坐禪三昧經 1.51

1.51

Answer: "If a practitioner thinks, 'This land is prosperous, joyful, secure, and has many good people,' he will constantly be pulled by the rope of thoughts of homeland and led to a place of guilt. The ideating mind being like this, if one is a wise person, one should not be attached to such thoughts. Why is this? A homeland is scorched by various faults and transgressions; because the seasons change, and also because there is starvation and bodily exhaustion, all lands are without permanent peace. Furthermore, the suffering of old age, sickness, and death exists in every land; leaving the bodily suffering of this place, one obtains the bodily suffering of that place—nowhere one goes among all lands is without suffering. Supposing there were a land that is secure, prosperous, and joyful, yet having the distress of defilements the mind produces suffering and affliction, this is not a good land. That which can remove mixed evils in a land, can attenuate defilements, and can keep the mind free from distress—this is called a good land. All sentient beings have two kinds of suffering: bodily suffering and mental suffering. They constantly have suffering and distress; there is no land without these two distresses. Furthermore, some lands are extremely cold, some lands are extremely hot, some lands have famine, some lands have much sickness, some lands have many bandits, and in some lands the royal law is disordered. The mind should not be attached to such various evils of homelands. In this way correct contemplation eliminates thoughts of homeland."