西方合論

Chapter II

ORIGINS AND CONDITIONS

One who enjoys smelling foul and fishy odors does not think of the fragrance of sandalwood. In truth, however, this is only because he has not aroused a mind of aversion toward the foul odor. If he is suddenly led into a house where sandalwood and agarwood are burned as incense, before even a day has passed he will have become disgusted with that stench.

The foul defilement of birth and death to which we cling far exceeds the stench loved by flies and bluebottles. The Buddhas are like great merchants of fragrances who feel immeasurable compassion upon seeing devas and humans submerged in an ocean of impurity. Thus, the guide Amitabha opened wide the Fragrantly Adorned Land, and the compassionate father Sakyamuni clearly pointed out the gate of the Pure Land.

All people upon the earth are impoverished children; therefore, a single Buddha-name is their wealth and capital. If one wishes to verify these truthful words, one should not depart from the ten recollections. After long holding one’s nose in a foul place, a mind of revulsion naturally arises.

Now, from the standpoint of establishing the teaching of the Western Land, I shall broadly present ten meanings:

For the one great matter.

Because of profound causes in former lives.

To reveal the virtues of the fruit.

Because it rests upon the nature of the cause.

To accord with sentient beings.

Because defiled characteristics are empty.

Because it is a supreme skillful means.

To guide those of the two vehicles.

Because of steadfast power of endurance.

To reveal the true Dharma.

1/ The One Great Matter

Sentient beings in the Saha world are filled with the five defilements, like people imprisoned in a jail. Because their offenses are heavy or light, they undergo different punishments, whether they have committed a minor transgression or plunged headlong into a grave crime. Although their offenses differ, no one escapes the suffering of being bound with ropes and beaten with whips and clubs.

Why? Because all who enter prison are offenders. In the heavenly and human realms, sentient beings all possess karmic bodies subject to fragmentary birth and death.

Once imprisoned, no offender ever ceases to long for release. The suffering of that prison is truly unbearable. Beyond that wall of misery, the compassionate father Amitabha has established the world of great peace and bliss.

At present, sentient beings take afflictions as their homes and birth and death as their gardens. They are like a chief prisoner infatuated with his cap and gown, willingly allowing gold and jade to become his cangue and fetters. How could they know that the great Mount Iron Encircling is a thorny wall and that beyond the execution ground of the three realms lie the fields of their homeland?

The Buddhas pity them so deeply that their hearts ache. Therefore, they distinguish impurity from purity and show the road home to the Land of Bliss for those who have wandered far from home for so long that they no longer know their way back. The Buddhas also build great dwellings in which they may abide.

Sakyamuni Buddha passes back and forth through the prison gate to repair the road of escape from suffering; Amitabha Buddha remains outside the prison gate to build the dwellings. With what body could one ever repay such kindness? Alas!

Sakyamuni Buddha has lit a torch in the long night of the three realms; Amitabha Buddha has overturned the basin of birth and death to welcome and guide sentient beings. The Buddhas cannot bear to abandon sentient beings. Why do sentient beings continue to cling to unending suffering?

The sutra states: “The Tathagata appears in the world for the sake of one great matter.” This is that great matter. Yet sentient beings cling to petty matters as small as a hair, exchange the great for the small, and willingly die of hunger and cold for their sake. How pitiable!

2/ Profound Causes in Former Lives

1/ The True Cause

The true cause is the naturally pure essence of sentient beings and of the Buddhas of the three periods, just as myriad forms depend upon empty space, mountains and rivers depend upon the earth, rice plants depend upon seeds, and flowers and fruit depend upon their kernels. Without this cause, the fruit of Buddhahood could never be accomplished. Why?

Because all compassion and wisdom are established upon this cause. Elder Li Tongxuan’s Combined Treatise on the Avatamsaka says: “The treasury-body of the Tathagata is the Dharma body. The ocean of wisdom of all Buddhas is contained therein, and hence it is called a treasury.

