阿彌陀經疏 1.6

1.6

Furthermore, that sūtra says: "Amitābha Buddha is together with śrāvakas; the Tathāgata, Arhat, Samyaksambuddha's realm is named Pure and Tranquil, where the holy king dwells, and his city is ten thousand yojanas in length and breadth." However, the Guan jing says: "That Buddha's body is sixty trillion nayutas of Ganges sands of yojanas in height." If the city is small and the body is large, and they do not correspond, one should know that that Buddha has numerous cities: following the size of the assembly, the city is also large or small. In a large city, he manifests a large body; in a small city, he manifests a small body. The ten thousand yojanas of the Shengwang jing is the city where he dwells together with śrāvakas; one should know that the Buddha's body corresponds to it in dwelling there. The great height of the body spoken in the Guan jing—one should know that the city is also correspondingly vast, because it is the place where he dwells together with the great assemblies. Just as in the two-fascicle sūtra and this sūtra, the lotus flowers in the ponds are vastly different in size, so that depending on whether the pond is large or small, its flowers are also large or small, one should know that the city and the body's size are also like this; other discrepancies should be resolved according to this. Some say that what is spoken in the Shengwang jing about having parents indicates the defiled land where that Buddha dwells. This interpretation is not correct. Why is that? Since that sūtra says that they are naturally born by transformation within precious lotus flowers, endowed with great supernormal powers and radiant brilliance, and the lower text also says there are two bodhisattvas—first named Avalokiteśvara, second named Mahāsthāmaprāpta—and these two bodhisattvas attend him standing on the left and right, these are all characteristics of a pure land, not different from what is spoken in the Guan jing. One should know that what that sūtra says regarding Devadatta, the Demon King, and so forth, are all created by transformation in the pure land; it is not that on account of these it is not a pure land, just as transformed animals do not make it a defiled land. Let us set aside subsidiary discussions and return to explaining the root text.