Closing the Seventh Grade
After forty-nine days, the lotus opens, and Avalokiteśvara expounds again the very teaching this being once heard before death. Shandao closes this grade with a final, deliberately broadening note: it is not the name alone that carries this power, but calling upon the Dharma and the Saṅgha in common with it.
Forty-Nine Days, and a Teaching Heard Again
六、從經七七日已下，正明第十門中到彼華開遲疾不同。七、從當華敷時下，至得入初地已來，正明第十一門中華開已後得益有異。即有其五。一明觀音等先放神光。二明身赴行者寶華之側。三明為說前生所聞之教。四明行者聞已領解發心。五明遠逕多劫證臨百法之位也。八、從是名已下，總結。九、從得聞佛名已下，重舉行者之益。非但念佛獨得往生，法僧通念，亦得去也。上來雖有九句不同，廣解下品上生竟。
Sixth, from "after forty-nine days have passed" onward, this makes plain, within the tenth gate, the differing speed, swift or slow, with which the lotus flower opens once that land is reached.
Seventh, from "when this flower opens" down through "attains entry into the first ground," this makes plain, within the eleventh gate, the differing benefits gained once this flower has opened. There are five points within it. First, this makes plain Avalokiteśvara and the rest first emitting spiritual light. Second, this makes plain their bodies then arriving at the side of this practitioner's own jeweled flower. Third, this makes plain expounding, on this practitioner's behalf, the very teaching heard before, in this being's former life. Fourth, this makes plain that this practitioner, having heard it, comprehends it and gives rise to the aspiration for awakening. Fifth, this makes plain that only after passing through many distant kalpas does this being come to realize the stage bordering the hundred dharmas.
Eighth, from "this, then, is" onward, this gathers together the general conclusion.
Ninth, from "having heard the Buddha's name" onward, this raises up once more the benefit gained by this practitioner. It is not that calling the Buddha's name alone attains rebirth — calling upon the Dharma and the Saṅgha as well, in common with it, also allows one to attain this departure.
Though the above has unfolded across nine distinct points, this concludes the full explanation of the highest rebirth of the lower rank.
The ninth point's own clarification — that calling upon the Dharma and the Saṅgha, not the Buddha's name alone, equally attains this rebirth — is easy to read past, yet it quietly guards against a narrowing this grade's own famous death-bed scene could otherwise invite. Having just spent an entire grade demonstrating the singular power of the name over scattered scripture-recitation, Shandao pauses to confirm that the sūtra's own text names three objects of recollection, not one. The name's own priority, established so forcefully moments before, is a priority of practical effectiveness for a dying mind, not a claim that the Three Jewels' other two members carry no power of their own.
Seventh Grade Complete
This closes Part 97, and with it the seventh grade, the highest rebirth of the lower rank, in full. Part 98 turns to the eighth grade (下品中生) — a being who has broken the precepts, stolen from the Saṅgha, and taught the Dharma with a corrupted livelihood, meeting hellfire itself at the moment of death before that fire transforms into a cooling wind.
Continue to Part 98 — The Eighth Grade →