萬善同歸集 1.60

1.60

答：「譬如逆水張帆，猶云得往；更若張帆順水，速疾可知。坐念一口，尚乃八十億劫罪消；行念功德，豈知其量？故偈云：『行道五百遍，念佛一千聲，事業常如此，西方佛自成。』若禮拜，則屈伏無明，深投覺地，致敬之極，如樹倒山崩。《業報差別經》云：『禮佛一拜，從其膝下至金剛際，一塵一轉輪王位。獲十種功德：一者、得妙色身。二、出言人信。三、處眾無畏。四、諸佛護念。五、具大威儀。六、眾人親附。七、諸天愛敬。八、具大福報。九、命終往生。十、速證涅槃。』三藏勒那云：『發智清淨禮者，良由達佛境界，慧心明利，了知法界本無有閡，由我無始順於凡俗，非有有想，非閡閡想。今達自心虛通無閡，故行禮佛隨心現量。禮於一佛，即禮一切佛；禮一切佛，即是禮一佛。以佛法身，體用融通故。禮一拜遍通法界；如是香華種種供養，例同於此。六道四生，同作佛想。』文殊云：『心不生滅故，敬禮無所觀。內行平等，外順修敬；內外冥合，名平等禮。』《法華懺》云：『當禮拜時，雖不得能禮、所禮，然影現法界，一一佛前，皆見自身禮拜。』略引祖教，理事分明，不可滅佛意而毀金文，據偏見而傷圓旨。」

Answer: "It is like hoisting a sail against the current: it is still said that one can proceed; how much more so if one hoists a sail with the current—its swiftness can be known. Sitting and recollecting for a single utterance still dispels sins of eighty koṭis of kalpas; how could one measure the merit of recollecting while walking? Hence a verse says: 'Circumambulating five hundred times, / Recollecting the Buddha a thousand sounds; / When the undertaking is constantly like this, / The Buddha of the West naturally achieves.' As for prostration, it subdues ignorance and casts one deeply into the ground of awakening; the culmination of paying reverence is like a tree falling or a mountain collapsing. The Karma-Vibhaṅga Sūtra says: 'Making one prostration to the Buddha, from beneath one's knees down to the Vajra Boundary, for each grain of dust one gains the rank of a cakravartin. One obtains ten kinds of merit: First, obtaining an exquisite physical body. Second, people believing one's words. Third, being fearless among assemblies. Fourth, being protected and remembered by the Buddhas. Fifth, possessing great majesty of deportment. Sixth, all people drawing close to one. Seventh, being loved and revered by all the devas. Eighth, possessing great fortune and reward. Ninth, being reborn [in a pure land] at the end of life. Tenth, swiftly realizing nirvāṇa.' Tripiṭaka [master] Ratnamati said: 'The pure prostration that gives rise to wisdom: this is truly due to penetrating the Buddha's realm, with a bright and sharp mind of wisdom, fully knowing that the dharmadhātu is originally free of obstruction. Due to having followed worldliness from beginningless time, one conceives non-existence as existence and unobstruction as obstruction. Now penetrating one's own mind as void, open, and unobstructed, one practices prostrating to the Buddha according to the mind's direct perception. Prostrating to one Buddha is prostrating to all Buddhas; prostrating to all Buddhas is prostrating to one Buddha, because the Buddha's dharmakāya has its essence and function interpenetrating. Prostrating once pervades the dharmadhātu; various offerings of incense and flowers are also like this. One regards the six destinies and four modes of birth equally as Buddhas.' Mañjuśrī said: 'Because the mind neither arises nor ceases, reverent prostration has nothing to contemplate. Practicing equality inwardly and according with reverent cultivation outwardly, inner and outer merge in dark union: this is called the prostration of equality.' The Fahua Chan says: 'At the time of prostration, though one does not grasp a subject of prostration or an object of prostration, yet shadows manifest in the dharmadhātu, and before each and every Buddha, one sees one's own body making prostrations.' Briefly citing the teachings of the patriarchs, principle and phenomena are clearly distinct; one must not extinguish the Buddha's intention and destroy the golden scriptures, nor rely on biased views and harm the perfect purport."