佛祖統紀 22.28

22.28

Wang Tian was a native of Cixi in Siming. He gave himself the sobriquet Wugongsou. His family had been renowned Confucians for generations. Having twice sat for the jinshi examination without success, clad in plain clothes and eating simple vegetables, he inquired everywhere at lecture seats. In his late years, he focused solely on reciting the Buddha's name. Using the principles he had attained, he composed the Record of Self-Confidence in the Pure Land. Its preface stated in brief: 'The fundamental mind of sentient beings inherently possesses the four Pure Lands. As for the Co-dwelling [Land], ordinary beings bound by defilements can directly rely on it. The remaining three lands are only attained and entered by noble ones who have severed delusions. Furthermore, within the single gate of rebirth, there are two kinds of pure karma: one is correct contemplation, which is silently illuminating the fundamental mind; the other is auxiliary practice, which is fully cultivating the ten thousand goods. When correct contemplation and auxiliary practice advance together, one thoroughly understands the four Pure Lands. For those who merely possess vows and other phenomenal goods, it creates the near cause of rebirth in the land where ordinary beings and sages co-dwell, and the distant cause for the upper three lands. Judging from this, the Pure Land is precisely the realm attained by bodhisattvas who fathom principle, while accommodating the gradual cultivation and dedication of ordinary sentient beings.' He also said: 'Understanding the Way with perfect capacity is the supreme pure karma. If one supplements it with vows to guide it, one immediately attains a superior grade. As for the foolish and simple, none who merely recite the Buddha's name and make vows fail to be born. Observing this single gate of the Pure Land, one realizes that the sage abandons no being. Those people who merely cling to foolish emptiness, asserting non-obstruction and non-cultivation, give rise to a self-obstructing mind and cut off others' path of study; they then elevate their speech, saying: "The Pure Land is an insignificant matter—how is it worth mentioning?" Those who utter such words are truly pitiable!' On the evening of the dingmao day in the fourth month of the sixteenth year of Shaoxing, an extraordinary fragrance suddenly filled the room. He said to his brother, the śramaṇa Siqi: 'This is a response to the pure karma I have cultivated.' Thereupon, he bathed, changed his clothes, sat cross-legged facing west, and transformed. When his body was cremated, one hundred and eight relics resembling beans were obtained. (This fascicle records forty-three people. The Basic Annals only record twenty-two; the remaining twenty-one are all found in separate biographies, and are thus explained in small characters.)