摩訶止觀 2.16

2.16

Regarding the method: physical prescription and proscription, vocal speech and silence, and mental calming and contemplation. This practice comes from the Pratyutpanna-samādhi Sūtra, which is translated as "Buddhas standing before one." "Buddhas standing before one" has three meanings: first, the power of the Buddha's majesty; second, the power of the samādhi; third, the power of the practitioner's fundamental merits. It enables one in meditative absorption to see the presently existing Buddhas of the ten directions standing before one. Just as a person with clear eyesight observes the stars on a clear night, seeing the Buddhas of the ten directions as equally numerous—hence it is named "samādhi of the Buddhas standing before one." A verse in the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā states: "In the abodes of this samādhi, / There are differences of small, middling, and great; / Such various characteristics / Should also be discussed." "Abode" means that when this potency arises in the first dhyāna, the second, the third, the fourth, or the intermediate [dhyāna], it can generate samādhi, and hence is called an "abode." The first dhyāna is "small"; the second dhyāna is "middling"; the third and fourth are "great." Alternatively, abiding for a short time is called "small," or seeing few worlds, or seeing few Buddhas, hence it is called "small." "Middling" and "great" are also like this.