阿彌陀經通贊疏 1.9

1.9

Answer: "The expounding of the Dharma in other places had different intents: the Vimalakīrti Sūtra demolished one-sided grasping, and the Lotus Sūtra guided beings into the One Vehicle. The origin of this sūtra is for the sake of crushing the three wheels. The three kinds of wheels are: first, to crush the wheel of impermanence, for both sentient and insentient things are impermanent, causing beings to generate awakening and abandon impermanence; second, to crush the wheel of impurity, for both sentient and insentient things are impure, so being reborn in the Pure Land through apparitional birth in a lotus flower discards the body of womb, blood, and flesh, crushing the impurity of sentient beings; and the Pure Land one dwells in lacks all filth and evil, crushing the impurity of the container world, which is for the sake of crushing the wheel of impurity; third, to crush the wheel of suffering, for sentient beings are oppressed by suffering, causing them to return to the Pure Land to eliminate this suffering. It is to crush these three wheels that this sūtra was spoken. Moreover, it is to guide two kinds of sentient beings: first, to guide indolent sentient beings who fear practicing the great conduct and often fall back, this sūtra was spoken so that through a subtle cause a prominent fruition is attained, rendering them non-retrograde—hence the sūtra states: 'if for one day... up to seven days, they attain rebirth,' and so forth; second, for scattered sentient beings who race through various sense objects and sink into the evil destinies, this sūtra was spoken to point to the western direction and cause their minds to focus single-mindedly."