釋淨土群疑論 7.17

7.17

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.