西方合論

Xiangguangzi concealed his name and withdrew from the world, dwelling in a secluded mountain forest and devoting himself to the cultivation of pure karma. A Chan practitioner of broad learning and lofty attainment happened to visit his pure chamber for a discussion. Seeing on the table a copy of the Treatise on the Synthesis of the Western Pure Land, recently compiled by the layman Shitou, the Chan practitioner had not yet finished reading it when he began to object:

– A Dharma gate such as that set forth in this treatise was originally intended to receive those of middling and inferior capacities. Why is this so? Those of middling and inferior capacities, whose wisdom is feeble and whose karmic burdens are heavy, must rely on mindfulness of the Buddha and recitation of the Buddha’s name in order to be reborn in the Pure Land, just as a boulder must rely on a boat to reach the other shore. Such people truly need to recite the Buddha’s name! But as for us, who have penetrated the source and understood that this very mind is Buddha, where else is there a Buddha to seek? From the standpoint of absolute principle, when one seeks the characteristics of the three times in sentient beings and Buddhas, in coming and going, birth and death, not the slightest trace can be found. The moment one opens one’s mouth and speaks of becoming a Buddha, the words are already superfluous. How could one distinguish between defilement and purity, abandon this place, and seek birth in another? If one awakens right here, one is free and at ease. The very nature of lust, anger, and delusion is the impartial bodhimanda of Amitabha, thusness itself, unmoving. Why abandon the Buddha within oneself to bow before Buddhas cast in gold or bronze? Moreover, to say, “Whether awakened or not, one should still cultivate,” is to create a problem where none exists. I simply cannot understand it!

After hearing this, Xiangguangzi sighed and said:

– If you speak in this way, you are merely indulging in pleasing words. You do not realize that the moment you lift your foot, you will fall into a pit of fire. Birth and death and impermanence arrive in the blink of an eye; how can you merely memorize ready-made expressions of the Chan school and take them to be ultimate? People in the Chan school all say, “I have already become a Buddha; there is no need to recite the Buddha’s name.” If we speak from the standpoint of principle, even the fleas and lice of this world fully possess the same pure essence of awakening as the Tathagata, neither two nor different. Even when Buddhas attain perfect enlightenment and realize great nirvana, that fundamental essence has never increased by so much as a hair. When sentient beings fall into the three evil paths and ceaselessly drift and sink in the ocean of birth and death, that fundamental essence has never diminished in the slightest. The essence of thusness eternally abides, unmoving. Birth and death and nirvana are both erroneous perceptions; there is neither Tathagata nor sentient being. With respect to realization and entry, there is no person who realizes and enters, nor any Dharma that is realized and entered. All restless conceptual thought is cut off, and every mistaken cognition is transcended. When throughout the great earth there is not an inch of ground, where could even the single word “Buddha” be established? Yet there are Dharma gates for diligent cultivation, cultivation and realization within non-cultivation and non-realization, levels within the absence of levels, and myriad distinctions. Even when a bodhisattva ascends to the stage of equal enlightenment, that bodhisattva still does not know where the Tathagata lifts or sets down his foot.

From ancient times, when the patriarchs reviled the Buddha and rebuked the teachings, their words were merely skillful means intended to prevent attachment. People’s minds clung firmly to the characteristics of the teachings, producing conceptual interpretations by following words. Unable to awaken to the fundamental essence beyond words, they habitually became attached to the skillful means contained within words.

They spoke endlessly of mind, nature, emptiness, illusion, sudden awakening, gradual cultivation, cause, and effect; they understood a thousand sutras and ten thousand treatises. Yet when asked about their own fundamental nature, they immediately replied with stock phrases drawn from the sutras and treatises. If all those ready-made expressions were taken away, they remained as bewildered as before, utterly at a loss.

This is what is called counting money for others while possessing not a single coin oneself. Others may practice sincerely but fail to see Buddha-nature. They undertake ascetic practices like blind people, without the guidance of a good and wise spiritual friend, and are not born into the household of the Tathagata; they reap only the fruits of rebirth among gods and humans.

Knowing these faults, the patriarchs employed drastic methods to sweep away the language that obstructed the path of liberation and to eradicate discriminating consciousness, thereby compelling practitioners to investigate diligently and continuously and to journey upstream against the current of arising and ceasing. When the discriminating consciousness of arising and ceasing has entirely dissolved, all thoughts of grasping and relinquishing become empty.

Only then do they recognize the parents who gave birth to them and their own treasury of countless kalpas. When they subsequently return to reading the sutras and studying the teachings, they see that everything speaks of affairs within their own home. Thereafter, when diligent cultivation is discussed, they employ the Buddha’s knowledge and vision to sweep away habitual tendencies; bow to the Tathagata as to flowers appearing in empty space; cultivate pure conduct like the moon’s reflection in water; ascend through the stages like shimmering sunlight; and liberate sentient beings like echoes in a rocky cavern, without attachment to the attainment of nirvana.

This is the seed of Buddhahood. Such practitioners are truly like the radiant sun in the open sky, traveling the road trodden by kings, rather than creeping through the pitch darkness of the long night, clutching at thornbushes and tumbling headlong into brambles. How could it be said that immediately after awakening one becomes equal to the fruition of Buddhahood?

Thus, Gongfeng asked Chan Master Jingcen:

– Have the good and wise spiritual friends throughout the world attained the fruition of nirvana?

Jingcen replied:

– They have not attained it.

Gongfeng asked:

– Why have they not attained it?

Jingcen replied:

– Because their cultivation is not yet equal to that of the sages.

Gongfeng asked:

– If that is so, how can they be called good and wise spiritual friends?

Jingcen replied:

– One who clearly sees Buddha-nature may also be called a good and wise spiritual friend.

Chan Master Hongbian said, “At the very moment one awakens to one’s own nature, one is equal to the Buddha. Nevertheless, because beginningless habitual tendencies remain, one must rely on remedies to counteract them. Through this, one accords with one’s own nature and gives rise to its wondrous functioning, just as a person eating a meal cannot become full from a single mouthful.” Guishan said, “A beginner who seeks the path of bodhi must, through various conditions, suddenly awaken to the principle of their own nature.

Nevertheless, beginningless habitual tendencies accumulated over a long time remain and cannot be cleansed away immediately. Such a person must be taught to sweep away the manifest karma that continues through consciousness. This is precisely cultivation; there is no other Dharma.

They must be taught to direct their resolve toward practice.” As for the patriarchs’ methods of guiding people, they were like a sheer precipice ten thousand fathoms high, like a great mass of fire that burns at the slightest touch, and like a forest of sharp swords that sever whatever comes into contact with them. Before one even opened one’s mouth, one was already thousands upon thousands of miles away, beyond the pivotal opportunity.

Yet, to speak precisely, they never abolished the stages and never abandoned cultivation. The Record of the Transmission of the Lamp explains these matters clearly and fully. The teachings of Chan Masters Dahui and Zhongfeng are exceedingly earnest, revealing their sincere hearts in admonishing and encouraging practitioners.

