往生集 2.72

2.72

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."