龍舒增廣淨土文 11.10

11.10

人皆謂修淨土不如禪教律，余獨謂禪教律法門莫如修淨土。夫真淨明妙虛徹靈通，凡在智愚皆具此性。根塵幻境相與淪胥，生死輪迴窮劫不斷，故釋氏以禪教律假設方便，使之從門而入俱得超悟。惟無量壽佛獨出一門，曰修行淨土，如單方治病簡要直截，一念之專即到彼岸，不問緇白皆可奉行。但知為化愚俗淺近之說，其實則成佛道捷徑之途。今之學者不過禪教律，究竟圓頓莫如禪，非利根上器神領意解者，則未免墮頑空之失。研究三乘莫如教，非得魚忘筌因指見月者，未免鑽故紙之病。護善遮惡莫如律，非身心清淨表裡一如，則未免自纏縛之苦。總以觀之，論其所入則禪教律，要其所歸則戒定慧。不由禪教律而得戒定慧者，其唯淨土之一門乎？方念佛時，口誦心惟，諸惡莫作，豈非戒？繫念淨境，幻塵俱滅，豈非定？念實無念，心華湛然，豈非慧？人能屏除萬慮一意西方，則不施棒喝而悟圓頓機、不閱大藏經而得正法眼、不持四威儀中而得大自在，不垢不淨無纏無脫，當是時也，孰為戒定慧？孰為禪教律？我心佛心一無差別，此修淨土之極致也。八功德水、金蓮華臺又何必疑哉？淨土樞要之作勤矣。

People all say that cultivating the Pure Land is not equal to Chan, the Teachings, or the Vinaya. I alone say that among the teachings of Chan, the Teachings, and the Vinaya, none compares to cultivating the Pure Land. Now, true purity, wondrous brightness, empty penetration, and spiritual responsiveness—whether wise or foolish, all possess this nature. Yet the sense faculties, sense objects, and illusory realms drown one another, and cyclic existence in birth and death continues without interruption for endless kalpas. Therefore, the Shakya clan provisionally established expedient means through Chan, the Teachings, and the Vinaya, enabling practitioners to enter through these gateways and all attain transcendent awakening. Only Amitāyus Buddha singled out a unique gateway, called cultivating the Pure Land. Like a single prescription curing an illness, it is simple, essential, and direct: with concentration in a single thought, one immediately reaches the other shore. Monastics and laypeople alike may practice it without distinction. People merely take it as a shallow and accessible teaching meant to convert the ignorant and vulgar, whereas in fact it is the direct shortcut to accomplishing the Buddha Path. Students today do not go beyond Chan, the Teachings, and the Vinaya. When it comes to ultimate perfect immediacy, nothing compares to Chan; yet unless one is of sharp faculties and superior capacity who grasps it spiritually and comprehends it intuitively, one cannot avoid falling into the fault of inert emptiness. When it comes to investigating the three vehicles, nothing compares to the Teachings; yet unless one catches the fish and forgets the trap, seeing the moon by way of the pointing finger, one cannot avoid the malady of boring into ancient papers. When it comes to protecting the good and blocking evil, nothing compares to the Vinaya; yet unless body and mind are pure and outer and inner are as one, one cannot avoid the suffering of binding oneself. Looking at them comprehensively, when we consider their points of entry, they are Chan, the Teachings, and the Vinaya; when we summarize their ultimate destination, they are morality, concentration, and wisdom. For those who attain morality, concentration, and wisdom without going through Chan, the Teachings, and the Vinaya, is it not solely through the one gateway of the Pure Land? When one is reciting the Buddha's name, chanting with the mouth and contemplating with the mind, not committing any evils—is this not morality? Fixing the mind on the pure realm so that illusory dusts are all extinguished—is this not concentration? When reciting is truly non-reciting and the mind's flower is clear and serene—is this not wisdom? If a person can set aside the myriad worries and single-mindedly focus on the West, then without administering the stick and shout, they awaken to the mechanism of perfect immediacy; without reading through the Buddhist canon, they attain the eye of the correct Dharma; and without maintaining the four deportments, they attain great mastery. Neither defiled nor pure, neither bound nor liberated—at such a time, what is morality, concentration, and wisdom? What is Chan, the Teachings, and the Vinaya? My mind and the Buddha's mind are not different in the slightest; this is the ultimate point of cultivating the Pure Land. Why should one ever doubt the waters of eight virtues and the dais of the golden lotus flower? The effort of compiling this essential pivot of the Pure Land is truly diligent.