龍舒增廣淨土文 3.16

3.16

In making this Pure Land discourse, I wish to exhort all who see and hear it to broaden their minds, take the Buddha's mind as their own mind, and enable everyone to know it and all be born in the Pure Land. One should give rise to the thought: 'If others know this Dharma door just as I know it, how joyful! If others do not know it, it is as if I myself did not know it—how painful!' If one merely stops at self-cultivation, one belongs to the faction of śrāvakas, named the Small Vehicle. For like a small carriage, it can only carry oneself across; and this is what the Buddha called severing the Buddha-seed. Those who can broadly exhort others are called Mahāyāna bodhisattvas; for like a great carriage, it ferries across both others and oneself. This is said to obtain immeasurable blessed reward, which is why one can reach the Buddha ground. The Buddhas of the ten directions, as numerous as the sands of the Ganges, all jointly praise the inconceivable merit of Amitābha Buddha, meaning it cannot be conceived by the mind nor expressed in words. Since his merit is like this, it can be called supreme. What application could fail? Therefore, if one can exhort a single person to cultivate the Pure Land, through this good condition one may dissolve sins and evils, increase and enhance blessings and longevity, adorn the merit of rebirth, or dedicate merit for the deceased. If one vows with utmost sincerity, there are none who do not obtain its merit and result; by examining the biography of Fang Zhu, this can be seen in outline. How much more so if one beholds exhorting more than one person, up to five or ten people? And how much more so if those who received the exhortation in turn exhort others, continuing on without cease? In this way, the teachings of the West could spread throughout the world, and sentient beings in the sea of suffering could all be born in the Pure Land. Exhorting people to the good path is called the gift of Dharma. This Pure Land Dharma door is the greatest of Dharma gifts, for it leads directly beyond transmigration; it is not comparable to other Dharma gifts, and therefore its blessed reward cannot be exhausted. Thus the Verse Exhorting Practice of the West by Daci Bodhisattva says: 'If one can exhort two people to practice, it surpasses one's own diligence; / if one exhorts up to ten or more, one's blessings and virtues are already immeasurable. / If one exhorts a hundred or a thousand, one is called a true bodhisattva; / and if one can surpass ten thousand, that is Amitābha himself.' Observing this, how could those who know the teachings of the West not broaden their minds to let everyone together know this path, so as to accumulate immeasurable blessed rewards?