淨土十疑論 1.40

1.40

Answer: "It is only spoken in response to the fleshly eyes and the mental capacity of birth and death of ordinary persons that the West is separated from here by a hundred thousand billion buddha-lands. Provided that a sentient being's pure land karma is completed, the mind in concentrated absorption at the point of death is itself the mind that receives rebirth in the Pure Land; the very stirring of thought is the time of being born in the Pure Land. For this reason, the Visualization Sūtra states: 'Amitābha Buddha's land is not far from here.' Moreover, the power of karma is inconceivable; in a single thought one attains rebirth there, so there is no need to worry about the distance. Furthermore, it is like a person dreaming: although the body is in bed, the mind and consciousness travel everywhere to all worlds in other directions, no different from waking life. Rebirth in the Pure Land is also like this: with the stirring of thought, one immediately arrives; there is no need to doubt. As for 'women, those with defective faculties, and the seeds of the two vehicles are not born,' this only discusses that in that land there are no women and no blind, deaf, mute, or dumb people; it does not say that women and people with defective faculties from here cannot attain rebirth. If someone interprets it thus, that person is foolish and entirely ignorant of the sūtra's meaning. For example, Lady Vaidehī was the primary requester of rebirth in the Pure Land, and along with her five hundred attendants, the Buddha predicted that all of them would attain rebirth in that land. When women and blind, deaf, mute, or dumb people here recite Amitābha Buddha in their minds, once they are all reborn in that land, they will never again receive a female body, nor will they receive a body with defective faculties. If followers of the two vehicles merely turn their minds and aspire to be reborn in the Pure Land, upon reaching it they will no longer hold the clinging minds of the two vehicles. For this reason, it is said that 'women, those with defective faculties, and the seeds of the two vehicles are not born,' not that women and people with defective faculties from here cannot attain rebirth. Therefore, the forty-eighth vow of the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra states: 'If, when I attain buddhahood, all women in the worlds of the ten directions who recite my name and loathe the female body, upon relinquishing their lives, should again receive a female body, may I not attain samyaksaṃbodhi.' How much less could they receive a female body after being born in that land! The same applies to those with defective faculties."