Admonishing True Faith and Sincere Vow

As for what is meant by "faith": one must believe that the sahā world is truly, genuinely suffering, and that Utmost Bliss is truly, genuinely joy. The suffering of the sahā world is immeasurable and boundless, but, stated in sum, it does not exceed eight kinds: birth, old age, sickness, death, being parted from what one loves, being joined with what one hates, not obtaining what one seeks, and the blazing intensity of the five aggregates. These eight kinds of suffering, from the most exalted down to the humblest beggar, every single person possesses alike. The first seven are effects brought about by past lives; reflect carefully and you will know this for yourself — there is no need to explain them at length, for to do so would waste far too much ink. The eighth, the blazing intensity of the five aggregates, is the cause, arising from the thoughts stirring in one's mind right now and the actions one carries out, of the suffering one will obtain in the future. Cause and effect, bound together, continue on without break, from kalpa to kalpa, with no way to be freed from it. The five aggregates are form, sensation, perception, formation, and consciousness. Form is the body brought about by one's own karmic retribution; sensation, perception, formation, and consciousness are the illusory, false mind that arises upon contact with its objects. Through these illusory, false dharmas of body and mind, one gives rise to affliction and creates karma in relation to the objects of the six sense-fields — like a fire blazing without ever coming to rest, hence it is called "blazing intensity." Moreover, "aggregate" carries the sense of "covering over," its sound and meaning the same as "shade." Through these five dharmas, one's own true nature is covered over and cannot manifest itself — like thick clouds obscuring the sun: though the bright sun's own radiance suffers not the slightest diminishment, because the clouds obscure it, one does not receive its illumination. An ordinary being who has not yet severed affliction and karma, obstructed by these five dharmas, likewise cannot manifest the sun of wisdom in the sky of his own nature. This eighth suffering is the very root of every other suffering. A person cultivating the path, whose power of meditative concentration is deep, holds no attachment at all toward the objects of the six sense-fields, giving rise to neither hatred nor craving; advancing further in effort and practice from this point, realizing the unborn, affliction and karma are then purified and exhausted entirely, and the very root of birth-and-death is cut off. Yet this level of effort is by no means easy — in this final age, one who truly attains it is rare indeed. And so one must devote oneself exclusively to cultivating pure karma, seeking rebirth in Utmost Bliss, relying on the Buddha's own merciful power to be reborn in the West.

Once rebirth is attained, one is born by transformation from a lotus flower, without the suffering of ordinary birth. One takes on, purely, the appearance of a young boy; one's lifespan equals that of empty space itself; one's body undergoes no calamity or change; the very names of old age, sickness, and death are not so much as heard, how much less their actuality? Following the assembly of sages, personally attending upon Amitābha, the waters, birds, and forests all proclaim the sound of the Dharma, and, according to one's own capacity, one realizes it through hearing; even one's own loved ones are, in that place, no longer to be found as such, how much less any enemy? Think of clothing, and clothing arrives; think of food, and food arrives; towers, halls, and dwellings are all formed of the seven treasures, requiring no human labor, manifested purely by transformation — and thus the sahā world's own seven sufferings are each turned, in reverse, into seven joys. As for the body, one possesses great spiritual powers, great majestic authority; without leaving one's own place, one is able, within a single thought, to universally perform the works of every buddha throughout the buddha-worlds of the ten directions, seeking wisdom above and converting beings below. As for the mind, one possesses great wisdom, great eloquence; within a single dharma, one universally knows the true mark of every dharma, teaching according to capacity without ever erring, and though speaking in the language of worldly truth, one's every word already accords with the wondrous principle of the true mark. Free of the suffering of the five aggregates' blazing intensity, one enjoys the joy of body and mind utterly at rest — hence the sūtra says: "having no suffering of any kind, and experiencing only joy — that is why it is called Utmost Bliss." The suffering of the sahā world is suffering beyond all telling; the joy of Utmost Bliss is joy beyond all comparison. To believe the Buddha's own word deeply, with not the slightest doubt remaining, is what may properly be called true faith. One must never, on the basis of the views held by ordinary beings or outside paths, indulge in reckless speculation, claiming that the Pure Land's every inconceivable, supremely wondrous adornment is nothing but allegory, a metaphor for a state of mind, without any actual, real place behind it. Should one hold such deviant knowledge and mistaken views, one thereby loses the genuine benefit of rebirth in the Pure Land — the harm of this is very great, and must not go unknown!

