樂邦文類 3.81

3.81

於戲！生靈之苦，莫苦於殺戮也。爰自數年以來，寇盜四起、兵火交作，其遭非理殞亡，橫屍墮首填于溝壑者，蓋不可勝數也。加復疫氣流作，民亦苦之。有信士鄭子隆者，夙懷善種，悲念特發。觀斯罹亂之苦，知怨業之有對也。以怨報怨，安能已矣哉？斷惟佛力可以拯濟也。乃運精誠結同志者萬人，共念西方極樂世界阿彌陀佛尊號八萬四千藏。願既圓滿，復化檀越同出淨財，僦工礱石，建窣睹波一所凡七級，高三丈有二，立于南嶽羅漢洞妙高臺之右，藏念佛人名于其中。萃茲勝利，願國泰民安、品物咸亨。凡陣亡疫死者，並脫幽淪之苦，趣生淨方。偉哉皇覺之道，有折攝二門調機濟物，故釋迦現穢土以折之，令起厭苦之念；彌陀現淨土以攝之，俾發忻樂之志。穢土者，丘陵坑坎之高低、刀兵飢疫之苦惱。淨土者，寶池金地之莊嚴、法喜禪悅之安樂。故天台云「樂邦之與苦域、金寶之與泥沙、胎獄之望華池、棘林之比瓊樹，誠由心分垢淨，見兩土之升沈；行開善惡，覩二方之麁妙。」因斯以論，則知淨穢在此而不在彼也。體正觀之者，達彼刀兵等苦，是亦逆化之一端也。然履茲痛惡，而凡情迷夢，猶尚以苦為樂。倒置之甚，亦可悲夫。或曰：忻淨厭穢，取捨未忘。豈聖人以二見之道而化人耶？曰：經不云乎「雖知諸佛國及與眾生空，而常修淨土，教化於眾生。」蓋熾然忻厭，不見有忻厭之想，斯為得矣。窣睹告成於紹興癸丑歲仲夏日，牧菴苾芻（法忠）為紀其事，遂稽首讚曰：

Alas! Among the sufferings of living beings, none is more bitter than slaughter. Over these past few years, bandits and rebels have arisen on all sides, and military fires have flared together. Those who have met unreasonable deaths, whose fallen corpses and severed heads have filled the ditches and ravines, are indeed beyond count. In addition, pestilential vapours have spread and raged, and the people have also suffered from them. There was a faithful layman named Zheng Zilong who had long harboured good seeds, and his compassionate thoughts were specially aroused. Observing the suffering of this chaotic distress, he understood that there is retribution for karmic enmity. If one repays enmity with enmity, how could it ever cease? Concluding that only the Buddha's power can rescue them, he summoned pure sincerity and gathered ten thousand like-minded people to jointly recite the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss Amitābha Buddha's venerable name for eighty-four thousand canons. Once the vow was fulfilled, he further appealed to donors to jointly contribute pure wealth, hiring artisans to polish stone, and erected a stūpa of seven storeys, thirty-two feet high, standing to the right of the Miaogao Terrace at the Arhat Cave on Mount Nanyue, storing the names of the practitioners of buddha-mindfulness within it. Gathering this superior benefit, they prayed that the state be peaceful and the people tranquil, and that all kinds of creatures flourish. May all who died in battle or perished from pestilence be freed from the suffering of dark sinking and proceed to rebirth in the Pure Land. Magnificent is the path of the Imperial Awakened One: there are the two approaches of subduing and gathering to adjust faculties and deliver beings. Therefore, Śākyamuni manifests a defiled land to subdue them, causing them to generate thoughts of disgust toward suffering; Amitābha manifests a pure land to gather them, causing them to bring forth aspirations of joyful longing. The defiled land consists of the uneven heights of hills, pits, and hollows, and the distress of warfare, famine, and pestilence. The pure land consists of the adornments of jewelled ponds and golden ground, and the peace and joy of Dharma delight and dhyāna pleasure. Therefore, Tiantai said: 'The Land of Bliss contrasted with the realm of suffering, gold and jewels with mud and sand, the lotus pond seen from the prison of the womb, the jewelled trees compared to the bramble thicket—truly, because the mind distinguishes defilement from purity, one sees the ascent and descent between the two lands; because practice divides good from evil, one beholds the coarseness and subtlety of the two realms.' Deducing from this, one knows that purity and defilement are here, not there. Those who embody right contemplation realize that sufferings like warfare are also one aspect of adverse transformation. However, treading amidst these painful evils, worldly sentiment in its deluded dream still regards suffering as joy. How extreme is such inversion; is it not lamentable? Someone might ask: 'Joyfully longing for purity and detesting defilement means that grasping and discarding have not yet been forgotten. Would a sage transform people using the path of dualistic views?' The reply is: Does the sūtra not say: 'Although knowing that all buddha-lands and sentient beings are empty, one constantly cultivates the pure land to teach and transform sentient beings'? To fervently long for and detest, while not seeing any notion of longing or detesting—this is to have attained it. The stūpa was completed on a midsummer day in the guichou year of Shaoxing. The bhikṣu of Mu'an, Fazhong, recorded this event and, bowing his head, praised it with a verse: