思惟略要法

I. INTRODUCTION

The human body is subject to three kinds of illness: illnesses arising from wind, illnesses arising from cold, and illnesses arising from heat. Yet these three kinds of illness do not cause great harm; they bring suffering only during a single lifetime. The mind likewise has three groups of illnesses, but these three illnesses cause truly grave harm, compelling people to endure suffering for immeasurable kalpas.

Only the Buddha, the great physician, can bestow medicine to cure them. Practitioners throughout immeasurable worlds have long been afflicted by these dangerous illnesses, and only today have they obtained an opportunity to cultivate virtue. Therefore, they must have steadfast resolve, practice diligently, and not begrudge even their bodies and lives.

It is like a general charging into battle: if his resolve is not firm, he cannot defeat the enemy. Defeating the enemy of deluded thoughts is likewise. The Buddha taught: “Though the blood has dried up and the flesh has wasted away, so long as sinews and bones remain, one must continue single-mindedly in diligent effort.” It is like a person whose clothes have caught fire: at that moment, he thinks only of extinguishing the flames and of nothing else.

One who wishes to escape the realm of suffering and afflictions must act in the same way, enduring sickness, hunger, thirst, heat, cold, anger, and so forth, while also keeping far away from noisy places and dwelling in solitude. Why? Because sounds readily disturb the concentrated mind, as though one had strayed into a thorny forest.

To attain the First Dhyana, one must first cultivate one of these contemplations: contemplation of the four immeasurable minds of loving-kindness, compassion, sympathetic joy, and equanimity; contemplation of impurity; contemplation of causes and conditions; the samadhi of mindfulness of the Buddha; or mindfulness of breathing by counting the breaths. If a person of keen faculties seeks the states of dhyana, he should contemplate the innumerable faults and evils of the five sensual desires, regarding them as a pit of fire or a latrine.

He should then single-mindedly contemplate the state of the First Dhyana as a cool, clear pond or a magnificent palace. By practicing in this way, he will eliminate the five hindrances and attain the First Dhyana. When the seer Bali was learning dhyana, he saw along the road the swollen, putrid corpse of a woman.

He carefully impressed that sight upon his memory and then contemplated that his own body was likewise. Upon reaching a solitary place, he continued to concentrate his mind in contemplation and attained the First Dhyana.

When the Buddha was meditating on the bank of the Ganges, a little-learned bhikshu approached and asked:

– Blessed One! How can one attain the Way?

– Do not take what belongs to others, the Buddha taught.

Upon hearing this, the bhikshu penetrated the “emptiness of dharmas” within his mind and immediately attained the First Fruition. At that time, a learned bhikshu found it strange that he himself had attained nothing, so he too approached and questioned the Buddha. The Buddha taught:

– Pick up a small pebble from beneath the Ganges, and then wash it clean with water from your kundika.

After the bhikshu had done exactly as instructed, the Buddha asked:

– Where is there more water: in the Ganges or in the vessel?

– Blessed One! The water in the vessel cannot possibly compare, replied the bhikshu.

– Though the water is abundant, if one cannot dip a finger into even a little of it to moisten the finger and cleanse an object, then its abundance is useless!

Therefore, practitioners must diligently use the finger of wisdom and concentration to cleanse the defilements within the mind. Otherwise, they cannot escape suffering.

II. CONTEMPLATION OF THE FOUR IMMEASURABLE MINDS

Those who seek the Buddha Way should first practice the four immeasurable minds. Because these minds are immeasurable, their merit is likewise immeasurable. All sentient beings may be divided into three groups: First are one’s parents, relatives, fellow villagers, and spiritual friends.

Second are enemies and resentful or jealous people who always wish to harm one. Third are those who are neither close nor hostile. Those who seek the Buddha Way should arouse loving-kindness and regard all three groups as their own kin: regarding the elderly as their parents, the middle-aged as their brothers and sisters, and the young as their children and grandchildren.

They should constantly cultivate loving-kindness in this way. Those who are hostile toward us are so because of adverse conditions; when those adverse causes and conditions have come to an end, they become close to us. Enmity and intimacy are truly not fixed.

Why? Because one who is an enemy in this life may become a loved one in the next. If one gives rise to anger, one loses great benefit, destroys the merit of patience, loses the karma of loving-kindness, and creates causes and conditions that obstruct the Buddha Way.

