樂邦遺稿 1.86

1.86

When matters are difficult to discern, doubts arise. Tangled doubts and pressing perplexities affect not only the common multitude; even Śāriputra, while still in the Hinayana, harbored revulsion, and when advancing toward the Mahayana, harbored doubt at its difficulty. Dwelling between purity and defilement, he doubted their mixture. What is 'mixture' is hidden and such that one cannot distinguish it. What is 'doubt' resembles [truth] yet is such that one cannot resolve it. If with Śāriputra's supreme wisdom he could not resolve the principle of doubt and mixture, could this be because there was something he had not reflected upon? It is that the inconceivability of the Buddha's path was beyond his reach. Therefore it is said that the clarity of the four fruits cannot fathom the Tathāgata's profundity, and the sages of the ten stages cannot exhaust the marvel of the ultimate fruit. How much more so for ordinary beings, born without the eye of wisdom, trapped in the triple realm, having delusions that inevitably bind them! Pointing toward the Pure Land, their doubts are stubbornly fixed and hard to turn. Doubting their own bodies, they know the five aggregates are not yet extinguished; doubting their own minds, they know the myriad afflictions are not yet dispelled; doubting their own practices, they know the six perfections are not yet crossed over. By means of practices adrift and unferried, they hope to cross over into a realm that is already crossed over. When they themselves are still perplexed, how much more so others! These sentiments of beings are difficult to believe, and are doubted by monastics and laypeople alike. Master Zhizhe of the Sui dynasty, his mind merged with things, his wisdom joined with the divine, availed himself of the times to assist the teaching, and his extraordinary traces were exceedingly renowned. Examining his realizations through his extraordinary traces, one knows not whether he was a person of the three worthies, or of the ten sages, or whether he was an Anuttarasamyaksaṃbuddha whose wondrous spiritual transformations were inconceivable—one cannot know even through reflection. Yet the Master's mindfulness, samādhi, dhāraṇī, and luminous cultivation of practice aspired to rebirth in the Pure Land without a hair's gap of interruption. What brings forth all that the Master preserved is surely the text of the Ten Doubts. Yet that text draws from sūtras for what is remote and draws from treatises for what is near, discerning their purports to select from historical accounts, never departing from the sūtras to set forth phenomena, nor adorning words to add cleverness. Examining words to convey meaning, it fully articulates rebirth in the nine grades; therein one sees the Master's dedication of mind. When one sees the Master's mind, how could one still have doubts about the Pure Land? It is like a high sky free of clouds, where constellations display their brilliance, differing in their paths and distinct in their stations, radiantly shining without a single one concealed. Having obtained this text, I repeatedly reflect on what the Sākya Sage praised concerning the Pure Land; as for all the Buddhas who testified and confirmed it, some extended their tongue-mark to cover the trichiliocosm, and some used the tide-like voice for brahma-speech. Separated from the Master by many years, I could not reflect brilliance together with him in the same era; how could I remain silent today? Therefore, at the head of this treatise I briefly set forth one or two points to express joy in what I cherish. Although my words are superficial and my reasoning shallow, insufficient to raise up the Master's transforming influence, in terms of the meaning of the ancient Buddhas' confirmation, it at least finds its home.