釋淨土群疑論 2.13

2.13

I explain: When the various sūtras and treatises speak of birth in the pure land, each relies on a particular meaning, differing in what they accept or set aside. Some discuss it in terms of superior persons or inferior persons. Since pure lands have various distinctions and differences—coarse or subtle, superior or inferior—attaining birth also has various higher and lower gradations. It is also as the Renwang jing says: 'Only the Buddha alone dwells in the pure land; the three classes of worthy ones and ten classes of noble ones reside in the retribution land.' This means that those from the tenth bhūmi downward cannot be born in the pure land at all, because the pure land manifested by the Buddha's ādarśajñāna is uncontaminated, and therefore it is called 'pure.' The various pure and wonderful lands transformed by the fundamental consciousness of those from the tenth bhūmi downward are contaminated, and therefore are not called 'pure.' Because the eighth consciousness is the retribution consciousness, the lands transformed by it are called retribution lands. If we consider the practice of giving, morality, and cultivation [of meditation] to be free from the hindrances to uncontaminated samādhi, being able by the power of samādhi to take birth at will in various pure lands, then it is bodhisattvas of the third bhūmi who attain mastery of samādhi. Therefore the Yogācārabhūmi says: 'Only bodhisattvas of the third bhūmi are born in the pure land.' If we consider attaining non-conceptual wisdom, severing the two clingings to person and phenomena which are the afflictions of the path of seeing, realizing pervasive entry into the dharmadhātu, and awakening to the hundred gates of bright phenomena, so as to attain birth in the pure lands of the buddhas, then those from the prathamā bhūmi upward attain birth in the pure land. If it is by means of the fundamental vow and great compassion leading all ordinary, foolish sentient beings, even down to the lowest grade of the lowest class who have committed the five heinous crimes and the ten unwholesome deeds, so long as they generate the bodhicitta they will all attain rebirth, fully as spoken in the sūtra. One must not simply rely on the Yogācārabhūmi's statement that the third bhūmi attains birth, and immediately claim that bodhisattvas of the first and second bhūmis cannot be born in the pure land either. Bodhisattva Nāgārjuna was prophesied by the Buddha to ascend to the prathamā bhūmi and be born in the Western Sukhāvatī. How could it be that because he had not yet reached the third bhūmi, one should say he could not be born in the pure land, which would then contradict this sūtra? Furthermore, as for a bodhisattva of the prathamā bhūmi, according to the Renwang jing, which says: 'They attain the hundred gates of bright phenomena and see the pure lands of a hundred buddhas,' how could one say they cannot be born in the pure land? Moreover, the Avataṃsaka Sūtra states: 'Ordinary bodhisattvas who have just generated the aspiration, if they vow to be born in the pure land, will immediately attain rebirth.' Thus we know that the text of the Yogācārabhūmi spoke specifically based on one particular aspect: attaining mastery of samādhi and being free from hindrances.