Therefore, one should not become angry or jealous. One should treat enemies as one’s own kin. Why?

Because enemies provide the causes and conditions that help us attain the Buddha Way. If enemies did not treat us badly, we would have no opportunity to practice patience. Thus, enemies are our spiritual friends, helping us perfect the paramita of patience.

Once loving-kindness toward enemies has been perfected, one will also arouse loving-kindness, affection, and mindfulness toward all sentient beings throughout the worlds of the ten directions. The practitioner then sees sentient beings transformed by impermanence and oppressed by the sufferings of aging, sickness, and death; seeing even tiny insects living without security, the practitioner immediately arouses compassion.

Seeing sentient beings obtain happiness in this life and the next, the happiness of rebirth in the heavenly realms, or the happiness arising from the path of the noble sages, the practitioner immediately arouses sympathetic joy. When the practitioner sees neither suffering nor happiness among sentient beings, is neither anxious nor delighted, and exercises self-mastery through wisdom, the practitioner takes sentient beings alone as the object and arouses equanimity.

These are called the four immeasurable minds. Because loving-kindness pervades all sentient beings throughout the ten directions, it is called immeasurable. Those who seek the Buddha Way must constantly cultivate this mind.

If anger arises, one should regard it as a snake crawling onto one’s body or as fire burning one’s flesh and swiftly drive it away. If the mind strays into the objects of the five sensual desires and is obstructed by the five hindrances, one should exert the power of wisdom and forcibly bring it back. Those who cultivate loving-kindness should constantly consider how they may help sentient beings attain the joy of awakening.

If they continue practicing in this way for a long time without interruption, they will certainly detach themselves from the five sensual desires, eliminate the five hindrances, and enter the First Dhyana. Upon attaining the First Dhyana, joy and bliss pervade the entire body; the mind delights in wholesome dharmas, and wondrous forms appear. This is the first gateway into the Buddha Way and the meritorious causes and conditions for meditative concentration.

Once the contemplation of the four immeasurable minds has been perfected, one will always be patient toward sentient beings and never give rise to anger. This is called patience with sentient beings. Having attained patience with sentient beings, one can readily attain patience with dharmas.

Patience with dharmas means having no doubt that dharmas neither arise nor cease and are ultimately without characteristics. Faithfully accepting this patience with dharmas is called patience regarding the non-arising of dharmas. Upon realizing patience regarding the non-arising of dharmas, one will receive the prediction of unsurpassed, complete, perfect awakening and accomplish the Buddha Way.

Practitioners should cultivate in this manner.

III. CONTEMPLATION OF IMPURITY

Sensual desire, anger, and ignorance are grave illnesses of sentient beings. Cherishing the body, clinging to life, and becoming immersed in sensual desires give rise to anger. When anger produces inversion, confusion, and delusion, one becomes ignorant.

Obscured by ignorance, one becomes attached to one’s own body and the bodies of others and conceives them to be pure. When this impression has permeated the mind over a long period, it becomes truly difficult to eradicate. To eliminate sensual desire, one must contemplate impurity.

Anger arises through the influence of external objects and can be eliminated more easily. It is like splitting bamboo: splitting the first joint is difficult, but once it has been split, the remaining joints are easily broken through. Therefore, once sensual desire has been eliminated, anger and ignorance naturally subside.

The contemplation of impurity consists in reflecting that this body was born from a womb, in an impure place. Beneath the thin skin of this body, born from an impure place, everything is likewise wholly impure. The four external great elements are transformed into food and drink, which fully sustain the four great elements of the body.

Focus the mind and examine from head to foot and from foot to head: beneath that thin skin, what could possibly be clean? To enumerate them briefly, there are thirty-six impure substances, such as marrow, brain matter, blood, pus, phlegm, saliva, feces, urine, and so forth. If described in detail, they could never all be listed.

It is like a farmer opening his granary and seeing, knowing, and distinguishing all the different kinds of grain—sesame, rice, beans, maize, and so forth. In the same way, with the mind's eye the practitioner opens the storehouse of this body composed of the four great elements and sees and knows all its impure things, such as the liver, lungs, small intestine, large intestine, and stomach, even down to the various microorganisms moving about, burrowing, and gnawing within it.

