廬山蓮宗寶鑑 1.12

1.12

夫真法界性生佛平等而無異無同，妙覺明心染淨混融而非一非二。然則塵塵淨土，他方此界皆為極樂之邦；念念彌陀，蠢動含靈盡是法身之佛。蓋為情生智隔、想變體殊，心隨生住異滅之變遷，境有坑坎堆阜之高下，所以淨剎穢方、苦樂有異，眾生諸佛凡聖不同。是致六趣茫茫匍匐九居之內、四生浩浩升沈三界之中，從迷入迷、由苦入苦，動經塵劫無解脫期。故我佛開方便門，教以念佛三昧，指有淨土為歸向焉。所謂念佛三昧者，梵語佛陀，此云覺者，自覺覺他覺行圓滿，故名曰佛。如睡夢覺、如蓮花開，為令有情返照回光，淨念相繼久久純熟，惑盡障除一念不生，前後際斷悟此覺性，內無能念之心、外無所念之境，能所兩忘、生佛無二，故曰念佛。梵語三昧，此云正定，謂思專想寂、神智明妙也。經云「若念佛者，當知此人則是人中芬陀利華。」東晉遠公祖師，因聽彌天法師講《般若經》，豁然大悟，入於無量甚深三昧。遊止廬山與高僧朝士結緣修行，故云「諸教三昧其名甚眾，功高易進念佛為先」，因以「白蓮」名其社焉。師乃著念佛三昧敘，蓋發揚此理也。天台智者判教，謂《觀無量壽經》為大乘終實之教，以三觀澄心者，蓋顯念佛之旨也。法照尊者禮文殊而求指，蓋指此法也。省常禪師結淨行緣，宰相名卿歸嚮同修者，蓋此道也。長蘆賾禪師結蓮花勝會，感普賢、普慧二菩薩入會，蓋證明此道也。慈照宗主以本願力示現世間，發廣度心，引權就實隨機化導，蓋欲令利根鈍根俱悟此道也。集白蓮懺開四土圖，以信行願為資糧、以戒定慧為樞要，蓋立此念佛正宗也。宋高宗御書「蓮社」二字，蓋崇此法門也。欽惟大元普天一統，諸國來朝、人心樂善。廬山東林禪寺東巖圓應日禪師，欽奉聖旨住持道場，修營梵宇、集諸賢傳，乃追古而整宗綱架大法橋，名宗遠而開祖道一十八載，提唱宗乘之外，常以念佛三昧開導人天。至元壬辰秋赴慶元路育王山廣利禪寺請，而遜席于開先悅堂誾禪師相繼住持。元貞元年正月，述明居士燕覺道破衣和尚，欽奉聖旨，賜白蓮宗善法堂護持教法。元貞二年正月，又欽奉聖旨，賜通慧大師白蓮宗主，仍賜金襴袈裟。於大德五年十月，欽奉聖朝，頒降御香，金旛到寺。自晉至今僅乎千載，感斯恩耀遐方異域，若賢若愚皆從化焉。悉以齊心念佛，仰祝皇帝聖壽萬安，天下太平法輪常轉，熙熙然舜日堯風，即此世界為極樂世界也。普度濫叨釋裔，無補教門，嘗見稱蓮宗者未諳念佛旨趣，棄本逐末著相修行，淨業正因逮將沈沒，皆是懷寶迷邦、背真向偽。從其事者紛如牛毛，具正見者尠若麟角，致令上慢之徒輕忽吾佛之道。悲夫去古時遙法久成弊，正道湮微邪法增熾，人多錯解蹉入邪途。不思淨土一門乃出輪迴之捷徑，其直如絃、其朗如日，奧旨在於經懺之間。不遇明師啟迪，猶若群盲摸象各說異端，從冥入冥永纏邪見，可痛惜哉。矧今恭遇佛心天子正法治世，迺君臣慶會之時、政佛法流通之際，得不以祖師念佛三昧開示人天，用作將來眼目，俾同悟入佛知見哉？予乃翹心淨土、探賾先宗，編集要言目曰「寶鑑」，照明真偽，凡一十篇。其首曰念佛正因，謂入室必由戶也。次曰正教，乃示念佛法門漸偏頓圓，使進修者隨根器而歸乎至道也。又其次曰正宗，蓋示念佛三昧正心之理，俾修習者明其宗而達其本也。又其次曰正派，蓋明佛祖暨諸宗師得道之本末，欲令後學知有其自也。又其次曰正信正行正願，俾信正法、修正行、發正誓而求生西方也。次曰往生正訣，蓋示臨終生淨土之路也。次曰正報，蓋明修行所得淨土依正之功德莊嚴也。次曰正論，蓋引諸佛誠言，破群邪異見，欲令改不善而從善也，非敢有助於宗風，為益於未聞者也，欲其枉者直之、邪者正之、疑者決之、迷者悟之，盡大地人於一念中同得念佛三昧、共證菩提，不亦偉歟。修淨業者無悋慈悲，試一展卷，見聞隨喜、讚輔流通，其如佛祖未出世一句子，請高著眼。

Now, the nature of the true dharmadhātu is equal between sentient beings and buddhas, without difference and without sameness; the wondrously awakening, luminous mind blends defilement and purity, being neither one nor two. Thus, in every dust-mote is a pure land—other regions and this world are alike realms of Sukhāvatī; in every thought is Amitābha—all wriggling and fluttering sentient beings are buddhas of the dharmakāya. Yet because feelings arise, wisdom is obstructed; because thoughts alter, physical forms differ. The mind fluctuates along with arising, abiding, changing, and ceasing; environments vary in height with pits, gullies, mounds, and hills. Therefore pure lands and defiled realms differ in suffering and joy; sentient beings and all buddhas are distinguished as ordinary beings and sages. This causes the six destinies to be vast and boundless, crawling within the nine abodes, and the four modes of birth to surge forth, rising and sinking in the three realms: entering delusion from delusion, passing from suffering to suffering, stirred across dust-mote kalpas with no time of liberation. Therefore our Buddha opened the gate of expedients, teaching the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi and pointing to the existence of the Pure Land as a destination of return. As for what is called the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi: in Sanskrit, *buddha*, which is translated here as 'awakened one'—one who has awakened himself, awakens others, and whose awakened practices are fully complete; hence he is called Buddha. Like awakening from a dream, like a lotus flower blossoming, it is meant to cause sentient beings to reflect back their own light, maintaining pure thoughts in unbroken succession. When this has matured after a long time, delusions are exhausted and obstacles eliminated, not a single thought arises, past and future are cut off, and one awakens to this awakening nature: internally there is no mind capable of mindfulness, and externally there is no realm that is the object of mindfulness. Both subject and object are forgotten, sentient beings and Buddha are not two; hence it is called buddhānusmṛti. In Sanskrit, *samādhi*, which is translated here as 'correct concentration'—meaning that thought is focused, mentation is stilled, and spiritual wisdom is luminous and wondrous. A sūtra says: 'If there is someone who practices buddhānusmṛti, you should know that this person is a puṇḍarīka flower among men.' In the Eastern Jin, the ancestral master Yuan, upon hearing Master