This Degenerate World
五惡五痛五燒（上）
The sūtra turns sharply away from Sukhāvatī. The Buddha now addresses Maitreya directly, and describes, at unflinching length, the ordinary anxieties, family grief, and inherited disbelief of the very world its listeners are sitting in.
- This part covers
- A sharp turn from Sukhāvatī to this world; the ordinary anxieties of rich and poor alike; family resentment compounding across lives; disbelief inherited from ancestors; a life spent in grief and distraction; Maitreya's response, and the Buddha's charge to practice while a buddha remains in the world — ending with the question that the next part answers one evil at a time.
- A scholarly note
- Some modern scholars have questioned whether this long unit on the five evils belongs to the sūtra's original transmission at all, suggesting its moralizing tone and social concerns read as more characteristic of indigenous Chinese ethical writing than of translated Indian material. This is a live scholarly question, not a settled one, and is noted here honestly rather than passed over.
35. From Bliss to a Warning
佛告彌勒菩薩、諸天人等：無量壽國聲聞菩薩，功德智慧不可稱說。又其國土。微妙、安樂、清淨若此。何不力為善，念道之自然。著於無上下，洞達無邊際。宜各勤精進，努力自求之。必得超絕去，往生安養國。橫截五惡道，惡道自然閉。昇道無窮極，易往而無人。其國不逆違，自然之所牽。何不棄世事，勤行求道德。可獲極長生，壽樂無有極。
The Buddha said to the bodhisattva Maitreya and the assembled gods and humans: "The merit and wisdom of the śrāvakas and bodhisattvas of Amitāyus's land cannot be told in full. And that land is subtle and wondrous, peaceful and blissful, pure exactly as I have described. Why, then, not strive with all one's strength to do good, and hold the natural way of the path in mind? Fix yourselves upon what is beyond high and low, and penetrate through to what has no boundary at all. Each of you should be diligent, and strive to seek it for yourselves; you will surely then rise up and go beyond, and be born in that land of Peace and Bliss. There, you will cut straight across the five evil paths, and those evil paths will close of themselves; the ascent to the path is without end, and easy to travel — and yet almost no one travels it. That land does not turn anyone away; it is simply that beings are drawn along, of themselves, elsewhere. Why not set aside worldly affairs, and diligently seek virtue and the path? You could then attain a life of the utmost length, a joy without any end."
Everything since Part 4 of this translation has described Sukhāvatī from the outside, as a place to be understood; here, for the first time, the description turns into direct address — "why not," not "it is thus." Huiyuan reads this shift in address, from Ānanda to Maitreya specifically, as significant: Maitreya is the bodhisattva already prophesied to become the next buddha in this world, so charging him with this teaching is also, on this reading, a way of ensuring the warning about to follow outlives Śākyamuni's own teaching career and reaches every generation between now and then.
"The ascent to the path is without end, and easy to travel — and yet almost no one travels it" (昇道無窮極，易往而無人) is among the most quoted single lines from this whole unit in later Pure Land literature. Huiyuan reads the line as posing the sūtra's real question for the section that follows: if the path is genuinely this accessible, what is it that actually keeps people from it? The five evils described from here through the next part of this translation are this sūtra's own extended answer.