The practitioner also clearly sees that the nine bodily apertures discharge impure substances day and night. The eyes exude rheum, the ears accumulate wax, the nose and mouth discharge phlegm and saliva, and the organs of defecation and urination continually discharge feces and urine. Though covered by clothing, the body is truly a latrine.

How could such a body be regarded as pure?

Furthermore, contemplate that this body is merely conventionally called a person. It is a conjunction of the four great elements, like a house. Within it, the spine is like the ridgepole, the ribs are the rafters and battens, the large bones are pillars and posts, the skin is the walls, and the flesh is the plaster.

The whole is false and unreal, temporarily joined together. Where, then, is the so-called “person”? The body is truly fragile and unreal, like an illusion or a magical transformation, changing and perishing in the blink of an eye.

Above the bones of the feet are the shinbones; above the shinbones are the thighbones; above the thighbones is the spine; and above the spine is the skull. Bone follows bone, each supporting and bracing the others. It is truly precarious and easily collapses, like hen's eggs stacked one upon another.

When this body is closely examined, what can be found in it that is precious and worthy of attachment? From this, a mind of disenchantment arises. The practitioner should constantly recollect the thirty-six impure substances and contemplate and distinguish them correctly: as one's own body is, so too are the bodies of others.

If the mind does not remain upon this object of contemplation, one must restrain it, draw it back, and direct it exclusively toward the impure substances. If the mind remains upon these characteristics, the body becomes light and easeful, and the mind will gradually become peaceful and joyful. If the mind still refuses to remain, one should reproach it: “Throughout innumerable kalpas until now, I have always followed you and consequently endured myriad sufferings in the three evil destinies.

From this day forward, I shall subdue you. You must follow me!” Reproach it thus and bind the mind to bring this contemplation to fulfillment. If one becomes excessively disenchanted with this body, one should contemplate the white bones and will thereby also be able to enter the first dhyana.

A practitioner who seeks the Great Vehicle will, at the end of life, be born according to aspiration in the presence of a Buddha. If this is not attained, one will at least be born in the Tusita heaven and behold bodhisattva Maitreya.

IV. THE CONTEMPLATION OF WHITE BONES

To contemplate white bones means to visualize the skin, flesh, blood, and sinews of the human body as having been completely stripped away, leaving only the individual bones joined together, resting upon and supporting one another. This skeleton is as white as jade and snow, and the light it emits is likewise radiant. If one is unable to see the white bones, one should reflect: “Suppose a person suffering from leprosy is told by a physician that the disease will be cured by drinking blood that is white like milk.

Everyone then makes all the objects in the house appear white. Afterward, they place blood in a silver bowl and tell the sick person, ‘Drink this milk, and you will certainly be cured!’ The leper says that it is blood, whereupon the physician replies, ‘I treat you by means of things that are white. Do you not see that all the objects in the house are white?

Because of your illness, you perceive it as blood. Simply concentrate your mind and imagine that it is milk; do not regard it as blood.’ After seven days of imagining it in this way, the blood turns into milk. Thus, if even red blood can be transformed into white milk, how could bones, which are truly white, remain unseen?” Once the white bones have been seen, one should contemplate that, within the appearance of the white bones, thoughts arise and perish in succession like a string of jewels.

Just as the mind has visualized one's own body, one should contemplate the bodies of others in the same way. When the mind is about to become established upon this appearance, one should contemplate with even greater diligence and effort, without abandoning the practice. It is like drilling wood to make fire and seeing smoke, or digging a well and finding damp earth: if one continues working, before long fire will certainly arise and water will be obtained.

Once the mind has become tranquil, whether the eyes are open or closed, one clearly sees the white bones gleaming brightly. Just as still, clear water reflects the features of one's face, while turbid water reflects nothing, and dried-up water likewise cannot reflect an image.

V. THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE BUDDHA SAMADHI

The Buddha is the Dharma King, possessing the power to help people attain all wholesome dharmas. Therefore, those who cultivate meditation should first recollect the Buddha. Recollecting the Buddha can lessen the grave offenses committed throughout immeasurable kalpas and enable one to attain meditative concentration.

When a person recollects the Buddha with utmost sincerity, the Buddha also recollects that person. Just as when someone is remembered by a king, hostile creditors and adversaries dare not approach, so when one recollects the Buddha, evil dharmas cannot come to cause disturbance. Since the Buddha is no longer present in the world, how should one contemplate and recollect him?