與陳錫周書 · Letter to Chen Xizhou 正編

Amitābha made his vow and established his practice for my own sake, in order that I might attain buddhahood. I, in turn, have gone against Amitābha's own practice and vow, and so have long revolved through the six destinies across endless kalpas, forever remaining a sentient being. Understanding fully that Amitābha is precisely the buddha within my own mind, and that I am precisely a sentient being within Amitābha's own mind — our minds already being one and the same, and yet the gulf between ordinary being and sage being as wide as it is — this is entirely the result of my own persistent delusion and turning away. Faith of this kind may be called true faith. Rising from this very faith, one should make the determined vow to be reborn there, and carry out the determined practice of recollecting the Buddha — and then one may hope to enter deeply into the Dharma-realm of the Pure Land tradition, settling this whole matter within a single life. Leaping over every stage at once, entering directly into the Tathāgata's own ground, one is reunited as mother and child, forever at peace in the constancy of heaven.

復永嘉某居士書八 · Reply to a Layman of Yongjia, Letter Eight 正編

In the whole matter of buddha-recollection, the most essential thing is being done with birth-and-death. Once one truly practices for the sake of being done with birth-and-death, then a mind weary of the suffering of birth-and-death arises of itself, and a mind joyfully drawn to the joy of the West likewise arises of itself. In this way, the two dharmas of faith and vow are already fully present within that very thought. Add to this a sincere, earnest intent, recollecting the Buddha as a child recollects its mother, and then the three dharmas — the power of the Buddha, the power of the Dharma, and the power of one's own mind's merit in faith and vow — are all fully manifested together. It is like the bright sun standing in the sky: however thick the frost or layered the ice, before long it melts away entirely.

復徐彥如軼如書 · Reply to Xu Yanru and Yiru 正編

The Amitābha Sūtra says: "West from here, past a hundred thousand million buddha-lands, there is a world named Utmost Bliss. In that land there is a buddha called Amitābha, who is teaching the Dharma there right now." And again: "Why is that land called Utmost Bliss? Because the beings born in that country have no suffering of any kind and experience only joy — that is why it is called Utmost Bliss." That it has no suffering of any kind, and experiences only joy, is because it is adorned by Amitābha Buddha's own merit, virtue, wisdom, spiritual powers, and strength of the path. The world we ourselves inhabit, by contrast, is fully endowed with the three sufferings, the eight sufferings, and every immeasurable other suffering, utterly without any joy at all — hence it is called sahā. In Sanskrit, sahā means "endurable," meaning that the beings within it are able to endure these sufferings. Yet this does not mean this world has no joy at all — it is only that whatever passes for joy here is, in most cases, itself already suffering, and beings, lost in delusion, mistake it for joy instead. Take, for instance, addiction to drink or lust, hunting, or gambling — how could these ever truly be joy? And yet a whole class of foolish people, indulging in them without letting go, take pleasure in them to the point of forgetting their own exhaustion — a state truly to be pitied. Even were such things genuine joy, they could hardly last long: even when both parents are still living and one's siblings are free of misfortune, how could such a state remain constant forever? And so, once the state of joy has passed, sorrow follows in its wake — to say, therefore, that this world is utterly without joy is no overstatement at all.

The suffering of this world could never be spoken of exhaustively; the three sufferings and the eight sufferings together gather it in without remainder. The three sufferings are: first, suffering that is the suffering of suffering; second, joy that is the suffering of decay; third, neither suffering nor joy that is the suffering of process. As for the suffering of suffering: the very substance and nature of this body and mind of the five aggregates presses and constrains — hence it is called suffering; and further burdened by the constant experience of birth, old age, sickness, death, and the rest, it is called the suffering of suffering. As for the suffering of decay: what thing in this world can ever remain lasting? The sun at noon begins to decline; the moon at its fullest begins to wane. Even the way of heaven is thus — how much more so, then, human affairs? No sooner does a state of joy appear than a state of suffering already draws near; and when that state of joy comes to its own dissolution, the suffering that follows can hardly be put into words — hence joy itself is called the suffering of decay. As for the suffering of process: though it seems, at first, neither suffering nor joy, appearing suitable enough, its very nature is to flow and shift — how could it ever remain constant? Hence it is called the suffering of process. Raising up these three sufferings, no suffering at all is left ungathered. The meaning of the eight sufferings is set out fully elsewhere in this book.