36. The Weight of Worldly Life
然世人薄俗，共諍不急之事。於此劇惡極苦之中，勤身營務，以自給濟。無尊無卑，無貧無富。少長男女，共憂錢財。有無同然，憂思適等，屏營愁苦。累念積慮，為心走使，無有安時。有田憂田，有宅憂宅。牛馬、六畜、奴婢、錢財、衣食、什物，復共憂之。重思累息，憂念愁怖。橫為非常，水火盜賊，怨家債主。焚漂劫奪，消散磨滅。憂毒忪忪，無有解時。結憤心中，不離憂惱。心堅意固，適無縱捨。或坐摧碎，身亡命終。棄捐之去，莫誰隨者。尊貴豪富，亦有斯患。憂懼萬端，勤苦若此。結眾寒熱，與痛共居。貧窮下劣，困乏常無。無田亦憂欲有田，無宅亦憂欲有宅。無牛馬、六畜、奴婢、錢財、衣食、什物，亦憂欲有之。適有一復少一，有是少是。思有齊等，適欲具有便復糜散。如是憂苦，當復求索。不能時得，思想無益。身心俱勞，坐起不安。憂念相隨，勤苦若此。亦結眾寒熱，與痛共俱。或時坐之終身夭命。不肯為善行道進德，壽終身死當獨遠去。有所趣向，善惡之道，莫能知者。
And yet the people of this world are shallow in their ways, contending over matters of no real urgency. In the midst of this extreme evil and utmost suffering, they toil at their affairs simply to keep themselves alive — the honored and the lowly, the poor and the rich, young and old, men and women, all alike consumed with worry over money. Whether one has it or lacks it, the anxiety is just the same, a constant, restless sorrow. Thoughts pile upon thoughts, and the mind is driven and worked without a moment's peace. Having land, one worries over the land; having a house, one worries over the house. Cattle and horses, the six kinds of livestock, servants, money, clothing and food, household goods — over every one of these, there is worry as well. Care piles on care, sigh follows sigh, anxious dread without end. Disaster strikes without warning — fire, flood, thieves, enemies, and creditors — burning, sweeping away, seizing, scattering, and destroying everything; and the bitterness of that worry, restless and unrelieved, never finds a moment's release. It knots itself, resentful, in the heart, and never leaves off its grief. The mind grips it tightly and will not let go, until at last the body is broken and life itself comes to its end — and then it is all abandoned, with no one to carry any of it along. Even the honored and the wealthy have this same affliction, their dread and toil just as I have described, bound up with every kind of hot and cold distress, suffering never apart from them. As for the poor, the lowly, and the destitute, they are perpetually in want: having no land, they worry that they wish to have land; having no house, they worry that they wish to have a house; having no cattle, horses, livestock, servants, money, clothing, food, or goods, they likewise worry that they wish to have them. No sooner is one thing obtained than another is lacking; having this, they lack that, and long for everything to be complete and equal — yet no sooner is it all gathered than it scatters away again. And so this same worry and suffering drives them to seek yet again, and when they cannot obtain it in time, all their scheming comes to nothing; body and mind alike grow weary, restless whether sitting or rising, worry following them without cease, their toil just as I have described, bound up likewise with every hot and cold distress. And sometimes a person spends an entire life caught in exactly this, unwilling ever to do good, to walk the path, or to advance in virtue — so that when their life comes to its end, they must go on alone, into a destiny, good or evil, that no one else can know for them.
Huiyuan reads the deliberate, near-mechanical parallelism of this passage — the rich worry over what they might lose, the poor worry over what they do not yet have, and both are described in almost identical language — as making a single, pointed claim: this specific anxiety is not a problem of wealth or poverty as such, but of a mind structured around acquisition and loss, which produces the same suffering regardless of which side of that ledger a person happens to occupy. The passage never says wealth itself is the evil; it says the grasping mind that either kind of economic position provokes is.
37. Alone in Birth and Death, and a Disbelief Inherited
世間人民，父子、兄弟、夫婦、家室、中外、親屬。當相敬愛，無相憎嫉。有無相通，無得貪惜。言色常和，莫相違戾。或時心諍，有所恚怒。今世恨意，微相憎嫉。後世轉劇，至成大怨。所以者何。世間之事，更相患害。雖不即時，應急相破。然含毒畜怒，結憤精神。自然剋識，不得相離。皆當對生，更相報復。人在世間愛欲之中，獨生獨死，獨去獨來。當行至趣，苦樂之地。身自當之，無有代者。善惡變化，殃福異處。宿豫嚴待，當獨趣入。遠到他所，莫能見者。善惡自然，追行所生。窈窈冥冥，別離久長。道路不同，會見無期。甚難甚難復得相值。何不棄眾事，各曼強健時。努力勤修善，精進願度世。可得極長生，如何不求道。安所須待欲何樂乎。如是世人，不信作善得善，為道得道。不信人死更生，惠施得福。善惡之事，都不信之。謂之不然，終無有是。但坐此故，且自見之。更相瞻視，先後同然。轉相承受父餘教令。先人祖父，素不為善，不識道德。身愚神闇，心塞意閉。死生之趣，善惡之道。自不能見，無有語者。吉凶禍福，競各作之。無一怪也。生死常道，轉相嗣立。或父哭子，或子哭父。兄弟夫婦，更相哭泣。顛倒上下，無常根本。皆當過去，不可常保。教語開導，信之者少。是以生死流轉，無有休止。如此之人。曚冥抵突，不信經法。心無遠慮，各欲快意。癡惑於愛欲，不達於道德，迷沒於瞋怒，貪狼於財色。坐之不得道。當更惡趣苦。生死無窮已。哀哉甚可傷。
