釋淨土群疑論 7.17

7.17

釋曰：淨土諸師亦有釋言，取此方日月歲數，積成於劫。何以得知？釋迦如來此方成道，說經為此娑婆有情。於彼華開之時，令此眾生得解，故知只用此劫明彼華開也。今釋，不然。用彼方日月歲數以成於劫，顯彼華開時節分齊。何以得知？此有三義，一例、二教、三理而得知也。例者，如四天王天等六欲諸天壽命長短，皆約彼天日月而說。只如四天王天壽命五百歲，彼天日夜取此人中五十年為四天王天一日一夜，如是日夜三十日為一月，十二月為一年。如是彼天壽命五百歲，若取閻浮提日月計，當一萬八千年為一月，二億一萬六千年為一年。如是彼天壽命五百歲，算閻浮提年其數極多也。已上五天命漸漸增、日漸漸長，年皆增下天一倍。故知彼天取其年命，還用彼天日夜，以日計月、以月計年、以年計命。故知淨土以日計月、以月計年、以年計劫，不用此方日月劫也。二教者，如上品中生言「此紫金臺如大寶花，經宿即開」，故知花開經宿者，用彼方晝夜，夜即華合、晝即華開。斯即半劫為晝，為華開之時；半劫為夜，為花合之分。顯彼上品中生之人華開時分，取彼經宿大寶花開之時也。上品中生一宿華開既然，上品下生一日一夜蓮華乃開，故知還用彼方日夜也。不然者，寧容淨土大寶華開，取此之晝日而華開也？若彼大寶華開自取彼方日夜，上品中生華開同彼時節，上品下生一日一夜華開，翻乃同於此方日月。上品中生華開乃晚上品下生之者，分華遲速，義乃乖違，理必不然，故知取彼日月也。日月既爾，劫亦可知。三由理者，若日月華開乃用彼方日月，若經劫華開乃用此方劫數者，即中品中生七日華開，若望此方計當七劫。下品中生六劫方開，若望彼方計當六日。寧容中品華開之日遲於下品六劫華開耶？又下品上生經七七日蓮華方開，亦遲下品中生四十二劫也。以此道理進退推徵，故知彼劫不用此方劫也。

I explain: Various masters of the Pure Land have also explained that it takes the sun, moon, and year-count of this world and accumulates them into a kalpa. How is this known? Śākyamuni Tathāgata attained awakening in this world and expounded the sūtra for the sentient beings of this Sahā [world]. So that these sentient beings might understand the time when that flower opens, we know that it only uses these kalpas to explain the opening of those flowers. The present interpretation is not so: it uses the sun, moon, and year-count of that world to form kalpas, showing the limit of the periods when those flowers open. How is this known? There are three reasons: it is known through analogy, through scriptural teaching, and through principle. Regarding analogy: the length of the life-spans of the various heavens of the six desire realms, such as the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings, is always spoken of in terms of the sun and moon of those heavens. Just as the life-span of the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings is five hundred years, a day and night of that heaven takes fifty years among humans here to make one day and one night of the Heaven of the Four Heavenly Kings; thirty such days and nights make one month, and twelve months make one year. Thus the life-span of that heaven is five hundred years; if calculated by the sun and moon of Jambudvīpa, one month corresponds to eighteen thousand years, and one year to two hundred and one million six hundred thousand years. Thus, calculating the five-hundred-year life-span of that heaven in Jambudvīpa years yields an extremely large number. For the five heavens above, life-spans gradually increase and days gradually lengthen, the years of each doubling those of the heaven below it. Hence we know that in reckoning their years and life-spans, those heavens still use the days and nights of those heavens, calculating months by days, years by months, and life-spans by years. Thus we know that the Pure Land calculates months by days, years by months, and kalpas by years, not using the sun, moon, and kalpas of this world. Second, regarding scriptural teaching: as it says for the middle birth of the highest grade, 'This purple-gold dais is like a great jeweled flower; after a night passes, it immediately opens.' Hence we know that for the opening of the flower after a night passes, it uses the day and night of that world: at night the flower closes, and in the day the flower opens. This means half a kalpa is day, the time when the flower opens, and half a kalpa is night, the period when the flower closes. This reveals that the period for the flower to open for a person of the middle birth of the highest grade takes the time when that great jeweled flower opens after a night passes. Since the flower opens after one night for the middle birth of the highest grade, and for the lower birth of the highest grade the lotus only opens after one day and one night, we know that it still uses the day and night of that world. Otherwise, how could the opening of the great jeweled flower of the Pure Land take the daytime here for the flower to open? If the opening of that great jeweled flower itself takes the day and night of that world, the opening of the flower for the middle birth of the highest grade accords with that period, while the opening of the flower after one day and one night for the lower birth of the highest grade would contrary to expectation accord with the sun and moon of this world! Then the opening of the flower for the middle birth of the highest grade would be later than that for the lower birth of the highest grade; in distinguishing the speed and slowness of the flowers, the meaning would be contradictory, which in principle is definitely not the case. Hence we know it takes the sun and moon of that [world]. Since the sun and moon are like this, the kalpas can also be understood. Third, by principle: if the opening of the flowers by days and months uses the sun and moon of that world, but the opening of the flowers by kalpas were to use the kalpa-count of this world, then the flower opening in seven days for the middle birth of the middle grade, if viewed from this world, would correspond to seven kalpas. The opening in six kalpas for the middle birth of the lowest grade, if viewed from that world, would correspond to six days. How could the days for the opening of the flower of the middle grade be later than the opening of the flower in six kalpas of the lowest grade? Furthermore, the lotus only opening after seven times seven days for the upper birth of the lowest grade would also be later than the forty-two kalpas of the middle birth of the lowest grade. Deductively examining back and forth through this principle, we therefore know that those kalpas do not use the kalpas of this world.