樂邦文類 2.204

2.204

On the eighth day of the fourth month in the guigui year, the first year of Longxing, the monk (Shiyou) and the entire gathered assembly take refuge in Amitābha Buddha of the Land of Ultimate Bliss and the ocean-like assembly of bodhisattvas, praying that you will move your vast compassion and look down upon our modest aspirations. [We], so-and-so, merely consider that our past blessings are profound and abundant, having been born in the central land, and having reverently viewed the seven sūtras of the great canon that speak purely of the superior and wondrous merit of the circumstantial and primary adornments of the Pure Land. Reflecting back on this place with its three evil paths and eight difficulties, mostly an assembly of non-virtuous things, where birth, old age, sickness, and death render life short and fleeting, and where self-powered practice is difficult to advance and easy to regress from. Because the ancient sages took pity on us, they established this Dharma gate of buddha-mindfulness, which is easy to cultivate and easy to go to, stimulating and encouraging us to seek rebirth. From antiquity to the present, of the sages and worthies who have propagated this path, their books pile up like mountains. Among those across rivers and seas who revere this society, no generation has lacked such persons: the sentient beings of the ten directions who go to that land are as numerous as torrential rain. Thereupon, with our clear sentiments spontaneously arising, without prior agreement we came to the same [resolve], holding firmly to our purpose to return, all turning our hearts toward the western realm. Having maintained it in thought after thought without forgetting, our ultimate hope in this retribution [body] is to resolutely achieve rebirth. We still worry that our dispositions and habits differ, that worldly affairs entangle us, that while our mouths speak of Ultimate Bliss our minds cling to Sahā, that principle and practice are not clear, that our conduct and vows have deficiencies, and that while our morning prayers are said to be identical, our evening returns are widely separated. Therefore, having carefully selected an auspicious day, we assemble to offer our sincere faith, bowing our heads before the sacred countenance and establishing this vast vow, looking up and wishing that the Compassionate Honoured One will extend his purple-golden hand to stroke our crowns and open his red-lotus tongue to secretly confer our prophecies, so that from this life forward, we will do no evil and practice all goods, not encounter false teachers, and not lose right mindfulness. On the day our lives end, free of sickness and free of suffering, with body and mind joyful and happy, we will follow the Tathāgata to return together to Peaceful Nurture, the lotus flowers opening early, awakening to the forbearance of the non-arising of dharmas, roaming through the realms of the ten directions to serve all Buddha-bodies, and rescuing suffering sentient beings so that together we accomplish the unsurpassed path. Even if empty space has an end, our vows are boundless. May all who see or hear equally share in its benefits and joy. (Director Shen of Huzhou and over one hundred resident scholar-officials established this Dharma gathering. Up to the present gengshen year of Qingyuan, it has not lapsed for over thirty years.)