Important Knowledge in the Pure Land Teaching
淨土小常識
170. Amitabha Buddha’s Body, the Color of Polished Purple-Gold (continued)
The fulfillment passages of the 3rd and 4th Vows state:
“Their wisdom is bright and penetrating,
Their divine powers are vast and unhindered;
All are of one kind,
With no difference in form or appearance.
Their features are upright and dignified,
Exceedingly rare in the world;
Their countenances are wondrous and subtle—
Neither heavenly nor human.
All receive bodies that are natural and ethereal,
Of boundless and limitless essence.”
The World-Honored One further explained this through five levels of comparison:
Even if we consider a human emperor, though honored as the most noble among people and possessing a proper and handsome appearance; when compared to a Wheel-Turning King, he is exceedingly inferior—just as a beggar appears beside an emperor.
When a Wheel-Turning King (majestic and wondrous in form, supreme throughout the human world) is compared to the Lord of the Trayastriṃsa Heaven (Sakra), he appears coarse and plain. The difference cannot be measured even within a hundred million times.
Suppose the Lord of the Trayastriṃsa Heaven is compared with the King of the Sixth Heaven (the Heaven of Paranirmitavasavartin)—again, the difference in dignity and appearance exceeds hundreds of thousands of millions of times, and cannot be compared.
Yet, if that King of the Sixth Heaven is compared with the Bodhisattvas and Sravakas of Amitabha’s Land of Infinite Life, in terms of radiance, facial features, and bodily beauty, he falls far short— by hundreds of thousands of millions of inconceivable times.
This passage demonstrates that the forms and features of beings in the Land of Bliss are immeasurable and incomparable, transcending all appearances found among humans or gods. Their bodies, formed of “natural, boundless substance,” reflect the unborn, unconditioned nature of the Pure Land itself—free from defilement and duality, sharing the same purple-golden luminous body as Amitabha Buddha.
(to be continued tomorrow)
170 紫磨金色身 (續)
此第三願與第四願之成就文說：
智慧高明，神通洞達，咸同一類，形無異狀。
顏貌端正，超世稀有，容色微妙，非天非人，
皆受自然虛無之身、無極之體。
釋尊並以五層校量而說：
計如帝王，雖人中尊貴，形色端正，比之轉輪聖王，甚為鄙陋，猶彼乞人在帝 王邊也；轉輪聖王，威相殊妙，天下第一，比之忉利天王，又復醜惡，不得相喻 萬億倍也；假令天帝，比第六天王，百千億倍不相類也；設第六天王，比無量 壽佛國菩薩聲聞，光顏容色，不相及逮，百千萬億不可計倍。
(明天待續)
Namo Amituofo!
