阿彌陀經要解 1.3

1.3

Now, the Buddhas mindfully pity the host of deluded beings and bestow teachings according to capacity; although the return to the source is not twofold, the skillful means are manifold. Yet among all skillful means, if one seeks that which is most direct and most perfect and sudden, nothing equals buddhānusmṛti and seeking rebirth in the Pure Land. Moreover, among all Dharma-doors of buddhānusmṛti, if one seeks that which is most simple and most secure, nothing equals faith and aspiration and exclusively holding firmly to the name. For this reason, the three Pure Land sūtras circulate together in the world, yet the ancients especially took the Amitābha Sūtra alone as their daily recitation. How could this not be because they saw that this single Dharma of holding firmly to the name universally covers the three faculties, subsumes phenomena and noumenon without remainder, unifies doctrine and lineage without exclusion, and is particularly inconceivable! Since antiquity, commentators have not been lacking through the generations, yet through time and loss few survive. Master Yunqi composed the Shuchao, which is vast and subtle; Master Uncle Youxi compiled the Yuanzhong chao, which is lofty, deep, grand, and extensive. They are like the sun and moon in the midday sky, which all with eyes can behold. Only because the text is rich and the meanings intricate, their boundaries unfathomable, those of initial capacity and shallow knowledge may perhaps find faith and aspiration difficult to step into. Therefore, not considering my own ignorance, I compose anew this essential explanation, daring neither to vie in difference with the two venerable masters, nor to force agreement with them. Just as looking sideways gives a peak and looking across gives a ridge, even if neither exhausts the true scene of Mount Lu, it does not fail to be each one personally seeing Mount Lu. I shall now explain the text of the sūtra by way of the fivefold profound meaning.