If one does not see the Dharma body, all merit, wisdom, great loving-kindness, and great compassion fail to reach their culmination and ultimately remain subject to arising and ceasing.” The Dharma body is precisely the true cause.

2/ The True Vow

The root sutra, the Larger Amitabha Sutra, states: “In the presence of the Tathagata Lokesvararaja, the bhiksu Dharmakara made forty-eight great vows, declaring that if even one vow were unfulfilled, he would not abide in perfect enlightenment.” Relying upon the immeasurable compassion and wisdom of intrinsic nature, he brought forth such inconceivable power of vows. He did not see sentient beings outside the mind and then vow to save them, for sentient beings are not outside mind.

3/ The True Practice

The root sutra states: “After making these vows, he abided in such merit and cultivated such bodhisattva practices for immeasurable, innumerable hundreds of thousands of kotis of nayutas of kalpas.” The Sutra of the Bodhisattva Who Proceeds Single-Mindedly Toward Birth states: “Long ago, Amitabha Buddha was a crown prince. Upon hearing this wondrous Dharma gate, he diligently upheld it. For seven thousand years his back never touched a mat.

He did not listen to other matters, did not crave money or valuables, always dwelt alone, and remained unwavering in mind. He also taught eight hundred thousand kotis of nayutas of people, enabling them to attain non-retrogression.” This is the practice of intrinsic nature and the diligence of intrinsic nature, not the performance of conditioned merit. Although it continued through kotis of kalpas, it never departed from a single thought, for this wondrous Dharma gate transcends all practices and all kalpas.

These are the true cause, true vow, and true practice, like the three dots of the Sanskrit letter i. If even one dot is missing, the letter i can never be formed. This is neither attained through doing nor attained through not doing. An ancient worthy said: “When the roots are deep, the fruit is fine; when the source is distant, the stream flows long.” Because the former cause was profound, the teaching that developed from it is splendid and glorious. How true these words are!

3/ Revealing the Virtues of the Fruit

The chapter on Samantabhadra’s Practices and Vows in the Avatamsaka Sutra states: “The Tathagatas arouse great compassion for sentient beings. Because of great compassion, they arouse the bodhi-mind; because of the bodhi-mind, they accomplish supreme enlightenment. It is like a great tree in a vast desert: if its roots can draw water, its branches, leaves, flowers, and fruits will all flourish luxuriantly.

The great bodhi tree planted in the immensely vast ground of birth and death should be understood in the same way. All sentient beings are its roots; the Buddhas and bodhisattvas are its flowers and fruits. When sentient beings are nourished with the water of great compassion, the flowers and fruits of the Buddhas’ and bodhisattvas’ wisdom can be accomplished.” Therefore, one should know that every Tathagata relies upon sentient beings to attain the fruit of Buddhahood.

Without sentient beings, the fruit of Buddhahood could never be accomplished. It is like an emperor of the Han dynasty: to save the people, he charged through a hundred battles; because he charged through a hundred battles, he ascended the imperial throne; because he ascended the imperial throne, the people lived and worked in peace. Without the people, the king would have no great achievement.

Ultimately, whenever one accomplishes a merit, an undertaking, a benefit, or a reputation, none could be accomplished without sentient beings. Thus, without sentient beings there can be no self. Sentient beings are the dependent retribution, while I am the proper retribution; sentient beings are the proper retribution, while I am the dependent retribution.

Self and others are equal; dependent and proper retributions are unobstructed, for this has naturally always been so. This naturalness is the natural virtue of the fruit. If one establishes it externally, the meaning of the virtue of the fruit cannot be fulfilled.

4/ Resting upon the Nature of the Cause

All sentient beings possess this same pure intrinsic nature, just as pure gold is fashioned into hairpins, bracelets, spittoons, and other objects. A spittoon is a vessel containing various impurities. If its gold is melted down and made into jewelry, it is still nothing but gold.