People place their trust in what their eyes can see; therefore, contemplate a sacred image of the Buddha as though it were the real Buddha. First, closely observe the ushnisha, then the white curl between the eyebrows, and finally proceed downward to the feet. Then, beginning at the feet, closely observe upward to the ushnisha.

In this way, carefully memorize all the excellent marks of the sacred image. Afterward, go to a quiet place, close the eyes, contemplate, and bind the mind to the sacred image, allowing no other thought to intrude. If the mind turns to other objects, one should strive to draw it back.

When the contemplative mind sees the image exactly as it was memorized, one has attained concentration in the contemplation of the image. One should then think: “I have not gone to where the image is, nor has the image come to where I am; yet I am able to see it because my mind abides in concentrated visualization.” Thereafter, when the practitioner contemplates the Buddha’s physical body, it will likewise appear distinctly, as though directly before one’s eyes.

If the mind wanders after unwholesome conditions, one should be like a mother watching over her young child, never allowing the child to fall into a deep pit or stray onto a dangerous path. The thought is like the child, and the practitioner is like the mother. If the mind still does not abide, one should admonish it: “Consider that old age, sickness, and death have drawn very near.

If I am born in the heavens and become intoxicated by the five supremely exquisite sensual pleasures, I will have no skillful means with which to discipline the mind. If I fall into the three evil realms, I will undergo manifold suffering and fear, preventing wholesome thoughts from arising. Now that I have received this wondrous Dharma, how can I fail to recollect it with utmost sincerity?” One should further reflect: “I have been born near the very end of the age of the declining Dharma.

It is like beating a drum and opening the prison gates to release the prisoners, when the sound of the drum is about to cease and one of the gates has already closed. How could I hesitate instead of quickly escaping from prison? From the beginningless past until now, the sufferings of birth and death that I have undergone have truly been immeasurable.

Today I have still not accomplished the wondrous Dharma that I received and studied, yet the thief of impermanent death may arrive in an instant, and this body and life truly cannot be preserved. After death, I will have to continue enduring the sufferings of birth and death throughout immeasurable kalpas.” In this way, one should sternly admonish the mind so that it abides in the characteristic image. Once the mind abides, one will see the Buddha while walking, standing, lying down, or sitting.

Thereafter, one should continue by contemplating the Buddha’s physical body and Dharma-body. Once the first contemplation has been accomplished, progressively subduing the mind will also become easy.

VI. THE METHOD OF CONTEMPLATING THE BUDDHA’S PHYSICAL BODY

After the contemplation of the image has been accomplished in the mind’s visualization, gather the attention into concentration, and the physical body will immediately be seen. One should then rely upon the image to contemplate and recollect the physical body. Contemplate the Buddha seated beneath the bodhi tree, his entire body radiating brilliant light and displaying extraordinarily wondrous excellent marks.

Or contemplate the Buddha seated in the Deer Park, teaching the Four Noble Truths to the five bhikshus. Or contemplate the Buddha on Mount Gridhrakuta, emitting brilliant light and teaching the Prajnaparamita. One should select a single scene and contemplate it with undivided attention, not allowing the mind to wander after other conditions.

When the visualization has become settled, one will immediately see the Buddha. At that time, joy and bliss will fill the entire body and penetrate to the marrow, like entering a clear, cool pond in oppressive heat, or entering a warm house in bitter cold. No worldly pleasure can compare with it.

VII. THE METHOD OF CONTEMPLATING THE DHARMA-BODY

Having seen the Buddha’s physical body in empty space, one should rely upon that physical body to contemplate the Dharma-body within. This Dharma-body is endowed with the ten powers[1], the four fearlessnesses[2], great loving-kindness, great compassion, and immeasurable wholesome karma. It is like a person who first thinks of a golden vessel and then contemplates the priceless mani jewel within it.

The true and wondrous Dharma-body possesses unsurpassed wisdom beyond all comparison. The Dharma-body is neither near nor far, neither difficult nor easy. The entire world is as though directly before it, and no one lies outside the Dharma-body; the Dharma-body thoroughly comprehends all dharmas.

One should contemplate and recollect it with undivided attention, without interruption. If the mind wanders after external conditions, one should strive to draw it back.