Mitian lecture on the *Prajñā-sūtra*, had a great and sudden awakening and entered into immeasurable, profound samādhi. Traveling to and residing at Mount Lu, he formed ties of practice with eminent monks and court literati, and so said: 'The samādhis of the various teachings have many names; for high efficacy and ease of advancement, buddhānusmṛti is foremost.' Thereupon he named his society 'White Lotus'. The master then composed the 'Preface to the Buddhānusmṛti-samādhi', which brought forth this principle. When Tiantai Zhizhe classified the teachings, he stated that the *Guan Wuliangshou jing* is the ultimate and real teaching of the Mahāyāna, using the three contemplations to clarify the mind, which reveals the essential import of buddhānusmṛti. When the Venerable Fazhao bowed to Mañjuśrī to seek guidance, it was this Dharma that was pointed out. When Chan Master Xingchang formed ties for pure conduct, and prime ministers and renowned officials took refuge and practiced together, it was this path [they pursued]. When Chan Master Ze of Changlu organized the wondrous Lotus Assembly, inspiring the two bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Puhui to join the assembly, it was to bear witness to this path. The School Patriarch Cizhao manifested in the world by the power of his fundamental vow, gave rise to a mind of broad salvation, guided the expedient to approach the real, and transformed and led according to faculties, wishing to cause both the sharp and dull faculties to awaken together to this path. He compiled the *White Lotus Repentance*, laid out the diagram of the four lands, took faith, practice, and vows as provisions, and took precepts, concentration, and wisdom as the pivot, thereby establishing this orthodox school of buddhānusmṛti. When Song Gaozong wrote with his imperial brush the two characters 'Lotus Society' (Lianshe), it was to venerate this Dharma gate. Respectfully we contemplate that our Great Yuan has unified all under heaven; the various nations come to court, and the people's minds take joy in goodness. Chan Master Dongyan Yuanying Ri of Donglin Chan Monastery on Mount Lu respectfully received the imperial decree to serve as abbot of the bodhimaṇḍa, restoring the Buddhist monastery and compiling the biographies of the sages. He thus looked back to antiquity to rectify the school's guidelines and erect the great bridge of Dharma. Renowned as Zongyuan, he opened the ancestral path for eighteen years; beyond promoting the teachings of the Chan school, he constantly guided humans and devas with the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi. In the autumn of the *renchen* year of Zhiyuan [1292], he accepted an invitation from the Guangli Chan Monastery on Mount Ayuwang in Qingyuan Circuit, yielding his seat to Chan Master Yuetang Yin of Kaixian, who successively served as abbot. In the first month of the first year of Yuanzhen [1295], the Shuming Layman Yan Juedao, the ragged-robed monk, respectfully received the imperial decree granting the White Lotus School's Shanfa Hall to protect and uphold the teaching of the Dharma. In the first month of the second year of Yuanzhen [1296], an imperial decree was again respectfully received, granting the Master Tonghui the title of Patriarch of the White Lotus School along with a gold-embroidered kāṣāya. In the tenth month of the fifth year of Dade [1301], the imperial court respectfully bestowed imperial incense, and golden banners arrived at the temple. From the Jin to the present it has been nearly a thousand years; moved by this gracious glory, distant lands and foreign domains, the wise and the foolish alike, have all followed the transformation. All with one mind practice buddhānusmṛti, respectfully wishing the Emperor ten thousand pacities of sacred longevity, peace throughout the realm, and the perpetual turning of the Dharma wheel, joyous in the sun of Shun and the winds of Yao, this very world being the world of Sukhāvatī. I, Pudu, have improperly partaken of the lineage of Śākya without having benefited the gate of