廬山蓮宗寶鑑 7.6

7.6

彌陀節要云「念佛之人最急一事不善相應。何以故？雖云持戒念佛，不曾發心願生淨土，皆是埋頭過日，自失善利。大凡念佛，先要發心。欲超生死往生淨土，須以大願自為主意，常須念佛，早晚專心禮拜彌陀。如朝帝主，兩不失時，日近日親。心口與佛相應，去佛不遠。口念心想、心願見佛，發深重願，決信無疑，日久歲深工夫純熟，自然三昧成就，臨命終時彌陀接引淨土現前。更願現生之內常遇善知識、不值邪見師，無惑我心、不生懈怠。若也如此，念佛深信發願，是信行願三不虧也。臨終見佛，即非外來，盡是唯心顯現。猶如種子在地，逢春發生，豈是外來？皆從地出也。今之修行亦爾，念佛信願納在八識心地，臨終發現淨土彌陀，即非外來，皆從自心出也。偈云：

The Essentials of Amitābha states: 'For those who practice buddhānusmṛti, the most pressing matter is failing to correspond properly. Why is that? Although they are said to uphold precepts and practice buddhānusmṛti, they have never resolved to vow for rebirth in the Pure Land; they just bury their heads and let the days pass, losing the wholesome benefit themselves. Generally, in practicing buddhānusmṛti, one must first generate the aspiration. If one wishes to transcend birth and death and be reborn in the Pure Land, one must make the great vow one's primary intention. One must constantly practice buddhānusmṛti, making prostrations to Amitābha with single-minded devotion morning and evening. Like paying court to an emperor, never missing the appointed times, one draws nearer and closer day by day. When mind and mouth correspond with the Buddha, one is not far from the Buddha. Reciting with the mouth, contemplating with the mind, and yearning with the mind to see the Buddha, making deep and weighty vows with firm faith and no doubt—as days and years go by and the practice matures, the samādhi will naturally be accomplished, and when life ends, Amitābha will welcome you and the Pure Land will appear before you. Further vow that in this present life you will always encounter good friends and never meet teachers of wrong views, so that they do not delude your mind and you do not give rise to laxity. If it is like this, practicing buddhānusmṛti with deep faith and making vows, then the three of faith, practice, and vows are not deficient. Seeing the Buddha at the end of life does not come from the outside; it is entirely the manifestation of Mind-only. Just as a seed in the ground sprouts when encountering spring—how could it come from the outside? It all emerges from the ground. Cultivation today is also like this: when faith and vows of buddhānusmṛti are stored in the ground of the eighth consciousness, the Pure Land and Amitābha that manifest at the end of life do not come from the outside; they all emerge from one's own mind.' The verse says: