念佛鏡 2.39

2.39

Answer: "The merit of buddhānusmṛti is hundreds of thousands of myriads of times greater than the merit of hearing sūtras. How is this known? In the Contemplation Sūtra, a person of the lowest grade's highest level does not leave any evil undone; because of committing evil, when his life is about to end, the fires of the hells all arrive at once. Meeting a good spiritual friend who explains the twelve divisions of sūtras for him, upon hearing them that person eradicates the sins of a thousand kalpas and so forth. Because the power of hearing sūtras is small, the hells are not yet extinguished; receiving a wise person's instruction, he recites Amitābha Buddha ten times, eradicating the sins of birth and death of eighty hundred million kalpas."