They feared that those trapped in an empty intellectual understanding would fall into the affairs of Mara. How could they ever have said that after a single awakening there was no further need to apply oneself to cultivation, and that one immediately became equal to the Honored One Perfect in Both Wisdom and Merit, who had attained ultimate nirvana?

In later generations, there were people who did not understand the intent of the teachings or comprehend the pivotal methods of the patriarchs, yet stubbornly took as practice those shouts against the Buddha, denunciations of the patriarchs, and perilous sayings that shatter the gall and startle the spirit. The ancients, though encumbered by the sutras and treatises, were merely eating a mixture of various grains and rice that they could not digest.

Those of later times stuffed their memories with sayings of the Chan school, then rejected causes, repudiated effects, and overstepped their own capacity. Today they take rhubarb and croton seeds—extremely powerful purgatives—to be tea and rice. Not only have they gone astray themselves, but they also spread their errors to others.

Nothing could be worse!

Therefore, as soon as they enter this gate, they despise the Tathagatas throughout the ten directions, saying to themselves, “There is no Buddha to become and no practice to cultivate.” When they see someone reciting the Buddha’s name, they say, “The self-nature is Buddha.” When they see someone cultivating the Pure Land path, they say, “The mind itself is the Pure Land.” When speaking of Chan inquiry, they exalt it above the nine heavens; when speaking of Buddha-recitation, they trample it beneath the nine layers of the earth.

They never reflect that Chan inquiry and Buddha-recitation are, in the final analysis, means of breaking open the prison of birth and death, bridges by which to cross the dreadful ocean of suffering, and precious rafts by which to traverse the conditioned world of arising and ceasing. All belong to the same family; how could one be superior and another inferior?

Within the gate of Chan inquiry, the practitioners’ awakenings may also be shallow or profound. Likewise, the cultivation of those who recite the Buddha’s name may be high or low and is not uniform. Why insist that those who practice Chan possess superior faculties, while those who recite the Buddha’s name possess only middling or inferior faculties? When Bodhidharma came from India and established this school, he made the prophetic declaration: “Two hundred years hence, those who understand the Way will be many, but those who practice the Way will be few; those who discourse on the principle will be many, but those who penetrate the principle will be few.”

Today, the Records of the Transmission of the Lamp recount people who awakened in numbers as abundant as sesame and grain, but in reality their levels varied greatly. Some had exceedingly deep affinities with prajna and wholesome roots cultivated in previous lives. They were like kalavinka birds breaking through their eggshells to emerge, or like royal elephants parting the waters to cross.

Some perceived the pivotal capacity through a few words; some displayed their majestic power through a single shout; hearing one thing, they awakened to a thousand and attained the great dharani. Others cherished the resolve to transcend the world, fully possessed the mettle of great men, relinquished worldly concerns to investigate this great matter, did not rely on petty understanding, and sought only the wisdom of the Buddha.

Lying on thorns and tasting gall, drinking coldness and swallowing bitterness, they endured thirty or forty arduous years. Then they encountered an enlightened teacher who earnestly gave them a thrust or a piercing blow, causing their outward-directed minds utterly to die, whereupon the flower of the spiritual mind burst into bloom.

Afterward, they still had to cultivate in secrecy, so that habitual tendencies would gradually dissolve. Even views concerning the Dharma had to be relinquished, how much more so views contrary to the Dharma. Thus Zhaozhou said that only during the two daily meals of gruel did thoughts and mental stirrings arise; Yongquan applied himself to cultivation for forty years, yet his mind still roamed; and Xianglin exerted himself for forty years before finally kneading his practice into a single mass.

Practitioners remained constantly vigilant and cautious, as though guarding their own heads and eyes, until the smoke dispersed and the ashes grew cold. Then naturally not a single thought arose, karma could no longer bind them, and they were free and at ease with regard to birth and death. If asked about the level of their realization, I fear that they still might not surpass the station of the highest grade of the highest rebirth.

On what basis do I dare to say this? Bodhisattva Nagarjuna was a founding patriarch of the Chan school. He attained great wisdom, possessed great eloquence, and upheld the Buddhadharma. Therefore, several hundred years beforehand, at the Lankavatara assembly, the Blessed One bestowed a prediction upon him, yet said only: “Having realized the first ground, the Ground of Joy, he will be reborn in the Land of Peace and Bliss.” Moreover, the Contemplation Sutra states: “A practitioner born in that land at the station of the highest grade of the highest rebirth realizes the fruit of the first ground in approximately a single instant.”

Even if the great patriarchs of the school today possessed an understanding freed from the five hindrances and the ten fetters, and their speech poured forth beyond all conventional patterns, how could they immediately surpass Nagarjuna? Nagarjuna had awakened to the meaning of non-arising and signlessness and possessed an understanding that did not fall into hierarchical distinctions, yet he was still reborn in the Land of Peaceful Nurture. This corresponds precisely to the realization attained through the highest grade of the highest rebirth. Thus, among those of the Chan school, who could surpass Nagarjuna in realization?

This is because understanding the ultimate meaning at the level of the highest grade of the highest rebirth corresponds to awakening in the Chan school. Deep faith in the principle of cause and effect also corresponds to cultivation in the Chan school; the only difference is Buddha-recitation and rebirth in the Pure Land. Yet I maintain that those who cultivate and awaken within the Chan school can neither cling to the nirvana without remainder that is identical with that of the Tathagata, nor consent to cling to the nirvana with remainder shared by the practitioners of the two vehicles.

Naturally, they enter Samantabhadra’s ocean of practices and vows. If they do not relinquish one body and assume another in order to liberate sentient beings, they will journey from one land to another to make offerings to the Buddhas. Having seen the Buddhas, this is equivalent to attaining rebirth in their presence, and ultimately they too enter the station of the highest grade of the highest rebirth.

Therefore, Chan and Pure Land are equal. For what reason, then, should one esteem the patriarchs while disparaging fellow practitioners of the Pure Land?

Some may have already entered the gate of awakening, yet stopped too soon. Thus, because their wisdom has not penetrated the profound and subtle, even the great Way can hardly overcome their habitual tendencies. A single thought not utterly extinguished becomes the source of birth and death.

Swept away by the winds of karma, they plunge headlong into the womb, as when the Fifth Patriarch Jie was reborn as Dongpo, and Qingcaotang in his next life became Duke Lu. After casting off the former body and taking up a new one, they drift along according to each circumstance. Their realization diminishes rather than grows; their karma increases rather than lessens.

Even though their affinity with prajna is very deep and they do not fall into the three evil destinies, emerging from one womb only to plunge into another is still exceedingly bitter and lamentable. Compared with those of middle or lower grade who attain rebirth in the Pure Land, they remain as far apart as a deep abyss and the lofty heavens. The difference between them cannot be expressed by analogy.

