Common Knowledge in Pure Land Teaching
淨土小常識
118 Amitabha Buddha (continued)
Those who advocate one name emphasize that Amitabha Buddha is the only correct name, and there should be no other names. The Amitabha Sutra says, “For what reason, Shariputra, do you think that Buddha is called Amida? Shariputra, the Buddha's light shines boundlessly and without hindrance over all the worlds of the ten quarters. It is for this reason that he is called Amida(Amitabha). Again, Shariputra, the lives of the Buddha and the people of his land last for immeasurable, unlimited and incalculable kalpas. It is for this reason that the Buddha is called 'Amida' (Amitayus). “
From the text, we know that there are two reasons why the Buddha is called Amitabha - infinite light and infinite life. It is because people in later days split the single name into two, one being infinite light and the other being infinite life.
It has never happened that there are two names for a Buddha. Many other sutras that were translated earlier than the Amitabha Sutra mention only one name (Amitabha) without adding the names of the Infinite Light Buddha and/or the Infinite Life Buddha.
In the Chinese translations of Amitabha, some translated it in two characters - “wu-liang” (infinite) and some in three characters - “wu-liang-shou” (infinite life) . The former is closer to the original meaning of the Sanskrit words. However, as one of the reasons for the Buddha to be called Amitabha is his infinite life, it is not wrong to translate it as “wu-liang-shou” (infinite life) in Chinese. For direct word-to-word translation, it is “wu-liang” (infinite), but for translation in its
literal meaning, it can be translated to be “wu-liang-shou” (infinite life).
(to be continued tomorrow)
118 阿彌陀佛 (續)
一名說主張阿彌陀佛之本名只有阿彌陀這一種,除此之外再無其他。《阿彌陀經》言:「彼佛何故號阿彌陀?舍利弗,彼佛光明無量,照十方國無所障礙,是故號為阿彌陀。又舍利弗,彼佛壽命及其人民,無量無邊阿僧祇劫,故名阿彌陀。」
根據這段引文可知,阿彌陀佛之所以要以阿彌陀、即無量作為其名號,是因為彼佛光明無量,同時彼佛之壽命及往生人之壽命也無量。也就是說,光明無量與壽命無量是阿彌陀佛之所以名為阿彌陀的兩個理由,只是至於後世,人們將這兩點理由分開,分別以無量光和無量壽作為阿彌陀佛的名號,這才
出現了兩種佛名。
一尊佛有兩種佛名,這還從未出現過,況且在《般舟三昧經》《大阿彌陀經》和《維摩詰經》等更早被譯出的經典中,都只是舉出了阿彌陀這一種佛名,並未出現無量壽與無量光,所以從這一點來看,可以肯定的是阿彌陀佛只有阿彌陀這一種佛名。
關於阿彌陀的翻譯,有二字譯與三字譯兩種譯法,天台之《觀無量壽經疏》、龍興之《觀無量壽經疏》及玄應之《一切音義集》卷九都譯為無量,善導之《觀經玄義分》、智旭之《阿彌陀經要解》及源空之《無量壽經釋》則譯為無量壽。梵語之阿彌陀意為「無量的」,所以應該說二字譯是比較貼近原意的。
不過極樂淨土之阿彌陀佛之所以號為阿彌陀,其中一點理由便是其佛壽命無量,所以將阿彌陀譯為無量壽也不能算是翻譯錯誤。如果只是對詞語進行直譯,那麼應該採用二字譯,如果意譯,則應該採用三字譯。
Namo Amituofo!
