廬山蓮宗寶鑑 8.21

8.21

The Śūraṅgama-sūtra states: "The Buddha said to Ānanda: 'Birth and death in all worlds continue without interruption: birth follows habitual tendencies, and death follows transformation and flow. At the time of death, before one has shed the touch of warmth, the wholesome and unwholesome deeds of a lifetime all appear at once. One of pure contemplative thought will soar, and will certainly be born in heaven. If, within this soaring mind, there are conjoined blessings, conjoined wisdom, and pure vows, one's mind will naturally open and one will see the buddhas of the ten directions and all pure lands, attaining rebirth according to one's vows. With little emotion and much contemplative thought, one will rise lightly but not far, becoming a flying immortal. With emotion and contemplative thought in equal balance, one neither flies nor sinks, being born among humans. Where contemplative thought is bright, one is intelligent; where emotion is murky, one is dull. With much emotion and little contemplative thought, one flows into the animal realm: heavily, among furred beasts; lightly, among winged fowl. With seven parts emotion and three parts contemplative thought, one sinks below the water wheel, is born at the edge of the fire, receives the vapor of fierce flames, and becomes a hungry ghost constantly being burned; water can harm one, and one has neither food nor drink for hundreds of thousands of kalpas. With nine parts emotion and one part contemplative thought, one penetrates down into the fire wheel, lightly being born in the Intermittent Hell, heavily being born in the Avīci Hell. With pure emotion, one immediately sinks into the Avīci Hell. If within this sinking mind one has slandered the Great Vehicle, broken the Buddha's prohibitive precepts, deceitfully expounded the Dharma, falsely coveted the alms of the faithful, improperly accepted reverence, or committed the five heinous crimes or the ten grave offenses, one is further reborn in the Avīci Hells of the ten directions.'"