Buddhas and sentient beings share one pure intrinsic nature, like those objects. Although differences appear outwardly, their nature is one. An ordinary worldling who recollects the Buddha ten times immediately attains rebirth because pure intrinsic nature is inherently present.

When Amitabha Buddha wishes to receive sentient beings, he can immediately receive them because pure intrinsic nature is inherently present. This is like the luminosity within a mirror, which is not produced by polishing. The accomplishment of rebirth in the Pure Land does not arise from practices, vows, and the power of recollection.

Why? Because the power of recollection, practices, and vows are like furnaces, hammers, and other tools: they can shape gold but can never produce it.

5/ According with Sentient Beings

To show affection for children, one gives them fruit and sweets. To show affection for women, one gives them silk and brocade. The things most desired by all sentient beings are jewels, clothing, and food.

Therefore, the Land of Ultimate Bliss naturally contains the seven precious substances, magnificent towers and pavilions, clothing, food, drink, and so forth. It is like children playing happily in a burning house: without goat carts, deer carts, and the like, they would never agree to come out. After they have left the burning house, their father gives them only the great cart.

At present, Sakyamuni Tathagata accords with the ordinary perceptions of sentient beings and therefore speaks of Amitabha Buddha’s pure land and its seven precious substances. Because sentient beings delight in such scenes, he describes them in this way. Once reborn there, they personally see that every characteristic is pure, wondrous, subtle, and beyond all comparison.

Only then do they know that lapis lazuli, mother-of-pearl, and agate are like tiles and stones. It is like a nobleman explaining the splendor of the royal palace to a village child by comparing it with the child’s most precious possessions: the child still cannot understand. Likewise, when speaking of colors to a blind person, there is no comparison that can make him understand.

6/ Defiled Characteristics Are Empty

The Treatise on Wisdom states: “It is like a man whose child plays in filth, piling up earth to make rice plants and using grasses and twigs as birds and beasts, then becoming attached to them. Suddenly another person comes and takes away the toys, whereupon the child grows angry and bursts into bitter tears. Upon reflection, the father understands that the child acts only from attachment to the toys.

This attachment is also easy to relinquish, for when the child grows up, it will cease. Why? Because those objects are unreal.

The bodhisattva’s contemplation of sentient beings who cherish their foul bodies and the five desires is likewise. If sentient beings perfect the five faculties, they can immediately abandon those things. If the objects to which the child clung were real, his attachment would grow even firmer even at a hundred years of age.

If the dharmas to which sentient beings cling were real, then even after perfecting the five faculties they could not relinquish them. Yet because they see that dharmas are empty, deceptive, and unreal, they can easily abandon them. The Tathagata’s teaching of the Pure Land Dharma gate to sentient beings is likewise.

Because sentient beings cling to deceptive things, they are easy to teach. It is like a person who in youth is infatuated with sensual beauty, in adulthood desires official rank, and in old age covets profit. If those things were truly lovable, his heart would not change with the years.

Because they are easily changed, when the Tathagata speaks of the Pure Land, sentient beings rejoice in it, delight in it, and yearn for it, like dreamers who awaken as soon as they are called. If the dream were real, calling them awake would be useless. Therefore, the Buddhas teach such a Dharma gate for all sentient beings.”

7/ A Supreme Skillful Means

This supreme skillful means is neither self-power nor other-power. Because the ocean of intrinsic nature is fully endowed with sovereign merit, everything is inherently complete. Thus, a single utterance of the sacred name is effortless, and ten recollections accomplish what surpasses many kalpas.

It is like ten thousand angry words clearly issuing from the mouth through the force of wind rising from below; like a profoundly dark cavern illuminated by the sun; like an ants’ nest no wider than a thread breaking through a dike by the power of water, not by the ants’ strength; or like a sail woven of rushes propelling a ship carrying ten thousand measures by the power of wind, not by the strength of the rushes. All these manifestations are the inconceivable power of the ocean of the nature of the dharma realm, uncreated, unconditioned, and complete in everything—neither self nor other.