If one truly understands the suffering of this world, then a mind weary of and forsaking the sahā world arises of itself, spontaneously; if one truly understands the joy of that other world, then a thought joyfully seeking Utmost Bliss must likewise arise, vigorously. From this, one refrains from every evil and upholds every good, cultivating thereby the very foundation for it; and adding to this an utterly sincere and earnest holding of the Buddha's name, seeking rebirth in the West, one may then escape this sahā world and be born in that Utmost Bliss — becoming Amitābha's own true child, a good companion within his own ocean-vast assembly.

初機淨業指南序 · Preface to a Guide to Pure Karma for Beginners 正編

Master Sengzhao said: "Within heaven and earth, throughout the whole universe, there lies a single treasure, hidden away deep within the mountain of one's own form." These words, however, are spoken only in terms of one not yet awakened, not yet realized; in truth, this treasure encompasses the whole of great emptiness itself, exhausted vertically and pervading horizontally without limit, spanning past and present alike, ever manifest at every moment. This is precisely what is meant by: "constantly shown to the people of every age, and yet the people of every age fail, of themselves, to recognize it." How could one not grieve at this? Only our own Śākyamuni World-Honored One, alone among all, personally attained its full use. Every other sentient being, kalpa after kalpa, relying on the very majestic power of this treasure itself, has instead given rise to affliction and created karma, revolving through the six destinies with no way ever to escape — like a blind man who has personally climbed a mountain of treasure, and, far from making any use of it, is instead further injured by it. It was for this reason that the World-Honored One, according with each being's own capacity and occasion, opened up instruction for them, enabling each, by his own path, to return home — directing them, within the six sense-faculties, the six sense-objects, the six consciousnesses, and the seven great elements, to carefully observe and examine whatever object presented itself, in hopes of personally beholding this treasure for themselves.

Yet those endowed with the illuminating wisdom of prajñā, able directly to empty out the aggregates and exhaust every affliction on the spot, though there have certainly been such people, are not something the dull-natured beings of this final age could ever hope to be. And so he opened up one special Dharma-gate, in hopes that the upper, middle, and lower faculties alike might, together, in this very life, obtain its genuine benefit. He caused them, with deep faith and earnest vow, to recollect exclusively the sacred name of Amitābha Buddha, fully gathering in the six sense-faculties, pure thought following upon pure thought without interruption. In time, the very karmically-conditioned mind of a sentient being is thereby transformed into the Tathāgata's own secret treasury. From the treasure of samādhi, one thereby realizes the treasure of the true mark itself, and only then knows that this treasure fills the entire Dharma-realm — and, with this very treasure, universally bestows it upon all. This is why, ever since the Buddha first opened up this Dharma-gate, every bodhisattva, patriarch, and good spiritual friend since has, without exception, followed and practiced this very dharma. Because it is fully endowed with both self-power and other-power together, compared with those who rely exclusively on self-power alone, the difference in difficulty is nothing less than the gulf between heaven and earth.

念佛三昧寶王論疏序 · Preface to a Commentary on the Treatise on the Jewel King of Buddha-Recollection Samādhi 續編

Should we ourselves truly be able to possess genuine faith and an earnest vow, recollecting the Buddha as a child recollects its mother, fully gathering in the six sense-faculties, pure thought following upon pure thought without interruption — this is precisely Mahāsthāmaprāpta's own method of turning recollection back to recollect one's own nature, together with Avalokiteśvara's own method of turning hearing back to hear one's own nature, two layers of effort fused into a single mind, recollecting the Tathāgata's own great name of ten thousand virtues. In time, the very karmically-conditioned mind of a sentient being is thereby transformed into the Tathāgata's own secret treasury — this is what is meant by taking the awakening of the fruit-ground as the very mind of the causal-ground, so that the cause already encompasses the ocean of the fruit, and the fruit already penetrates through to the source of the cause. Whoever has the good fortune to encounter this teaching, may you not treat it lightly. This is the single gate to nirvāṇa followed by buddhas as numerous as motes of dust — how much more so, then, should we, people of this degenerate age, dare not follow it as well?

