釋門歸敬儀 2.65

2.65

The Great Compassion Sūtra states: 'Even if the three-thousandfold world were filled with śrāvakas and pratyekabuddhas, and someone provided them with all pleasant requisites for an entire kalpa, and even after their nirvāṇa erected stūpas and made offerings to the end of their lives—though the merit would be vast, it would not equal someone who gives rise to a single pure faith toward the Tathāgata, contemplating and faithfully understanding that the wisdom of the Buddhas is inconceivable. By this good root, it is incomparably superior to the former. Why is this? The Tathāgata's merit is great benevolence and great compassion, and the five-part dharmakāya is immeasurable and unobstructed; because this realm is inconceivable, if one reverently makes offerings, it is also inconceivable, and therefore the karmic fruition is also inconceivable.' Next, one also cultivates the four immeasurable minds of benevolence and compassion in accordance with the teaching. Why is this so? Because the mind of the Buddhas is what is called great benevolence; if one does not cultivate it now, one's practice will not be the same as the Buddha's, and there will be no way to see him. Therefore, when recollecting the Buddha, one practices the contemplation of benevolence. When a practitioner first wishes to cultivate benevolence, they sit upright in a quiet place and fix their mindfulness on the ten directions, regarding all sentient beings as their own kin, free from thoughts of resentment or hindrance. One supplies them with the four requisites of supreme quality, whether for a single thought-moment, a single period, or a single day; the merit generated cannot be limited, in accordance with the measure of one's mind.