How much more is this so when the spirit of the school declines with each passing day in later generations, while people's capacity for cultivation grows weaker day by day. Their resolve is for the most part insincere, and their practice is likewise neither pure nor single-minded. Occasionally, through the dynamic expressions of the Buddhas and patriarchs or the words of a wise spiritual teacher, they awaken to that which has always already been Buddha.

That very point is beyond the reach of discriminating consciousness and cannot be overtaken by words. Nothing whatsoever can be grasped; even the ungraspability itself is ungraspable. When they examine the sayings of the ancients, they find them all seemingly similar.

Having acquired this semblance of understanding, they immediately declare that the mind of seeking has come to an end and that they are practitioners with nothing further to do. Knowing that afflictions are like dreams and illusions, they freely indulge their afflictions; knowing that cultivation is originally empty, they freely destroy their cultivation. They say that giving is originally empty, yet act contrary to it and cling to stinginess.

They say that patience is originally empty, and therefore permit themselves to abandon patience. When discipline is mentioned, they say that there is originally neither observance nor transgression, so why honor the observance of precepts and look down upon their violation? When meditation is mentioned, they say that there is originally neither concentration nor distraction, so why abandon distracted thoughts and retain meditative stillness?

They wantonly trample upon existence while babbling falsely about emptiness. They say:

– Even the Dharma must be relinquished; why cling to what is contrary to the Dharma?

– If even the true is not to be sought, why abandon the true and seek the false?

– Practicing contemplation and cultivating concentration are both traces of conditioned activity; why should the pursuit of fame and profit alone accord with the unconditioned Way?

The flames of attachment and aversion, praise and blame, blaze high as soon as they are touched. The winds of birth, aging, sickness, and death shake them after the slightest passing breath. They contend over self and others and argue over right and wrong, to the point that they regard a fiercely irascible temperament as heroic spirit, arrogance as genuine ability, deceit as a profound and wondrous function, lies as skillful means, self-indulgence as the samadhi of playful freedom, and coarse speech as liberation from attachment.

They praise those who violate the precepts and lack virtuous conduct, while scorning those who serve as disciplined exemplars. One-sidedly attached to principle, they suppose that the point of ultimate profundity and consummate subtlety leaves no trace, and so they sweep away all Dharma gates of cultivation. Thus they indulge themselves as they please and observe no rules.

With their mouths they call rebirth in the Pure Land a teaching of the Lesser Vehicle and tell others to practice it, while they themselves remain at ease. Throughout an entire year, they may not bow to a single Buddha, perform a single repentance service, or recite a single line of scripture. Instead, they read worldly books that bring no benefit.

They do what practitioners of the Way ought not to do and set a bad example for later students, who flaunt their cleverness and seek only intellectual understanding. As soon as they learn something, they immediately imagine that they have transcended the realm of delusion and leapt directly into the realm of awakening, with nothing further to be done. They then become wantonly arrogant and presumptuous, acting recklessly; their speech is unrestrained, and their conduct is devoid of virtue.

Though the father has already repaid the debt, the son continues the trade of robbery; mistaking the character wu for the character ma, they transmit errors from one to another. They fail to remember that worldly desires have no bounds, like waters overflowing a dike. If one day, merely for the pleasure of speaking freely, they break open the gate of cause and effect and tear down the restraining wall, the bandits will pour in.

They themselves are deluded, yet they also sow delusion in others. How could they avoid sinking and falling? If they are not seized by demons, they will certainly fall into the three evil destinies for endless ages.

Mountains of knives and forests of swords will requite their former causes; wearing fur and bearing horns, they will repay their old debts.

Therefore, never say, “I am awakened; karma cannot bind me.” That karma cannot bind one does not mean that it exists yet is nonexistent. It means precisely that because it is empty, it is empty of itself. If, while alive, one is already moved by circumstances, then at death how can one escape being dragged by the power of karma and compelled to undergo rebirth?

When a single thought of anger arises here and now, one immediately assumes the monstrous form of a python. When a single thought of greed arises here and now, one immediately becomes a hungry ghost. The invisible cause—the arising of a thought—is extremely slight, yet its visible karmic result is exceedingly great.

A most subtle thought deposited in the ground of storehouse consciousness remains through thousands and tens of thousands of kalpas and is never lost. Thus, there was a bhikshu whose body radiated light because of his wisdom, yet maggots poured from his mouth because he had lied. From merely one trivial utterance, he had to endure such a cruel evil retribution.

Although he possessed wisdom, his evil karma never vanished. How much less could people today, whose ignorance and afflictions are powerful and whose desires remain unextinguished, ever hope to use a semblance of understanding to wear away evil karma and escape the three evil destinies! Surely this is impossible.

Suppose such people did not cling to minor attainment as sufficient, but constantly practiced in accordance with the Buddha’s teachings and never declared, “I am already awakened; this very mind is Buddha.” How then could they be inferior even to people of middling and lesser capacities who recite the Buddha’s name and seek rebirth in the Pure Land? If they awaken to the truth that birth is originally non-birth, they will seek rebirth in the Pure Land all the more vigorously.

If this very mind is the land, then the Lotus Realm is not outside the mind. Without abandoning prostrations or neglecting recitation, and advancing through the combined powers of wisdom and cultivation, they will sit upon a lotus dais of the highest grade and dwell in a jeweled tower suspended in space. In the morning they will partake of fragrant rice in the Buddha-land of Fragrant Accumulation; in the evening they will visit the Buddha-land of the Full Moon.

Looking back upon those of the womb-born grades, who stroll slowly upon the jeweled ground but cannot hear the words of the Dharma or behold the Dharma-body, they will seem as difficult to place together as elephants and horses, as different in kind as chickens and phoenixes. How much more so compared with the meager fruits of the heavenly and human realms, like flies and mosquitoes trapped inside a jar!

Nevertheless, there are also those whose understanding is vacuous and whose minds are arrogant, who cling to emptiness and thereby destroy existence. Ultimately, because of their erroneous, one-sided views, they must undergo extraordinary retribution. Such people refuse to become children of Amitabha but instead become prisoners of Yama; they do not become companions of the pure assembly but instead become associates of the wardens of hell.

They abandon the forest of trees made of the seven precious substances and enter the forest of swords; they forsake the Brahma-voice expounding the Dharma and listen instead to exceedingly tragic wails. Upon examination, one finds that they do not even equal the simple and unlearned people of the world who perform a little good and cultivate a little merit, thereby attaining rebirth in the human or heavenly realms, and so forth.

Thus, a deviation no greater than a strand of silk or the tip of a hair results in a separation as vast as that between heaven and earth. How could this not be deeply lamentable?

Therefore, among those of the Chan school, even persons of superior faculties may not necessarily surpass the rank of the highest grade of the highest level of rebirth, while those of inferior faculties may fall into the three evil paths. Hence, one should understand that this path is exceedingly arduous and dangerous and not easily traversed: succeed, and one becomes a Buddha; fail, and one becomes a demon. The distinction between king and bandit is decided in an instant; the difference between minister and butcher lies within a hair’s breadth.

