樂邦文類 1.2

1.2

In antiquity, the Sugata took pity on sentient beings revolving through the various realms of suffering, and pointed them toward the Land of Bliss so that they might take refuge. The unseen praises of various sages and the rebirths obtained by venerable elders are manifold; recorded in the scriptures of India, they are set forth as brilliantly as the stars. But when later followers gradually drifted astray, they generally sought [the Pure Land] through sounds and forms without knowing to seek it in their own minds. Therefore Dajian revealed it to be mind-only, enabling them to understand that those who wish to attain the Pure Land must purify their own minds; this is the purport of the Sugata's preaching on the contemplation of the Buddha, showing that "this mind is the Buddha." This possesses the three minds and the ten minds, and is the method for rebirth; this is Dharmākara's setting forth of supreme vows, his causal practice wherein his mind was quiescent and his resolve unattached. But when later followers gradually drifted astray, they generally took a subordinate view of the nine grades and were contentedly complacent within their fetters. If one is contentedly complacent within fetters, then the Buddhas need not have appeared in the world to deliver beings, and sentient beings would wander endlessly. If one does not seek within the mind, then the more one seeks, the farther away one gets, and the contemplation of the three sages would wholly pursue marks externally. The sages applied medicine on account of illness, yet sentient beings aggravate their illness on account of the medicine—is this not lamentable? Therefore, proclaiming the Land of Bliss is how those who are in identity in principle are led to rely on prajñā for practice and realization, saving them from wandering on the wheel of suffering. Speaking of mind-only is how practitioners of contemplation are led to base themselves on the dharmakāya for liberation, beholding the three sages within the true and constant. The Sugata pointed human beings to the jewel storehouse, and Dajian opened it with the primal key; Dajian showed human beings the causal flower, and the Sugata received human beings into the fruition stage. To unfold the flower while neglecting the fruit is as if there were no flower; to possess the storehouse while being unable to open it is as if there were no storehouse. Can those who attend to the Land of Bliss set aside mind-only? Past and present are the past and present of my mind, extending through the three periods of time without limit. Buddha-lands are the lands of my mind, broadly extending without bound and inexhaustible. Purified as the four sages and defiled as the six commoners, these are the four sages and six commoners of my mind. If one does not speak of mind-only, where else could one seek the Land of Bliss? If one truly understands mind-only, one cannot possibly fail to attend to the Land of Bliss. Unthinking, sentient life from beginningless time has falsely produced birth within non-arising and clung to a self within no-self; their habituation to the three fetters and ten afflictions has lasted long indeed. Without relying on the boat of the compassionate vows to lodge their spirits in the sacred domain, even bodhisattvas are still confounded by the transition between skandhas, and śrāvakas are bewildered upon emerging from the womb—how then could those of lower capacity expect to attain non-retrogression on their own? Mañjuśrī is the guide of the seven Buddhas: it is not that he had not realized the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, yet he received the prediction of rebirth. Sudhana is one who perfected within a single lifetime the fruits of vast kalpas: it is not that he had not heard the ultimate truth, yet he made vows to be guided back. If one does not attend to the Land of Bliss, through what practice could one exhaust the wondrousness of mind-only? The Amitābha Buddha within my mind is adorned in the causal stage; the supreme land of my mind is the Land of Bliss. In our primordial origin, I and Amitābha Buddha are neither two nor different: I was deluded and wandered, becoming a sentient being within the Buddha's mind; the Buddha awakened, practiced, and attained realization, becoming the Buddha within the sentient being's mind. My mind is the Buddha's mind—I cannot obtain a separate "I"; the Buddha's mind is my mind—the Buddha cannot be obtained as an "other." The Buddha who cannot be obtained as an other delivers sentient beings thought after thought, without interruption from me. Yet sentient beings cling to the illusory self that cannot be obtained as "I," turning their backs on awakening to unite with dust, toiling in delusion and darkness within the three realms. How lamentable! Therefore, thoroughly cultivating the Land of Bliss is precisely how one thoroughly cultivates one's own mind. Thoroughly cultivating one's own mind is precisely how one leaves behind delusion and realizes that in which one is identical with Amitābha Buddha. The Buddhas realize nothing else: they completely realize the original nature of sentient beings. Whatever Amitābha Buddha possesses, I also possess, because it does not depart from my mind. The Land of Bliss is not a mark, because it is my mind. It is not an empty absence of marks, because marks are identical with non-marks. When marks are identical with non-marks, circumstantial and primary rewards are both true, and sentient beings and Buddhas are of the same substance. When circumstantial and primary rewards are both true, and sentient beings and Buddhas are of the same substance, then the past Dharmaghoṣarāja Tathāgata of the Land of Bliss has never entered extinction, the future Guṇaparvatarāja Tathāgata has long since attained buddhahood, and the present Amitābha Tathāgata, though beyond a hundred thousand koṭis of buddha-lands, is not separated from us in the least. The eighty-four thousand secondary marks are seen in accordance with every thought: my mind does not go, and that Buddha does not come, like a lamp in a mirror, like the moon in the water. The mirror does not grasp the lamp, yet the lamp naturally appears in the mirror; the moon does not enter the water, yet the water constantly contains the moon. Everywhere is thus; every dharma is thus. The mark of the white curl of hair between the brows is constantly contemplated yet is not a contemplation; one is reborn on the jeweled dais without arising. Being thus, is it to be called mind-only? Is it to be called the Land of Bliss? I cannot know. The Superior One of Luting carved the printing blocks for the Collected Writings on the Land of Bliss compiled by Master Xiaozong, and asked me for words. Examining the fascicles, I thereupon bowed to the Buddhas and patriarchs, expressing my modest views to accompany it.