the teachings. I have often seen that those who profess the Lotus School do not understand the purport of buddhānusmṛti; abandoning the root to pursue the branches, they practice while clinging to marks, and the correct cause of pure karma has nearly sunk away. All of them are harboring treasures while wandering lost in foreign lands, turning their backs on the real and facing the false. Those who engage in its practices are as numerous as ox hairs, but those endowed with right view are as rare as a unicorn's horn, causing arrogant people to slight the path of our Buddha. Alas! The ancient times are far removed, and the Dharma has long fallen into decay; the correct path is obscured and weakened, while heterodox teachings blaze with increasing fervor, and many people misunderstand and stray onto aberrant paths. They do not consider that the single gate of the Pure Land is the shortcut out of saṃsāra, as straight as a bowstring and as bright as the sun, whose profound purport lies within the sūtras and repentance rituals. Without meeting an enlightened teacher to instruct them, they are just like a herd of blind men groping an elephant, each proclaiming divergent views, passing from darkness into darkness, forever entangled in heterodox views—how lamentable! How much more so now, when we respectfully meet the Son of Heaven of Buddha-mind who governs the world with the true Dharma: it is a time of celebration between sovereign and ministers, and an era when the Buddha Dharma circulates. How could we not use the ancestral master's buddhānusmṛti-samādhi to instruct humans and devas, making it an eye for the future, so that they may awaken and enter the Buddha's knowledge and vision together? I have thus set my mind on the Pure Land, probed deeply into the earlier school, and compiled essential words into a work titled *Precious Mirror*, illuminating the real and the false in ten treatises. The first is titled 'Correct Causes of Buddhānusmṛti', meaning that to enter a room one must go through the door. The second is titled 'Correct Teachings', which shows that the buddhānusmṛti Dharma gate encompasses the gradual, partial, sudden, and perfect, so that practitioners may return to the supreme path according to their capacities. The next is titled 'Orthodox School', which shows the principle of righting the mind through the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi, so that practitioners may understand its school and reach its origin. The next is titled 'Orthodox Lineage', which clarifies the origin and development of how the buddhas, ancestors, and school masters attained the path, wishing to let later students know that it has its source. The next are titled 'Correct Faith, Correct Practice, and Correct Vows', so that they may have faith in the true Dharma, cultivate correct practice, and make correct vows to seek birth in the West. The next is titled 'Correct Formulas for Rebirth', which shows the road to birth in the Pure Land at the end of life. The next is titled 'Correct Retribution', which clarifies the meritorious ornaments of the primary and dependent retributions of the Pure Land obtained through practice. The next is titled 'Correct Discourses', which cites the sincere words of the buddhas to crush various heterodoxies and divergent views, wishing to make people change from the unwholesome and follow the wholesome. It is not that I dare say this will aid the ancestral style; it is to benefit those who have not heard it, wishing to straighten what is crooked, rectify what is heterodox, resolve what is doubted, and awaken what is deluded, so that all people across the whole earth may in a single thought together attain the buddhānusmṛti-samādhi and collectively realize bodhi—would that not be magnificent! May cultivators of pure karma not begrudge their compassion: try opening this volume, rejoice in accord upon seeing and hearing it, and praise and assist its circulation. As for that single sentence from before the buddhas and ancestors appeared in the world, please cast your eye on it from high.