Visualising Sutra

Singapore time 7.50 am 24th August 2007

The Sutra of Visualizing The Buddha of Immeasurable Length of Life
Middle part

The Buddha told Vaidehi, 'You--and all beings--should concentrate your minds on one point and think about the Western Quarter. How is one to think of that? Anyone who is going to think of that should not be a person born blind; and anyone who has eyes must have seen the sun sinking in the West. Sit facing the Western Quarter and think about the place where the sun sinks down. Concentrate your mind upon it without being distracted and look at the sun sinking, resembling a hanging drum. After having seen the sinking sun, you will see it whenever your eyes are open or shut. This is the thinking of the Sun, and it is the First Visualization.'

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By looking at the sun, we need to wait for sunset, so by looking at our nose tip, assuming it as the sun, we can meditate day and night in any direction.
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A hanging drum.

'Next you think about water. Notice that water is very pure and that it is indissoluble. When you have seen water thus, then think it is going to freeze. Then see that the ice is the same as crystal, which is transparent. Beneath it there are columns, made of gold, inlaid with the seven jewels, supporting the crystal. These columns have eight facets, each of them has one hundred diamonds. Each of the diamonds has a thousand beams of light. Each of these rays has eighty-four thousand colors. These crystals are as glittering as hundreds and thousands of suns shining together. They are so dazzling that one cannot see them totally. On these crystals there are golden ropes interlaid as ornaments. They are separated by the seven jewels. Each of these jewels has five hundred colors, whose brightness is as that of flowers, or stars and of the moon, suspended in the air, forming a Terrace of Brightness.

'On that Terrace, there are hundreds and thousands of storeyed pavilions, built of a hundred kinds of jewels. At the two sides of the terrace, there are hundreds and thousands of embroidered tapestries and musical instruments as decorations. There are eight kinds of mild breeze coming out from the brightness; and it plays upon those instruments, which produce the sound of the Dharma of Sorrow, of Transitory-ness and of Unreality. This, the Thinking of the Water, and it is the Second Visualization. When this Visualization is completed, see them one by one clearly, and do not let them disappear whether your eyes are open or shut, except at eating times.

(This visualization of the water is the tears and eyes. The fantastic elaboration will confuse any reader. The very important point to be stressed is eyes must be open. Some monks look at the floor when they meditate. This visualization is not for you to think when you meditate. This is wrong. It is mainly to describe our face and pinpoint the mark on the forehead. Compare Koran's 'Garden of Eden underneath which rivers flow.' Or see Chinese word for it like >J< , eyes looking inward.)

'Once having attained this Samadhi, one can clearly see the Pure Land, which is indescribable by words. This is the Thinking of the Land, (the mark on our forehead) and it is the Third Visualization.'
The Buddha then addressed to the Venerable Ananda, 'You must hold to the Buddha's words and tell those who wish to escape from suffering in the future to think of the Land. Any person who thinks of the Pure Land will be exempted from rebirth for eight million kalpas of time, and will undoubtedly be reborn into the Pure Land at his next birth. To visualize the Most Happy World as stated above is right, it is wrong to do so otherwise.'

The Buddha told the Venerable Ananda, 'Next to the Thinking of the Land is to visualize the Jewel-trees. That is to visualize the trees that are in seven rows. They are eight thousand yojanas in height and each of them has flowers and leaves made completely of the seven jewels. Every flower and every leaf of those trees has a brilliant hue. A golden ray comes out from the agate color; a crimson ray comes out from the crystal color; a beryl ray comes out from the lapis lazuli color; a green-pearl ray comes out from the beryl color; and there are rays of coral and amber color shining beautifully. There are nets made of strings of pearls covering those trees. Seven of these nets cover each of those trees. Between the nets, there are fifty million luxurious palaces, the same as those in the Brahmin heaven.

'There are heavenly youths in these palaces; each of them wears fifty million Muni-gems as ornaments. The rays of these gems shine for a distance of one thousand yojanas, like a hundred thousand suns shining together (as though their rays were interwoven). All the rays are of the finest color. The jewel-trees are set in rows opposite rows. (like our eye-lashes) There are wonderful flowers and fruits made of the seven jewels between the leaves. Each of the branches of the trees is twenty-five yojanas in length. The leaves have a thousand various colors, like heavenly pictures. There are many flourishing blossoms, golden in color, like turning fire-wheels rolling between the leaves and producing heavenly fruits.

'There is also a great light, which becomes many draperies and canopies. All the affairs of the Buddha, and all the Buddha countries in the ten quarters, appear in these canopies. When you have visualized these trees, look at them one by one: the stems, the branches, the leaves, the flowers and the fruits, should all be very clearly visualized. This is the Meditation on Trees, (eye-lashes) and it is the Fourth Visualization.

See the image below to compare.

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