楞嚴經楷書序 · Preface to a Calligraphic Copy of the Śūraṅgama Sūtra 續編

Everything in the world — whether one's own physical body, or the world itself, meaning the very heaven and earth we presently inhabit — is brought about, within the arising-and-perishing mind of sentient beings, by shared karma in the case of the world and individual karma in the case of the body; and every such thing has its arising and its dissolution, none of it lasting long. The body passes through birth, old age, sickness, and death; the world passes through formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness. This is precisely what is meant by "when a thing reaches its extreme it must reverse," and "when joy reaches its extreme, sorrow is born." For since the cause is itself arising-and-perishing, the effect, too, cannot fail to be arising-and-perishing as well. The World of Utmost Bliss, however, is the inconceivable world, adorned fully in accord with his own nature, manifested by Amitābha Buddha's own mind out of the buddha-nature he has thoroughly realized as inherently his own — and so its joy has no time at which it will ever come to an end. It is like empty space, vast and expansive, containing everything within it, every phenomenon arrayed throughout it: though worlds arise again and again, and dissolve again and again, empty space itself, in the end, is neither increased nor diminished by any of it. You would measure the joy of Utmost Bliss against the joy of this world — but the joy of Utmost Bliss, you have never yet seen. Though you have never seen the whole of empty space either, have you ever once seen the empty space between heaven and earth actually change? One must understand that every sentient being, without exception, is fully endowed with buddha-nature. This is why the Buddha leads people to recollect the Buddha and seek rebirth in the West — so that, relying on Amitābha Buddha's own great compassionate vow-power, they too may obtain the enjoyment of this unborn, unceasing joy. As for the body: one is born by transformation from a lotus flower, free of the suffering of birth, old age, sickness, and death. As for the world: it is manifested by merit and virtue fully in accord with one's own nature, free of the changes of formation, abiding, decay, and emptiness. Even a sage may not know everything about this — how much less, then, should one doubt it merely on the basis of this world's own arising-and-perishing dharmas?

復馮不疚書 · Reply to Feng Bujiu 正編

Every other Dharma-gate is such that a lesser dharma need not be cultivated by one of great capacity, while a greater dharma cannot be cultivated by one of lesser capacity. Only this single gate of the Pure Land reaches universally across all three levels of capacity, gathering in the sharp and the dull alike. At its highest, not even Avalokiteśvara, Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Mañjuśrī, or Samantabhadra stand outside its scope; at its lowest, even one guilty of the five heinous crimes or the ten evils, of the very seed-nature bound for the Avīci hell, may still be admitted into it beforehand. Had the Tathāgata not opened up this dharma, then beings of this final age, wishing to be done with birth-and-death within this very life, would have absolutely no hope at all. And yet, vast as this Dharma-gate is, its own method of cultivation is exceedingly simple — and for this very reason, one without roots of goodness for the Pure Land already planted in past lives finds it difficult to believe fully, without any doubt remaining. Not only do ordinary beings fail to believe it; even followers of the two lesser vehicles often still doubt it. Not only do the two lesser vehicles fail to believe it; even bodhisattvas of provisional rank still, in some cases, doubt it. Only a bodhisattva of the Mahāyāna's own deep stages is able to fully grasp it, believing it thoroughly, without any doubt remaining. [This is truly because this Dharma-gate takes the awakening of the fruit as the very mind of the cause, its whole substance already the very realm of a buddha — only buddha and buddha together are able to fathom it fully, something that lies beyond the wisdom of anyone else to know. See the preface to the Longshu Jingtu Wen in the Correct Compilation.]