Among the people of this world — parents and children, brothers, husbands and wives, members of one household, relatives near and distant — all should hold each other in respect and love, and never in hatred or envy. What one has should be shared with the other, without begrudging or hoarding it; words and expressions should stay always gentle, never crossed or contrary. And yet sometimes the heart contends, and anger and resentment arise; a grudge held in this present life, even a small mutual dislike, grows more severe in a life to come, until it becomes a great enmity. And why is this? Because the affairs of this world are such that people harm one another in turn — even if not at once, the harm is bound, sooner or later, to come due. Once poison is held and anger stored up, it knots itself into the very spirit, fixing itself there so it cannot be set aside; and so beings meet each other again, life after life, taking their revenge in turn without end. A person in this world, caught up in craving and desire, is born alone and dies alone, comes alone and goes alone; each must walk the path to their own destiny, a place of suffering or of joy, and bear it entirely themselves — no one else can stand in for them. Good and evil each transform in their own way, calamity and blessing each following their own separate course, awaiting a person exactly as their own deeds have arranged, and each must enter into it alone, traveling far to a place where no one who knew them can see them there. Good and evil, each of itself, pursues the conduct that gave rise to it, into a darkness deep and obscure, a separation that lasts long, along a road no other travels — a meeting again with no fixed date, exceedingly hard, exceedingly hard to bring about. Why, then, not set every other matter aside, while each of you still has your strength, and strive with diligence to cultivate goodness, pressing forward with a resolve to be delivered from this world? You could then attain a life of the utmost length — why not seek the path? What is there left to wait for, and what joy is there in waiting? Yet people of this world do not believe that doing good brings good, that walking the path brings attainment of the path; they do not believe that a person, having died, is born again, or that generosity brings its own reward. Matters of good and evil they simply do not believe at all, insisting it is not so, that in the end there is no such thing. And it is exactly because of this that they come, in time, to see the consequences for themselves — each generation watching the one before, and finding it just the same, each passing down and inheriting what their own father taught them. Their forebears and ancestors, never themselves having done good or known virtue and the path, left them foolish in body and dark in spirit, their mind blocked and their intent closed off; unable to see for themselves the destiny of death and rebirth, or the paths of good and evil, and with no one to tell them of it, they bring about their own fortune and misfortune by their own competing actions — nothing strange in that at all. Birth and death are the constant way of things, passed on and inherited in their turn: sometimes a father weeps for his son, sometimes a son for his father; brothers, husbands and wives, all weeping for one another in turn — high and low overturned, with nothing permanent at the root of any of it; everything must pass away, and nothing can be kept forever. Though taught and guided, few come to believe it, and so the flow and turning of birth and death goes on without ever ceasing. People such as these, benighted and blind, stumbling forward, place no faith in the scriptures and their teaching; their mind holds no thought for what lies far ahead, each wanting only what pleases them now — confused and deluded by craving and desire, unable to reach virtue and the path, lost and drowning in anger, greedy and ravenous for wealth and lust. And because of this, they fail to attain the path, and must undergo yet again the suffering of the evil destinies, in a round of birth and death without end — how sorrowful, how truly to be pitied.
"Born alone and dies alone, comes alone and goes alone" (獨生獨死，獨去獨來) is, alongside the line closing Part 8's first section, among the most frequently quoted phrases from this entire sūtra, recited independently of its surrounding context in later Pure Land teaching. Huiyuan reads it as the doctrinal center of this whole passage: family bonds, described warmly just a few lines earlier, are real and worth honoring — the text does not dismiss them — but they cannot be relied upon to accompany a person through death and rebirth, where karmic consequence is worked out in strict isolation. Grudges compound precisely because this isolation is misunderstood; each party assumes the relationship itself will resolve the harm, when in this sūtra's own account, only the individual's own conduct can.
