Praising the Pure Land's Superiority

How great indeed is the teaching of the Pure Land Dharma-gate! "This very mind creates the Buddha, this very mind is the Buddha" — even those who point directly at the human mind must yield to its singular distinction. In thought after thought one recollects the Buddha, and in that very thought one becomes a buddha — even those who cultivate and realize across many kalpas should still draw on its lofty example. It universally covers the upper, middle, and lower faculties alike, and gathers in Vinaya, doctrinal, and Chan schools together — like seasonable rain moistening every living thing, like the great ocean receiving every river. Every dharma, one-sided or perfect, sudden or gradual, flows from nowhere but this Dharma-realm; every practice, great or small, provisional or real, returns to nowhere but this Dharma-realm. Without severing affliction or karma, one may still be admitted to the rank of one bound for buddhahood after a single further birth; in this very life, one may perfect bodhi. Were the beings of the nine dharma-realms to depart from this gate, above they could never perfect the buddha-path; were the buddhas of the ten directions to set aside this dharma, below they could never broadly benefit the multitude. This is why the ocean-vast assembly of the Avataṃsaka all follow the King of the Ten Great Vows, and why a single recitation at the Lotus assembly is already a realization of the true mark of every dharma. As the most excellent of skillful means, Aśvaghoṣa demonstrated it in his Awakening of Faith; as the swift and easy path, Nāgārjuna expounded it in the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā. Zhiyi, said to be Śākyamuni come again, composed the Treatise on Ten Doubts with his whole intent set on the West; Yongming, a manifestation of Amitābha himself, wrote the Four Alternatives and recited the Buddha's name his whole life through. It gathers the three vehicles and the five natures, together realizing the true and constant; it guides the sages above and the ordinary below, together crossing to the farther shore. And so all nine dharma-realms return to it, and the ten directions join in praising it; a thousand sūtras expound it together, ten thousand treatises proclaim it as one. Truly, it may be called the ultimate word of an entire teaching career, the unsurpassed great teaching of the One Vehicle. Without having planted the roots of virtue, one could pass through kalpa after kalpa and never meet it; having now come to see and hear it, one should diligently cultivate it!

印施極樌圖序 · Preface to a Printed Illustration of Utmost Bliss 正編

I have heard it said that the Pure Land is the teaching that most fully and ultimately expresses the Buddha's own original intent — surpassing every school of Chan, doctrine, and Vinaya, while at the same time gathering every school of Chan, doctrine, and Vinaya within it. Stated briefly, a single word, a single phrase, a single verse, or a single book can already contain it entirely without remainder; stated at length, even the profound words of the Tripiṭaka's twelve divisions and the wondrous teachings of every patriarch of the five schools could not exhaust it. Even if every being on the great earth attained true awakening at once, and each, putting forth a broad and long tongue, spoke of it with the full power of spiritual attainment and wisdom — speaking of it in every mote of dust, every land, blazing forth without interruption — how could even this exhaust it? This is truly because the Pure Land is, at root, inconceivable. Consider the great Avataṃsaka Sūtra, king among the Tripiṭaka: its very final word returns weightily to the King of Vows. Consider the profound canon of the Lotus Sūtra, wondrous crown among all sūtras: a single hearing already secures rebirth, at a rank equal to that of equal enlightenment. That a thousand sūtras and ten thousand treatises, everywhere, point back to this — this has its reasons. Mañjuśrī made the vow; Samantabhadra urged it onward. The Tathāgata, in the Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra, gave the prediction that in the degenerate age nothing but this could liberate beings; Nāgārjuna, in the Daśabhūmika-vibhāṣā, distinguished it as the easy path, swiftly leading out of birth-and-death. That every sage and worthy of ages past turned toward it, one and all — was this truly for nothing? Truly, one may say that an entire teaching career is nothing but a footnote to the Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection.

Nor is this all. Every single object encountered by the six sense-faculties — mountains, rivers, the great earth; light and dark, form and emptiness; seeing, hearing, sensing, knowing; sound, fragrance, and flavor — which of these is not itself a text proclaiming the Pure Land? The turning of the seasons from cold to heat; old age and illness wearing one down; flood and drought, war and plague; demonic companions and wrong views — which of these is not itself a warning, urging a person to seek rebirth swiftly? How could one speak of it fully, however much one said? As for "a single word that contains it entirely": this word is "pure." When purity reaches its utmost, its light penetrates everywhere — short of wondrous enlightenment itself, how easily could one truly take up this single word? Study the verses on the six identities of buddhahood, and this will become clear. As for "a single phrase": this is faith, vow, and practice. Without faith, one cannot open up vow; without vow, one cannot guide practice; without the wondrous practice of holding the name, one cannot fulfill the vow one has made and verify the faith one holds. Every sūtra and treatise on the Pure Land expounds nothing but this single purport. As for "a single verse": this is the verse of praising the Buddha. Raising up the direct reward, it gathers in the dependent fruit as well; speaking of the teaching-lord, it takes in his disciples as well — though only eight lines long, it already raises up the whole outline of the three Pure Land sūtras. As for "a single book": this is the Ten Essentials of the Pure Land — every single character a bridge across the degenerate age, every single word a precious mirror for the Lotus tradition. Weeping aloud, pouring out heart's blood, expounding fully in accord with one's own nature, guiding according to capacity — even rescuing the drowning or the burning could not compare to its urgency. Setting this aside, correct faith has nowhere to arise from, and wrong views have nothing to dissolve them.