Quickly choose between your share of joy and your share of suffering! Moreover, in the present generation, although the gateway of awakening continues like an unbroken thread, within the gate of Chan all is desolate, and there is no one who has attained realization. There are only two or three lay practitioners who have had the fortunate opportunity to receive the transmission of this Dharma.

Yet, being lay practitioners, they are unlike the monastics, the sons of the Shakya, who still have the precepts to restrain them and can therefore cast themselves into a great mass of fire and immerse their minds in the vast ocean of afflictions. Although lay practitioners live in the world and conduct worldly affairs, rarely does even one enter the gate of liberation, for the power of the Path is very shallow while the power of karma is very deep.

Even the coarsest and gravest karma—none graver than killing and sexual misconduct—they are unable to refrain from committing. How, then, could they remain peaceful, free, and at ease amid the subtle entanglements of birth, death, and samsaric wandering? They merely see that people as wealthy and eminent as Vu Địch, as treacherous as Lữ Huệ Khanh, as impetuous as Trương Thiên Giác, and as elegant, youthful, and handsome as Bạch Lạc Thiên and Tô Tử Chiêm were all included in the Records of the Transmission of the Lamp, and consequently suppose that all these figures were entirely unobstructed.

Yet they fail to understand that, although these people possessed right view, if it is claimed that from then onward they would no longer assume a body subject to the segmented birth and death of samsara and could no longer be bound by karma, I dare not accept it. They are now enduring retribution through the long night, and it is not known when it will end.

Therefore, one should understand that this Dharma-gate of Buddha-recitation is all the more urgent for lay practitioners. Although the force of karma is heavy, by relying reverently upon the Buddha’s power, one may avoid sinking into the ocean of birth and death, just as a debtor who takes refuge in the royal palace is spared from having to repay his debt. Likewise, once practitioners are reborn in the Buddha-land, everything they have previously understood and realized will not be lost.

Birth and death press urgently upon human beings; once the breath has gone out, there is no assurance that it will return. Seek the path home without delay, lest you fall into panic and confusion when the time comes! Even if practitioners are inclined toward Chan meditation, there is no obstruction in also practicing Buddha-recitation.

People of the world serve as officials and pursue various occupations, yet still maintain that these do not obstruct Chan meditation; how much less could morning and evening prostrations and recitations be an obstruction? Furthermore, earnest Buddha-recitation makes the mind engaged in Chan meditation all the more lucid and alert. Through penetrating the gate of Chan meditation, one’s faith in the Pure Land becomes all the firmer.

Thus, practitioners who rely upon both are very secure. Not to believe this would truly be foolish.

When he was young, the lay practitioner Thạch Đầu delighted in Chan meditation. His faculties were exceedingly keen, and within ten years he penetrated the teaching and gained an entry. His Chan responsiveness was quick and incisive, and his speech flowed freely and without obstruction.

Ordinarily, when discussing this matter with others, he could set down a thousand words without treading upon a single saying of the patriarchs, but drew them forth directly from his own heart. He was truly a living tiger and a living dragon, without a single dead word. In the end, he himself declared that he had awakened and that there was nothing more to be done.

Although his attachment to worldly affairs diminished and he did not plunge into the dust and toil of mundane life, he still delighted in cool breezes and bright moonlight, traveled among rivers and mountains, lingered over poetry and literature, and indulged in wine, sinking into the karma of refined intoxication. Because of his pride and wildness, his mind could not avoid dissipation. His former illness had not yet been entirely eliminated.

Fortunately, he was deeply concerned with the matter of birth and death and did not remain deluded for long. He reflected with anguish that when encountering circumstances, his mind still arose, and when coming into contact with physical, mental, and physiological objects, it remained entangled; his superficial understanding could not overcome discriminating consciousness and emotion. If one understands awakening but does not cultivate, one falls into the realm of demons.

The boundary between Buddha and demon lies within a single instant. Only then did the lay practitioner begin to turn his attachment to emptiness toward the ocean of Samantabhadra. He further reflected that among all Dharma-gates of cultivation, none equals Buddha-recitation, yet for a time he continued to raise the unresolved doubts of people of middling and inferior faculties.

Later, after extensively studying the sutras and treatises, he came to understand that this Dharma-gate originally embraces both those who have awakened to the One Vehicle and those who have not yet awakened. Everyone without exception must cultivate it. In this treatise, he selected what the Buddha had extolled, what the bodhisattvas had clearly explained, and what the great wise spiritual teachers had elucidated, adding thereto his own ideas.

A thousand waves surge up in competition and divide into myriad branches and streams, yet, upon careful examination, they all share a single source. This treatise takes the inconceivable ultimate truth as its central principle and awakening as the master who indicates and opens the way. Throughout the twelve periods of the day, its practice consists of upholding the Buddha’s name, attaining one-pointedness without distraction, and maintaining thought after thought in uninterrupted succession.

It takes the six paramitas and myriad practices as auxiliary causes, and profound faith in the principle of cause and effect as the gateway of entry. As soon as this treatise was completed, five friends who practiced Chan resolved to uphold the precepts and recite the Buddha’s name. All five wished to propagate this treatise in order to sweep away the errors found within the Chan tradition.

I, Hương Quang Tử, possess narrow knowledge and inferior faculties. For a long time, I too was intoxicated by attachment to emptiness, allowing my mind to run unrestrained like a mad elephant. Last year, one night while sunk in sleep, I suddenly dreamed that I had gone to Cách Tử Hell.

The flames in this hell blazed fiercely, and there I saw a familiar monk who had died. During his lifetime, he had often discoursed upon the principle of emptiness while violating the precepts. His body was gaunt and feeble, and with one crippled leg he hobbled past.

His wailing shook heaven and earth; to hear it was truly unbearable! When I suddenly awoke, all the hair on my body stood on end, and I immediately resolved to take refuge in the Pure Land Dharma-gate. After reading this treatise, all my former doubts vanished.

Therefore, today I do not shrink from being overly verbose, like one long afflicted by illness who has learned to act as a physician, or like a traveler in foreign lands who knows compassion for those adrift far from home. Sweep away your former attachments! Humbly recite and study this teaching, and naturally you will gain an entry.

The matter of birth and death is exceedingly great; delay no longer!

At that time, the meditation practitioner, filled with sorrow and shedding tears, said to himself:

– Had I not met you, I might have had my entire life ruined by the erroneous view of non-action. You have indeed given me life anew.

The meditation practitioner earnestly requested the treatise that lay upon the table, then bowed and took his leave.

The twenty-third day of the second month of spring,

in the gengzi year, the forty-second year of the Wanli era (1573),

during the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Ming dynasty,

recorded by Bo Su Yuan Zongdao at the White Su Studio.

Those who cling to forms and are deluded about their fundamental mind fall into the error of conditioned activity. Those who cling to emptiness, negate existence, and behave wantonly and without restraint give rise to grave and perilous calamities. Patriarch Bodhidharma, in order to save those attached to forms, taught that both offenses and merits are empty.

