Essence of the Amitabha Sutra
Excerpts from The Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra, by Grand Master Ou-i
The Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra, authored by Grand Master Ou-i, is an invaluable resource that highlights the essence of the Pure Land School. The commentary provides a deeply insightful understanding and appreciation of The Amitabha Sutra to all of us practitioners to follow the most important guiding principle of faith, vow, and practice.
Grand Master Ou-i, a distinguished 17th Century T’ien-t’ai Master, who was subsequently honored as the ninth Patriarch of the Pure Land school. To learn about the life of Master Ou-i, a brief biography is provided to pay tribute and homage to this grand master teacher.
Essence of The Amitabha Sutra, an introduction by Grand Master Ou-i:
The Buddhas took pity on the multitudes of deluded sentient beings, and put forth transformative teachings according to the various potentials of these deluded sentient beings. Although these teachings all derive from the same source, many different expedient methods are employed.
Among all these expedients, if we seek the most direct and the most complete, none is as good as seeking birth in the Pure Land through Buddha-remembrance (Buddha recitation). If we seek the simplest and most reliable among all the methods of Buddha-remembrance, the best is to develop faith and vows and to concentrate on reciting the Buddha-name.
This is the reason that the ancients took the Amitabha Sutra as their daily study guide, though three Pure Land scriptures have circulated side by side in the world over the generations. The Amitabha Sutra shows that the method of reciting the Buddha-name applies to people of high, medium, and limited capacities. It encompasses both the level of phenomena, and the level of inner truth (noumenon), omitting nothing. It embraces both Zen Buddhism and Scriptural Buddhism, and leaves nothing out. This method is indeed inconceivably great!
Over the generations, since ancient times, there has been no lack of people to comment upon and explain the Amitabha Sutra. Over time, many of these commentaries have fallen into oblivion and nowadays not many survive. [A generation ago], Master Chu-hung of Yun-ch’i wrote his extensive and subtle commentary, and my own teacher’s Master Yu-hsi, wrote Complete Middle Path Commentary, which is profound and highly learned. [These two commentaries] are like the sun and the moon: all those with eyes see them. But [in these two commentaries] the literary style is elaborate and the levels of meaning are complex. Their ultimate reaches are unfathomable.
Therefore, I have put aside all qualms about my own mediocrity and ignorance and composed another commentary, explaining the essential points of the Amitabha Sutra. I would not dare to diverge from elders Chu-hung and Yu-hsi just to be original, nor would I force myself to agree with them for the sake of agreement. When I look upon their example, it is as if lofty peaks surround me. Even though my commentary in no way fully describes the true realm of the Pure Land tradition, I must not fail to give every one of you a personal vision of it.
When one explicates the text of the Amitabha Sutra, there are five layers of profound meaning. The five layers of profound meaning are elaborated below.
- Title of the Sutra
- Essence of the Sutra
- Guiding Principle
- Sutra’s Function
- Forms of Buddhist Teachings
First, there is the Title of the Sutra to explain.
This scripture is called The Amitabha Sutra Spoken by Buddha. This sutra takes its title from the one who expounds it and from the one of whom he speaks.
Buddha is the master teacher, the one who expounds the scripture in this world, that is, Sakyamuni. By the power of his vows of great compassion, he was born here in the world of the Five Turbidities. As the one who was first to awaken, his mission was to bring enlightenment to those who were to awaken later. Buddha is the one who knows all and sees all.
Buddha speaks the sutra with joy in his heart. Buddha’s intention is to liberate sentient beings. Since the potential of sentient beings to achieve enlightenment is ripe, Buddha expounds for them these Pure Land teachings which are difficult to believe, and enables his listeners to reach ultimate liberation. That’s why he is filled with joy.
Amitabha Buddha is the one Sakyamuni refers to in the sutra. Amitabha is the guide of the Pure Land. By the power of his forty-eight vows, he receives the sentient beings who have vowed to practice Buddha-remembrance by invoking the Buddha-name and enables them to be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, and never fall back from there. The Sanskrit name “Amitabha” means “Infinite Life” and also “Infinite Light”. The essential point is that everything about him is infinite: his merits and his wisdom, his supernatural powers and his power in the Path, his embodiment and his environment, his work in expounding the Buddhist teachings and liberating sentient beings.
A sutra is any teaching from the golden mouth of a Buddha.
These terms taken together make up the title of the scripture: The Amitabha Sutra Spoken by Buddha. The three categories — teachings, practices, and inner truth (noumenon), which each sutra should have — can each be explained in both general and particular senses, as set out in the T’ien-t’ai system.
Second, there is the Essence of the Sutra to discern.
The true essence of all the Great Vehicle (Mahayana) scriptures is Absolute Reality (Real Mark) itself. What is Absolute Reality? It is the Pure Mind of sentient beings. This mind is not inside, not outside, and not in-between. It is not past, not present, and not future.
It is not green or yellow or red or white, long or short or square or round. It is not a scent, not a flavor, not a texture, not a mental object. When we search for it we cannot find it, but we cannot say it does not exist. It creates all worlds and all realms, but we cannot say it exists. It is detached from conditioned thoughts and discriminations, from all words and characteristics, but conditioned thoughts and discriminations and worlds and characteristics do not have any separate identity apart from it.
Essentially, absolute reality is detached from all characteristics, but merged with all phenomena. Being detached from characteristics, it is formless, and being merged with all phenomena, it gives them all their forms. For lack of an alternative, we impose on it the name “absolute reality” [i.e. Mind, Real Mark, Buddha Nature].
The essence of Absolute Reality is neither quiescent nor aware, but it is both quiescent and yet ever shining with awareness, both shining with awareness and yet ever quiescent. In that it is shining with awareness but quiescent, it is called the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light. In that it is quiescent but shining with awareness, it is called the pure Dharmakaya (Dharma Body). Aware quiescence is called the Dharmakaya, the Dharma Body of all the Buddhas. Quiescent awareness is called the Sambhogakaya, the Reward Body.
[For the Buddhas] quiescence and awareness are not two, bodies and lands are not two, what is inherent and what is cultivated are not two, true essence and responsive function are not two — everything is absolute reality. Reality and appearances are neither two nor not two.
Therefore, the essence of reality as a whole acts as both the environment that surrounds sentient beings and as their very bodies. IT acts as both the Dharma Body and the Reward Body of the Buddhas. It acts as both self and others.
Thus the one who speaks the sutra and the one who is spoken of, the Buddhas that can deliver sentient beings and the sentient beings who are delivered, the ability to believe and that which is believed in, the ability to take vows and that which is vowed, the ability to concentrate on the Buddha-name and the Buddha-name which is concentrated upon, the ability to be born in the Pure Land and birth in the Pure Land itself, the ability to praise the Buddhas and the Buddhas who are praised — all of these are the imprint of the “true seal” of Absolute Reality. In other words, the True Mind (Bodhi Mind) of sentient beings is the essence of all Mahayana sutras.
[ Next: Guiding Principle ]
Source:
The above excerpt is a translation from the Chinese Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra written by Grand Master Ou-i. Translation comes from the book, Mind-Seal of the Buddhas.
To learn more about Pure Land School from this commentary, read the complete text of the Commentary on The Amitabha Sutra.
Resources:
Five Pure Land Sutras from Pure Land Buddhism
Buddha-name Chanting Music Collection