與悟開師書 · Letter to Master Wukai 正編

The mind-nature of a single thought in every sentient being is no different from that of a buddha. Though lost in delusion and unawakened, giving rise to affliction and creating karma, committing every kind of offense, the buddha-nature originally possessed is never in the least diminished by it. It is like a wish-fulfilling jewel that has fallen into a latrine — mixed in with the filth, it appears no different from the filth itself. A foolish person, not knowing it is a jewel, regards it with the very same eye as the filth around it. A wise person, knowing it to be a priceless, wondrous treasure, does not shrink from the defilement, but retrieves it from the latrine, cleanses it with every means until it is spotless, and then hangs it high on a banner — whereupon it emits great light, and, according to whatever anyone seeks, rains down every kind of treasure. Only then does the foolish person come to know its worth. The Great Awakened World-Honored One regards every sentient being in exactly this way. Even one utterly confused and inverted, guilty of the five heinous crimes and the ten evils, forever fallen into the three lower paths — toward such a person, the Buddha never holds, for even a single thought, any mind of abandonment. He waits only for the right occasion and condition, blessing that being seen and unseen, teaching the Dharma to him, so that he may understand the illusory affliction and karma he carries and awaken to the true, constant buddha-nature — all the way until he has fully and perfectly realized unsurpassed bodhi. If this holds true even for a person of the gravest, most extreme evil, how much more so for one whose offenses are lighter, or one who has fully cultivated precepts and goodness and gone deep in the power of meditative concentration! For within the three realms, even those who discipline the body and gather in the mind, subduing every affliction, still retain the seed of craving — and once their store of blessings is exhausted, they descend again to a lower realm, and, meeting conditions and circumstances, once more give rise to affliction and create karma; and from karma, suffering is brought about, and they revolve through the six destinies without ever coming to an end. Hence the Lotus Sūtra says: "The three realms are without peace, like a burning house; every kind of suffering fills them, deeply to be feared!" Short of karma exhausted and craving emptied, affliction severed and the true realized, there is no hope of escaping these three realms. And so there is nothing but the Pure Land Dharma-gate: merely possess genuine faith and an earnest vow, hold fast to the Buddha's name, and one may thereby rely on the Buddha's own merciful power to be reborn in the West. Once reborn there, one enters the Buddha's own realm, sharing in the very same enjoyment as the Buddha — neither the views of the ordinary nor the views of the sage any longer arise. This is truly the special Dharma-gate, sound and secure in every one of its thousand and ten thousand particulars, in which not a single case ever fails. In this present age of the Dharma's decline, there is no other method but this!

傅大士傳錄序 · Preface to the Recorded Biography of Layman Fu 正編

The Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection has a lineage stretching far back indeed. The nature of our own single thought of mind is like empty space, constant and unchanging; yet, though constant and unchanging, it also follows conditions, thought after thought. If it does not follow the conditions of the buddha-realm, it follows the conditions of the nine other realms; if it does not follow the conditions of the three vehicles, it follows the conditions of the six destinies; if it does not follow the conditions of humans and gods, it follows the conditions of the three lower paths. Because the conditions followed differ in their defilement or purity, the reward brought about differs vastly in its suffering or joy — though, in its essential substance, nothing at all has changed, in its manifested marks and functions, the difference is as wide as heaven from earth. It is like empty space itself: illuminated by the sun, it grows bright; massed with cloud, it grows dark. Though the essential substance of empty space is neither increased nor diminished by cloud or sun, the manifested marks of brightness or obstruction cannot be spoken of as though they were one and the same. It is for this very reason that the Tathāgata leads all beings universally to take the Buddha as their object of recollection. Hence it is said: "If the mind of a sentient being recollects the Buddha and holds the Buddha in mind, then, now or in time to come, that being will certainly behold the Buddha, and is not far from the Buddha." And again: "Every Tathāgata is a body of the Dharma-realm, entering into the mind and thought of every sentient being. Therefore, when your own mind thinks of the Buddha, this very mind is already the thirty-two marks and the eighty subsidiary signs of physical excellence. This very mind creates the Buddha; this very mind is the Buddha. The ocean of perfect, universal knowledge of every buddha arises from the mind's own thought." Now, when one follows the conditions of the buddha-realm, then this very mind creates the Buddha, this very mind is the Buddha; but when one follows the conditions of each of the various realms of sentient beings, then this very mind creates a sentient being, this very mind is a sentient being. To understand this and yet not recollect the Buddha — there has never been such a case.

The single method of buddha-recollection takes as its object of recollection the Tathāgata's own great name of ten thousand virtues. This very great name of ten thousand virtues is precisely the unsurpassed path of awakening the Tathāgata realized upon the ground of the fruit. Because it takes the awakening of the fruit-ground as the very mind of the causal-ground, the cause already encompasses the ocean of the fruit, and the fruit already penetrates through to the source of the cause. It is like a person steeped in incense, whose very body carries its fragrance; like the sphex wasp's chant to the silkworm-moth larva, which in time transforms it into its own kind. In this very life one becomes a buddha, turning the ordinary into the sacred — its power, capacity, and function surpass every other Dharma-gate across an entire teaching career. For every other Dharma-gate relies entirely on one's own power, severing affliction and realizing the true, before one can escape birth and death. The Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection alone is fully endowed with both self-power and Buddha-power together — hence one who has already severed affliction and karma swiftly realizes the Dharma-body, while one still fully possessed of affliction and karma is reborn there carrying that karma along. This method is utterly ordinary — even the most foolish man or woman can obtain its benefit — and yet it is, at the very same time, utterly profound and subtle — even a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment cannot step outside its scope. Hence there is no one unfit to cultivate it, and no one unable to cultivate it; it is easy to take up as a starting point, yet its accomplishment is lofty; it requires little effort, yet its effect comes swiftly. It is truly the special Dharma-gate within the Tathāgata's entire teaching career, one that certainly cannot be judged by the ordinary standards of doctrine. Beings of the degenerate age, with thin blessings and shallow wisdom, thick obstruction and deep karma — should they fail to cultivate this dharma, and instead wish to rely on their own power alone to sever affliction and realize the true, in order to be done with birth and death, this would be exceedingly, exceedingly difficult!