Such a supreme skillful means is the shortcut among shortcuts. One who abandons it and refuses to cultivate is truly foolish.

8/ Guiding Those of the Two Vehicles

Those of the two vehicles flee from objects and seek quiescence, thereby realizing an unreal nirvana. They do not attain the Tathagata’s Dharma body and remain subject to feeling, delusion, karma, and suffering. There are four reasons:

Because of the ground of abiding ignorance, they do not attain the paramita-fruit of Purity, in which all defiled afflictions and foul habitual tendencies are extinguished.

Because delusive activities arising from the ground of abiding ignorance have not been eliminated, they do not attain the paramita-fruit of Self, which is uncreated and without activity.

Because subtle delusion produces undefiled karma and the mind-produced skandhas have not been entirely eliminated, they do not attain the paramita-fruit of Bliss, ultimate cessation, and complete detachment.

Because transformational birth and death continues without interruption, they do not attain the paramita-fruit of Permanence, which is ultimately without transformation.

Because of these four forms of karmic delusion, they have not realized the truth. Out of compassion for them, the Tathagata instructs them to transform their annihilationist minds and cultivate Pure Land practices, enabling them to know emptiness without annihilation and existence without eternalism, and to ride the wisdom of the Mahayana into the ocean of nirvana.

9/ Steadfast Power of Endurance

The bodhisattva Nagarjuna said: “Children over four years old and under twenty are said to occupy the stage of childhood. When a bodhisattva is newly born into the family of bodhisattvas, he is likewise like a child. A bodhisattva who attains the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, continuing through the stage of the ten abodes, and abandons evil deeds is also said to occupy the stage of childhood. To attain this stage, a bodhisattva should study the prajnaparamita and should never wish to leave the Buddhas.”

Question: A bodhisattva should teach sentient beings. Why, then, should a bodhisattva not wish to leave the Buddhas?

Answer: Before a bodhisattva has entered the bodhisattva stages and received the prediction of non-retrogression, if he leaves the Buddhas, his roots of goodness are easily damaged and he sinks into afflictions. Unable to save himself, how could he save others? It is like someone who sails out to sea in a damaged boat: wishing to rescue others, he himself drowns.

It is also like pouring a few drops of boiling water upon a block of ice: although a small portion of ice melts, the hot water turns back into ice. Before realizing suchness, if a bodhisattva leaves the Buddhas and uses his meager merit to save sentient beings without the power of skillful means, although others may gain a slight benefit, the bodhisattva himself will fall. Therefore, newly training bodhisattvas should not leave the Buddhas.

Question: If this is so, why not say that bodhisattvas should not leave sravakas and pratyekabuddhas? Sravakas and pratyekabuddhas can also benefit bodhisattvas, can they not?

Answer: Bodhisattvas possess vast minds. Although sravakas and pratyekabuddhas possess the benefit of nirvana, they lack knowledge of all modes and therefore cannot teach and guide bodhisattvas. Only the Buddhas’ knowledge of all modes can teach and guide bodhisattvas. When an elephant becomes mired in mud, it cannot get out without the aid of another elephant. Bodhisattvas are likewise. If a bodhisattva falls onto a wrong path, only a Buddha can save him, because bodhisattvas and Buddhas share the one Mahayana path. Therefore, it is said that bodhisattvas should never wish to leave the Buddhas.

Furthermore, a bodhisattva reflects: “I have not yet attained the Buddha-eye and am no different from a blind person. Unless a Buddha points out and shows me the way, I will not know the direction in which to advance and may stray onto a non-Buddhist path. Even if I hear the Buddhadharma and then go elsewhere to practice, I still will not know the proper time for teaching or the appropriate degree at which the Dharma should be practiced!”