The passage on inherited disbelief — each generation copying its forebears' skepticism about karma "with nothing strange in that at all" — reads, on Huiyuan's account, as this sūtra's own explanation for why an argument this direct is still necessary at all: disbelief, on this view, is not usually a conclusion someone reasons their way to, but a habit of mind received, largely unexamined, from family and custom.
38. Maitreya's Response, and the Charge to Practice
或時室家、父子、兄弟、夫婦，一死一生，更相哀愍。恩愛思慕憂念結縛。心意痛著迭相顧戀。窮日卒歲無有解已。教語道德，心不開明。思想恩好，不離情欲。惛曚閉塞，愚惑所覆。不能深思熟計，心自端政，專精行道，決斷世事。便旋至竟，年壽終盡，不能得道，無可奈何。緫猥憒擾，皆貪愛欲。惑道者眾，悟之者寡。世間怱怱，無可聊賴。尊卑上下，貧富貴賤，勤苦怱務，各懷殺毒。惡氣窈冥，為妄興事。違逆天地，不從人心。自然非惡，先隨與之。恣聽所為，待其罪極。其壽未終盡，便頓奪之下入惡道。累世懟苦，展轉其中。數千億劫，無有出期。痛不可言，甚可哀愍。 佛告彌勒菩薩、諸天人等：我今語汝世間之事。人用是故坐不得道。當熟思計，遠離眾惡。擇其善者，勤而行之。愛欲榮華，不可常保。皆當別離，無可樂者。曼佛在世，當勤精進。其有至願生安樂國者。可得智慧明達，功德殊勝。勿得隨心所欲。虧負經戒，在人後也。儻有疑意，不解經者。可具問佛，當為說之。彌勒菩薩長跪白言：佛威神尊重。所說快善。聽佛經者，貫心思之。世人實爾，如佛所言。今佛慈愍顯示大道。耳目開明長得度脫。聞佛所說，莫不歡喜。諸天人民蠕動之類。皆蒙慈恩解脫憂苦。佛語教誡，甚深甚善。智慧明見八方上下去來今事莫不究暢。今我眾等。所以蒙得度脫。皆佛前世求道之時謙苦所致。恩德普覆，福祿巍巍。光明徹照，達空無極。開入泥洹。教授典攬威制消化。感動十方，無窮無極。佛為法王，尊超眾聖。普為一切天人之師。隨心所願，皆令得道。今得值佛。復聞無量壽聲。靡不歡喜。心得開明。 佛告彌勒：汝言是也。若有慈敬於佛者，實為大善。天下久久，乃復有佛。今我於此世作佛，演說經法，宣布道教。斷諸疑網，拔愛欲之本，杜眾惡之源。遊步三界，無所拘閡。典攬智慧，眾道之要。執持綱維，昭然分明。開示五趣，度未度者。決正生死，泥洹之道。彌勒當知，汝從無數劫來，修菩薩行，欲度眾生，其已久遠。從汝得道，至于泥洹，不可稱數。汝及十方諸天人民一切四眾，永劫已來，展轉五道，憂畏勤苦，不可具言。乃至今世，生死不絕，與佛相值，聽受經法。又復得聞無量壽佛。快哉甚善，吾助爾喜。汝今亦可自厭生、死、老、病痛苦，惡露不淨，無可樂者。宜自決斷，端身正行，益作諸善。修己潔體，洗除心垢。言行忠信，表裏相應。人能自度，轉相拯濟。精明求願，積累善本。雖一世勤苦須臾之間，後生無量壽國，快樂無極。長與道德合明，永拔生死根本，無復貪恚愚癡苦惱之患。欲壽一劫、百劫、千億萬劫。自在隨意，皆可得之。無為自然，次於泥洹之道。汝等宜各精進，求心所願。無得疑惑、中悔，自為過咎。生彼邊地，七寶宮殿，五百歲中受諸厄也。彌勒白佛：受佛重誨，專精修學，如教奉行，不敢有疑。 佛告彌勒：汝等能於此世，端心正意，不作眾惡，甚為至德，十方世界最無倫匹。所以者何？諸佛國土天人之類。自然作善，不大為惡，易可開化。今我於此世間作佛，處於五惡、五痛、五燒之中，為最劇苦。教化群生，令捨五惡，令去五痛，令離五燒，降化其意。令持五善，獲其福德，度世長壽泥洹之道。佛言：何等為五惡？何等五痛？何等五燒？何等消化五惡，令持五善，獲其福德，度世長壽泥洹之道？
And sometimes, within a single household — parent and child, brothers, husband and wife — one dies while the others live on, grieving for one another; bound up in loving attachment, longing, and anxious care, their mind and heart aching with attachment, each looking back on the other with longing, finding no release for it through the whole span of their days and years. Taught of virtue and the path, their mind still fails to open into understanding; caught up in thoughts of past affection and fond attachment, they cannot leave their own feelings and desires behind. Beclouded and blocked, covered over by foolishness and delusion, they cannot think deeply or plan with care, cannot set their own mind upright, cannot single-mindedly walk the path or resolutely set worldly affairs aside; and so, in a moment, it is over — their years and their life come to an end, and they are unable to attain the path, with nothing left to be done about it. Everywhere confused, everywhere in turmoil, everyone caught up in craving and desire — those confused about the path are many, and those who awaken to it are few. The world rushes on in haste, with nothing solid to rely upon; honored and lowly, rich and poor, all toiling in their affairs, each of them, in their heart, capable of murderous intent. A dark and evil atmosphere gives rise to reckless deeds, going against heaven and earth, following no one's true heart; wrongdoing follows its own course without being summoned, given free rein until its guilt is complete — and then, before that person's natural lifespan has even ended, it is suddenly seized away from them, and they fall down into an evil destiny, undergoing lifetime after lifetime of resentful suffering, turning within it for thousands of koṭis of aeons, with no way out. It cannot be told, how much this is to be grieved and pitied. The Buddha said to the bodhisattva Maitreya and the assembled gods and humans: "I have now told you of the affairs of this world. It is for this very reason that people fail to attain the path. You should think this through with care, and keep yourselves far from every evil; choose what is good, and practice it with diligence. Craving, desire, glory, and splendor cannot be kept forever — every one of them ends in separation, and none of them