棲真常住長年念佛序 · Preface for the Perpetual Buddha-Recollection Endowment at Qizhen Monastery 正編

The Great Awakened World-Honored One, in compassion for every sentient being lost in delusion, turning away from their own mind, revolving through the six destinies across kalpa after long kalpa, unable to escape — thereupon aroused a compassion that needs no cause and a kindness born of shared essence, manifesting his birth in the world and attaining perfect, complete awakening; and, according with capacity and occasion, broadly expounded every dharma. Gathering up the great outline, there are, in all, five schools. What are the five schools? Vinaya, doctrine, Chan, esoteric practice, and Pure Land. Vinaya is the Buddha's body; doctrine is the Buddha's word; Chan is the Buddha's mind. That by which the Buddha is the Buddha is nothing but these three dharmas; that by which the Buddha liberates beings is likewise nothing but these three dharmas. Should a sentient being truly be able to cultivate in reliance on the Buddha's Vinaya, doctrine, and Chan, then that being's own three karmas of body, speech, and mind are thereby transformed into the three karmas of the buddhas themselves; and once the three karmas are transformed, then affliction is itself bodhi, birth-and-death is itself nirvāṇa. And fearing that karmic obstruction from past lives might, in some cases, not be easily transformed, he further employs the empowering force of dhāraṇī and the three esoteric mysteries to steep and instruct such beings — like the sphex wasp's chant to the silkworm-moth larva, "become like me, become like me," until, after seven days, it is transformed into the wasp's own kind. And fearing still further that some, of inferior capacity, might not attain liberation, and, receiving yet another birth, could hardly avoid being lost again in delusion, he specially opened the single gate of faith, vow, and buddha-recollection, seeking rebirth in the Pure Land — enabling both sage and ordinary being alike, in this very life, to be reborn in the West: the sage thereby swiftly realizing unsurpassed bodhi, the ordinary being thereby forever escaping the bondage of birth and death. Because this relies on the Buddha's own merciful power, its merit and benefit are inconceivable. One must understand that Vinaya is the very foundation for doctrine, Chan, esoteric practice, and Pure Land alike — without strictly upholding the precepts, the true benefit of doctrine, Chan, esoteric practice, and Pure Land cannot be obtained, just as, in building a tower ten thousand feet tall, if the foundation is not secure, it collapses before it is even completed. Pure Land is the very destination to which Vinaya, doctrine, Chan, and esoteric practice all return, just as a hundred streams and ten thousand rivers all return to the great ocean — for the Pure Land Dharma-gate is precisely the gate by which every buddha of the ten directions and three time-periods, above, attains the buddha-path, and, below, converts sentient beings — the gate that both begins and completes the whole matter.

青蓮寺念佛宣言書 · Proclamation on Buddha-Recollection at Qinglian Monastery 正編

The Amitābha Sūtra, the Sūtra of Immeasurable Life, and the Contemplation Sūtra of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life — these are called the three Pure Land sūtras, devoted specifically to the causes, occasions, phenomena, and principle of the Pure Land; every other Mahāyāna sūtra, too, touches on the Pure Land in passing. As for the Avataṃsaka Sūtra: this is the sūtra the Tathāgata spoke immediately upon his first attainment of perfect awakening, directly expounding, in full accord with his own nature, the wondrous dharma of the One Vehicle to the forty-one ranks of great beings of the Dharma-body; and at its very end, after Sudhana had visited every spiritual friend in turn and attained realization equal to that of every buddha, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra spoke to him of the King of the Ten Great Vows, causing Sudhana, together with the whole ocean-vast assembly of the Flower-Treasury World, to dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the Western Land of Utmost Bliss, in order to perfect the fruit of buddhahood. And in the Contemplation Sūtra, one of the very lowest of the lowest grades of rebirth — guilty of the five heinous crimes and the ten evils, possessing every kind of unwholesome deed — at the moment his life comes to its end, with the marks of hell already appearing before him, meets a good spiritual friend who teaches him to recollect the Buddha; he receives this teaching and recites the Buddha's name, and before he has completed even ten recitations, he already beholds a transformation-body buddha extending his hand to receive and guide him to rebirth. The Mahāsaṃnipāta Sūtra says: "In the degenerate age, among a hundred million upon a hundred million who practice, rarely does even one attain the path; only by relying on buddha-recollection can one be liberated from birth and death." From this one knows that the single method of buddha-recollection is a path cultivated in common by the sage above and the ordinary below, a method open equally to the foolish and the wise. It is easy to take up as a starting point, yet its accomplishment is lofty; it requires little effort, yet its effect comes swiftly — and because it relies exclusively on the Buddha's own power, its benefit is uniquely excellent, surpassing the ordinary paths of doctrine. A person of old once said: cultivating the path through other gates is like an ant climbing a towering mountain; attaining rebirth through buddha-recollection is like a sail hoisted before a following wind. This may well be called the most apt of comparisons.

