樂邦文類 4.91

4.91

The postscript further states: There are also those who cite Venerable Dazhu from the Transmission of the Lamp, saying, 'Discarding the defiled and grasping the pure is the karma of birth and death,' or Layman Pang, saying, 'If one discards afflictions to enter bodhi, I know not in what direction there is a buddha-land.' To disparage the Pure Land by means of these lines and verses is indeed impermissible. Moreover, the words 'neither defiled nor pure' and the principle 'this mind is itself the buddha'—among all who receive the teachings of the Śākya, who does not know them? How can one, through discourses on the equality of tathatā, simply abolish the method of cultivation and realization based on causes and conditions? Bodhisattvas of the sixth aboding still retain fragmentary birth, and realized persons of the four fruits still undergo transformational death; how can their demise be called eternal nirvāṇa? One must know that before a bodhisattva realizes wondrous enlightenment, he constantly cultivates the myriad practices with an empty mind: all day long he contemplates the Buddha, yet there is no Buddha to be contemplated; throughout kalpas he delivers sentient beings, yet there are no sentient beings to be delivered. He temporarily repairs to the pure land of space-flowers, expediently relies on the illusory Amitābha, shatters the defilements of yesterday's dream, and enters the stages of the Gandharva city; up to the attainment of buddhahood, although his self-cultivation is merged in quiescence, benefiting others is clearly distinct—therefore he is illustrated by the body of a bright mirror and manifests through forms that accord with the kind. Worldly people do not inquire into the great meaning; they only yearn for sudden awakening to enter directly into non-birth, without considering that Yongjia, the One-Night Enlightened One, said: 'If real non-birth is not without birth, then if one recklessly grasps emptiness, I fear that utter carelessness will bring about calamity.' This is like practicing archery in Yue without exceeding a few paces, or learning to swim in Longxi only to drown within the whirlpools. Such spiritual friends ought not to be visited and sought out."