One able to give rise to deep faith in this dharma, though still an ordinary being fully bound by affliction, has a seed-nature that has already surpassed that of the two lesser vehicles. By means of faith, vow, and holding the Buddha's name, one is thereby able to cast one's own ordinary mind directly into the ocean of the Buddha's own awakening, and so secretly penetrates the Buddha's own wisdom, silently according with the wondrous nature of the path. Whenever one wishes to expound the method of Pure Land cultivation, if one does not briefly set forth both the difficulty of relying on self-power to attain liberation through every other dharma, and the ease of relying on Buddha-power to attain rebirth through this dharma, then one is left either doubting the dharma itself, or doubting one's own capacity for it. Should there be even the slightest trace of doubt remaining, that doubt itself becomes an obstruction — never mind failing to practice at all; even if one does practice, one still fails to obtain the ultimate, genuine benefit of it. Considered from this, is the single dharma of faith not something to be urgently sought out and thoroughly investigated, in hopes of penetrating it to its very utmost?

與陳錫周書 · Letter to Chen Xizhou 正編

Someone may say: "Amitābha Buddha dwells at ease in Utmost Bliss. The worlds of the ten directions are immeasurable and boundless; and within any one world alone, the beings who recollect the Buddha are likewise immeasurable and boundless. How could Amitābha Buddha, with a single body, universally receive and guide, all at the same time, every single being throughout the immeasurable, boundless worlds of the ten directions who recollects him?" Answer: How could you presume to measure the Buddha's own realm by an ordinary being's own limited views? Let me offer, for the moment, a comparison to make this clear, and dissolve your doubt. A single moon graces the sky, and yet its reflection appears in ten thousand streams at once — what deliberate intent does the moon exert in this? Heaven holds but a single moon, and yet the great ocean, the great rivers, the broad streams, and the small brooks alike, all manifest the whole moon within them; even down to the smallest ladle or single drop of water, there is not one that fails to manifest the whole moon as well. And of the moon reflected in a river: when a single person looks at it, one moon appears directly before that person; and when a hundred thousand million people look at it from a hundred thousand million different places, there is not one of them who fails to have, directly before himself, his own single moon. Should these hundred thousand million people each walk in a different direction, east, west, south, or north, the moon likewise remains, wherever each of them walks, always directly before that person — the distance between them making not the slightest difference near or far. Should these hundred thousand million people instead remain still, unmoving, the moon likewise remains still, unmoving, always directly before each of them. It is only that where the water is clear and calm, the reflection appears; where the water is turbid and turbulent, it remains hidden. The moon itself holds no preference at all — its failure to appear is entirely because the water, dark, turbid, and surging, has no way to receive its reflected image. The mind of a sentient being is like the water; Amitābha Buddha is like the moon. When a sentient being's faith and vow are complete, and he moves the Buddha with utmost sincerity, the Buddha responds to him — just as, when the water is clear, the moon appears within it. If the mind is not pure, not utterly sincere, but instead in accord with greed, hatred, and delusion, turned away from the Buddha — this is like water that is turbid and disturbed: though the moon never withholds its own illumination, it cannot manifest its reflection clearly within it.

If even the moon, a mere physical dharma of this world, already possesses such wondrous capacity as this, how much more so, then, Amitābha Buddha himself, whose affliction is purified and exhausted entirely, whose merit and wisdom are fully complete, whose mind encompasses the whole of great emptiness, whose measure fills the entire Dharma-realm? Hence the Avataṃsaka Sūtra says: "The Buddha's body fills the entire Dharma-realm, universally manifesting before every group of beings; according with conditions, responding wherever moved, missing nothing at all, while forever abiding upon this very seat of awakening." From this one knows: wherever the Dharma-realm is moved, wherever the Dharma-realm is responded to. The Buddha himself, in truth, never gives rise to any thought or stirring, never bears the mark of coming or going at all — and yet is still able to cause a sentient being whose conditions have ripened to see him come there to receive and guide him onward to the West. Those who hold this very doubt are certainly not one or two alone; I offer this general sense of the matter here, in order to give rise to correct faith.