與徐福賢書 · Letter to Xu Fuxian 正編

Now, Śākyamuni and Amitābha, in kalpas long past, both made great vows to liberate sentient beings. The one manifests his birth in a defiled land, using defilement and suffering to subdue beings and send them forth; the other dwells at ease in a pure land, using purity and joy to gather beings in and cultivate them together. You know only that even the most foolish man or woman can recollect the Buddha, and so have come to look down upon the Pure Land — but have you not read the "Entry into the Dharma-Realm" chapter of the Avataṃsaka Sūtra, where, after Sudhana had attained realization equal to that of every buddha, the bodhisattva Samantabhadra taught him to make the King of the Ten Great Vows and dedicate his merit toward rebirth in the Western Land of Utmost Bliss, in order to perfect the fruit of buddhahood — and, with this very teaching, broadly exhorted the whole ocean-vast assembly of the Flower-Treasury World as well? Now, not a single being in that ocean-vast assembly of the Flower-Treasury World is an ordinary person or a follower of the two lesser vehicles — every one of them is among the forty-one ranks of great beings of the Dharma-body, having together broken through ignorance, together realized the nature of dharmas, every one of them able to ride the wheel of his own original vow and manifest himself as a buddha in any world lacking one. And within the Flower-Treasury Ocean itself, pure lands are immeasurable in number — and yet they are specifically directed to dedicate their merit toward rebirth in the Western Land of Utmost Bliss. From this one may know that rebirth in Utmost Bliss is the profound gate out of suffering, the shortest path to buddhahood. This is why, from ancient times to the present, every monastery of Chan, doctrinal, and Vinaya schools alike, without exception, holds fast to the Buddha's name morning and night, seeking rebirth in the West.

淨土決疑論 · Treatise Resolving Doubts About the Pure Land 正編

Tracing back the arising of this teaching, it truly begins at the final assembly of the Avataṃsaka, where Sudhana, after visiting every spiritual friend in turn, arrived at the place of the bodhisattva Samantabhadra and, receiving Samantabhadra's own majestic empowerment, attained realization equal to Samantabhadra's own, equal to that of every buddha — becoming thereby a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment. Samantabhadra thereupon praised the Tathāgata's own supremely wondrous merit and virtue, and urged Sudhana onward, together with the whole ocean-vast assembly of the Flower-Treasury World, to dedicate together the merit of the King of the Ten Great Vows toward rebirth in the Western Land of Utmost Bliss, in order to perfect the fruit of buddhahood. Because the assembly of the Flower-Treasury Ocean consists entirely of the forty-one ranks of great beings of the Dharma-body — the ten abidings, ten practices, ten dedications, ten grounds, and equal enlightenment — who have already traveled throughout buddha-lands as numerous as motes of dust, they already know, in every particular, Amitābha's own vows, the circumstances of Utmost Bliss, and the causes and effects of rebirth there — and so there was no need to expound it further. Yet at the Avataṃsaka assembly there was not a single ordinary being, follower of the two lesser vehicles, or bodhisattva of provisional rank present at all — and so, though this dharma was greatly proclaimed there, ordinary and lesser beings had no way to receive it. It was therefore at the Vaipulya assembly that, for the sake of every human and god, ordinary being and sage alike, he spoke the Sūtra of Immeasurable Life, expounding in full Amitābha's own past causal practice and resulting virtue, the manifold excellent circumstances of Utmost Bliss, and the causes, effects, and grades of realization for the practitioner. This sūtra is precisely the one move by which the Avataṃsaka's own final teaching returns to its true source. Though spoken during the Vaipulya period, its doctrinal substance in truth belongs to the Avataṃsaka. The Avataṃsaka is confined solely to great beings of the Dharma-body; this sūtra universally gathers in ordinary beings and sages of all nine dharma-realms alike. Considered even in relation to the Avataṃsaka itself, this is already something special — how much more so, then, in relation to any other period! Had the Tathāgata not opened up this dharma, then not a single being of the degenerate age could ever be done with birth and death.

無量壽經頌序 · Preface to a Versified Sūtra of Immeasurable Life 續編

Time and again there are foolish people who, regarding themselves as base and lowly, dare not take this practice up; and there are also students of the Dharma who, styling themselves followers of the Mahāyāna, disdain to cultivate it. One must understand: a person guilty of the five heinous crimes and the ten evils, with the marks of hell already appearing before him at the moment of death, is taught by a good friend to recollect the Buddha, and before he has completed even ten recitations, is received by the Buddha and guided to rebirth in the West. Let those who regard themselves as base and lowly take heart from this. The Avataṃsaka Sūtra, king among the Tripiṭaka, returns at its very end to this same source: the bodhisattva Samantabhadra, through the King of the Ten Great Vows, dedicates merit toward rebirth in the West, broadly exhorting Sudhana and the whole ocean-vast assembly of the Flower-Treasury World to advance together, seeking rebirth in the West, in order to perfect the fruit of buddhahood. How dare anyone regard this Dharma-gate as a lesser vehicle? All the more so since Sudhana had already realized equal enlightenment, and the whole ocean-vast assembly had already realized the Dharma-body — and even they still sought this rebirth. Who, then, am I, to disdain cultivating it? [Master Zhuhong said: "Recollecting the Buddha to seek rebirth in the West is the very business of those of great virtue, great blessing, great wisdom, great understanding, great sagacity, and great worth — turning the sahā world into the Pure Land is no small or trivial matter." Respectfully noted by the editor.] This is not merely raising high the banner of arrogance — it is nothing less than slandering the Avataṃsaka itself.

