樂邦文類 2.91

2.91

Regarding the Western Pure Land: with jade forests, jeweled nets, pearl pavilions, and beryl pools, it surpasses the myriad lands within the white curl of the brow, radiating a thousand beams of light across sand-like realms. Praised in unison by all Buddhas, revered by the assembly of sages, Samantabhadra and Mañjuśrī all vowed to be born in that land, and Vasubandhu and Maitreya both pledged to go to that quarter. If it is so even for the great sages, how much more so for ordinary people! As for dispersed causes and concentrated karma, small goodness and great fortune: one cuts across the five paths to gallop afar, and looking up to the nine grades, ascends high, going straight to sarvajñā without falling back into retrogression. Therefore that Buddha's original vow states: 'If, when I attain buddhahood, the sentient beings of the ten directions with utmost mind of faith and joy desire to be born in my land, down to ten recitations, should they not be born there, may I not attain correct awakening; excluded only are those who commit the five heinous sins and revile the correct Dharma' (the five heinous sins are shedding the Buddha's blood, disrupting the harmonious saṅgha, killing an arhat, killing one's father, and killing one's mother). Now, being fortunate enough to be free of heinous sins and not to revile the Mahāyāna, how could any vow or petition fail to be fulfilled? Moreover, the Sixteen Contemplations states: 'Those of the lowest birth of the lowest grade possess all manner of sins—the four gravest offenses, the five heinous sins, and slandering the Vaipulya teachings. When the fires of hell appear, if they invoke the Buddha ten times, the fierce fires of hell turn into a cool breeze, and they immediately attain rebirth in that land.' This, then, also permits those guilty of heinous sins to attain rebirth through ten recitations; how much more so for those without such sins? Inferring from this, each should have faith in oneself. All who vow to be born will without exception have their hearts' desires fulfilled. Therefore, the Tiantai Master of Wisdom praised on the verge of death, saying: 'The forty-eight vows adorn the Pure Land; with lotus pools and jeweled trees, it is easy to go there, yet there is no one. Even when the fiery chariot appears, one who repents in a single thought can still attain rebirth; how much more so for those who cultivate with precepts and samādhi! The power of the path of pure practice is truly not in vain.' Furthermore, the original vow states: 'If sentient beings of the ten directions hear my name, fasten their mindfulness on my land, and transfer merit desiring to be born, should it not be fulfilled, I vow not to become a Buddha.' Furthermore, one should evaluate the duration of the karma and practice: if one who has faith and joy for ten recitations can still be born in that land, how much more so one who has faith and joy for a day, how much more so one who has faith and joy for a month, a year, or an entire lifetime! Furthermore, one should evaluate the gravity of expiating sins: a single thought eliminates the heavy sins of birth and death of eighty billion kalpas (the heavy sins are the aforementioned five heinous sins); if expiating sins by a single thought of invoking the Buddha is already thus, how much more so the sins expiated by ten recitations? How much more so the sins expiated by buddha-mindfulness for a day, a month, a year, or an entire lifetime! When even heavy heinous offenses are expiated, how much more so minor offenses? Furthermore, one should evaluate the superior and inferior characteristics of the merit of buddha-mindfulness compared to other roots of goodness: the sūtra states, 'If a person were to make offerings of the four requisites of the finest quality to arhats and pratyekabuddha sages filling a great trichiliocosm, the merit obtained would not equal that of a person joining their palms together and once saying "Namo Buddhāya". The merit of those sages of the great chiliocosm, even if multiplied a hundredfold, a thousandfold, a hundred-thousand-fold, or by any calculation or metaphor, could not match it; the merit of one who invokes the Buddha's name once is immeasurable.' If the merit of invoking the Buddha's name once is already like this, how much more so for one who is mindful of the Buddha ten times? How much more so the merit obtained by one who is mindful of Amitābha Buddha for a day, a month, a year, or an entire lifetime! Furthermore, one should know that a person of buddha-mindfulness is peaceful and secure in this present life, protected by all sages, and free from all calamities and disasters. Now let us closely evaluate the customs of the present age, where people compete to sacrifice to ghosts and spirits, seeking their blessings and protection in hopes of obtaining peace and security: believing in heterodoxy and killing living beings, they commit sins and form enmities; there is certainly no auspicious fortune that can benefit people, but only the vain invitation of retribution in the hells of future lives. The Book of Changes states: 'A family that accumulates unwholesomeness will surely have remaining calamities.' Taking life and harming living beings, inheriting sacrificial rules from ancestors, has not been a matter of one morning or one evening; is it not accumulating unwholesomeness? How could there be any doubt about calamities and blunders? If one says taking life is not unwholesome, why then have emperors of ancient and modern times transformed the world with benevolence, overcome cruelty, abolished