初機淨業指南序 · Preface to a Guide to Pure Karma for Beginners 正編

Phenomena and principle, nature and characteristic, emptiness and existence, cause and effect — mixed together and hard to distinguish. It is better, instead, to learn from the simple, uncomplicated devotion of the most foolish man or woman, single-mindedly recollecting the Buddha. One must show him the utmost reverence and respect, with nothing but sincerity, nothing but earnestness, and, in time, karma dissolves and wisdom brightens, obstruction is exhausted and blessing flourishes — and this very kind of doubting mind falls away entirely of itself. Then whether the Buddha exists or not, whether one's own self exists or not, the very gateway into the Buddha's own path, the sure evidence of the farther shore — why would any of this still need to be asked of another? If, instead of single-mindedly devoting oneself to buddha-recollection, one goes seeking clarity from someone else's mouth, this is no different from reading the Diamond Sūtra without understanding the true mark, or reading Pure Land texts such as the Jingtu Wen or the Xigui Zhizhi without giving rise to faith at all. Because karmic obstruction blocks the mind, one cannot truly comprehend it — like a blind man beholding the sun: the sun is certainly there in the sky, and the eye certainly there to see it, and yet his failure to see its light is no different from before he ever tried to behold it at all. Should his sight be restored, then the very moment he looks, he beholds its light. The single method of buddha-recollection is precisely the most direct, most essential method for restoring this very sight. Should one wish to behold the mark of the true mark itself, one should devote oneself utterly and sincerely to this method — and there will certainly come a moment of great, satisfying joy.

To personally behold the true self, nothing less than great, thorough awakening will do; to realize it, nothing less than severing affliction and realizing the true will do; to realize it fully and completely, nothing less than the three delusions entirely purified and both kinds of death forever ended will do. But as for where the true self actually resides: your own long revolving through kalpa after kalpa of transmigration, and even your very questioning of this matter right now, are both themselves already carried out entirely through the power of that true self. It is only because you have turned your back on awakening and joined yourself to the defiling dust of the world that you fail to obtain its genuine enjoyment. It is like Yajñadatta's own head, or the jewel sewn within one's own robe: neither was ever, in fact, actually lost — the fear and terror, the poverty and hardship endured, were all groundless from the very start.

復顧顯微書 · Reply to Gu Xianwei 正編

The habitual tendencies of sentient beings each incline in their own particular direction: the foolish incline toward the mediocre and the base; the wise incline toward the lofty and the elevated. Should the foolish be content in their own foolishness, applying their minds to nothing else, but devoting themselves exclusively to cultivating pure karma, they are certain, in this very life, to attain rebirth — one may well say their very foolishness is beyond anyone's reach to match. Should the wise refrain from relying on their own wisdom alone, and still devote themselves to this single gate of relying on the Buddha's own merciful power to seek rebirth in the Pure Land, this may be called true, great wisdom. But should one instead rely on one's own understanding and look down upon the Pure Land, one will find oneself, kalpa after kalpa, sinking ever deeper into the lower paths, wishing then to catch up again even with today's own foolish men and women — and finding it utterly beyond reach.

As for those who have thoroughly penetrated the doctrinal schools of nature and characteristic — I truly love and admire them, and yet dare not follow their own path myself. Why is this? Because a short rope cannot draw water from a deep well, and a small sheet of paper cannot wrap something large. This is not to say that everyone must imitate what I myself have done. But if someone, base and lowly just as I am, should nonetheless wish to imitate the conduct of a great, thoroughly accomplished master, directly seeking a wondrous awakening to his own mind, overturning the whole ocean of doctrine — I fear he will fail to become such a great, accomplished master, and will instead be pitied even by the simple, honest men and women who plainly recollect the Buddha and attain rebirth in the West. Would this not be a case of a clever scheme turning into the greatest clumsiness, of soaring into the sky only to plunge instead into the deepest abyss? To sum it up in a single phrase: one need only honestly examine one's own capacity.