is anything to truly delight in. While a buddha remains in the world, you should be diligent and press forward; anyone with a genuine wish to be born in the land of Peace and Bliss can attain a bright and penetrating wisdom, and merit beyond compare. Do not simply follow your own inclinations, falling short of the scriptures and the precepts, and so fall behind others. Should any doubt or point of confusion about the scriptures remain, you may ask the Buddha about it fully, and he will explain it for you." The bodhisattva Maitreya knelt and said: "The Buddha's majestic power is honored and weighty, and what he has spoken is excellent indeed. Anyone who hears the Buddha's teaching should hold it fast in mind and reflect on it. The people of this world are truly as the Buddha has described. Now the Buddha, in his compassion, has revealed the great path, opening our ears and eyes so that we may attain lasting deliverance; there is no one who hears what the Buddha has spoken who does not rejoice. All the gods, humans, and every crawling, moving creature have, every one of them, received his compassionate grace and been delivered from their sorrow and suffering. The Buddha's words of teaching and admonition are exceedingly profound and exceedingly good; his wisdom clearly perceives every matter of the eight directions, above and below, past, future, and present, leaving nothing unfathomed. That we, this assembly, have now received deliverance is entirely owed to the humility and hardship the Buddha himself endured in past lives while seeking the path; his kindness and virtue cover everything, his blessed fortune towering and vast, his light shining through all things, reaching to emptiness without limit, opening the way into nirvāṇa. His teaching, held and governed with majestic authority, transforms and moves the ten directions, without end and without limit. The Buddha is the king of the Dharma, honored above every sage, teacher everywhere to every god and human; according to what each mind wishes, he brings every one of them to attain the path. Now, having had the good fortune to encounter the Buddha, and to hear as well the name of Amitāyus, there is no one who does not rejoice, our minds opened into understanding." The Buddha told Maitreya: "What you say is true. Anyone who holds compassion and reverence for the Buddha is doing something truly excellent. It is only after a very long time that a buddha again appears in the world. Now, in this present age, I have become a buddha in this world, expounding the scriptures and their teaching, proclaiming the way, cutting through every net of doubt, uprooting the very source of craving and desire, and blocking off the wellspring of every evil. I range freely through the three realms, unhindered by anything; I hold and govern wisdom, the essential of every path; I grasp its guiding thread, making it bright and clear; I open up and reveal the five destinies, delivering those not yet delivered; I settle and make right the way of birth and death, and the path to nirvāṇa. Maitreya, you should know that you yourself, across countless aeons, have practiced the bodhisattva conduct, wishing to deliver beings, for a very long time already; from the time you attain the path until you reach nirvāṇa is a span that cannot be reckoned. You, and every god, human, and member of the fourfold assembly in the ten directions, have, across boundless aeons, turned through the five destinies, your dread and hardship beyond what words can fully tell; and even now, in this present age, birth and death have not ceased, and yet you have had the good fortune to meet a buddha, to listen to and receive the teaching of the scriptures, and, further, to hear of Amitāyus Buddha. How excellent, how truly good this is — I rejoice together with you in this. You, too, should now come to weary of birth, death, old age, sickness, and suffering, of what is foul and impure, and find nothing in them worth delighting in. You should resolve firmly, keep your body upright and