釋淨土群疑論 2.17

2.17

答：佛以眾生煩惱熾盛，流轉生死沈淪苦海無有出期，是以稱讚西方極樂世界依正兩報四種莊嚴，勸諸眾生令生淨土。諸眾生類雖聞佛法，障有輕重、悟有淺深，遂令依教勝劣差別。有一類眾生，雖聞淨教，誹謗毀呰，非但不生西方，亦自沈淪惡道。此全與西方遠也。有一類眾生，雖聞淨教，深信不謗，五欲纏心樂居穢土，亦不發願亦不修行。此人修善或生人天，或復造惡沈淪惡趣。此人望生西方，亦為遠矣。以並無心趣求，又誹謗毀呰故。《清淨平等覺經》言「若有眾生聞說淨土教法，聞如不聞，反生誹謗。我說此人未得解脫。」始從三惡道中來，無信向爾，亦全無行願，故未得解脫。有一類眾生，與阿彌陀佛宿願緣熟，聞說淨土教門，淨心信敬發弘誓願：我往生西方淨土。更不願求人天果報。雖有此願，然此人或以煩惱因緣耽著五欲，或復懈怠放逸不能修道。以遇惡知識，廣造十惡，或復臨終時不逢善友，或以身嬰重病狂亂失心，或復多日失意不解人語，遂使空有願言，未曾修淨行。雖不往生淨土，此願遠是生因，或由發願勝力，後必定能修行。或但起行之人，必有修行之意。彼雖未能起行，當有起行之功。方前二類之人，即有遠生之義，故經記歎此人為得生西方也。愚人將謂即得，不假別修淨因。論師釋此經文，此是別時之意，非但唯由發願而即得生西方。後人讀論不解，即言行不得往生。此深錯也。又有一類眾生，善根深厚煩惱輕微，逢遇勝緣聽聞淨教，深生淨信，發願修行，臨終往生，具如經說。此是行願具足，即得往生，異彼空願之人，故非別時之教。佛對前二類人未得往生之日，故記發願之者而得往生。論師恐同行願具足即得往生人，故別分離唯願之人，是為別時之意也。故願喻初一金錢，念佛修行等是中間九百九十八金錢，往生淨土是第一千金錢也。故《攝論》言「如以一金錢，貿易得千金錢。」又如念多寶佛，未即至不退位也。不退位在十住初心，此人當念多寶佛時，或是十信前心、或十信初心等，未可念多寶佛即超十信十千劫即至十住初心，以須中間更修八萬四千波羅蜜行方至初心也。而念多寶佛與不退行為遠緣，故名別時意也。上來以眾多義顯別時意，自關發願，非是起行之人，是彼攝論師言別時之意也。又《攝論》文別時意者，是報淨土，唯願念佛，理未即生。若化淨土，唯願念佛，必即得生。如《華嚴經》，不須疑惑。