Furthermore, a bodhisattva gains immeasurable benefits from seeing a Buddha. Upon seeing the Buddha with his eyes, his mind becomes pure. Upon hearing the Dharma taught, his mind obtains the bliss of Dharma and great wisdom; practicing in accordance with the Dharma, he attains liberation.

Since meeting a Buddha brings such immeasurable benefits, how could a bodhisattva not constantly wish single-mindedly to see the Buddha? A small child should not leave his loving mother; a traveler should not leave his provisions; in oppressive heat one should not leave cool water and refreshing breezes; in bitter cold one should not leave a fire; when crossing a deep river one should not leave a boat or raft; and a sick person should not leave a physician.

A bodhisattva’s need not to leave the Buddhas surpasses all these examples. Why? Because parents, relatives, wise friends, devas, kings, and others cannot provide benefits equal to those of the Buddha.

By encountering a Buddha, a bodhisattva gains these benefits: he abandons places of suffering and dwells upon the ground of the World-Honored One. For these reasons, a bodhisattva should never leave the Buddhas.

Question: Conditioned dharmas are deceptive, unreal, and unreliable. How, then, can it be said that one can fulfill one’s vow never to leave the Buddhas?

Answer: Only through perfecting merit and wisdom can one encounter a Buddha, much less remain constantly with the Buddhas. Because sentient beings have created sinful causes and conditions for immeasurable kalpas, their wishes are not fulfilled. Although they cultivate merit, their wisdom is deficient; although they cultivate wisdom, their merit is deficient. Consequently, their vows are not fulfilled. A bodhisattva seeking the Buddha path must practice two forms of patient acceptance: patience toward beings and patience toward dharmas.

– By practicing patience toward beings and arousing loving-kindness and compassion for all sentient beings, the bodhisattva eradicates offenses accumulated over immeasurable kalpas and gains immeasurable merit.

– By practicing patience toward dharmas and breaking through the ignorance concerning all dharmas, the bodhisattva gains immeasurable wisdom.

When these two practices proceed together, what vow could remain unfulfilled? Therefore, life after life, a bodhisattva never leaves the Buddhas.

Furthermore, because a bodhisattva constantly delights in recollecting the Buddhas, when he relinquishes an old body and receives a new one, he always encounters the Buddhas. It is like sentient beings whose minds are deeply habituated to lust and thus assume the bodies of lustful birds, such as peacocks and mandarin ducks. Sentient beings whose minds are habituated to anger are born among venomous creatures such as evil dragons, raksasas, centipedes, and poisonous snakes. That bodhisattva’s mind does not desire the rewards of the human or heavenly realms or the position of a wheel-turning sage king, but recollects only the Buddhas. Therefore, he assumes a form in accordance with the delight of his mind.

Furthermore, the bodhisattva always skillfully cultivates the Buddha-recollection samadhi. Because of these causes and conditions, wherever he is born, he always encounters the Buddhas. Tianru’s Treatise on Questions and Doubts about the Pure Land states: “One who has awakened in the Chan school is said to have seen one’s nature and become a Buddha. Why, then, should one seek rebirth in the Pure Land?”

Answer: Those who have awakened are precisely those who vow to be reborn in the Pure Land. You ask this only because you have not awakened. If you had awakened, even ten thousand oxen could not pull back your resolve to seek rebirth in the Pure Land.

Question: A student of the Way need only worry that the great matter is not yet clear. Once the great matter is clear, one should practice according to the Buddha’s teaching, manifest bodies according to the various kinds of beings, fearlessly enter birth and death, and plunge into mud and stagnant water to save all living beings. Why seek rebirth in the Pure Land, rejecting suffering and seeking bliss?

Answer: Do you suppose that after one awakening all afflictions and habitual tendencies have been swept away and one immediately attains non-retrogression? Do you suppose there is then no need to study the Buddhadharma universally or cultivate further to realize the stages of fruition? Or do you imagine that after one awakening you immediately equal all Buddhas and can plunge into birth and death without being disturbed by obstructive conditions?