your conduct correct, and do good all the more; cultivate and purify yourself, and wash away every stain from your mind; let your words and your conduct be loyal and true, matching within and without. If a person can deliver themselves, they can in turn help deliver others as well; with a clear and diligent resolve, accumulate roots of goodness. Though the hardship of a single lifetime is but a brief moment, to be born afterward in the land of Amitāyus is a joy without any end; there, you will be joined forever with the brightness of virtue and the path, having permanently uprooted the very root of birth and death, with no more affliction of greed, anger, foolishness, or suffering to trouble you. Whether you wish to live one aeon, a hundred aeons, or a thousand koṭis of aeons, freely and exactly as you wish, every one of these is attainable there, unconditioned and spontaneous, second only to the path of nirvāṇa itself. Each of you should be diligent, and seek what your mind truly wishes; do not give way to doubt, or turn back partway through, thereby bringing this fault upon yourself: to be born instead into that land's borderland, into a palace of the seven treasures, undergoing hardship there for five hundred years." Maitreya said to the Buddha: "Having received the Buddha's solemn teaching, I shall cultivate and study it single-mindedly, and carry it out exactly as taught, not daring to hold any doubt." The Buddha told Maitreya: "That you are able, in this world, to set your mind upright and your intent correct, and not commit any of the many evils, is a virtue of the very highest order, without equal anywhere among the worlds of the ten directions. And why is this? Because in the lands of other buddhas, the gods and humans there do good spontaneously, and rarely do evil at all, and so are easy to teach and transform. But now, in this world, where I have become a buddha, I dwell amid the five evils, the five pains, and the five burnings — the very worst and most extreme suffering there is — teaching and transforming the beings here, leading them to give up the five evils, to be rid of the five pains, and to be free of the five burnings, subduing and transforming their minds, leading them to uphold the five virtues, and so obtain their own blessing and merit, and the path to a long life beyond this world, and to nirvāṇa." The Buddha said: "What, then, are these five evils? What are the five pains? What are the five burnings? And how are the five evils to be dissolved, so that the five virtues may be upheld, blessing and merit obtained, and the path to a long life beyond this world, and to nirvāṇa, attained?"
Notice what the sūtra does not say here: it does not claim beings in this world are somehow more sinful by nature than beings elsewhere. The stated reason this world is uniquely difficult is structural — other buddha-lands' beings "do good spontaneously, and rarely do evil at all," so a buddha there has comparatively little work to do, while a buddha appearing in this specific world, amid the five evils, five pains, and five burnings, faces the hardest possible teaching conditions. Huiyuan reads Śākyamuni's willingness to appear precisely here, rather than in an easier world, as itself a measure of his compassion — matching a claim this site's Amitābha Sūtra translation makes about the same point in different words, where Śākyamuni's buddhas of the six directions praise him specifically for succeeding "in the evil age of the five turbidities."
This closing question — what are the five evils, the five pains, and the five burnings? — is answered one evil at a time in the next part of this translation, each with its own extended treatment and the same closing refrain repeated five times. The warning about being born into the land's "borderland," undergoing hardship in a jeweled palace for five hundred years, is the sūtra's own first mention of a topic this translation takes up directly in Part 10: not everyone who is reborn in Sukhāvatī necessarily arrives in the same way.