念佛三昧寶王論 2.21

2.21

I reply: “It is not mistaken! As the Mahābalavīryadhāraṇī Sūtra says: ‘To transcend the fetters of existence, one should give rise to the mind of desire and visualize matters free of desire.’ Now taking this as an analogy, if one wishes to cultivate buddha-mindfulness, one should give rise to the mind of thought and visualize matters free of thought. Therefore the Bhadrapāla Sūtra says: ‘With evil desire thinking of a woman, one sees a woman in a dream; with good desire thinking of a buddha, one sees a buddha in a dream.’ I say that though the two thoughts share the same name, good and evil are as far apart as heaven and earth; one must not, upon hearing the word ‘thought,’ loathe it across the board. If one should loathe it, then even if one does not defame the sūtras or slander the Buddha, one will surely be born in the palace of the asaṃjñisattva heaven! If one stubbornly clings to thoughtlessness and attacks thinking of the Buddha, it is called slandering the Dharma; because of slandering the Dharma, one will abruptly enter the indiscriminate dungeons of the ten directions with no known day of emergence—how could one have any hope of a heavenly palace? Even if one managed to be born there, it is called a non-Buddhist heaven, not the path to liberation. The Nirvāṇa Sūtra says: ‘Upon hearing the poison-smeared drum, whether near or far, all die.’ This is also like that: following one's denial of thought, whether near or far, all fall. What a sūtra describes as ‘sometimes wandering back and forth one or two feet off the ground’ refers to this! How could this be the same as transmigration in the three realms? How could this be the same as rebirth in the nine grades? Moreover, water is what capsizes the boat and what carries the boat; ground is what causes one to fall and what allows one to rise. Thinking falsely is precisely sentient beings; thinking truly is precisely the buddhas. Apart from thought, what else could one use?”