復永嘉某居士書九 · Reply to a Layman of Yongjia, Letter Nine 正編

In the present age, even were an ancient buddha, already fully awakened, to manifest himself here, he would certainly propose nothing else, beyond fulfilling one's proper human relations and emphasizing the Pure Land Dharma-gate. Were Bodhidharma himself to appear in this present time, he too would surely instruct through the Dharma-gate of relying on the Buddha's own power. The proper season and its causes and conditions are truly fundamental. To go against the proper season and its causes and conditions is like wearing summer cloth in winter, or fur in summer, or drinking when hungry and eating when thirsty — not only useless, but actively harmful.

復王德周書一 · Reply to Wang Dezhou, Letter One 續編

Shandao is himself a transformation-body of Amitābha. In demonstrating exclusive practice, fearing that a practitioner's own resolve might waver, seized upon by teachers of other Dharma-gates, he narrated at length how, even were the sages of the first through fourth fruits, the bodhisattvas of the stages of abiding, practice, dedication, ground, and equal enlightenment, and finally the buddhas of the ten directions themselves — filling the whole of empty space, pervading the entire Dharma-realm — to manifest themselves and emit light, urging one to abandon the Pure Land and instead teaching some other supremely excellent, wondrous dharma, one should still refuse to accept it. This is because, having first made the vow to practice the Pure Land exclusively, one dare not go against that very vow one has made. Master Shandao, knowing already how later generations, forever gazing from one mountain to the next, imagining it taller still, drift without any settled resolve at all, therefore made this statement — precisely in order to put an utter end to the restless, reckless, covetous mind that keeps shifting from one aspiration to the next.

復永嘉某居士書五 · Reply to a Layman of Yongjia, Letter Five 正編

In the past, the Vinaya Master Dazhi thoroughly understood the Tiantai teachings, strictly upheld and purified the Vinaya, cultivated practice and vow with utter purity, and held vast resolve and strength of will — and yet, toward the Pure Land alone, he gave rise to no faith or inclination at all. It was only later, through a grave illness, that he came to know his former error. From that point on, for more than twenty years, he never let a text leave his hand, devoting himself exclusively to the study of the Pure Land — and only then did he come to know that this dharma's benefit is supremely excellent, surpassing every other. Thereafter he dared, before every person he met, to expound it fully in accord with his own nature, with not the slightest fear remaining.

復戚智周書二 · Reply to Qi Zhizhou, Letter Two 正編

For one who is truly able to obtain benefit, there is nowhere he goes that is not itself a source of benefit. A crow's cawing, a magpie's chattering, water flowing, the wind stirring — every one of these, without exception, points directly to a person's own inherent, heaven-given nature. How much more so, then, my own Wenchao, whose prose, however plain and unpolished, records nothing but the established words of buddhas and patriarchs, merely taking up their own meaning and expressing it flexibly according to the occasion — how could this be something I myself have simply invented? I am nothing more than one relaying words, translating language, so that beginners may find it easier to understand. And yet, even for a beginner — even should he cultivate all the way to the very utmost — he still could not set this practice aside for some other.

復戚智周書 · Reply to Qi Zhizhou 正編

For an ordinary being of this final age to wish to realize the fruit of sagehood without relying on the Pure Land is nothing but recklessness and delusion. Even should one practicing Chan reach the stage of clarifying the mind and seeing one's own nature — "seeing one's nature and becoming a buddha" — this is still the stage of an ordinary being, not yet that of a sage. I myself am utterly mediocre and lowly, without learning, and yet I do hold, with certainty, a resolve that is never swayed by scriptural teaching, spiritual friends, language, or the written word. Should you be willing to trust this, then apply your own effort to a method that is easy to take up and easy to accomplish.

復謝慧霖書 · Reply to Xie Huilin 三編

That Patriarchs Chewu and Shengchang left behind few written works is likewise a matter of each one's own personal aspiration; the excellence of a person's own virtue is certainly not determined by the quantity of his written works. Throughout history there have been manifestations of the Dharma-body who left behind only a handful of words, no written work at all — such cases are not few. Why, then, give rise to doubt on this point? One must understand that, in seeking to be done with birth-and-death, quantity is truly not what matters at all. A single genuine faith, an earnest vow, and recollecting the Buddha to seek rebirth in the West already suffice. Even were one to read through the entire canon from cover to cover, this would still amount to nothing more than a means toward accomplishing this very same matter.