Master Yongming, in order to dispel the delusion of those possessed of reckless wisdom, taught that everything returns to the myriad wholesome deeds. This is like using water to extinguish fire: if the water overflows, one encounters the danger of drowning. Grasses and trees flourish verdantly by absorbing sunlight, but if the weather becomes fiercely hot, they wither and perish.

The Tathagata's Dharma may likewise be understood by analogy. Since the emergence of the five Chan schools, the tradition of single transmission has flourished. Today, however, reckless people have gone so far as mistakenly to identify the teaching of mind-only with the non-action doctrine of non-Buddhist paths, obstinately clinging to this assertion as correct.

Consequently, they proceed toward the demon realm of the five desires, giving no thought to the fact that Venerable Ananda, before attaining the exhaustion of the outflows, was expelled by the ascetic Kasyapa during the first compilation of the scriptures. Mada, though bearing only the subtlest fetters, was still rebuked by the Venerable One. Even when habitual tendencies remain as thin as a cicada's wing, the jeweled abode is still exceedingly distant.

How much more so for those whose defilements are as abundant as earthen mounds and lofty mountains—how could the bliss of purity ever be accomplished?

The Lankavatara Sutra transmitted by Bodhidharma emphasizes both awakening and cultivation. The pure regulations instituted by Baizhang advocate the joint practice of Chan realization and observance of the precepts. I have never heard that the essential tradition of the One Vehicle ridicules the keeping of pure precepts, or that descendants of the Chan house may still remain attached to worldly affairs.

In ancient times, a Daoist traveling at night was led into a burial ground by a demon. A farmer saw this, brought the Daoist into his home, and sprinkled water on his face until he regained consciousness. When taking his leave, the Daoist said to the farmer, “I am indebted to you, my benefactor, but do not know how to repay you.

I have only these two talismans for warding off demons; please accept them as a token of repayment.” Anyone hearing this would laugh. Students of the Way today have greed, anger, and wrong views blazing like a raging fire, yet wish to release others from bondage. How could they be so deluded!

Throughout ten years of studying the Way, I too suffered from this malady of recklessness. Later, fortunately encountering the appropriate conditions, I gained a measure of awakening, swept away worldly defilements, and turned my mind toward the Pure Land. Apart from the appointed periods of worship and recitation, I used my leisure to examine attentively and thoroughly the treatises of Nagarjuna, Tiantai, the Elder Li, Yongming, and others.

Suddenly, my doubts dissolved, and I came to have profound faith in the Pure Land Dharma-gate. I also awakened to the distinct practices of the great bodhisattvas, like a poor man finding a treasury of gold, and my joy was immeasurable. Venerable Yu'an and the layman Pingxing wished me to compile the treatises concerning the Western Land.

I therefore related the essential sayings of the ancient worthies and supplemented them with my own understanding, composing a volume entitled A Synthesis of the Western Land.

I began writing on the twenty-third day of the tenth month of the jihai year (1594) and completed it on the twenty-second day of the twelfth month. As only a few people had offered comments and corrections, there must still be many omissions and errors. Yet, because I wished to provide a skillful means for beginners, I earnestly hoped to receive guidance from good spiritual friends.

Following the example of the ancients, I divided the work broadly into ten chapters:

1. The Lands.

2. Causal Origins.

3. Categories.

4. Characteristics of the Teachings.

5. Principles and Truths.

6. Accordance with the Nature.

7. Rebirth.

8. The Net of Views.

9. Cultivation and Practice.

10. Resolving Objections.

Chapter I

THE LANDS

The Dharma-body is impartial; dependent recompense and direct recompense interpenetrate one another. The defiled and pure Buddha-lands of the ten directions are without distinction. It is only because the practices and karma of sentient beings differ that the manifestations of the Buddhas vary: some teachings are expedient, others true; some partial, others perfect; some provisional, others eternal; some gradual, others sudden.

It is like the moon casting its shimmering radiance upon myriad rivers, each undulating wave reflecting an image of the moon; or like a chamber containing myriad lamps, the light of each lamp illuminating all the others. Likewise, there is only one truth, yet phenomenal characteristics are innumerable. If numerous scriptural passages are not cited, where can sentient beings apprehend the guiding principles?

Therefore, from the perspective of the various teachings, I shall broadly present ten approaches:

The Pure Land present everywhere.

The mind-only Pure Land.

The eternally true Pure Land.

The Pure Land produced through transformation.

The Pure Land in the Heaven of Ultimate Form.

The Pure Land manifested through emanation bodies.

The Pure Land based upon the body of enjoyment for others.

Pure Lands in the various directions.

This single mind fully possesses the four Pure Lands.

The inconceivable Pure Land that receives all classes of sentient beings throughout the ten directions.

1/ The Pure Land Present Everywhere

The Pure Land present everywhere is the fundamental recompense-land of the Buddhas. This Pure Land comprises ten Flower Treasury worlds. The outermost tier of every Flower Treasury world contains ten vast, pure, and adorned lands, each as numerous as the dust motes in Buddha-worlds.

Each of these vast lands is in turn surrounded by minor lands as numerous as the dust motes in Buddha-worlds, with every successive layer increasing manyfold. Every Flower Treasury world fills the entirety of empty space; they interpenetrate one another, with purity and defilement perfectly interfused, layer upon layer without end. To speak in accordance with the Dharma, every blade of grass, every tree, every hair-tip, and every mote of dust fully contains this entire inexhaustible Dharma-realm.

Buddhas and sentient beings are neither two nor different. Some say that this is the truly recompensed adornment of sentient beings in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, the true teaching, which is unlike the expedient teaching that seeks rebirth in a Pure Land of another direction. Others say that although sentient beings possess this true recompense, because they cannot personally realize suchness, which is devoid of intrinsic nature, they remain forever in the long night without seeing the sun, drifting through the boundless ocean of suffering, not knowing when they will reach the shore.

Though it is said that when one arouses the mind of wondrous awakening in hell, the fruit of Buddhahood manifests within the realm of hell, what then of the iron beds and copper pillars directly before one's eyes? It is like a hungry ghost dying of thirst beside the sea, or a poor man counting money in a cavern of gold. One sees only that illusory scene—on what grounds can it be regarded as real?

Without relying on the skillful means of proceeding from the expedient to the true, when would sentient beings ever attain entry into Vairocana?

Answer: If considered from the standpoint of the ritual forms employed in the Buddhas’ teaching and transformation, this may be admitted; but within the realm of the True Mark, there are no such superfluous words. Vairocana is translated as “pervading all places.” Pervading all places expresses the meaning of Infinite Life. Therefore, how could there be superiority or inferiority with respect to Vairocana?

