PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

Willams: Seeing through Images 47
evidence that this was, in fact, how this ritual was implemented.
Anecdotal information from sources such as biographies do, however,
give us some indication of the general stance of the text, practice, and
discourse communities surrounding the capital of Ye in the late sixth
century. This information suggests that the meditative visualization of the
buddhas and bodhisattvas was most commonly done in arrays and not
singly. Daochuo’s (, 562–645) biography of Tanluan, a northeasterner,
for example, has the following exchange between Tanluan and Emperor
Jing (, r. 534–550 CE) of the Eastern Wei (534–550): 49
The Lord came and reprimanded the Dharma Master, “The buddha
lands of the ten directions are all constituted as pure lands. Why is
it the Dharma Master only fixes his intent on the west? Is not this
giving rise to a biased view?” The Dharma Master said, “Since I
am an ordinary person, my wisdom is shallow and short [sighted].
Since I have not yet entered the stages [of the bodhisattva path], I
must constrain the power of my mindfulness (nian).
Tanluan’s religious practice focused only on the visualization of one buddha,
Amitābha, his entourage, and the Pure Land in the west, not arrays of
buddhas. The passage quoted suggests a contrast between this visualization
of a single buddha and the visualization practices focused on arrays
of buddhas pursued more generally in the Ye area at that time.
Our first direct, transmitted evidence that these registers, or rosters, of
buddhas were to be visualized comes from a short text, “The Great Outline
of the Method for Paying Obeisance to the Buddhas at the Six Periods”
(“Liushi libai fo fa dagang,” ) appended to the end of a
text entitled “Text for Taking Vows at the Six Periods of the Day and Night”
(“Zhouye liushi fayuan wen,” ) found toward the end of
Zhisheng’s 730 version of the ritual. This text is known also from a number
of undated Dunhuang manuscripts. 50
The Great Outline of the Method for Paying Obeisance to the Buddhas
at the Six Periods. At each of the three times during the day and the
three times during the night you should solemnly hold incense
and flowers. You should enter the pagoda and, visualizing the
image, silently make your offerings, and circumambulate and
venerate the Buddha. At dawn and at noon you should at both
times separately intone the [names of the] fifty-three buddhas; the
remainder should all be intoned as a group. At sunset and at the