西方合論 6.5

6.5

First, regarding the practice of faithful mind, the sūtra says: “Faith is the origin of the Way and the mother of merits.” None of the myriad practices does not take faith as its correct cause; even when the fruit of bodhi is perfected, it is merely the fulfillment of this faculty of faith. It is like a grain seed falling to the ground: by the time it bears fruit, it is no different from the initial seed; like a young bamboo shoot reaching to heaven: when it grows into a cluster of leaves, it is fundamentally the original stalk. Initial-mind bodhisattvas without exception achieve completion relying on this power of faith. Therefore, under the gate of the Lotus School, one relies wholly on this faith as the root. First: to believe that Amitābha Buddha’s immovable wisdom and fundamental wisdom are no different from one's own. It is like the great empty sky: when the sun shines it is bright, and when clouds arrive it is obscured, yet the empty sky fundamentally has neither of these; furthermore, both clouds and sun are identical with the empty sky. Second: to believe that Amitābha Buddha, since making his vows, through nayutas of kalpas, has performed all kinds of difficult and unbearable practices, and I too am able to practice them. Why is this? Recalling that through beginningless kalpas I drifted and drowned in the three evil destinies, enduring the suffering of birth, the suffering of death, the suffering of wearing fur and horns, the suffering of iron beds and bronze pillars—I was able to endure all these useless sufferings; how much more so the current myriad bodhisattva practices for saving sentient beings—how could I be unable to do them? Third: to believe that Amitābha Buddha's immeasurable wisdom, immeasurable supernatural powers, and accomplishment of immeasurable vows and the like will also be attained by me. Why is this? The Tathāgata's self-nature upāya possesses such inconceivable things, and I share the same inherently pure nature of self-essence with the Tathāgata. Fourth: to believe that Amitābha Buddha neither goes nor comes, and I too neither go nor come; the Western Land and this land are not separated by the tip of a hair; if one wishes to see, one sees immediately. Why is this? Because all buddhas take the Dharma-nature as their body and land. Fifth: to believe that Amitābha Buddha’s cultivation passing through kalpas until realizing the fruit did not shift a single kṣaṇa; I now also do not shift a single kṣaṇa, equal in stage to all buddhas. Why is this? Because divisions of time are subsumed under karma, and in the ocean of the dharmadhātu karma cannot be found. Such faithful understanding is called the initial mind entering the Way, the practice of faith in all buddhas' pure lands.