If this were truly so, the great bodhisattvas who cultivated the six paramitas and myriad practices for kalpas as numerous as the sands of the Ganges would all be ashamed before you! An ancient said: “Even a sravaka becomes confused upon emerging from the womb. Even a bodhisattva becomes bewildered when relinquishing an old body and receiving a new one.” How much more is this so for people of recent times, whose awakened understanding is shallow and who cannot yet even save themselves?

Although they may possess profound awakening, brilliant comprehension, and understanding and practice that proceed together, and although they may wish to save others, because they have not reached the stage of non-retrogression, the power of their practice is not yet complete. To teach stubborn sentient beings in this defiled world is something the ancient sages did not permit. It is like using an unfinished, unsteady boat to carry many people across a great ocean of towering waves and violent winds: both oneself and the others will drown.

This outcome can never be avoided. The Treatise on Rebirth states: “A practitioner wishing to visit the gates of hell must first be born in that land. After realizing the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, the practitioner may reenter the perilous road of birth and death to rescue suffering sentient beings.

For this reason, the practitioner must vow to seek rebirth in the Pure Land.”

Furthermore, an ancient sage said: “Before reaching the stage of non-retrogression, a practitioner should not mingle with the mundane world to save beings. Before realizing the patient acceptance of the non-arising of dharmas, one should not leave the Buddhas. It is like a small child who should not leave its mother, or a young bird that should only hop from branch to branch.” Today, in this world, Sakyamuni Buddha has entered nirvana and Maitreya Buddha has not yet appeared.

There is the suffering of the four evil destinies, the entanglement of cause and effect, demons and non-Buddhist paths, and confusion over right and wrong. Beauty and seductive sounds constantly entice; illusory objects and evil conditions continually surround us. Since people cannot meet a Buddha upon whom to rely and are disturbed by their circumstances, few beginners who awaken to the Way avoid retrogression.

Thus, the World-Honored One had good reason to earnestly direct us toward the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Amitabha Buddha is presently teaching the Dharma there, and every object and condition in that land is pure. By relying upon that Buddha, the power of patience is easily perfected and the Buddha vehicle easily realized; practitioners receive predictions of Buddhahood.

Thereafter, they come and go freely and unobstructedly, manifesting responsive bodies to save sentient beings.

Most Chan practitioners today do not thoroughly examine the definitive meaning of the Tathagata or understand Bodhidharma’s profound import. Their understanding is hollow, while their arrogance has become habitual conceit. Seeing people cultivate the Pure Land, they ridicule them, saying: “Those people are imitating the deeds of fools.” I have always maintained that such people do not merely scorn fools; they scorn Manjusri, Samantabhadra, Nagarjuna, Asvaghosa, and the others.

Not only do they themselves become confused about the true path, lose their roots of goodness, neglect their wisdom-body, and allow the seed of Buddhahood to perish, but they also create the karma of slandering the Dharma and bring upon themselves the calamity of despising the sages. The Buddhas and patriarchs behold this with profound sorrow!

Therefore, the monk Yongming, moved by deep compassion, laid bare his heart and advocated the Pure Land. He cultivated it himself and also taught the world. At the time of his death, supreme signs appeared. After his cremation, many relics were recovered. He was reborn directly in the highest grade of the Land of Ultimate Bliss, so that even Yama regarded it as extraordinary and had his portrait painted for veneration. Yongming had awakened to Bodhidharma’s directly pointing Chan, yet entrusted his life to the Land of Ultimate Bliss. This event serves to refute the erroneous attachments of Chan practitioners and to inspire faith in sentient beings during the Dharma-ending age. Truly, he rendered great service to both the Chan school and the doctrinal teachings.

