樂邦文類 4.65

4.65

問：天宮壽長足得修行，人中積善亦自超越。至於脩羅、龍、鬼、三塗惡趣，正好拔苦利生，何必專務極樂？答：欲天耽著妙樂，醉於欲酒。福盡即墮，如箭射空；色天雖獨行無交，而未盡形累；無色不出輪迴，經中判為難地。傅大士所謂饒經八萬劫，終是落空亡。又有一類神仙，別得生理，壽千萬歲。《楞嚴》謂之精研七趣，皆是昏沈諸有為相，妄想受生經無量劫，不得真淨。脩羅恚瞋、龍趣怖惱、鬼道沈冥，長夜三塗苦惱難名，遠思天上五衰、近覩人間四相，誰有智者樂入苦海？若求速免輪迴，無過求生淨土。生淨土者，自然身光照耀、具六神通，侶眾聖於剎那、越三界而常樂。故佛言無量壽國快樂無極，長與道德合明，永拔生死根本是也。

Question: In the heavenly palaces, life is long and fully sufficient for cultivation, and accumulating good deeds among humans also naturally brings transcendence. As for the asuras, nāgas, ghosts, and the evil destinies of the three paths, these are precisely where one can relieve suffering and benefit living beings. Why must one exclusively devote oneself to the Land of Ultimate Bliss?
Answer: The gods of the realm of desire are deeply attached to wondrous pleasures and drunk on the wine of desire. When their merit is exhausted, they immediately fall, like an arrow shot into the sky. Although the gods of the form realm practice solitary conduct without social interaction, they have not yet exhausted the burdens of physical form. The formless realm does not transcend saṃsāra, and in the sūtras it is determined to be a place of difficulty. As Great Being Fu said: 'Even though eighty thousand kalpas are passed, / in the end one falls into emptiness and destruction.' There is also a class of divine immortals who have attained a different principle of life and live for thousands or tens of thousands of years. The Śūraṅgama refers to them in its detailed examination of the seven destinies: all are submerged in the marks of conditioned existence; receiving births through deluded thoughts over immeasurable kalpas, they do not attain true purity. Asuras are consumed by hatred and anger, the nāga destiny is fraught with terror and distress, and the ghost realm is sunk in darkness. In the long night of the three paths, the suffering and anguish are hard to describe. Thinking from afar on the five signs of decay in heaven and observing up close the four marks among humans, what wise person would delight in entering the ocean of suffering? If one seeks to escape saṃsāra quickly, nothing surpasses seeking rebirth in the Pure Land. Those who are born in the Pure Land naturally have bodies radiant with light and possess the six supernatural powers; they keep company with the multitude of sages in an instant, transcending the three realms and abiding in constant joy. Therefore the Buddha said that the Land of Immeasurable Life has joy without limit, is forever aligned in luminosity with the Way and virtue, and forever uproots the fundamental root of birth and death.