For certain ordinary beings who cling firmly to forms, the Tathagata taught that Amitabha dwells in the West. Likewise, in the Great Cloud Sutra, Amitabha Buddha said to a bodhisattva: “There is a Buddha named Shakyamuni in the Saha world.” When Shakyamuni Buddha is acting as the teaching master, Shakyamuni Buddha pervades all places, while Amitabha Buddha is one place among all places. Again, when Amitabha Buddha is acting as the teaching master, Amitabha Buddha pervades all places, while Shakyamuni Buddha is one place among all places.

It is like a person who takes himself as the point of reference: everyone else is another. If another person is taken as the point of reference, then oneself is one among all other people. For this reason, self and other cannot be established.

When self and other cannot be established, self also pervades all places and other also pervades all places; what other direction is there to which one might cling? Therefore, Vairocana in the West is without self or other. Why is this?

Because Vairocana cannot fail to pervade all places. If one speaks of provisional teachings and skillful means, then there is something that does not pervade everywhere. If there is something that does not pervade everywhere, the meaning of Vairocana cannot be established.

2/ The Mind-Only Pure Land

At the very moment of personal realization, the intrinsically mindless essence is itself the Pure Land. The Vimalakirti Sutra says: “O Ratnakuta! An upright mind is the bodhisattva’s Pure Land; when the bodhisattva attains Buddhahood, beings free from deceitful minds will be born in that land.

A profound mind is the bodhisattva’s Pure Land; when the bodhisattva attains Buddhahood, beings whose merit is perfected will be born in that land. The mind of bodhi is the bodhisattva’s Pure Land; when the bodhisattva attains Buddhahood, beings who cultivate the Mahayana Dharma will be born in that land.” The sutra contains many such passages, too many to cite in full here. Their general purport is: “Beings who wish to be born in a Pure Land must purify their own minds.

As their minds become pure, so does the Buddha-land become pure.”

Mind is precisely the mind of the land. The land is precisely the land of mind. When the mind is pure, the land is pure, for this is naturally so from the beginning.

Could these words not be an explanation of the Western Land? Many who cling to mind maintain that the Pure Land lies outside the mind, causing this Dharma gate to be regarded as inferior and fit only to receive those of dull faculties. If mindfulness itself is mind, then is mindfulness of the Buddha not the purification of mind?

Since mind originally encompasses the land, how could the Lotus Realm be outside the mind? Therefore, from the standpoint of phenomenal characteristics, the Pure Land does not contradict the principle of mind-only. To say that the Pure Land lies outside the mind obstructs the work of universally liberating beings.

3/ The Eternally True Pure Land

The Eternally True Pure Land refers to the Pure Land at the Vulture Peak assembly. The Buddha revealed it to bodhisattvas of the provisional teaching within the Three Vehicles, so that those who believed but had not yet seen might know that, although this land appears defiled, it is eternally pure. The nature of defilement is originally quiescent, and the characteristics of the mundane are perpetually empty.

Because it is originally quiescent, bodhisattvas dwell amid impurity while their minds remain ever still. Because it is perpetually empty, bodhisattvas enter the dusty mundane world while their minds remain ever empty. This is precisely what reveals the meaning of purity.

Yet because the vast sea of beings’ attachments is difficult to calm and the cords of consciousness readily bind them, when they hear that karma is originally empty, their minds become unrestrained and they create karma. When they hear that practices possess no true intrinsic nature, their minds become wanton and they commit dark deeds. Such people incur Yongjia’s rebuke and fall into the perdition of Shanjing—the descent into hell.

While alive, they are punished by worldly law; at death, they become the retinue of Mara. This is very often the case.

Alas! If one wishes everyone upon this earth to become a bodhisattva, one’s words must truly be beneficial. Bodhisattvas in the world are few, while ordinary beings are many. Therefore, words that bring benefit to the world are few, while those that spread harm throughout the world are many.

4/ The Pure Land Manifested Through Transformation

In the Lotus Sutra, the Buddha transformed the Saha world into a Pure Land three times and moved the devas and humans elsewhere. In the Vimalakirti Sutra, the Blessed One pressed the earth with his toe, and immediately the three-thousand-great-thousand world-system became adorned with hundreds of thousands of precious treasures. These were only temporary transformations manifested by the Tathagata, naturally occurring in this manner.

Even one possessing wisdom like the Elder Shariputra was as though blind with regard to the Pure Land. Beings of inferior faculties have no means of seeing that realm. Moreover, the devas and humans were moved elsewhere because they entirely lacked the causes and conditions for being received there.

Once the temporary manifestation of spiritual power disappeared, how could it be an eternally abiding Pure Land? How could it compare with the Pure Land of Peace and Bliss, which abides constantly through kalpas as numerous as motes of dust, or with the compassionate father Amitabha, who does not forsake even those who commit the ten evil deeds! The superiority and inferiority of these lands can thus be clearly known.

5/ The Pure Land in the Akanishtha Heaven

When the Tathagata attains perfect, unsurpassed enlightenment in the Akanishtha Heaven, that heaven becomes the Pure Land of True Recompense. The Awakening of Faith Treatise states: “In the Akanishtha Heaven, a bodhisattva who has perfected the fullness of merit will manifest a body greater than all worlds.”

This statement means that, when a single thought accords with wisdom, it instantly sweeps away the darkness of ignorance. This is called the wisdom of all modes. There naturally arise inconceivable activities capable of manifesting bodies throughout the ten directions to benefit beings.

Dharma Master Fazang said: “Why does the bodhisattva’s enjoyment recompense body abide in this heaven? Because those on the ten grounds receive recompense bodies as ten heavenly kings. On the tenth ground, the bodhisattva receives the body of the king of this heaven, and in that very body manifests the attainment of bodhi.” Although this heaven is said to be uncontaminated, it still does not equal the people of the Lotus Realm, who have transcended the three realms.

Why is this? Because it still lies within the Akanishtha Heaven.

6/ The Pure Land of an Emanation Body

The Nirvana Sutra records: “The Buddha said to King Highly Virtuous: ‘Good man! To the west of this Saha world, beyond Buddha-lands as numerous as the sands of thirty-two Ganges Rivers, there is a world called Unsurpassed, resembling the Land of Utmost Bliss in the West. I appear in that world to teach and transform beings, and I am also in this world turning the Dharma wheel.’”

Furthermore, the Angulimala Sutra records:

“The Buddha said to Angulimala:

– I abide at the boundary of non-arising, but you do not know it.

Angulimala asked:

– If you abide at the boundary of non-arising, why did the Blessed One take birth in this realm?

The Blessed One replied:

– There is a Buddha in the East; go and ask that Buddha.

Angulimala went and asked him. That Buddha replied:

– Shakyamuni Buddha is precisely my body.”

The general meaning of the passages cited above is that the Pure Land there is the Buddha’s realm of True Recompense, whereas this realm is the land of the Buddha’s emanation body. Although this elucidates the dependent environment of a single Buddha, it does not fully embody the meaning of gathering in and subduing beings in order to teach and transform them. Because it pertains only to the Buddha and not to beings, that Pure Land is not yet supreme.

