樂邦文類 5.95

5.95

The World of Ultimate Bliss has a location: / It is just where the sun usually sets. / Therefore the Buddha taught Vaidehī / To clearly contemplate the setting sun like a suspended drum. / Excellent is this old woman of the Yao clan, / Who was able with this mind to seek the Pure Land! / Contemplating in the evening and thinking in the morning without reckoning the years, / Walking and upholding, sitting and reciting, forgetting cold and heat. / Amitābha suddenly arose from her mental thoughts; / In a flash, clear and distinct, she beheld him. / At that time, the sky was devoid of the slightest cloud; / In the mulberry and elm trees Xihe's chariot still lingered. / The Buddha-sun shone brilliantly, eclipsing the solar radiance; / His dark blue eyes and jade-like ūrṇā endowed with wondrous marks. / Her eyes startled and her heart astonished, joyful yet moved to tears, / She ran to tell the guide, Yu Mituo, / Detailing all that she had seen as exceedingly rare, / Wishing to paint the golden visage with brush and silk. / Hearing of this supreme event, I sighed in admiration at its rarity; / For her sake I speak these gāthā verses to enlighten those not yet awakened. / You should know that the distance to the Buddha is not far at all; / How could an icchantika understand the reason for this? / Though passing through a hundred thousand koṭis of lands, / A single thought transcends it, like taking a single half-step. / If there is a confused person asking for the way, / Tell them: "Just go straight forward like this."