PACIFIC WORLD - The Institute of Buddhist Studies

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Pacific World
gods to act in the highest, to act the best. Although the merit
is great, it is still not yet that this is wisdom. Afterwards many
fall back and perish. This is named the “veneration of body and
mind.”
This passage is important in at least two respects. First, we again see repentance
and meditation united in the visualization of the buddhas. But
the practice is not stable. The practitioner can backslide. What you need to
do is advance further and perceive reality directly. The practices needed
to accomplish this, however, are those of the third stage. While Zhiyan’s
version is not as explicit about the practices involved, based on our discussion
so far we can, I think, glimpse their general outlines in his summary.
In Zhiyan’s version the third stage is as follows: 124
Third is the “veneration that reveres the qualities.” 125 You revere uppermost
the characteristics (xiang) of the Tathāgata’s immeasurable
qualities (gongde), which are like a mountain of gold, and obtain
a compliance that accords with the real. This is called “veneration
that reveres the qualities.”
The title of the Zhiyan’s fourth stage is mieguo li (), the “veneration that
annihilates transgressions.” Since the practitioner attains true realization of
the path at this fourth stage, these transgressions are destroyed through the
power of meditative realization, not rites of repentance. Yet together with the
suggestion of some sort of visualization practice at the third stage, the title
of the fourth stage indicates that some sort of repentance practice may well
have accompanied the visualization practice employed at the third stage. 126
Given the testimony of Daoshi’s and Daoxuan’s version and the likelihood
that Zhiyan received this text through the Lingyu lineage to which he was
heir, it is not unreasonable to infer that the practice performed at Zhiyan’s
third stage, in fact, may have involved repentance and meditation united
in the visualization of the buddhas seen in Daoshi’s version.
Second, these three summaries firmly establish that meditative
visualization and visionary repentance were an essential part of
Ratnamati’s program of practice. As such it is highly likely that these
practices formed an important part of his Chinese disciples’ training and