阿彌陀經疏 1.24

1.24

"'Sentient beings who hear this should make the aspiration'"—from here down is the second [major division], encouraging the cultivation of the two kinds of pure causes. Within this there are four: first, encouraging the making of the aspiration; second, clarifying the cultivation of the cause; third, showing the reception of the fruit; fourth, concluding encouragement. In the second passage, two kinds of causes are clarified: first, the primary cause; second, the auxiliary cause. Within the primary cause, saying that 'one cannot attain birth in that land with few good roots and merits as cause and condition' reveals that only when the great aspiration for bodhi embraces many good roots as causes and conditions can one attain birth, as in the text of the 'Chapter on Generating the Aspiration' in the *Bodhisattvabhūmi*. Furthermore, the initial aspiration generated by all bodhisattvas can embrace all factors conducive to awakening, with the surpassing good roots as foremost; hence it can oppose the three kinds of evil actions toward all sentient beings, corresponding with virtue. The commentary states: When a bodhisattva initially generates the aspiration for bodhi, he can embrace all surpassing good roots and cut off evil karma, corresponding with virtue; therefore it is said that one cannot attain birth in that land through few good roots and merits as cause and condition. How is it known that this is the cause? In the *Two-Fascicle Sūtra*, the causes of the nine grades are gathered into three categories, and all three contain the generation of the aspiration for bodhi. The treatise solely reveals the meaning of this passage, saying that men of Mahāyāna good roots are equally free from defamatory names; this meaning precisely states that although there are nine grades among those born in that land, they are equal in taking the good roots of the Mahāyāna aspiration as their cause, which is why they are equally free from defamatory names. Someone objects: 'If one must generate the great mind in order to be born in the Pure Land, one should not attain the lesser fruit upon being born there, because that land lacks conditions for regression; if one were to regress from the Mahāyāna and realize the lesser fruit, this is impossible.' Furthermore, in the Eighteenth Vow of the *Two-Fascicle Sūtra*, it says: 'If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings of the ten directions with sincere faith and joy desire to be born in my land, even down to ten thoughts, should they not be born, may I not attain perfect awakening—excepting only those who commit the five heinous acts and slander the True Dharma.' If those who have not generated the great mind cannot be born, it should also exclude those who have not generated the mind; yet because it does not exclude them, it is clear this is not necessarily so. [The reply is:] 'Insincere' is excluded by the phrase 'sincere'; hence there was no need to exclude them separately. Although there is this refutation, none of it is reasonable. Why is this? Since generating the aspiration for bodhi is the primary cause, those who have not generated the mind simply lack the cause, but do not possess an obstruction; why would there be a need to exclude them? The five heinous acts and slandering the Dharma are true obstructions, not merely lacking the cause; hence they had to be excluded. Therefore, this objection is untenable. Furthermore, it is not that they regress from the aspiration for bodhi after being born there; rather, they first generated the great mind here, perfuming it into seeds, and later their mind regressed and the lower stages became active. It is entirely because the seeds of having previously generated the great mind are not lost that it can serve as the cause for birth in that land; yet because their active Mahāyāna mind has regressed, they realize the lesser fruit upon being born in that land. Therefore, that objection only reveals one's own deficiency.