7/ The Pure Land Based on the Other-Enjoyment Body

The Brahma Net Sutra records: “Today, I, Vairocana, am seated upon a lotus dais surrounded by a thousand petals. Upon the thousand petals appear a thousand Shakyamuni Buddhas. Each petal, in turn, contains ten billion lands, and in each land there is a Shakyamuni Buddha…” Because those at the first bhumi are capable of manifesting one hundred Buddha lands, the lotus has one hundred petals.

Those at the second bhumi are capable of manifesting one thousand Buddha lands, so the lotus has one thousand petals. At the third bhumi, the lotus has ten thousand petals. At the fourth bhumi, the lotus has one hundred million petals.

In this way, the number increases manyfold. Therefore, the realm of the circumstantial reward manifested on the basis of the other-enjoyment body can be seen only by those who have entered these bhumis. It is not like the Lotus Pool Assembly, where beings who recite the Buddha’s name for merely ten念 are immediately able to see the Buddha’s pure and magnificent realm.

8/ Pure lands in the various directions

In the East is Medicine Master Buddha; in the South is Sun-Moon-Lamp Buddha; and in the zenith is Fragrant Accumulation Buddha. Every Buddha has a pure land.

The sutras speak extensively of the pure lands of the Buddhas, all of which are Adorned Lands of True Reward. They cannot all be recorded here. In the sutras, sometimes a Buddha temporarily manifests such a land through spiritual power, while at other times great bodhisattvas travel there to make offerings to the Buddhas.

Because those Buddhas have not made vows to welcome and guide sentient beings, beings lack the causes and conditions for birth in those lands. For example, although Shakyamuni Buddha spoke of rebirth in the Land of Wondrous Joy, we have not heard that Akshobhya Buddha, who abides in that world, welcomes and guides all sentient beings. Moreover, the Land of Wondrous Joy contains mountains such as the Iron Encircling Mountains and Mount Sumeru, as well as spirits and women.

Therefore, it should be understood that the purity and magnificence of the Land of Wondrous Joy do not equal those of the Land of Peaceful Nurturing.

Likewise, Medicine Master Tathagata employs twelve great vows to rescue sentient beings, and in the sutra the Buddha also exhorts those with faith to seek birth in that land. Ultimately, however, the power of Medicine Master Tathagata’s vows is chiefly directed toward relieving all suffering, sorrow, and affliction in order to lead sentient beings to absolute peace and happiness. Yet this still does not equal Amitabha Tathagata’s use of the single Dharma of Buddha-recitation to welcome and guide all who recite the Buddha’s name to rebirth in his pure land.

9/ This single mind fully contains the four pure lands

1. The Land Where Ordinary Beings and Sages Dwell Together.

2. The Land of Expedient Means with Remainder.

3. The Unobstructed Land of True Reward.

4. The Land of Eternal Tranquil Light.

9.1—The Land Where Ordinary Beings and Sages Dwell Together comprises the defiled land where they dwell together and the pure land where they dwell together.

– In the defiled land where they dwell together, ordinary beings and sages live side by side. Both ordinary beings and sages are of two kinds.

– The two kinds of ordinary beings are unwholesome beings—that is, beings in the four evil destinies of hell beings, hungry ghosts, animals, and asuras—and wholesome beings, namely gods and humans.

– The two kinds of sages are true sages and provisional sages. True sages are holy beings belonging to the four stages of realization, pratyekabuddhas, those at the seventh stage of the Shared Teaching, those at the ten abodes of the Distinct Teaching, and those at the final mind of the ten faiths of the Perfect Teaching. Although these beings have partially eliminated the delusions of views and thought, their physical bodies and karmic recompense still remain; hence, they are all called “true.” Provisional sages are Dharma-body bodhisattvas and Buddhas of wondrous awakening who dwell in the Lands of Expedient Means, True Reward, and Tranquil Light. In order to benefit those with whom they have affinities, they responsively take birth in the Land Where Ordinary Beings and Sages Dwell Together. Because they manifest in accordance with beings’ capacities, they are called “provisional.”

Because these sages dwell together with beings of the four evil destinies, it is called a defiled land. Furthermore, examples of pure lands where ordinary beings and sages dwell together include the Land of Ultimate Bliss, which contains sentient beings, and the Land of Wondrous Joy, which contains the Iron Encircling Mountains as well as men and women. Because these lands have none of the four evil destinies, they are designated pure lands.

In my consideration, because the defiled land where ordinary beings and sages dwell together already contains sages, it may also be regarded as a pure land where ordinary beings and sages dwell together. For example, the Saha world is situated on the thirteenth tier of the Flower Treasury World; thus, the Saha world may also be called the Flower Treasury World.

9.2—The Land of Expedient Means with Remainder is the dwelling place of practitioners of the Two Vehicles and bodhisattvas of the three ranks—the ten abodes, ten practices, and ten dedications of merit—who have destroyed the delusions of views and thought and realized the path of expedient means, but have not yet completely swept away the distinct delusions as numerous as dust and sand or fundamental ignorance. Because they have relinquished bodies subject to fragmentary birth and death and are born beyond the three realms, this land is designated “With Remainder.” The Treatise of Shakyamuni states: “Beyond the three realms there is a pure land.

This is the place of rebirth for shravakas and pratyekabuddhas, who receive bodies of Dharma-nature and are no longer subject to fragmentary birth and death.”

9.3—The Unobstructed Land of True Reward is a realm where there are no practitioners of the Two Vehicles; it is inhabited solely by Dharma-body bodhisattvas. These beings have entirely eliminated delusions as numerous as dust and sand and are breaking through fundamental ignorance part by part; therefore, they obtain true recompense. Yet because they have not completely swept away the clouds and mists of fundamental ignorance, undefiled karma still conditions them, and they receive reward bodies of Dharma-nature. This pure land is also designated the Land of Reward. The Sutra for Humane Kings states: “The three ranks of worthies and the ten stages of sages abide in the realm of reward.”

It is designated “True Reward” because these great beings contemplate true reality, bring forth the genuine undefiled wisdom, and enjoy a supreme recompense adorned with the seven precious substances and complete with the five pure and wondrous sense-objects. It is designated “Unobstructed” because form and mind are nondual, and every hair-tip and every land interpenetrate without obstruction. The realm elucidated in the Flower Garland Sutra as the world of Indra’s Net is precisely this realm.

9.4—The Land of Eternal Tranquil Light is the suchness of the Dharma-realm illuminated by ultimate awakened wisdom. It is designated a “land” and is also called the Land of Dharma-nature. Yet it is only the single Buddha-nature of true suchness: it is neither body nor land, though it is spoken of as body and land. Apart from the body, there is no land; apart from the land, there is no body. This is the realm in which the Tathagatas journey and teach.

