安樂集 1.94

1.94

答曰：「釋有三番：一、譬如淨摩尼珠置之濁水，以珠威力水即澂清。若人雖有無量生死罪濁，若聞阿彌陀如來至極無生清淨寶珠名號，投之濁心，念念之中罪滅心淨，即便往生。二、如淨摩尼珠，以玄黃帛裹，投之於水，水即玄黃，一如物色。彼清淨佛土有阿彌陀如來，無上寶珠名號，以無量功德成就帛裹，投之所往生者心水之中，豈不能轉生為無生智乎？三、亦如氷上然火，火猛則氷液，氷液則火滅。彼下品往生人雖不知法性無生，但以稱佛名力作往生意，願生彼土，既至無生界時，見生之火自然而滅也。」

He answers: "The explanation has three turns: First, it is like placing a clear maṇi jewel into muddy water; by the power of the jewel, the water immediately becomes clear. Although a person possesses the muddy defilements of the offenses of measureless saṃsāra, if they hear the name of Amitābha Tathāgata, the supreme, unarisen, and pure precious jewel, and cast it into their muddy mind, in thought-moment after thought-moment offenses are extinguished and the mind is purified, and they immediately attain rebirth. Second, it is like wrapping a clear maṇi jewel in black and yellow silk and casting it into water; the water immediately turns black and yellow, exactly matching the color of the object. In that pure Buddha-land is Amitābha Tathāgata, whose name is the unsurpassed precious jewel, wrapped in the silk of the accomplishment of immeasurable merits; when it is cast into the mind-water of the one to be reborn, how could it fail to transform birth into the wisdom of non-birth? Third, it is also like lighting a fire on ice; when the fire is fierce, the ice melts, and when the ice melts, the fire is extinguished. Although those people reborn in the lower grade do not know that the nature of phenomena is unarisen, simply by the power of reciting the Buddha's name they form the intention for rebirth and vow to be reborn in that land; once they arrive in the unarisen realm, the fire of viewing things as born is naturally extinguished."