遊心安樂道 1.3

1.3

Regarding "explaining the arising of the teaching and its essential purport": Now, the mind-nature of sentient beings is harmonious and unobstructed, vast as space and serene as a great ocean. Because it is like space, its essence is equal, without distinct marks to be grasped—how could there be defiled or pure places? Because it is like a great ocean, its nature is moist and compliant, able to follow conditions without resistance—how could it lack times of movement and stillness? Thus, stirred by the dust-winds, some sink into the five defilements and rotate long, submerged in waves of suffering and drifting endlessly; or, relying on the power of goodness, some cut off the four currents and do not return, reaching the other shore in eternal stillness. Such movement and stillness are both a great dream; speaking from awakening, there is neither this nor that: defiled lands and pure lands are fundamentally one mind from beginning to end, and saṃsāra and nirvāṇa ultimately have no two extremes. Yet returning to the source of great awakening is achieved only through accumulated effort, while the long dream of following the flow cannot be shattered abruptly. Therefore, the traces manifested by the sages are far or near, and the verbal teachings they set forth decline or flourish. As for Muni, the World-Honored One, appearing in this Sahā, he warned against the five evils and encouraged good; Amitābha Tathāgata, abiding in that peaceful nurture, guides the nine grades and leads them to rebirth. Such expedient traces cannot be fully related.