念佛懇辭序 · Preface to an Earnest Plea for Buddha-Recollection 續編

Within the Tathāgata's own sacred teaching, the Dharma-gates are immeasurable in number, and cultivating any single one of them with the bodhi-mind can bring about the end of birth-and-death and the accomplishment of the buddha-path. Yet, before realization is reached through cultivation, there remains a great difference in difficulty and ease, in swiftness and delay. Seeking the most perfect and most sudden, the simplest and easiest, the one that accords with both principle and capacity at once, whose very cultivation is already its own nature, that reaches universally across the upper, middle, and lower faculties, gathering in the sharp and the dull alike — the very destination to which Vinaya, doctrine, Chan, and esoteric practice all return, the shortest path by which humans and gods, ordinary beings and sages, realize the true — there is nothing like this single method of faith, vow, and buddha-recollection, seeking rebirth in the West. This is truly because every other Dharma-gate relies entirely on self-power, whereas the Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection relies on both self-power and Buddha-power together. Relying on self-power alone, short of affliction entirely severed, one cannot transcend the three realms; relying on Buddha-power, if faith and vow are genuine and earnest, one may ascend directly to the nine grades of the lotus. For anyone living today who wishes, in this very life, to be done with the great matter of birth-and-death, setting aside this single method leaves absolutely no hope at all. One must understand that the Pure Land Dharma-gate is perfectly interpenetrating in every one of its particulars — like the bright moon gracing the sky, appearing whole in every single stream; like mercury spilled upon the ground, every single drop perfectly round. It brings great benefit not only to the investigation of things and the extension of knowledge, the thorough understanding of principle and the full realization of one's own nature, the awakening of the age and the guiding of its people, the governing of the state and the securing of peace — even the farmer, artisan, and merchant who wish to prosper in their own trade, and the young and old, men and women, who wish to be freed from their own affliction and illness, all, without exception, find their prayers answered and their wishes fulfilled according to their own sincerity.

無錫淨業社年刊序 · Preface to the Wuxi Pure Karma Society Yearbook 續編

Dharma-gates that rely on self-power to be done with birth-and-death, however lofty, profound, and subtle, would require one to pass through who knows how many kalpas before actually reaching that end. Reckoned according to the Mahāyāna perfect teaching, even at the fifth of its five grades, one has still not severed views-based delusion. Only at the first degree of faith is views-based delusion severed, at which point one may forever be free of any concern about creating evil karma and falling into a lower path — yet one must still advance gradually through further cultivation, and only upon reaching the seventh degree of faith is one truly done with birth and death. The spiritual power of the very first degree of faith is already inconceivable — and even so, one must still advance to the seventh degree before birth-and-death is truly ended. How could being done with birth-and-death ever be spoken of lightly? Reckoned even according to the lesser vehicle's own Tripiṭaka teaching, severing views-based delusion secures only the first fruit, at which point one no longer, of one's own accord, transgresses the precepts — though, if not yet ordained, one may still marry and have children; yet if forced by threat of violence into sexual misconduct, one would rather give up one's own life than break the precept. The first fruit only advances, never regresses — but before the first fruit is attained, nothing is certain at all: one's cultivation in this present life may be extremely good, and yet, in a future life, one may still create grave evil karma; there are even cases where the first half of a life is good and the latter half turns bad. And even the first fruit still requires seven births among the gods and seven returns among humans before the fourth fruit is finally attained — and the lifespan of the gods is exceedingly long, not to be reckoned in mere years and months. Such is the difficulty of relying on self-power alone to be done with birth-and-death. The Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection, by contrast, is the special Dharma-gate within the Buddha's own teaching: relying on the Buddha's own merciful power, one may be reborn there carrying one's karma along. [Reckoned within this world, one has not yet severed affliction and karma — hence "carrying karma along"; but once reborn in the West, there is no longer any karma to be found there at all — it is not that one carries the karma itself to the West.] Regardless of how deep or shallow one's own effort, so long as one possesses genuine faith and an earnest vow, and recites with utmost sincerity, there is not a single case that fails to attain rebirth.

復吳思謙書 · Reply to Wu Siqian 三編

Every other Dharma-gate must rely on the strength of the path found in precept, concentration, and wisdom, in order to sever the affliction of greed, hatred, and delusion; only once the power of concentration and wisdom is deep, and affliction is purified and exhausted entirely, does one have any portion in being done with birth-and-death. Should affliction be severed but not yet exhausted entirely, then even were you possessed of great wisdom, great eloquence, great spiritual powers, able to know the past and the future, able to go or come exactly as you wished — even you could still not be done with it, how much less anyone lesser than this! The difficulty of relying on self-power alone to be done with birth-and-death is truly as difficult as climbing to heaven! But if one relies instead on the Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection — giving rise to faith, making the vow, reciting the Buddha's sacred name, seeking rebirth in the West — then it makes no difference whether one is monastic or lay, scholar, farmer, artisan, or merchant, noble or humble, wise or foolish: so long as one is willing to cultivate in accordance with the teaching, one may, relying on the Buddha's own merciful power, be reborn there carrying one's karma along. Once rebirth is attained, concentration and wisdom are obtained of themselves, without needing to be sought; affliction is severed of itself, without needing to be cut away. One draws near, in person, to Amitābha and his host of sages; one bathes and swims in the golden ground and jeweled ponds. Relying on this excellent condition, one's own path to awakening is thereby brought to completion — enabling one who is reborn carrying karma along to ascend directly to non-retrogression, and one who is reborn having already severed affliction to swiftly realize the patient acceptance of the unborn. This is entirely a matter of Amitābha Buddha's own great compassionate vow-power meeting, in mutual resonance, the power of a person's own faith, vow, and buddha-recollection — and it is through this that so great a benefit is obtained. Compared with relying exclusively on one's own power alone, the difference in difficulty is as wide as heaven from earth.

