釋淨土群疑論 3.20

3.20

問曰：如《佛藏經》第三卷云「有佛號大莊嚴，滅度之後百歲之中，諸有弟子分為五部：一名普事、二名苦岸、三名薩和多、四名將去、五名跋難陀，是五比丘為大眾師。其普事者，知佛所說真空義無所得法，餘四比丘皆墮邪道，多說有人。是普事比丘所說空法，有十八億那由他人已入涅槃。是四惡人，多令在家出家住邪經，捨第一義無所有畢竟空法，貪樂外道尼犍子論。是四惡人，所有弟子常相隨逐，乃至法盡。爾時在家出家弟子多墮惡道、不至善道，滅佛正法。又是惡人命終之後，墮阿鼻地獄，仰臥伏臥、左脇臥右脇臥各九百萬億歲，於熱鐵上燒燃燋爛。死已更生灰地獄、大灰地獄、等活地獄、黑繩地獄，皆如上歲數受苦。於黑繩地獄死，還生阿鼻大地獄中。若在家出家親近此人，并諸檀越凡有六百四萬億人，與此四師俱生俱死，在大地獄受諸燒煮。劫火若燒，是四惡人及六百四萬億人，從此阿鼻轉生他方，在大地獄，無數百千萬億那由他歲受大苦惱。世界還生，還生此間大地獄中。久久雖免地獄苦惱得生人中，於五百世從生而盲。後得值一切明佛，是人於一切明佛法中出家，十萬億歲勤行精進，如救頭燃，不得順忍，況得道果。命終之後，還生阿鼻大地獄中。」已先起重不善業緣，於後得值九十億佛，於諸佛所不得順忍。何以故？佛說深經，是人不信，破壞違逆，破毀賢聖持戒比丘，出其過惡，起破法業因緣，法應當爾。彼經既明不淨說法等，十萬億歲精進，如救頭燃，不得罪滅。命終之後，還生阿鼻大地獄中。如何念佛功德一聲十聲，即得罪滅往西方也？

Question: The third fascicle of the Fo cang jing says: 'There was a Buddha named Mahāvyūha. Within a hundred years after his parinirvāṇa, all his disciples divided into five schools: the first was named Universal Activity (Pu shi), the second Bitter Shore (Ku an), the third Sarvatā (Sa he duo), the fourth Leading Away (Jiang qu), and the fifth Upananda (Ba nan tuo). These five monks were teachers of the great assembly. That [monk] Pu shi knew the true emptiness and the ungraspable Dharma taught by the Buddha. The remaining four monks all fell into evil paths and mostly taught that there is a soul (pudgala). Through the dharma of emptiness taught by that monk Pu shi, eighteen hundred million nayutas of people have already entered nirvāṇa. Those four evil people mostly led householders and monastics to abide in perverse scriptures, renounce the supreme truth of the dharma of absolute emptiness devoid of anything existing, and delight greedily in the treatises of the heretical Nirgranthas. All the disciples of these four evil people constantly followed them, until the end of the Dharma. At that time, their householder and monastic disciples mostly fell into evil paths and did not reach good paths, destroying the Buddha's true Dharma. Furthermore, after these evil people died, they fell into the Avīci Hell. Lying face up, lying face down, lying on their left flanks, and lying on their right flanks, for nine million million years each, they were burned and charred to rot upon hot iron. After dying [there], they were reborn again in the Ash Hell, the Great Ash Hell, the Saṃjīva Hell, and the Kālasūtra Hell, suffering in all of them for the same number of years as above. Dying in the Kālasūtra Hell, they were reborn again in the Great Avīci Hell. If householders and monastics drew close to these people, together with all the dānapatis, there were a total of six billion forty million people who were born together and died together with these four teachers, undergoing various boilings and burnings in the great hells. When the kalpa fire burned, these four evil people and the six billion forty million people were reborn from this Avīci into other worlds, enduring great suffering and distress in their great hells for countless hundreds of thousands of millions of nayutas of years. When the world formed again, they were reborn again into the great hells here. After a long, long time, although they escaped the suffering of the hells and were born among humans, for five hundred lifetimes they were blind from birth. Later, they met the Buddha Sarvaprabhāsa. These people went forth under the dispensation of the Buddha Sarvaprabhāsa and for a hundred thousand million years practiced diligence with vigor, as if extinguishing fire on their heads; yet they could not attain the forbearance of conformity, much less attain the fruits of the Way. After their lives ended, they were reborn again into the Great Avīci Hell.' Because they had already created such heavy unwholesome karma-conditions, even when they later met ninety billion Buddhas, they still could not attain the forbearance of conformity in the presence of those Buddhas. Why is this? When the Buddhas taught profound sūtras, these people did not believe them, but destroyed and opposed them; they defamed virtuous, holy, and precept-holding monks, exposed their faults, and initiated karmic causes and conditions for destroying the Dharma. The nature of things is naturally so. Since that sūtra explains that for preaching the Dharma with impurity, even with vigor for a hundred thousand million years as if extinguishing fire on one's head, one's sins cannot be extinguished and after death one is reborn again into the Great Avīci Hell, how can the merit of calling upon the Buddha's name once or ten times immediately extinguish sins and bring about rebirth in the West?