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Willams: Seeing through Images 81
52. See note 43, above.
53. The opening supplication to the buddhas in the vow text is, as we
have noted, idiosyncratic to Three Stages’ rituals: “May the buddhas of
the ten directions and three periods of time bear witness to and hold in
mind your disciple, so-and-so” (). This
formulaic supplication also precedes each of the seven sections of the
repentance prayer Xinxing uses in his version of the “Buddha Names in
Seven Registers,” opens the ritual recitation for the “Method for Receiving
the Eight Precepts” (“Shou bajie fa,” ), and occurs as a constant
refrain throughout that text; see P. 2849 (DHBZ 124.474a–476a).
54. B. 8317 (DHBZ 109.632b) has an abridged “Method for Taking Vows
at the Six Periods of the Day and Night” that does not conclude with this
set of instructions. This demonstrates that at least some medieval Chinese
Buddhists regarded this set of instructions as a separate text.
55. In the Dunhuang manuscript containing the Three Stages’ Zhifa (P.
2849; DHBZ 124.466b–72b), section 10, “The Method for Venerating the
Buddhas” (“Lifo fa”) (DHBZ 124.470a), contains the first part of these
instructions—which rosters of the ritual are to be done in summary
(zong, ), i.e., reciting the roster name only, and which were to be recited
separately (bie, ), i.e., reciting each buddha’s name in the roster, at which
parts of the day or night—but does not include these last lines that are a
virtual quotation from the VV. Instead it concludes these instructions with
a description of how the group performing the ritual is to coordinate the
chanting with the bowing and what to do if one did not have the strength
to keep up with the group while practicing the ritual. Nishimoto Teruma
(“Sangaikyō shinshutsu shiryō P 2849 no kisoteki kenkyū,” p. 84) argues
plausibly that this Zhifa is in fact the text referred to by Daoxuan in his
biography of Xinxing as the Shandong suozhi zhongshi zhufa (
), “The Rules for the Affairs of the Congregation Which Were Instituted
East of the Mountains.” “East of the Mountains” refers to the area east of
the Taihang mountain range, i.e., while Xinxing was still residing in the
Ye area. While it is unclear when Xinxing left Ye to go to Chang’an, it may
have been as early as 583, but definitely no later than 589; See Nishimoto,
Sangaikyō no kenkyū, pp. 60–61.
56. For a summary of this system in English as well as references to
the relevant Japanese bibliography see Stevenson, “The Four Kinds of
Samādhi.” For references to those practices specifically identified as coming
from Huisi, see Stevenson, “The Four Kinds of Samādhi,” pp. 50–51. Of the
six meditative practices organized into the fourfold samādhi system only
the last, the suizi yi ( ), does not require any visualization practice;
see Stevenson, “The Four Kinds of Samādhi,” pp. 75–84.
57. The Ocean Sutra is divided into twelve sections: (1) “The Six Similes”