明修業時節延促有異。八者明迴所修行願生彌陀佛國。九者明臨命終時聖來迎接不同，去時遲疾。十者明到彼華開遲疾不同。十一者明華開已後得益有異。今此十一門義者，約對九品之文。就一一品中皆有此十一，即為一百番義也。又此十一門義，就上輩文前總料簡亦得，或就中下輩文前各料簡亦得。又此義若以文來勘者，即有具不具。雖有隱顯，若據其道理悉皆合有。為此因緣，故須廣開顯出，欲令依行者易解易識也。上來雖有十一門不同，廣料簡上輩三品義意竟。
Fourteenth, before turning to the text on the practice and goodness of the upper rank, I shall first offer a general examination. This comprises eleven gates in all. The first generally makes plain the issuing of this command. The second distinguishes and fixes each grade's own position. The third generally raises up the class of beings who share this karmic affinity. The fourth distinguishes and fixes the three minds as the correct cause. The fifth makes plain the distinguishing of capacities, between those able to receive this teaching and those not. The sixth makes plain the differing ways in which this teaching is received. The seventh makes plain the differing duration, whether extended or brief, of the time spent cultivating this practice. The eighth makes plain the dedication of this cultivated practice toward the vow to be reborn in Amitābha's own buddha-land. The ninth makes plain the differing ways in which the sages come to welcome the practitioner at the moment life is about to end, and the differing speed, swift or slow, with which they then depart. The tenth makes plain the differing speed, swift or slow, with which the lotus flower opens once that land is reached. The eleventh makes plain the differing benefits gained once that flower has opened.
Now, the meaning of these eleven gates applies directly to the text of the nine grades. Within each and every one of these nine grades, all eleven of these gates are present, amounting to one hundred distinct points of meaning in total. Further, this elevenfold framework may be examined generally before the text on the upper rank, as I do here, or it may equally be examined separately before the text on the middle and lower ranks. Further, when this framework is checked directly against the text itself, some of these eleven points are present in full, others not — some remain concealed, others made explicit — yet, according to the underlying principle, all eleven ought to be present in every case. It is for this very reason that I must set them forth broadly and reveal them here, so that practitioners who rely on this teaching might find it easier to understand and to recognize. Though the above has unfolded across these eleven distinct gates, this concludes the broad examination of the meaning of the upper rank's three grades.
Shandao's own arithmetic — eleven gates, applied across nine grades, "amounting to one hundred distinct points of meaning in total" — signals the sheer analytical density of what is still to come, even as he acknowledges that not every gate appears explicitly in every grade's own text. His justification for laying out this framework in advance, "so that practitioners who rely on this teaching might find it easier to understand and to recognize," is itself worth noting as a pedagogical choice: rather than let each grade's own structure emerge only through repetition, he front-loads the pattern once, so that what follows can be read against a framework already in hand.
Part 71 Complete
This closes Part 71. Part 72 opens the highest of the nine grades, the highest rebirth of the upper rank (上品上生) — and arrives at the three minds (三心), the correct cause for this very first grade, opening with the sūtra's own question-and-answer structure before Shandao turns to the first of the three: the sincere mind.
Continue to Part 72 — The Highest Grade, and the Three Minds →