樂邦文類 4.50

4.50

問：一生習惡積累因深，如何臨終十念頓遣？答：《那先經》云「國王問那先沙門言：『人在世間，作惡至百歲。臨終時念佛，死後得生佛國。我不信是語。』那先言：『如持百枚大石置舡上，因船故不沒。人雖有本惡，一時念佛，不入泥犁中。其小石沒者，如人作惡，不知念佛，便入泥犁中。』」又《智論》「問云：臨死時少許時心，云何能勝終身行力？答：是心雖時頃少，而心力猛利。如火如毒，雖少能作大事。是垂死時心，決定勇健故，勝百歲行力，是後心名為大心。及諸根事急故，如人入陣不惜身命名為健。故知善惡無定、因緣體空，跡有升沈、事分優劣。真金一兩，勝百兩之疊華；爝火微光，爇萬仞之𧂐草。」

Question: One who has practiced evil all one's life accumulates deep causes; how can ten recitations at the time of death abruptly dispel them? Answer: The Milindapañha states: 'The king asked the śramaṇa Nāgasena: "A person in the world does evil up to a hundred years. When near death, he practices buddha-mindfulness and after death is born in a buddha-land. I do not believe these words." Nāgasena said: "It is like placing a hundred great stones onto a boat; because of the boat, they do not sink. Even if a person has original evil, by a moment of buddha-mindfulness he does not enter Niraya. That small stones sink is like a person who does evil and does not know buddha-mindfulness; he straightway enters Niraya."' Furthermore, the Treatise on the Great Prajñāpāramitā asks: 'How can the mind of a brief moment at the time of death surpass the power of lifelong practice?' It answers: 'Although this mind lasts for a short duration, the power of the mind is fierce and sharp. Like fire or poison, though small, it can accomplish great deeds. Because this mind when nearing death is decisive and courageous, it surpasses the power of a hundred years of practice; this final mind is called the great mind. Also, because all the sense faculties are in an emergency, like a man entering battle without sparing body or life, it is called robust. Therefore, know that good and evil are not fixed, and causes and conditions are empty in substance; traces show rising or sinking, and phenomena are divided into superior and inferior. One ounce of genuine gold surpasses a hundred ounces of cotton flowers; the tiny flicker of a spark incinerates ten thousand fathoms of piled-up grass.'