Yongming was not alone in doing this. Chan Master Zixin Xin also composed an exhortation to cultivate the Pure Land. Chan Master Zhenxie Qingliao’s Exhortation to Cultivate the Pure Land states: “Why do followers of the Caodong school secretly cultivate the Pure Land in addition to practicing Chan?

Because the Dharma gate of recollecting the Buddha is the shortcut among all paths of practice. Examining the Tripitaka, one sees that this Dharma gate receives not only those of the highest faculties but also those of middling and inferior capacities… The most accomplished masters within the school awakened to the Dharma that is neither empty nor existent, yet firmly maintained their dedicated practice of pure karma, because seeing the Buddha through the Pure Land school is far simpler than through the methods of the Chan school.” It also says: “Whether Buddha or patriarch, doctrinal school or Chan school, all cultivate pure karma and return to the one source.

Once a practitioner enters this Dharma gate, he can enter immeasurable other Dharma gates.”

Chan Master Tianyi Yihuai, Chan Master Yuanzhao Zongben, Chan Master Cishou Huaishen, Chan Master Nanyue Huisi, Chan Master Fazhao, Chan Master Jingxie, Chan Master Datong of Jingci, Chan Master Huaiyu of Tiantai, Chan Master Daozhen of the Liang dynasty, Chan Master Daochuo of the Tang dynasty, Chan Master Piling Fazhen, Chan Master Shoune of Gusu, Chan Master Beijian Jujian, Chan Master Zhili of Tianmu, and others were eminent elder Chan masters and the most accomplished within the Chan tradition.

Ultimately, in both their hidden practice and open teaching, all propagated the purport of the Pure Land. Though they made no prior agreement, they traveled the same road. Were the matter explained extensively with the original texts, it could never be fully recorded.

Thus, one should know that those who secretly cultivate Chan do not depart from the Pure Land, while beginners in sudden awakening have not yet left the stage of spiritual childhood. Only after entering this gate of the Pure Land is a practitioner assured of non-retrogression.

10/ Revealing the True Dharma

Among all Dharma gates of practice, to speak of emptiness implies annihilation and to speak of existence implies eternalism; neither is ultimate. Only in this Dharma gate of the Buddha-recollection samadhi is purity present right within recollection, and thus purity is not emptiness; recollection is present right within purity, and thus recollection is not existence. Attaining purity that has no support is the essence of recollection.

Understanding that recollection is originally free from recollection is the function of purity. Thus, there is no subject who recollects purity outside purity. If a subject who recollects existed outside purity, there would have to be an object recollected.

Since an object would remain, this would not be purity. Conversely, there is no state of purity outside recollection into which recollections enter. If a state of purity existed outside recollection, that purity would stand in opposition to something else.

Since opposition would remain, this would not be purity. One should know that the Buddhas accord with the quiescent mind to adorn pure lands. Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering all gates of quiescence.

The Buddhas accord with the mind of permanence, bliss, self, and purity to adorn pure lands. Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering the gates of permanence, bliss, self, and purity. The Buddhas accord with the mind of equality among sentient beings to adorn pure lands.

Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering all gates of equality among sentient beings. The Buddhas accord with the karma of great compassion and great wisdom to adorn pure lands. Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering all gates of the karma of great compassion and great wisdom.

The Buddhas accord with inconceivable, uncreated, and unconditioned karma to adorn pure lands. Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering all gates of the inconceivable, uncreated, and unconditioned. The Buddhas accord with the nature of afflictions and sensory disturbances to adorn pure lands.

Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering all gates of afflictions and sensory disturbances. The Buddhas accord with the characteristics of mustard seeds and dust motes to adorn pure lands. Thus, one who recollects the Buddha and seeks rebirth in a pure land is entering the gates of mustard seeds and dust motes.

All the great Dharma gates described above are entered in their entirety through a single utterance of “Amitabha Buddha.” Yet there is no subject that enters and no object entered. If it were otherwise, this would be purity with remainder. The Buddha-recollection samadhi is not like this.