念佛懇辭序 · Preface to an Earnest Plea for Buddha-Recollection 續編

Every dharma of the great and lesser vehicles that the Tathāgata spoke throughout his entire teaching career relies on self-power alone, and is therefore difficult; this single dharma alone relies entirely on Amitābha Buddha's own compassionate power, born of his vow to gather beings in, together with the practitioner's own power of faith, vow, sincerity, and earnest recollection — and it is through this that response and resonance meet along the path, and the matter is settled within this very life.

福州佛學圖書館緣起 · The Founding of the Fuzhou Buddhist Studies Library 續編

Once beings' capacity for this teaching career was exhausted, the Tathāgata's own manifestation came to rest — and yet his great compassion, benefiting beings, never came to an end. His great disciples thereupon distributed his relics and compiled the scriptural canon, so that it might circulate throughout every land, hoping that its Dharma-moisture might reach all beings universally. By the time of the Eastern Han, the great teaching first arrived in China; yet, because the general climate was not yet receptive, it circulated only in the north. It was not until the fourth year of the Chiwu era of the Sun-Wu kingdom [241 CE] that the venerable Kang Senghui specially opened up conversion in Jianye, and, receiving a descent of the Tathāgata's own relics, brought Sun Quan to a state of profound faith, whereupon temples and stūpas were built to broadly propagate the Dharma — this was the very beginning of the Dharma reaching the south. By the Jin dynasty it had spread throughout Korea, Japan, Burma, Vietnam, Tibet, and Mongolia. From this point onward, it flourished ever more vigorously. By the Tang dynasty every school was fully established, and one may say it reached its very height. Tiantai, Xianshou, and Cien propagated doctrine; Linji, Caodong, Weiyang, Yunmen, and Fayan propagated the Chan lineages; Nanshan strictly upheld and purified the Vinaya; the Lotus tradition devoted itself exclusively to the Pure Land. Each was like a distinct department discharging its own office, or like the six sense-faculties mutually serving one another's function. This is truly because doctrine is the Buddha's word, the Chan lineages are the Buddha's mind, and Vinaya is the Buddha's conduct — mind, word, and conduct, these three, are in truth never to be strictly divided, and these names are established only in terms of a particular emphasis. As for the Pure Land alone: at first it appears as merely a skillful means for the ordinary person to enter the path, yet in truth it is the ultimate destination to which every school returns. This is why one about to fall into the Avīci hell may still be admitted to the very last grade of rebirth, and even one whose realization already equals every buddha still hopes for this rebirth. While the Tathāgata remained in the world, a thousand capacities were nurtured together, ten thousand streams paid court to one source; but after the Buddha's own passing into extinction, the great beings who propagated the Dharma each propagated a single dharma of their own, in hopes that a single gate, entered deeply enough, would lead through to every other dharma as well. It is like Indra's net of a thousand jewels: each jewel remains distinct from every other, and yet a single jewel is reflected fully within all thousand, and all thousand are gathered fully within the single one — commingled without confusion, distinct without separation. One who clings to the outward trace says that every dharma, each in its own particular, is entirely distinct from every other; one who truly comprehends says that every dharma, each in its own particular, perfectly interpenetrates every other. It is like a city with four gates: whoever is nearest simply enters by that one — though the gates themselves differ, the entering is no different at all. If one truly grasps this meaning, then it is not only the profound truth spoken by every buddha and patriarch that serves as the method for returning to the true, arriving at the root, and clarifying the mind to see one's own nature — every single one of the aggregates, sense-fields, sense-bases, elements, and great elements found throughout the entire world is, each and every one, likewise this very method for returning to the true, arriving at the root, and clarifying the mind to see one's own nature. And further, each and every one of them is, in itself, already the true, already the root, already the mind, already the nature itself. This is why the Śūraṅgama Sūtra takes the five aggregates, the six sense-fields, the twelve sense-bases, the eighteen elements, and the seven great elements, every one of them, as the wondrous, true, suchness-nature of the Tathāgatagarbha itself. Considered from this, there is not a single dharma that is not the Buddha-dharma, and not a single person who is not, himself, a buddha. And yet, helplessly, sentient beings carry the jewel sewn into their own robe and remain utterly unaware of it — clutching a treasure while going about begging, vainly enduring poverty and hardship. Taking the Tathāgata's own mind and turning it into the karma of an ordinary being; taking the very dharma of liberation and thereby suffering the pain of transmigration — how could one not grieve at this!

