淨土論 3.38

3.38

Answer: I will now cite the sūtras, treatises, and reasoned principles to teach revulsion and aspiration. If sentient beings accept the Buddha's admonition, revile the Sahā world to the utmost and generate aspiration for the world of Sukhāvatī, and are thus able to generate the bodhicitta and single-mindedly be mindful of Amitābha Buddha, they will universally attain rebirth in the pure land. If sentient beings do not generate faith and delight in this teaching, being difficult to instruct, difficult to awaken, difficult to save, and difficult to liberate, then they cannot be rescued. Thus the Wuliang qingjing jue jing says: 'If a good man or good woman, upon hearing the pure land teaching explained, gives rise to sorrow and joy in their heart, with their bodily hairs standing on end as if plucked out, know that this person has already practiced the Buddha Path in past lives. If someone, upon hearing the pure land teaching revealed, gives rise to no faith or delight at all, know that this person has just come from the three evil destinies; their calamities and faults are not yet exhausted, and I say that this person cannot yet attain liberation.' Now, relying on the Nirvāṇa Sūtra and other texts, I encourage and advance later students. A wise person, in the quiet of the night, sitting cross-legged, should reflect to themselves: 'This present body of mine is fragile as a bubble, not pausing for a single thought-moment; moreover, it abides in the burning house, an insecure place—how can it be at ease? Not self-aware, without alarm or fear, completely devoid of terror?' Again they should reflect: 'What stage or ground is this present body of mine in? What do its bodily, verbal, and mental karmas constantly do? When impermanence suddenly arrives, in which destiny will I be born? As beginningless evil karmas vie for places of rebirth, from morning to evening I am already a person of the hells—how much time can I sleep peacefully on my bed? In the past, immeasurable and boundless buddhas and bodhisattvas appeared in the world to deliver and liberate sentient beings; where did I go that I did not receive the Buddha's transformation? It is entirely because since beginningless time I have not revered the Three Jewels, not drawn near to good people, and not obeyed the words of good spiritual friends, constantly dwelling in the three evil destinies and never meeting the buddhas. The pure lands of the ten directions are free of suffering and afflictions—why was I not born there, but constantly remain in this defiled land, a place of abundant suffering and distress? This present body of mine is hard to obtain and easy to lose, as the Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: "A human body is as hard to obtain as soil on a fingernail; bodies in the three evil destinies are like the soil of the great earth." Since beginningless time, the bodies I have received over kalpas are countless. Within each kalpa, the bodies are countless. In each body, the karma created is like dust, and the karma is countless. Each evil karma brings retribution, and the retributions are countless. In each retribution, suffering ten thousand kinds of misery, the suffering is countless. Such miseries are all because of lacking wisdom and not obeying the words of good spiritual friends. Constantly dwelling in the hells, having already suffered in the past, currently suffering in the present, and bound to suffer in the future, there is never a time of cessation. Furthermore, ever since this present body was born, seeking food and clothing—if a layperson, feeding a wife and raising children; if a monastic, seeking fame and pursuing profit—it constantly creates all kinds of evil karma. For such karmas, even the light ones result in five hundred births, and the heavy ones in several kalpas. If one does not generate bodhicitta and repent with shame and conscience for such evil karmas, once entering the evil destinies there will be no time of emergence. Between morning and evening, one immediately enters the caldrons and cauldrons, the forest of blades and trees of swords, undergoing all deep, heavy, and protracted sufferings for hundreds and thousands of kalpas. The physical and mental sufferings already endured in the past and the sufferings to be experienced in the future are likewise without limit, hard to abandon and hard to part from without being aware of it. That ordinary beings are like this is truly pitiable.' A wise person making this reflection should feel their heart breaking—how could they remain complacent, indulging body and mind without self-awareness? Again they should further reflect: 'This present body of mine has meager merit and dull faculties, born after Śākyamuni and before Maitreya. Is this not due to my past arrogance, indolence, lack of reverence for the Three Jewels, slighting of good people, and failure to accept the admonitions of good spiritual friends, so that I was constantly born in the three evil destinies and eight difficulties, foolish and without wisdom? In this body, again slighting the Three Jewels, scorning good people, and not obeying the words of good spiritual friends, how in future lives can I again meet the Three Jewels and be born in a good place? Furthermore, even if this body wishes to cultivate the Path, it cannot find peace, because living in this Sahā world, human life is short, evil companions are numerous, and one is anxious to the end. Either food and clothing are insufficient, or one is oppressed by kings and ministers, or deceived by others, or slandered by others, constantly disturbed and unable to be at peace; no sooner does a wholesome thought arise than it immediately regresses and is lost. Moreover, this body is formed merely of thirty-six impure substances; from its nine apertures impurities constantly flow like a walking latrine, not to be loved or delighted in. It is also pursued by the suffering of birth, suffering of aging, suffering of sickness, suffering of death, suffering of separation from the beloved, suffering of meeting the hated, suffering of not getting what is sought, and the suffering of the flourishing of the five aggregates.' A wise person should contemplate this body, regarding it as an enemy, regarding it as a heap of dung; regarding houses and bedding as graves and human skin; regarding food and drink as maggots and pus-water; and regarding wives, children, and family as rākṣasas and evil ghosts. If the mind can contemplate and reflect in this way, it should generate the greatest revulsion toward this body, vowing never to receive this body throughout life after life, and never to dwell with this body again. This body is my enemy, constantly leading me toward the three evil destinies; how could any wise person cling with delight to this body? As the Teachings Bequeathed Sūtra says: 'This is a sinful and evil thing that ought to be cast off, provisionally called a body, submerged in the great ocean of aging, sickness, birth, and death. What wise person, being able to eliminate it, would not rejoice?' (Here ends the gate of revulsion.)