大般涅槃經集解 50.26

50.26

Sengliang states: Lands are of two kinds: those of the retribution of the Buddha's practices, and the lands ruled by the Buddha arising from the retribution of sentient beings' practices. To begin with, the dharmakāya has no fixed mark and no fixed location; sentient beings' lands have pure and defiled ones. When initially realizing the Way, one must dwell in a pure land of sentient beings. Why? Because the practices of sentient beings are ripe, and to correspond to pure sentient beings, one does not emerge in an evil land. One's own retribution land has no location, so there is no need to speak of a name; the Invincible Land is a sentient beings' land. What is called a 'pure land' is the place where Buddhahood is initially realized. As for this world now being pure: when Maitreya becomes a Buddha, this world will transform into purity to correspond to pure sentient beings, likewise not departing from a pure land. Baoliang states: Having finished enumerating and explaining the ten matters, among the assembly at that time there were those of an uncomprehending sort who said: 'Śākyamuni cultivated only nine matters and did not cultivate the pure land.' Therefore, Virtue King raised a question to express this doubt. Below, the Buddha replies: 'Among the Buddhas of the ten directions, there are none who do not cultivate the ten matters.' He replies that if a single cause is incomplete, one cannot attain Buddhahood; how could I alone lack this practice? It is because foolish people in the world say: 'This region has the sun and moon; other regions do not.' Those who generate such doubts: how do they differ from foolish people? The metaphor having been completed, for the inferior and foolish sort whose faith was not yet established, the Buddha pointed from afar to the Western Invincible Buddha Land to demonstrate it to beings, saying: 'It is my original land; where I dwell now is an apparition that came here to transform [beings].' Thus one should know that following these words, not a single Buddha responds to the world with defilement or purity; this matter is as clarified in the first virtue. Here, having already spoken of the purity of the Eastern Full Moon Tathāgata, how could the Full Moon Buddha over there doubt that the realm ruled by Śākyamuni is defiled? In reply, since that land is purely clean and the mind grasps at nothing, it cannot be equated with the difficulty raised by Virtue King here concerning fixed existence and fixed non-existence. Thus one should know that those two lands each articulate one side, causing all sentient beings to advance [on the path].