佛學編輯社緣起 · The Founding of the Buddhist Studies Editorial Society 正編

Tracing back to when the great teaching first came east, Master Huiyuan made this his own tradition. At first, together with his fellow-student Huiyong, he wished to travel to Mount Luofu, but was detained by Master Dao'an, and so Huiyong went on alone. Arriving at Xunyang, the prefect Tao Fan, admiring his conduct of the path, built the Xilin Monastery for him to dwell in — this was the dingchou year, the second year of the Taiyuan era of Emperor Xiaowu of the Eastern Jin [377 CE]. By the jiashen year, the ninth year of Taiyuan [384 CE], Huiyuan himself finally came to Mount Lu. He first dwelt at Xilin, but as his fellow-students steadily increased in number, Xilin proved too cramped to hold them all. The prefect Huan Yi therefore built a monastery for him east of the mountain, which came to be called Donglin, the "Eastern Grove." By the gengyin year, the fifteenth year of Taiyuan [390 CE], on the twenty-eighth day of the seventh month, Huiyuan, together with a hundred and twenty-three monastics and laypeople, formed the Lotus Society, recollecting the Buddha and seeking rebirth in the West. He had Liu Yimin compose a text engraved in stone, to make their vow clear. Master Huiyong, too, joined this society; he dwelt at Xilin, where he built a separate thatched hut at the peak, going there from time to time to sit in meditation — and those who approached his hut would invariably catch an unusual fragrance, whence it came to be called "Fragrant Valley," from which one can well imagine the man himself. When Huiyuan first formed the society, there were already a hundred and twenty-three members, every one of them a dragon or elephant among Dharma teachers, a mountain-peak among Confucian scholars — for Huiyuan's own conduct of the path had spread so far and wide that all flocked to him together. Across the more than thirty years until his death, those who joined the Lotus Society, cultivated pure karma, and were received and guided to rebirth there were, in truth, too many to count.

After this, teachers such as Tanluan, Zhiyi, Daochuo, Shandao, Chengguan, and Yongming, one and all, cultivated this practice themselves while also converting others through it. Tanluan wrote his commentary on the Rebirth Treatise, wondrous beyond compare in any age. Zhiyi composed the Treatise on Ten Doubts, laying out its gains and losses to the fullest, and wrote his own commentary on the Contemplation Sūtra, thoroughly clarifying its true contemplation. Daochuo lectured on the three Pure Land sūtras nearly two hundred times. Shandao wrote commentaries on the three Pure Land sūtras, forcefully urging exclusive practice. Chengguan wrote a commentary on the "Chapter of Vows and Practices," fully expounding the ultimate path to buddhahood. Yongming set forth his Four Alternatives, pointing directly to the method of liberation within this very life. From ancient times, eminent figures of every school, without exception, have turned their hearts toward the Pure Land. Only among Chan teachers was this practice, though devoted to it privately, seldom openly proclaimed — but after Yongming's own advocacy, they too, one and all, openly set forth its teaching and earnestly urged its cultivation. Hence Chan Master Sixin Xin, in his text urging Pure Land cultivation, wrote: "Amitābha is exceedingly easy to recollect; the Pure Land is exceedingly easy to be reborn in." And again: "One who practices Chan does especially well to also recollect the Buddha — for should one's own capacity prove dull, and this present life fail to bring great awakening, one may still rely on Amitābha's own vow-power to be received and guided to rebirth." And again: "If you recollect the Buddha and are not reborn in the Pure Land, then this old monk himself shall fall into the hell of the tongue-plucking." Chan Master Zhenxie Liao, in his own discourse on the Pure Land, wrote: "Why is it that the entire Caodong lineage devotes itself to this practice in private? It is truly because the Dharma-gate of buddha-recollection is a direct path of cultivation, in precise accord with the whole canon, reaching the very highest capacities while also drawing in those of middling and lesser capacity along the way." And again: "Might it not be that even a great master of the Chan lineage, one who has already awakened to the dharma of neither emptiness nor existence, yet holds fast, diligently, to pure karma — is it not that beholding the Buddha through pure karma is, in fact, even simpler and easier than through the Chan lineage itself?" And again: "Every buddha, every patriarch, whether within doctrine or within Chan, cultivates pure karma alike, all returning to the very same single source; once one has truly entered this gate, every immeasurable Dharma-gate is thereby realized and entered as well." Chan Master Changlu Yi formed the Excellent Lotus-Flower Assembly, broadly urging monastics and laypeople alike to recollect the Buddha and seek rebirth; moved by this, the two bodhisattvas Samantabhadra and Sumati sought, in a dream, to join this excellent assembly, and were thereupon made its two heads. This is sufficient to show that this dharma accords with both principle and capacity, silently praised even by the sages themselves.

In the era of Emperors Taizong and Zhenzong of the Song dynasty, Master Shengchang, abbot of Zhaoqing Monastery in Zhejiang, admiring the path of Huiyuan of Mount Lu, formed the Pure Practice Society; and the Duke Wang Dan, styled Wenzheng, was the very first to take refuge and become its advocate. Among ministers, dukes, and provincial governors, scholars and officials, who styled themselves disciples and joined this society, there were more than a hundred and twenty; among monastics, several thousand; and among ordinary gentry and commoners, beyond all counting. Later there was Duke Wenyanbo of Lu, who served through four reigns — Renzong, Yingzong, Shenzong, and Zhezong — moving between military command and civil office for more than fifty years, rising to the rank of Grand Preceptor and enfeoffed as Duke of Lu. Throughout his life he held sincere faith in the Buddha-dharma, and in his later years turned to the path with ever greater vigor, exclusively recollecting Amitābha Buddha, whether walking or sitting, morning or evening, never once slackening. Together with Master Jingyan, he formed, in the capital, an assembly of a hundred thousand people seeking rebirth in the Pure Land, and for a time many scholars and officials followed his own transformation. One who wrote a verse in his praise said: "I know your courage is as vast as heaven itself, vowing to bind a hundred thousand souls to the West — not seeking a livelihood for yourself alone, but boarding, together with everyone, the ferry to the farther shore." He lived to the age of ninety-two, and passed away while recollecting the Buddha.

