無量壽經優婆提舍願生偈註 1.44

1.44

These two lines are called the accomplishment of the adornment of the merits of freedom from all tribulations. Why did the Buddha originally arouse this vow? He saw that in some lands, beings might in the morning receive imperial robes and favour, yet in the evening dread the executioner's axe; or in youth live in thatched poverty, yet in adulthood sit before tables piled ten feet square with food; or set out on the road to the sound of horns, only to be hurried back as events unfold—there are all kinds of reversals and deprivations like these. Therefore he made the vow: "May my land have continuous peace and bliss, ultimately uninterrupted." Afflictions of the body are hunger, thirst, cold, heat, murder, and the like. Afflictions of the mind are right and wrong, gain and loss, the three poisons, and the like. Therefore it is said: "Forever freed from afflictions of body and mind, / they constantly experience uninterrupted bliss."