阿彌陀經要解 1.40

1.40

The railings adorn the boundaries; the netting adorns the sky; the rowed trees adorn the open ground. Each being sevenfold signifies the seven categories of the requisites of enlightenment. Being made entirely of the four jewels signifies the four virtues of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. 'Surrounding it all around': in that land, the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, and śrāvakas are measureless in number, so there are measureless dwelling places, and likewise measureless sevenfold railings, netting, and rowed trees filling that realm, with adornments everywhere that cannot be exhausted; hence it is said to 'surround it all around'. In the pure Land of Cohabitation, such adornments are brought about by superior good karma, and also brought about by the contemplation of the perfect five grades; they take the subtle, five sensory objects born of conditions as their substance. In the pure Land of Expediency, such adornments are brought about by the contemplative wisdom of realizing emptiness, and also by the conforming three contemplations; they take the outflow-free five sensory objects of the wondrous truth of absolute reality as their substance. In the pure Land of Real Reward, such adornments are brought about by the contemplative wisdom of the wondrous provisional, and also by the partially realized three contemplations; they take the inexhaustible five sensory objects of the wondrous conventional truth as their substance. In the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light, such adornments are brought about by the contemplative wisdom of realizing the middle, and also by the ultimate three contemplations; they take the five sensory objects that accord with nature of the wondrous middle truth as their substance. To make it easy to understand, this distinction is made; but to speak from grasping the core meaning, the adornments of the four lands are each without exception phenomena born of causes and conditions, and each without exception is identical to emptiness, the provisional, and the middle. The explanations below all follow this model and will not be repeated at length.