龍舒增廣淨土文 1.5

1.5

Amitābha Tathāgata gathers and embraces all categories of beings through the power of his great vows; fixing one's thoughts [on him] is extremely simple, and the realization of fruition is extremely swift, which some might doubt. I once said of this: Amitābha Buddha is precisely your nature; the land of Sukhāvatī is precisely your mind. Sentient beings turn their backs on enlightenment and conform to dust, sinking into the seven destinies, establishing 'self' and 'Buddha' as wide apart as heaven and earth. For this reason, the Buddha with compassion and skillful means reveals and instructs so that they may awaken and enter, manifesting various immeasurable illusion-like samādhis, adorning his land with the utmost splendor and beauty, and further expounding it with eloquence and wisdom, causing all sentient beings to rejoice and delight in it. If in daily activities one can produce a single thought of recollecting that Tathāgata and wishing to be born in his land, this very single thought—pure and firm—returns to what is inherent in nature and is no different from the Buddha. At the time of this thought, without rising from one's seat, Amitābha Buddha and the land of Sukhāvatī all manifest before one. Practicing in this way until completely mature, when the illusory body disintegrates this nature does not disintegrate; the golden lotus dais is born from the seed of nature, and rebirth within it is like returning to one's own cottage; all Buddhas and bodhisattvas are one's own family, for because nature is without difference, they naturally cherish one another. My friend Wang Xuzhong of Longshu was upright, quiet, concise, and widely versed in various books; he commented upon and transmitted hundreds of thousands of words on the Six Classics and the various masters. One day, he pointed to them and said: 'These are all karmic habits, not the ultimate Dharma. I shall return to the West!' From then on he progressed vigorously, focusing only on the Buddha and only on recollection. Approaching sixty years of age, clad in plain cotton and eating greens, he traveled a thousand li with calloused feet to teach people this, having no leisure to care for wind, rain, cold, or heat. In solitary dwelling his daily regimen was a thousand prostrations, sleeping only at midnight. His face glowed with radiant light; those who gazed upon him believed that he was a man of the Way. In the autumn of the xinji year of the Shaoxing reign era, he visited my father in Xuancheng and stayed for two months, and only then did I see his Pure Land Writings. All methods of practice and obvious records of efficacious responses were recorded from beginning to end; preparing to seek believers of the Way to carve the woodblocks to transmit it, he entrusted me to write a preface for his book. Therefore, I wrote this at its beginning, noting that Xuzhong's given name is Rixiu. On the first day of the tenth month, preface by Zhang Xiaoxiang of Liyang, principal graduate.