The Wondrous Essentials records: “When the sutras and treatises speak of tranquil light as being without characteristics, this means that the mind has eliminated the characteristics of defilement and obstruction; it does not mean that it is like empty space, vacant and devoid of anything. Because the three delusions—views, thought, and fundamental ignorance—have been purified absolutely, the circumstantial and direct rewards, form and mind, shine with boundless clarity.” The Great Sutra states: “Because that form is extinguished, eternal form is attained; feeling, perception, formations, and consciousness should likewise be understood by analogy.” The Sutra for Humane Kings designates these as the five skandhas of Dharma-nature. This is the ultimate fruition.

SUMMARY DIAGRAM OF THE FOUR PURE LANDS

Nevertheless, the lands of the ten directions are seen differently according to the minds of each being; in the very same place, some perceive the seven precious substances while others perceive sand and stones. Tráp Xuyên said: “Ultimate Bliss has four distinct lands. Why is this so?

From the standpoint of gods and humans, there are the first two lands—the Land Where Ordinary Beings and Sages Dwell Together and the Land of Expedient Means with Remainder. From the standpoint of bodhisattvas and Buddhas, there are the latter two lands—the Unobstructed Land of True Reward and the Land of Eternal Tranquil Light.” It should therefore be understood that the Buddha’s body, sixty trillion nayutas of kotis of Ganges sands of yojanas in height, does not obstruct his having a body sixteen feet tall.

The boundless Buddha lands of the Flower Treasury Ocean Assembly do not obstruct there being a land containing the Nairanjana River. Why is this so? Because it is naturally thus, not something manifested through spiritual power.

10/ The inconceivable pure land receives all sentient beings throughout the ten directions.

The Western Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha possesses merits and virtues as vast as the ocean, compassion and wisdom as vast as the ocean, and the power of vows as vast as the ocean. Were one to speak of these in full, suppose that, from the Buddhas, bodhisattvas, shravakas, pratyekabuddhas, devas, humans, hungry ghosts, and animals throughout all the worlds of the ten directions above, down to insects and all insentient things such as grasses, trees, tiles, stones, and the tiniest motes of dust below, each and every one possessed immeasurable mouths; that within each mouth were immeasurable tongues; and that each tongue emitted immeasurable sounds, speaking continuously, speaking profusely, and speaking with tireless vigor.

Even if they spoke in this manner for hundreds of billions of periods countless as motes of dust, they still could never exhaust the subject. I shall now explain it briefly through the following five meanings:

Body and land are inconceivable.

Nature and characteristics are inconceivable.

Cause and effect are inconceivable.

Coming and going are inconceivable.

The ultimate is inconceivable.

1- Body and land are inconceivable

Within the body of Amitabha are immeasurable sentient beings, and within the bodies of sentient beings are immeasurable Amitabhas. The lands are likewise. Therefore, when one sentient being recollects Amitabha, one Amitabha manifests.

When many sentient beings recollect Amitabha, many Amitabhas manifest. When sentient beings recollect Amitabha in thought after thought, Amitabha manifests in each thought. If Amitabha were not present within the bodies of sentient beings, Amitabha could not manifest, just as water cannot be obtained from a burning glass used to draw fire from the sun, because water is not inherently present there.

If sentient beings were not present within the body of Amitabha, Amitabha likewise could not manifest, just as a barren woman could never bear a child, however much she wished for one, because the conditions are not suitable. Thus, one body contains another body, and one body contains all bodies. One land contains another land, and one land contains all lands.

Bodies and lands interpenetrate one another, layer upon layer, without end.

2- Nature and characteristics are inconceivable

If one speaks of the Pure Land apart from its nature, then the Pure Land lies outside the mind. That is an illusory transformation. Because an illusory transformation has the characteristic of annihilation, sentient beings are not born there. If one speaks of the Pure Land as identical with its nature, then that nature possesses form and characteristics. That is fixity. Fixity means that nothing changes at all. Because there is no change, although sentient beings are born, they are nevertheless unborn. Because characteristics are themselves present within nature, without nature there are no characteristics; so long as either “is” or “is not” remains, both positions fail.

3- Cause and effect are inconceivable

The inconceivability of cause and effect has two meanings:

a/ Cause comes before and effect afterward: Thus, recollecting the Buddha is the cause, and seeing the Buddha is the effect. Seeing the Buddha is the cause, and becoming a Buddha is the effect. Becoming a Buddha is the cause, and liberating sentient beings is the effect.

b/ Cause and effect have neither before nor after: In the very moment of recollection, seeing the Buddha, becoming a Buddha, and liberating sentient beings are all fully present. It is like a person's age from thirty to forty: thirty is the cause, and forty is the effect. Yet between thirty and forty there is no characteristic of interruption.

If there were no forty, there would be no thirty. If there were no thirty, there would be no forty. Therefore, one should know that the interval from thirty to forty cannot be discarded.

If the interval from thirty to forty were discarded, there would be a characteristic of interruption in between, yet this body of mine has no characteristic of interruption. If there is an interval from thirty to forty, there would be a characteristic of continuity in between, yet even the characteristic of continuity cannot be found in this body of mine. The cause and effect of recollecting the Buddha should be understood by inference from this.

4. Coming and going are inconceivable

If Amitabha Buddha comes to the Saha world in fulfillment of his vows to receive and guide sentient beings, while sentient beings, through mindfulness of the Buddha, are born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss, then there is coming and going. If there is coming and going, there is a road to travel; if there is a road to travel, there are degrees of difficulty and ease, just as it is easy for one who lives near the imperial capital to have an audience with the king, while it is difficult for one who lives far away to do so.

If this were the case, there should likewise be degrees of difficulty and ease in recollecting the Buddha and aspiring to be born in the West. In truth, however, how could the road to the Pure Land be distant? The Pratyutpanna Samadhi Sutra states: “One need not wait until the moment of death to be born in the Buddha-land, for the Buddha does not come, nor do I go.” Moreover, an ancient virtuous master said: “As for birth, one is certainly born; as for going, in truth one does not go.” It is like the sounding of the celestial drum, which everyone near and far can hear; or like the moon's reflection in water: when one goes east, one sees it appearing in the east; when one goes west, one sees it appearing in the west, yet in truth it has gone nowhere at all.

5- The ultimate is inconceivable:

It is like mountains casting their reflections in a clear pool; like a hundred flowers blooming beneath the spring sunshine; like the karmic power of sentient beings; like the radiance of the sun and moon; like the faculties forming within the mother's womb; like the self within the body; like hard teeth and a soft tongue; like horizontal eyebrows and a vertical nose.

The reason the Buddhas of the ten directions devote their entire hearts and minds to sentient beings is solely because they wish to teach this rare and difficult-to-believe Dharma. Although they manifest broad and long tongues covering the entire trichiliocosm in order to proclaim it, they still cannot express even one part in ten thousand. Confucius said: “Ordinary principles may be understood even by the ignorant, but when it comes to their subtle profundity, not even sages can comprehend them.” How true these words are! Therefore, among the immeasurable Dharma gates, one need only take this single Dharma gate of the Pure Land, for it encompasses and penetrates them all.