淨土生無生論 1.45

1.45

The Biographies of Rebirth states: 'Zhang Kang served the Shi-Jin dynasty as an academician of the Hanlin Academy. He took on a daily recitation of the Great Compassion Dhāraṇī one hundred thousand times, vowing to be born in the West. One day he fell ill and only recited the Buddha's name. Suddenly he said to his family: "The Western Pure Land is just to the west of the main hall. Amitābha Buddha is sitting upon a lotus flower, and I see Weng'er bowing and playing upon the golden sand ground of the lotus pond." After a short while, he passed away reciting the Buddha's name. Weng'er was Kang's grandson.' That this was so is because the Western Realm of Ultimate Bliss is merely a single land within our mind, and the Sahā world is also merely a single land within our mind. Speaking in terms of lands, there is a difference between this and that of a hundred thousand kotis [of lands]; observing in terms of mind, there was originally neither near nor far. But ever since sentient beings received birth, their true nature has been confined and delimited by the five aggregates, failing to accord with the mind-source. When the karmic retribution of a person who recites the Buddha's name ripens, and they are about to abandon the intermediate aggregate of the present life and head toward the intermediate aggregate of rebirth, the lotus flower of the Pure Land suddenly appears before them. This is a realm of mind-only; there are no characteristics of coming and going, of this and that. Therefore the Śūraṅgama Sūtra says: 'At the time of approaching the end of life, before warmth has left [the body], the good and bad deeds of the whole life appear all at once. If there is pure thought, one will immediately soar and be reborn in the heavens. If within this soaring mind there is both merit and wisdom, as well as pure vows, one's mind will naturally open and see the Buddhas of the ten directions, and one will be reborn in any pure land according to one's vow.' Master Fazhi said: 'One should know that when approaching death, seeing oneself sitting on a golden lotus, one's body is already the intermediate aggregate of rebirth in that land.' This is also what it means.