Text, by Master Jingzong
Painting, by Feng Zikai

       The impoverished woman: A wretched person who is bound in samsara, meritless and destitute.

        Like a flower: As beautiful as a Pundarika, white lotus flower, for she is an Amitabha-reciter.

       The mirror is Buddha’s mind. Buddha’s wisdom is all-knowing, like a great all-reflecting mirror. 

       Only the Buddha knows her beauty as a white lotus flower; even though she is still a mortal.

        Buddha knows her, so Buddha loves, cherishes, protects, takes pity on her, and never forsakes her.

        The Contemplation Sutra says: The Buddha speaks to Ananda:

You should know that she who recites the Buddha’s name is, among her fellows, like a white lotus flower who befriends Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva.

       The Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra states:

A person who recites the Buddha’s name is an excellent person, a wondrous person, a person of the superior class, and the rarest of all people.  

The Buddha-light unceasingly illuminates, embracing Buddha-reciters who seek the rebirth.

Those who recite Amitabha Buddha’s name are always in the mind of the Buddha, and

The Buddha knows all those who are mindful of him.

(Translated by the Pure Land School Translation Team; edited by Kevin Orro (Fozhu))