龍舒增廣淨土文 6.6

6.6

Gentlemen holding office enjoy this retribution entirely because they cultivated seeds and created merit in previous lives, just as planting seeds in spring brings a harvest in autumn. If one had not cultivated merit, by what cause could one obtain this? Yet this retribution has an end. If one further cultivates merit, practicing all kinds of skillful means to love people and benefit living beings, and dedicates this merit toward the Western direction, one will go straight beyond saṃsāra, attaining endless life and joy. How could the mundane fortunate retributions of the world compare to this? If you care deeply for these common people and cannot bear to abandon them, then be born in the Western direction first; after resolving the matter of birth and death, come back to this world appearing in the body of a governing official to broadly establish beneficial deeds. How could that not be permissible? If you can turn around to transform others with this and have them observe and transform one another, people will surely be glad to follow your words, because of your authority. According to the verse of Great Compassion Bodhisattva, in this life you can eliminate disasters and obtain blessings, and after this life you will certainly attain rebirth in the highest grade.