When all people, wise or foolish, are about to die, their faculties deteriorate, and they feel as though they were falling into a pitch-black abyss. If they could cry out at that time, their cries would surely reach the Brahma heavens. Nothing is more powerful, causes greater suffering, or inspires greater fear in people than death.

Only the Buddha can save them and bestow the joys of the human realm, the heavenly realms, and nirvana. Furthermore, throughout lifetime after lifetime, all Buddhas have never begrudged their bodies or lives for the sake of sentient beings. For example, when Shakyamuni was still a prince, he once left the city and saw a person afflicted with leprosy.

He immediately instructed the royal physician to treat him. The physician said: “He must drink the blood of a person who has never become angry, and that person’s marrow must also be applied to his body; only then will the illness be cured.” The prince reflected: “Such a person is truly difficult to find! Even if one could be found, it would still be impossible to do such a thing!” The prince therefore used his own body as medicine to cure the illness.

For the sake of all sentient beings, one should likewise act in this way. The Buddha’s kindness is deeper and weightier even than that of one’s parents. Suppose all sentient beings, each of whom has been one’s parent, constituted one part, while the Buddha constituted another part.

Of these two parts, one should recollect the part of the Buddha and should not recollect anything else. Thus, the merit attained accords with the object that the practitioner recollects. If one accomplishes this gateway of meditative concentration, the fetters will be severed, and one will ultimately realize the patience regarding the non-arising of dharmas.

If illness arises during cultivation, one should take medicine appropriate to the illness. If one does not attain concentration, one will be born in the Six Heavens of the Desire Realm as a foremost and honored deity, and wherever one goes, one’s celestial palace will fly along. Or one will be born in the presence of the Buddhas; one’s efforts will not have been in vain.

It is like using a medicine to transmute red copper: even if gold is not obtained, silver will still be obtained.

VIII. THE METHOD OF CONTEMPLATING THE BUDDHAS OF THE TEN DIRECTIONS

The practitioner sits upright facing east and visualizes that place as empty, luminous, and pure, without mountains, rivers, lakes, tiles, stones, walls, or partitions. One sees only a Buddha seated in the full-lotus posture, raising a hand and teaching the Dharma. With the mind’s eye, one clearly observes his noble marks, excellent features, and brilliant radiance.

The practitioner fixes the mind upon the Buddha’s body and does not let it engage with other objects. If the mind wanders outward, one should strive to draw it back. In this way, one gradually proceeds to contemplate ten Buddhas, a hundred Buddhas, a thousand Buddhas, and ultimately innumerable and boundless Buddhas.

Near the body, the space appears narrow; the farther away it extends, the broader the space becomes. At that time, one sees only the radiance emitted by the Buddhas, continuously joining together without interruption. When the mind’s eye can observe this clearly, one turns the body toward the southeast and visualizes in the same way.

After accomplishing this contemplation, one turns successively toward the south, southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, below, and above. In every direction, one visualizes in the same manner. After seeing the Buddhas in all directions just as in the east, the practitioner sits upright and contemplates collectively all the Buddhas throughout the ten directions, seeing them all everywhere within a single thought focused upon its object.

When meditative concentration is accomplished, the Buddhas of the ten directions appear within samadhi and teach the Dharma, enabling the practitioner to sweep away the net of doubt and attain the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. If, because of the gravity of karmic offenses from previous lives, one cannot see the Buddhas, the practitioner should diligently repent throughout the six periods of day and night, rejoice in merit, and entreat the Buddhas to teach and remain in the world; then, gradually, one will see them.

Even if the Buddhas do not appear to teach the Dharma, the practitioner’s mind will still attain joy and bliss, and the body will become light, peaceful, and at ease. This is the contemplation of the Buddhas of the ten directions.

IX. THE CONTEMPLATION OF AMITAYUS BUDDHA

There are two kinds of people who practice the contemplation of Amitayus Buddha: those of dull faculties and those of sharp faculties. Those of dull faculties should first use the mind’s eye to observe an area approximately three fen in circumference—one cun—on the Buddha’s forehead. Visualize stripping away all the skin and flesh there, leaving only a rosy-red patch of bone.

Fix the mind firmly upon it and do not allow it to engage with any other object. If the mind wanders, one should strive to draw it back. Once one sees the rosy-red patch of bone three fen in circumference, continue to visualize this bone becoming as white as snow.

