西方合論 8.13

8.13

三、疑億萬剎遠者，凡夫執定十萬億剎，意謂快馬疾帆日不千里，云何剎那得生彼處？不思國土遠近者，從分段身計度生，從肉眼生。此往生者，為是分段身耶？為是周遍含容之心耶？若分段身者，身是頑質，云何得生？若心生者，心周沙界，淨土原在心中，焉有往來。如人在長安思鄉，或閩或滇，隨念即至，豈有程途。又如人夢時身雖在床，而心意識遍至他方。無功居士曰：「極樂去此十萬億剎，凡夫命終頃刻即至者，蓋自心本妙耳。」故《楞嚴》云：「汝猶未明一切浮塵諸幻化相，當處出生隨處滅盡。因緣和合，虛妄有生；因緣別離，虛妄名滅。」以此推之，當命終時，染濁緣離故，娑婆當處幻滅；清淨緣合故，極樂當處幻生。此滅彼生間不容髮，亦何頃刻之可論。往余鄉有人能致乩仙，乩仙者即其兄也。後赴選京師，余兄等有所卜，其人虞地遠不能赴，不得已書符宣詞，少頃即至。此等是業繫，尚如是速疾，何況不思議念力，仗阿彌陀本願功德，順水張帆，有何障難。是故念佛之人，應當遣此三疑。若不遣者，是真結習濃厚，是真念力輕微，是真十萬程遠。如人欲出門而自局其籥，是自不欲出，非無門過。

Third, those who doubt because of the distance of countless billions of lands: common people cling fixedly to the ten billion lands, thinking in their minds that even a swift horse or a fast sail does not cover a thousand li in a day, so how could one be born in that place in a single kṣaṇa? They do not consider that the distance or proximity of a land is calculated and born from the body of partitioned limitation, and born from the physical eye. Is this one who is reborn a body of partitioned limitation, or is it the mind that is all-pervasive and all-containing? If it were the body of partitioned limitation, the body is inert matter—how could it attain rebirth? If it is born from the mind, the mind pervades lands numerous as sands; the Pure Land is originally within the mind, so how could there be any coming or going? It is like a person in Chang'an longing for his home, whether in Min or in Dian: as thought arises, he is immediately there; how could there be any journey? It is also like when a person dreams: although his body is on the bed, his mind, intellect, and consciousness travel everywhere to other regions. Upāsaka Wugong said: 'Sukhāvatī is ten billion lands away from here; that an ordinary person at the end of life arrives there in an instant is because one's own mind is originally wondrous.' Therefore the Śūraṅgama[-sūtra] says: 'You still do not understand that all floating dust and illusory, transformed phenomena are born right where they are and extinguished right where they are. When causes and conditions combine, there is falsely said to be birth; when causes and conditions separate, there is falsely called extinction.' Deducing from this: at the end of life, because defiled and turbid conditions separate, the Sahā world is illusorily extinguished right where it is; because pure conditions combine, Sukhāvatī is illusorily born right where it is. Between this extinction and that birth there is not room for a hair; how could one even speak of an instant? In the past, in my home village, there was a man who could summon a planchette immortal, who was his elder brother. Later, when he went to the capital for the examinations, my elder brothers and others had something to divine; the man worried that the distance was too great for [the spirit] to arrive, but having no choice, he wrote a talisman and proclaimed the words, and in a short while it arrived. Even this kind of karmic bondage is swift like this; how much more so is the inconceivable power of mindfulness, relying on the merits of Amitābha's fundamental vow! Hoisting a sail before a favorable wind, what obstruction could there be? Therefore, those who practice buddhānusmṛti should dispel these three doubts. If one does not dispel them, one's habituated afflictions are truly dense and heavy, one's power of mindfulness is truly slight and weak, and the journey of ten billion is truly distant. It is like a man who wishes to go out the door yet locks the bolt himself: it is that he himself does not wish to go out, not the fault of there being no door.