During the transition from Yuan to Ming, there were Zhongfeng, Tianru, Chushi, and Miaoye, some writing in verse, some in argument, all fully expounding this dharma that accords with both principle and capacity, penetrating from the highest to the lowest alike. And Zhuhong, Youxi, and Ouyi were especially earnest and sincere among them. In the Qing dynasty, Fantian Siqi and Hongluo Chewu likewise devoted their strength to broadly propagating this path — Fantian's own text urging the arousal of the bodhi-mind, and Hongluo's own instructions to the assembly, may well be said to carry on the sages of the past and open the way for students of the future, moving heaven and earth, stirring even ghosts and spirits. Should a student truly be able to rely on this and put it into practice, who would not bow and take leave of the sahā world, ascending high to Utmost Bliss — becoming Amitābha's own disciple, a good companion within his own ocean-vast assembly?

青蓮寺念佛宣言書 · Proclamation on Buddha-Recollection at Qinglian Monastery (continued) 正編

The fourth patriarch of the Lotus tradition, Master Fazhao, in the second year of the Dali era [767 CE], was dwelling at Yunfeng Monastery in Hengzhou, when, again and again, a sacred vision would appear to him within his own alms-bowl of gruel — though he did not know which famous mountain it depicted. Someone who had once visited Mount Wutai said it must certainly be Wutai; and so he later went there to pay homage. In the fifth year of Dali [770 CE], upon reaching Wutai County, he saw a white light in the distance; following this light, he searched until he arrived at the Great Sage's Bamboo Grove Monastery. Entering the monastery, he came to the lecture hall, where he saw Mañjuśrī seated to the west and Samantabhadra to the east, both upon lion-thrones, expounding a profound and wondrous dharma. The Master bowed to the two sages and asked: "We, ordinary beings of this final age, are far removed from the time of the sages; spiritual friends grow ever more inferior, and defiling obstruction ever deeper — buddha-nature has no way to manifest itself. The Buddha-dharma is vast beyond measure; I do not know, in cultivation, which Dharma-gate is most essential of all. I beg only that the great sages resolve the net of my doubt." Mañjuśrī replied: "You should now recollect the Buddha — now is precisely the time for it. Among every gate of cultivation, none surpasses buddha-recollection, together with making offerings to the Three Jewels, cultivating merit and wisdom both at once. These two gates are the most direct and essential of all. And why is this? In ages past, it was through contemplating the Buddha, through recollecting the Buddha, through making offerings, that I myself attained the wisdom of all modes. Know, then, that buddha-recollection is the very king of every dharma. You should constantly recollect the unsurpassed King of the Dharma, without ever ceasing." The Master then asked further: "How, then, should I recollect him?" Mañjuśrī said: "West of this world there is a buddha named Amitābha. That buddha's vow-power is inconceivable. You should recollect him continuously, without any interruption; and when your life comes to its end, you will certainly attain rebirth there, forever free of retrogression." Having spoken these words, the two great sages each extended a golden hand and stroked the Master's crown, bestowing upon him a prophecy of future buddhahood: "Because you recollect the Buddha, before long you shall realize unsurpassed, perfect, complete awakening. Should any good son or good daughter wish to swiftly attain buddhahood, none surpasses buddha-recollection — through it, one can swiftly realize unsurpassed bodhi." Having spoken, the two great sages then recited verses to one another in turn. Hearing this, the Master leapt for joy, and the net of his every doubt was entirely dissolved.

This is the very account of Master Fazhao personally arriving at the sacred Bamboo Grove Monastery and receiving the instruction of these two great sages. Mount Wutai is the very site where Mañjuśrī manifests himself for the sake of converting beings; Mañjuśrī is himself the teacher of seven buddhas. He himself said: "In ages past, it was through contemplating the Buddha, through recollecting the Buddha, that I attained the wisdom of all modes." From this, every dharma — the perfection of wisdom, the most profound meditative concentration, and even every buddha himself — arises from nothing but buddha-recollection. If even the buddhas of the past arose through buddha-recollection, how much more so, then, should beings of the degenerate age — heavy in karma and light in blessing, deep in obstruction and shallow in wisdom — refrain from looking down upon buddha-recollection and refusing to cultivate it, wishing instead to leap directly into the Tathāgata's own ground in a single bound, without realizing that even following in the footsteps of the Fifth Patriarch Jie and Caotang Qing is itself something they cannot attain?

致廣慧和尚書 · Letter to Reverend Guanghui 續編

In the World of Utmost Bliss there are no women at all. Women and animals, once born into that world, take on the appearance of young boys, born by transformation from a lotus flower. From the moment one emerges from the lotus, one already resembles every other being of Utmost Bliss — there is no first being small and only gradually growing to maturity. The beings of that world have no affliction, no delusive thought, no matter of creating karma at all. Because this rebirth relies on the Buddha's own merciful power, it is exceedingly easy to attain. Taking buddha-recollection alone as the cause, one who is born there, upon beholding the Buddha and hearing the Dharma, is certain to perfectly accomplish the buddha-path. Among the worlds of the ten directions, this alone is the most supremely excellent; among every method of cultivation and practice, this alone is the easiest to cultivate, and yet its merit is the very greatest of all.

復葉福備書 · Reply to Ye Fubei 三編

Your own vow to establish an open-air school and an open-air Lotus Society is, of course, a way of simplifying matters — yet it is still not so convenient and easy to carry out as simply following whatever place and condition one happens to encounter. From the solemn ancestral temple and bright hall above, down to the water's edge and beneath the forest below, wherever one finds a person willing to listen, one need only urge this very practice upon them there. Duke Wen of Lu made the vow to gather a hundred thousand people to recollect the Buddha and seek rebirth in the West, forming thereby his own Lotus Society; but I would say that from a single person up to beings beyond number, every one of them should be led to rebirth in the West — why fix the number at a hundred thousand at all?

復唐大圓書 · Reply to Tang Dayuan 三編