After seeing the white bone, continue to visualize the Buddha’s entire body becoming a skeleton, without the slightest trace of skin or flesh, as white as snow. Then visualize the white bones becoming a body of luminous, pure, and transparent lapis lazuli. Next, visualize white light radiating from the lapis-lazuli body, illuminating first what is near, then what is distant, and finally the whole of Jambudvipa.

At that time, one sees only light and nothing else. Then visualize the light withdrawing into the body and subsequently radiating forth again as before. Each time this contemplation is performed, one should proceed from what is easy to what is difficult.

The contemplation of the white bones should likewise begin with a small area and later extend to the whole. Having accomplished the foregoing, one must further visualize white light radiating from the lapis-lazuli body; within that light, visualize Amitayus Buddha, whose body is immeasurably vast and whose emitted radiance is brilliant. The practitioner then sits in the full-lotus posture facing west and concentrates upon recollecting the marks on the Buddha’s body.

Afterward, one contemplates the Buddha’s body as a whole, seated in the full-lotus posture, majestic in physical appearance and with a countenance as radiant as a mountain of pure gold. The practitioner should fix the mind upon the Buddha’s body and not allow it to engage with other objects. If the mind wanders toward external objects, one should strive to draw it back.

One must always see oneself as though sitting face-to-face with the Buddha, without the slightest discrepancy. Practicing in this way, one will soon accomplish the contemplation of Amitayus Buddha.

Those of sharp faculties need only contemplate sunlight shining upon the body, its radiance open, clear, and pure. Then contemplate the Buddha within that orb of light, and the contemplation will immediately be accomplished. Practitioners who wish to be reborn in the land of Amitayus Buddha should contemplate the Buddha in this way.

X. THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE TRUE CHARACTERISTIC OF ALL DHARMAS

One should know that all dharmas arise from conditions. Because they arise through causes and conditions, they possess no independence. Because they possess no independence, they are ultimately without characteristics, having only empty names and no real substance. If dharmas truly existed, one should not say that they are nonexistent; if they existed in the past but do not exist now, that would be called annihilation. Contemplate all dharmas as neither permanent nor annihilated, neither existent nor nonexistent; the activity of the mind ceases, and speech and words are also cut off. This is called the profound and pure contemplation.

Furthermore, contemplate lust, anger, and delusion as themselves the true characteristic. Why is this so? Because these dharmas are neither within nor without. If they truly existed within, they would not need to await external causes and conditions in order to arise. If they existed without, they would have no abiding place. Having no abiding place, they neither arise nor cease; they are empty, devoid of anything whatsoever, utterly pure, and unconditioned. This is called contemplating the true characteristic of lust, anger, and delusion.

Furthermore, all dharmas are ultimately pure; it is not the sages and worthies who make them pure. It is only because ordinary beings have not attained contemplative wisdom that they falsely perceive dharmas as possessing innumerable characteristics and forms. Those who have realized the true characteristic regard all dharmas as reflections in a mirror: they merely deceive the eye, while in reality they neither arise nor cease.

This contemplation is profound and subtle. If practitioners single-mindedly reflect upon it and deeply realize the true characteristic that neither arises nor ceases, they will immediately attain the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas. This Dharma is extremely difficult to take as an object of contemplation, and the mind easily becomes distracted.

Even if it is not distracted, it may fall into torpor. Therefore, practitioners must constantly strive to keep their minds pure and their visualization perfectly clear. If they cannot bring the mind under control, they should rebuke it, saying: “For innumerable kalpas until now, you have always followed evil karmic conditions without ever feeling weary, even for a moment.

You also chase after worldly pleasures without realizing that they are suffering. Sentient beings in the world greedily delight in sensual pleasures and thereby undergo suffering; then, in accordance with their evil karma, they are born into the five destinies. All of this is created by the mind—who else could cause it?

You are like a mad elephant that tramples and destroys everything, with no means of restraint. Who will tame you? If you are skillfully tamed, you will be freed from the sufferings of the world.

You should know that, while dwelling in the womb, you encounter nothing but impurities and endure much suffering. The womb is also narrow, tightly constricting the body like a hell. If you are born into the world, you must endure innumerable things that deprive you of freedom, such as aging, illness, death, sorrow, anguish, and affliction.

