釋淨土群疑論 7.55

7.55

I explain: I shall now extensively cite the sacred teachings for you to set forth fully the harm and benefit gained from faith and slander. As stated in the fifth fascicle of the Bhadrapāla Sūtra, in the "Chapter on the Merit of Rejoicing": "Regarding a person who rejoices in this samādhi, suppose there were a person with a fixed lifespan of one hundred years, whose body was agile and vigorous, traveling as swiftly as if flying on the wind. This person, from birth, could immediately travel across a world, journeying throughout the ten directions to the ends of the earth, constantly traveling without interruption until the completion of one hundred years. If a good son or good daughter aroused a mind of faith and reverence, and filled with precious jewels the worlds traversed by that wind-swift strong man to offer them to the buddhas of the ten directions, the merit gained, though said to be extremely great, would still not equal a small fraction of the merit of cultivating this samādhi. Why? Bhadrapāla! Because that bodhisattva mahāsattva cultivates this samādhi, is equipped with the aforementioned four great rejoicings, and dedicates them to anuttarasamyaksaṃbodhi in order to seek extensive learning and accomplish right awakening. Bhadrapāla! For this reason, taking this merit of giving and comparing it with the merit obtained from the aforementioned rejoicing, it does not equal one part in a hundred, one part in a thousand, one part in a hundred thousand, or one part in a hundred billion, down to being beyond calculation or analogy." Since the merit of giving rise to faith and rejoicing is boundless, the sin of disbelieving and raising slander is likewise immeasurable, as extensively explained regarding the sin of slandering the Dharma in the Pañcaviṃśatisāhasrikā, the Lotus Sūtra, the Fotang jing, and so forth.