念佛鏡 2.43

2.43

Answer: "The merit of expounding sūtras is also hundreds of thousands of myriads of times less than the merit of buddhānusmṛti. Why is that? Expounding sūtras is like counting treasures, while buddhānusmṛti is like using treasures. Even if counting treasures is done often, it does not dispel poverty and suffering, nor is it said to eradicate sins or obtain merit. Although using treasures is not done often, it can sustain life and obtain immeasurable merit; clearly we know it is hundreds of thousands of myriads of times less than the merit of buddhānusmṛti. Furthermore, expounding sūtras is like a grindstone: though it brings a small portion of benefit, all of it is given to others while bringing immeasurable harm to oneself; because of receiving prostrations and offerings, one greatly harms one's retribution. Therefore a treatise says: 'Like a poor man who day and night counts the treasures of others, without a single half-penny of his own—so too is extensive learning.' Thus we know that the merit of expounding sūtras is also hundreds of thousands of myriads of times less than the merit of buddhānusmṛti. How is this known? For instance, the Vijñaptimātratā-śāstra mostly refutes the grasping of a self; though those who expound the treatises speak the Dharma with their mouths, their minds mostly grasp at a self, and not one in ten thousand does not produce a self. Therefore the Saddharmapuṇḍarīka-sūtra says: 'Full of arrogance and self-conceit, flattering, crooked, and insincere in mind, for thousands of myriads of kotis of kalpas they do not hear the name of the Buddha, nor do they hear the correct Dharma; such persons are difficult to deliver.' For this reason, expounding treatises is hundreds of thousands of myriads of times inferior to buddhānusmṛti. Therefore in former generations, Dharma Master Huigan, Dharma Master Zhiren, and Dharma Master Yun all abandoned expounding treatises and together took refuge in buddhānusmṛti."