Even if you are born in the heavens and enjoy happiness, when your merit is exhausted, you will fall into hell. Truly, there is no peace in the three realms; why, then, do you cling to them?” After rebuking the mind with many such words, one should return to the previous contemplation. If the mind remains upon the object of contemplation, it will become gentle and pliant.

At that time, one will see rays of many-colored light issuing from the body. This is called the contemplation of the true characteristic of all dharmas.

A practitioner who wishes to be born in the land of the Buddha Amitayus should contemplate the Buddha Amitayus and contemplate the true nature of all dharmas. One should also contemplate the world as being like a dream and an illusion, devoid of true reality. It is only because sentient beings are deluded about these unreal dharmas that, without awareness, they give rise to afflictions and undergo various karmic retributions.

It is like someone watching children angrily quarrel over tiles, sticks, earth, and stones. We should likewise contemplate sentient beings in the world in this way, give rise to compassion, and vow to liberate them all. One should also constantly discipline one’s own mind and cultivate the two kinds of patience: patience with sentient beings and patience with dharmas.

Even if sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges were to mistreat me, I would not become angry; even if sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges were to honor me, I would not rejoice. One should further contemplate that sentient beings have neither beginning nor end. If there were a beginning, there would be no causes and conditions; if there are causes and conditions, there can be no beginning.

If there is no beginning, there can be no middle or end. When contemplating in this way, one falls into neither annihilationism nor eternalism; one contemplates sentient beings by means of the peaceful path and does not give rise to wrong views. This is called patience with sentient beings.

Contemplate all dharmas as exceedingly profound, pure, ultimately without attributes. When the mind has no doubt or obstruction and faithfully accepts this, it is called patience with dharmas. Although bodhisattvas who have newly aroused the aspiration have not yet attained patience with dharmas, they should train their minds in this way.

One should further contemplate all dharmas as ultimately without attributes, constantly give rise to great compassion for all sentient beings, and dedicate all the roots of goodness one has acquired toward seeking birth in the land of the Buddha Amitayus. In this way, one will immediately attain rebirth there.

XI. THE METHOD OF CONTEMPLATING THE LOTUS SAMADHI

For twenty-one days, single-mindedly and diligently practice in accordance with the teachings, truly recollecting the Lotus Sutra. One should visualize Buddha Shakyamuni together with Buddha Prabhutaratna seated within the seven-jeweled stupa on Mount Grdhrakuta. Contemplate the transformation Buddhas, emanations throughout the ten directions, abiding everywhere in the lands from which all sentient beings have been removed.

Each Buddha has as an attendant a bodhisattva bound to one more birth, just as Buddha Shakyamuni has Bodhisattva Maitreya as his attendant. All the Buddhas manifest supernatural powers and emit light that illuminates immeasurable lands everywhere. As they prepare to attest to the true Dharma, the Buddhas display their broad and long tongues and produce voices resounding throughout all worlds in the ten directions, proclaiming the Lotus Sutra.

This sutra states:

– Sentient beings throughout the ten directions, whether great or small, who utter “Namo Buddha” even once will all attain Buddhahood.

– There is only the one Dharma of the Great Vehicle; there are neither two vehicles nor three vehicles.

– All dharmas have only one attribute and one gate: the attribute of non-arising and non-ceasing, ultimately empty. There is only this Dharma of the Great Vehicle, and there are no two vehicles.

By cultivating this contemplation, one will sever the five desires, eliminate the five hindrances, strengthen the five faculties, and attain meditative concentration. Abiding in this concentration, the practitioner feels profound love and reverence for all Buddhas. One should also enter deeply into this supremely pure, single-attribute, single-gate Dharma, which is profound, subtle, and wondrous.

One should further revere the great bodhisattvas Samantabhadra, Bhaisajyaraja, Mahapratibhana, Avalokiteshvara, Mahasthamaprapta, Manjushri, and Maitreya. This is called single-minded diligence in truly recollecting and practicing the Lotus Sutra in accordance with the Dharma. This practice also accords with meditative concentration and makes the mind steadfast.

After cultivating in this way for twenty-one days, Bodhisattva Samantabhadra will ride a white elephant with six tusks and appear before the practitioner, exactly as the sutra states.

THE CONCISE METHOD OF CONTEMPLATION