淨土論 3.41

3.41

Answer: As the Amitābha Sūtra below explains, the buddhas of the ten directions each extend their broad and long tongue marks, completely covering the three-thousand great thousand worlds, all encouraging all sentient beings to be reborn in the pure land. Yet there are sentient beings who do not accept the buddhas' admonition, being difficult to instruct, difficult to awaken, difficult to save, and difficult to liberate—what more can be done? Such sentient beings, as the Wuliang qingjing jue jing says, 'have just come from the hells, their calamities and faults not yet exhausted.' Thus that sūtra states: 'If a good man or 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 the past. If someone, upon hearing the pure land teaching explained, 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 for this reason they have no faith or inclination. I say that this person cannot yet attain liberation.' Thus the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra says: 'Those who are arrogant, corrupt, and indolent find it hard to believe in this Dharma.' Furthermore, both the Wuliang qingjing jue jing and the Larger Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra state: 'The supreme Path of the ultimate is easy to go to, yet there is no one [there].' The West is the supreme Path of the ultimate; if someone can single-mindedly be mindful of the Buddha for seven days and dedicate all the good roots they have created, they will immediately attain rebirth, leaving the three paths forever and entering the stage of non-retrogression. This is why it is 'easy to go to.' Yet there are sentient beings who refuse to believe and accept it, clouded by the five desires, delighting in entering the evil destinies like worms in a latrine; this is why 'there is no one.' Moreover, Amitābha Buddha, together with Avalokiteśvara and Mahāsthāmaprāpta, boards the ship of the great vow to float upon the ocean of birth and death, calling out to sentient beings in this Sahā world, bidding them board the ship of the great vow to be delivered to the West. If sentient beings board the ship of the great vow, all of them can go. This is why it is 'easy to go to.' Śākyamuni Tathāgata and the buddhas of the ten directions, Samantabhadra, Mañjuśrī, Vasubandhu, and Nāgārjuna—either extending their broad and long tongue marks, or emitting light from the white curl, or teaching the profound gates of the five recollections, or instructing in the twelve praises and homages—earnestly encourage and urge them to be born in the pure land; yet sentient beings do not give rise to faith and delight and refuse to go. This is why 'there is no one.' Furthermore, since beginningless time sentient beings have created evil karmas exceeding the sands of the Ganges, and each evil karma brings suffering retributions also exceeding the sands of the Ganges. If a person can single-mindedly be mindful of the Buddha for seven days or ten days, in each thought-moment eradicating the grave sins of birth and death of eighty hundred million kalpas, they cut horizontally across the flow of suffering and are born directly in the pure land. This is why it is 'easy to go to.' Yet sentient beings chase after wealth and sex, greedily clinging to fame and profit, and do not resolve their minds early; when impermanence suddenly arrives, they fall into the three paths, with no time of emergence for hundreds of thousands of myriads of kalpas. This is why 'there is no one.' Furthermore, when sentient beings believe the words of the buddhas, the words of the bodhisattvas, and the words of good spiritual friends, not following the words of evil companions, and even believe that sentient beings guilty of the ten evils and five inexpiable offenses who complete ten recitations at the end of life immediately attain rebirth—this is why it is 'easy to go to.' If there are sentient beings who do not believe the words of the buddhas, the words of the bodhisattvas, and the words of good spiritual friends, but follow ignorant laypeople who urge them not to study or question monastics, who falsely claim understanding of the Mahāyāna, recklessly cite sūtras and treatises, endanger and disrupt the Buddha-Dharma, deceive and bewilder sentient beings, despise the practice of mindfulness of the Buddha, regress from and lose their good roots, and fall into the three paths without attaining rebirth—this is why 'there is no one.' If someone, hearing that single-minded mindfulness of Amitābha Buddha brings rebirth in the pure land, immediately repents evil karma, cultivates good roots, keeps the precepts purely, and single-mindedly recites the Buddha's name without distraction up to one million times, then at the end of life, correct mindfulness manifests, and the Buddha comes to welcome them. This is why it is 'easy to go to.' If there are sentient beings who, upon hearing of Amitābha Buddha, still continue creating sins, and although reciting the Buddha's name, their minds are bound to the five desires—this being mindfulness mixed with afflictive fetters—then at the end of life their minds are inverted, and the Buddha does not come to welcome them. This is why 'there is no one.'