killing, and let birds and fish fulfill their nature to enter the realm of longevity, all of which is called wholesome? Yet the methods of sacrifice—the Vedas of India and the sacrificial canons of China—have not escaped worldly discourse; they are truly expedient means to lure the vulgar. Although the Duke of Zhou spoke of serving spirits, he did not comprehend the way of the assembly; how could Confucius serve ghosts? They were simply deluded about the source of the six destinies. The classic of Laozi was already mixed among the nine schools; Zhuangzi had not yet shifted among the hundred masters. Only what is distinguished by the Buddhist school exhausts its principle in every detail: the heavenly destiny is on high, human beings dwell next, asuras dwell in the middle, and ghosts and animals are below. Now, for humans to serve ghosts is like bowing one's head to reach one's feet, or putting down the lord to serve the commoners; how could anything be more inverted? Moreover, ghosts have heterodox powers; if one serves them for a long time, drawing near to their kind, at death one falls among them; how deluded is the world! Furthermore, the Great Master of the Three Realms, the Kind Father of Ten Thousand Virtues: those who take refuge in him have their sins eliminated, and those who esteem him have blessings engendered. Various sūtras expound in full that if one can temporarily take refuge in the Three Jewels and uphold the name of a single Buddha, one will obtain ten kinds of excellent benefits in the present life: First, day and night one will constantly be invisibly protected by all devas, mighty spirit generals, and retinues [as numerous as] the sands of the Ganges. Second, one will constantly be accompanied and protected by the twenty-five great bodhisattvas, such as Avalokiteśvara and others, and all bodhisattvas. Third, one will constantly be protected and kept in mind day and night by all Buddhas, and Amitābha Buddha will constantly emit light to gather in this person. Fourth, all evil ghosts, whether yakṣas or rākṣasas, cannot harm them, and all poisonous snakes, poisonous dragons, and poisons cannot afflict them. Fifth, one will never suffer any calamity of fire, calamity of water, enemy thieves, knives and arrows, prisons and shackles, or premature and wrongful death. Sixth, all previously committed sins will be extinguished, and the lives of those killed who bear enmity will receive liberation and hold no further grievances. Seventh, dreams at night will be upright, or one may dream of the supreme and wondrous physical form of Amitābha Buddha. Eighth, the heart will always be joyful, the complexion glowing and lustrous, energy and vitality abundant, and whatever one does will be auspicious. Ninth, one will constantly be revered, offered to, and joyfully prostrated before by all people of the world, just as they revere the Buddha. Tenth, at the end of life, the mind will be without fear, mindful and joyful, and one will behold before one's eyes Amitābha Buddha and all the holy assembly holding a golden lotus pedestal to welcome and lead one to rebirth in the Western Pure Land, where one will experience supreme and wondrous joy to the end of the future. Let all wise people please observe the worldly blessings and merits obtained in the present life by buddha-mindfulness: how could it be the same as the sacrificial practices of worldly people, which have no blessings in the present and bring suffering in the future? Furthermore, one should believe that all Mahāyāna scriptures praise the adorned Pure Land of the West and exhort rebirth there. In the various sections and sūtras of the Avataṃsaka, Vaipulya, Prajñā, Lotus, and Nirvāṇa, they all demonstrate the characteristics of practice and praise the merit. Moreover, the bodhisattvas Vasubandhu and Nāgārjuna each composed treatises praising the Pure Land. Furthermore, the various Dharma masters and Chan masters of this land each composed treatises and commentaries to glorify and praise the West: Dharma Master Dao'an's Treatise on Rebirth in six fascicles; Dharma Master Huiyuan's Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra in one fascicle; Tiantai Zhiyi's Treatise on Ten Doubts, Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra, and Commentary on the Amitābha Sūtra, each in one fascicle; Chan Master Daochuo's Collection of Peace and Joy in three fascicles; Upādhyāya Shandao's establishment of the five-assembly teaching to exhort people to buddha-mindfulness, his Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra in one fascicle, his Twenty-four Praises, and Liturgy for the Six Periods of the Day in one fascicle each; Dharma Master Huaigan's attainment of the buddha-mindfulness samādhi, his Treatise Resolving Doubts in seven fascicles; Tripiṭaka Master Cimin's Compassion Collection on the Pure Land in three fascicles; Dharma Master Ci'en's Commentary on the Amitābha Sūtra in two fascicles; and State-protecting Śramaṇa Chengguan's Commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra in one fascicle. Who, hearing this praising, guiding, and exhortation to rebirth by all the holy ones, would not have faith and joy—except for those unworthy persons who are foolish, blind, and without wisdom? Here, furthermore, I cite thirty-three items of evidential verification regarding eminent men and women, both monastic and lay, of the Western Heaven and Eastern Xia from antiquity to the present who attained rebirth, presenting them in full to all worthy and eminent persons of the future, with the vow that we may attain rebirth together.