往生集 2.72

2.72

唐白居易。官中大夫太子少傅。捨宅為香山寺。號香山居士。晚歲患風痺。出俸錢三萬。繪西方極樂世界一部依正莊嚴。悉按無量壽經。靡不曲盡頂禮發願。以偈贊曰。極樂世界清淨土。無諸惡道及眾苦。願如我身老病者。同生無量壽佛所。

Bai Juyi of the Tang dynasty held the post of Grand Master of the Palace and Junior Preceptor to the Crown Prince. He gave up his residence to establish Xiangshan Temple and took the sobriquet Layman Xiangshan. In his later years he suffered from wind-palsy. He donated thirty thousand in salary money to have a depiction made of the primary and secondary adornments of the Sukhāvatī world system of the Western Direction, completely following the *Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtra* in exhaustive detail. Prostrating and making vows, he praised it in verse: "The Sukhāvatī world system is a pure land, / Free of all evil destinies and manifold sufferings. / May those who, like my own body, are old and sick, / Be reborn together in the abode of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life."