Answer: Because the afflictions of sentient beings are blazing, and they revolve in saṃsāra and sink in the ocean of suffering with no time of release, the Buddha praised the four kinds of adornments of the primary and secondary retributions of the Western Sukhāvatī and exhorted all sentient beings to take rebirth in the pure land. Although various classes of sentient beings hear the Buddha's teachings, their hindrances vary in gravity and their awakenings in depth, which consequently leads to differences in superior and inferior capacities in following the teaching. There is one class of sentient beings who, although they hear the pure teaching, slander and revile it; not only do they fail to be born in the West, they also sink into evil destinies themselves. These are entirely distant from the West. There is another class of sentient beings who, although they hear the pure teaching, have deep faith and do not slander it; yet their minds are entangled in the five desires and they delight in dwelling in the defiled land, neither making vows nor cultivating practice. If such people cultivate wholesome deeds they may be born among humans or gods, or if they commit evil they sink into the evil destinies. For these people, the prospect of rebirth in the West is also distant, because they entirely lack the intention to seek it and, furthermore, slander and revile [the teaching]. The Scripture of Pure, Equal, and Perfect Enlightenment states: 'If there are sentient beings who hear the teaching of the pure land expounded, yet hear it as if not hearing, and conversely give rise to slander, I say that such people have not attained liberation.' Having just come from the three evil destinies, they simply have no faith or inclination, and likewise completely lack practice and vows, and therefore have not attained liberation. There is another class of sentient beings whose past vows and karmic conditions with Amitābha Buddha have matured; hearing the teaching of the pure land expounded, with a pure mind of faith and reverence they make a great vow: 'May I be reborn in the Western Pure Land, and no longer wish to seek the fruits of humans or gods.' Although they make this vow, such people may, due to the conditions of their afflictions, be deeply attached to the five desires, or they may be indolent and remiss, unable to cultivate the path. Meeting with bad spiritual companions, they may widely commit the ten evils; or when facing death they may not meet a good friend; or with their bodies afflicted by severe illness, they may become mad and lose their minds; or they may be unconscious for many days, unable to understand human speech. Thus they end up having made only empty vows without ever cultivating pure practice. Although they are not immediately reborn in the pure land, this vow serves as a distant cause for rebirth; or, by the superior power of having made the vow, they will definitely be able to cultivate practice later; or, as someone who merely gives rise to practice must have the intention to cultivate, though they have not yet been able to initiate practice, they will in the future have the merit of initiating practice. In comparison with the previous two classes of people, they possess the meaning of distant rebirth; therefore the sūtra prophecies and praises such people as attaining rebirth in the West. Foolish people mistakenly suppose that it is attained immediately without relying on separately cultivating pure causes. The treatise master's explanation of this sūtra text as having the meaning of another time signifies that it is not that one immediately attains rebirth in the West merely by making a vow alone. Later people read the treatise without understanding and thus say that by practice one does not attain rebirth. This is a profound error! Furthermore, there is another class of sentient beings whose wholesome roots are deep and thick and whose afflictions are slight; meeting with superior conditions, they hear the pure teaching, give rise to deep, pure faith, make vows and cultivate practice, and at the end of life attain rebirth, fully as expounded in the sūtras. These are those whose practice and vows are both complete and who immediately attain rebirth; being different from those who only make empty vows, this is not an implicit teaching of another time. Because the Buddha was addressing the fact that the previous two classes of people had not yet attained rebirth, he prophesied that those who make the vow would attain rebirth. Fearing that they might be conflated with those who, having both practice and vows complete, immediately attain rebirth, the treatise master separately distinguished those who make only vows as having the meaning of another time. Thus the vow is compared to the first coin, buddhānusmṛti and cultivation of practice and the like are the intermediate nine hundred and ninety-eight coins, and rebirth in the pure land is the one-thousandth coin. Therefore the Mahāyānasaṃgraha says: 'Just as by means of one coin one trades and obtains a thousand coins.' It is also like recollecting Prabhūtaratna Buddha, where one does not immediately reach the stage of non-retrogression. The stage of non-retrogression is at the initial mind of the ten abodes. When this person recollects Prabhūtaratna Buddha, they are perhaps at the mind prior to the ten faiths, or at the initial mind of the ten faiths, and it cannot be that merely by recollecting Prabhūtaratna Buddha they immediately transcend the ten faiths and ten thousand kalpas to reach the initial mind of the ten abodes; for in the interim they must further cultivate the eighty-four thousand pāramitā practices before reaching that initial mind. Yet recollecting Prabhūtaratna Buddha serves as a distant condition for the practice of non-retrogression; therefore it is called an implicit meaning of another time. The above has clarified the meaning of another time through numerous arguments; it naturally pertains to making vows, not to those who have initiated practice. This is the meaning of another time spoken of by that master of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha. Furthermore, what the text of the Mahāyānasaṃgraha refers to with the meaning of another time is the reward pure land; with vows and buddhānusmṛti alone, by principle one is not reborn immediately. If it is a transformation pure land, with vows and buddhānusmṛti alone one will certainly be reborn immediately, as in the Avataṃsaka Sūtra; there is no need for doubt.