Plain Talk on Observing the Limitless Life Sutra -- Essence of Buddhist Cultural Series

Author: Wei Qi
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2002-10-01
Features: Buddhism was born in the Indian subcontinent around the 6th century BC and was introduced to China during the Western Han Dynasty. It collided with and merged with China's indigenous culture, making traditional Chinese culture more diverse, profound, and extensive. Gradually, a cultural landscape emerged, dominated by Confucian culture with Taoist and Buddhist cultures as supplementary elements. This cultural structure almost spanned the entire feudal era of China. To truly understand traditional Chinese culture, one must understand Chinese Buddhist culture. With the ebb and flow of social and historical changes and the twists and turns of cultural trends, as humanity enters the new century, more and more people are turning their attention to the mysterious Buddhist culture.
The Sutra on Contemplating the Limitless Life of Amida Buddha, also known as the Sutra of Contemplating the Limitless Life or simply the Contemplation Sutra, is one of the main scriptures of the Pure Land School, alongside the Sutra of the Limitless Life and the Sutra of Amida's Limitless Life, collectively known as the "Three Pure Land Sutras." The sutra begins with a story set in ancient India in the city of Shakyapura: Shakyapura was besieged by Devadatta, who incited the king, Bimbisara, to imprison him in a seven-tiered secret chamber. Devadatta also managed to imprison the queen, Vaidehi, who had tirelessly helped her husband, hoping to rescue him. Seeing her son's extreme ungratefulness, Vaidehi was heartbroken and prayed to the Buddha, begging for his help to escape her suffering and be reborn in the Pure Land. The Buddha then taught her about the infinite beauty and splendor of the Western Pure Land and the sixteen methods of contemplating rebirth in the Pure Land, namely the daily contemplation, water contemplation, earth contemplation, tree contemplation, contemplation of the eight-rewarding waters (pool contemplation), general contemplation, flower throne contemplation, Buddha image contemplation, Buddha's form contemplation, Avalokite?vara contemplation, Mahāsthamaprapta contemplation, upper-level rebirth contemplation, middle-level rebirth contemplation, and lower-level rebirth contemplation.