阿彌陀經要解 1.114

1.114

答：「亦必除罪，不定往生。必除罪者，名號功德真實不可思議故；不定往生，悠悠散善難敵無始積罪故。良由吾人無始劫來所造生死重罪，假使重罪有體相者，盡虛空界不能容受，故雖從生至死百年之中，一一晝夜彌陀十萬，一一聲中盡滅八十億劫生死重罪，然所滅罪猶如爪土，所未滅罪如大地土，惟能念至一心不亂，則如健人突圍而出，非復三軍所能制耳！」

Answer: "It definitely eradicates transgressions, but rebirth is not certain. It definitely eradicates transgressions because the merits of the name are truly inconceivable; rebirth is not certain because drifting, scattered goodness can hardly rival the accumulated transgressions of beginningless time. This is because the grave transgressions of birth and death created by us from beginningless kalpas, if these grave transgressions had physical form, could not be contained even by the entire realm of space. Therefore, although throughout a hundred years from birth to death, one recites Amitābha a hundred thousand times day and night, and each single utterance completely eradicates the grave transgressions of eighty koṭis of kalpas of birth and death, still the eradicated transgressions are like the soil on a fingernail, while the uneradicated transgressions are like the soil of the great earth. Only when one can recite until one mind is undisturbed is it like a strong warrior breaking out of encirclement, no longer able to be restrained by the three armies!"