念佛鏡 1.20

1.20

Examining it in detail: The fully perfected supreme enlightenment exhausts the ocean of wisdom without bounds; universally responding to the myriad capacities, it breaks through the mountain of confusion and provides a path. The compassionate voice is expounded everywhere, and those who hear it directly realize the three voids in the Way; the wonderful meanings are equally distinguished, and those who enter into faith have their minds illuminated by the eight truths. It dispenses the five vehicles of sudden and gradual, receiving the two kinds of [beings], holy and ordinary. Those who recognize its Way then ascend to the realm of eternal bliss; those who are confused about its purport are forever drowned in the sphere of transmigration. For this reason, the Tathāgata bestowed the Way according to capacity, pointing straight to the West, opening the dharma gate of Sukhāvatī, and revealing the name of the Compassionate Honored One; hence, humans and devas revere it together, and ordinary beings and sages return to it alike. It is the essential ford for entering the Lotus Treasury, the swift shortcut for realizing nirvāṇa; its gate of practice is concise, and its merit is profoundly deep. From antiquity, famous and worthy figures have all relied on buddhānusmṛti: when Huichi and Huiyuan ended their lifespans, jeweled canopies welcomed them; when Daochuo and Daozhen finished their lives, immortal clouds led them away. Whether men or women who manifested auspicious portents, each is hard to recount in detail; whether monks or nuns who were moved by the compassionate light, they are layer upon layer without end; their biographies make this fully clear, so there is no need to record them extensively.