龍舒增廣淨土文 3.4

3.4

Someone asked Confucius: 'There was a man who moved house and forgot his wife. Has such a thing ever happened?' Confucius said: 'There is one even worse: Jie and Zhou forgot their own persons.' If viewed with the eye of the Dao, people today have all forgotten their own persons. Why? From opening their eyes and leaving bed in the early morning until going to bed and closing their eyes at night, there is nothing that is not worldly toil; never have they paused to examine their own persons. This is for all of them to forget their own persons. Moreover, regarding a person's person: speaking in terms of a day, nothing is greater than hunger and thirst, so one must prepare food and drink; speaking in terms of a year, nothing is greater than cold and heat, so one must prepare furs and linen; speaking in terms of an entire lifetime, nothing is greater than death and life—and yet people make no preparation for the Pure Land. Why is this? Furthermore, if someone possesses a hundred catties of gold and is suddenly overtaken by great peril, unable to carry it along, they will certainly cast it aside and depart. If they were to embrace the gold and die with it, the world would surely call it great folly; this shows that everyone knows this person is weightier than a hundred catties of gold. Yet in ordinary times they petty-mindedly pursue fame and compete for profit, refusing to part even with an object worth a hundred coins, not cherishing their own person. Why is this? If blamed as a thief or scolded as a beast, they flush with anger; some harbor resentment and grudge for a lifetime that cannot be resolved; some go as far as fighting and brawling, resulting in lawsuits and imprisonment. The names of thief and beast do no harm to one's person, yet one despises them like this; this is merely to spare the reputation of one's person, without knowing how to spare the reality of one's person. Why is this? Moreover, the reality of one's person is nothing else: conventionally called 'death', it is that which in truth has never died. People merely see that one casts aside this broken body and leaves, and thereupon call it 'death', not knowing that in casting aside this one, one goes to that one. Yet can one fail to make preparations in advance for the place to which one is going? Therefore, the discourse of the West truly cannot be neglected.