復唯佛居士書 · Reply to Layman Weifo 三編

I am now sending along a complete copy of the Anshi Quanshu, and ask that you study in detail the passage and its accompanying evidence concerning my own seventeen lifetimes as a scholar-official, together with the questions, answers, and resolutions of doubt found throughout the Wanshan Xianzi, the Yuhai Huikuang, and the Xigui Zhizhi — only then will you avoid mistaking yourself for a being utterly without root or foundation. Though one may live on for a few passing decades, once one dies, is this not utterly and completely extinguished — is this not pitiable in the extreme? But should one know that, though the body dies, the spirit does not perish, then how could one's own true lifespan be anything less than as long as heaven and as enduring as earth? And should one be willing to cultivate practice and seek rebirth in the West, then, for the whole of time yet to come, one becomes a great guide for every sentient being — is this not a truly magnificent, great undertaking indeed?

復周善昌書 · Reply to Zhou Shanchang 三編

Whoever possesses a mind at all is capable of becoming a buddha — how, then, could it be said that the blind, deaf, or mute cannot attain rebirth? Among the eight difficulties the Buddha spoke of, being blind, deaf, or mute is indeed one — but this refers only to the difficulty such a person faces in entering the path through other means. Should such a person truly be able to recollect the Buddha with focused, exclusive effort — even if, being deaf, he cannot hear a sūtra read or a spiritual friend's own instruction, or, being blind, he cannot read a sūtra himself — what obstruction is there in this, truly? One who is mute in voice, or mute in speech, needs only to recollect the Buddha silently within his own mind, and he too may personally attain the samādhi of buddha-recollection within this very life, ascending directly, at the moment of death, to one of the nine grades of rebirth — how, then, could it be said that such people cannot attain rebirth? Should such a person fail to recollect the Buddha earnestly, then he indeed fails to attain rebirth — but it is not that such a person, even while recollecting the Buddha, still fails to attain rebirth. As for those disabled or missing a hand or a foot, the same holds true as for the blind, deaf, and mute.

This mistaken claim arises entirely from a misunderstanding of a verse in the Rebirth Treatise, which says: "In the realm of the Mahāyāna's own roots of goodness, there is, equally, no name to be mocked or disdained; women, and those with deficient faculties, and the seed-nature of the two lesser vehicles, are not born there." What this means is that the Western Land of Utmost Bliss is a world in which only those with Mahāyāna roots of goodness are born, a place utterly without any name that could be mocked or disdained — and what follows immediately lists several such names that could otherwise be mocked or disdained: namely, women, those whose six faculties are incomplete, and followers of the two lesser vehicles of śrāvaka and pratyekabuddha — hence it says, "women, and those with deficient faculties, and the seed-nature of the two lesser vehicles, are not born there." What this means is that the West has no women, no persons with incomplete faculties, and no followers of the lesser vehicle as such — though the West does have beings bearing the name "śrāvaka," these are, without exception, ones who have already aroused the Mahāyāna mind; there is absolutely no śrāvaka or pratyekabuddha there who has not aroused the great mind. It does not refer to practitioners still within this present world of ours. Those without wisdom, who mistakenly suppose that such people as these cannot be born in the West, are gravely mistaken indeed.

復宗靈法師書 · Reply to Master Zongling 三編

In the past, the treatise-master Śīlabhadra of the Western Regions, whose virtue stood supreme in his own age, whose conduct of the path shook all four regions of India — on account of karma from a past life, his own body became afflicted with a terrible illness. His suffering was so extreme that he could not bear it, and he wished to end his own life. Just then, the three bodhisattvas Mañjuśrī, Samantabhadra, and Avalokiteśvara descended before him and said: "In kalpas long past, you were, many times over, a king who caused great harm to sentient beings, and should long ago have fallen into a lower path; but because you have propagated the Buddha-dharma, this small suffering of the human realm has instead dissolved away long kalpas of suffering in hell — you should therefore endure it." Had the causes of his past lives not been made clear, people would have concluded either that Śīlabhadra was not truly an accomplished master of the path, or that, if even so great a practitioner as this could suffer so terrible an illness, then what spiritual benefit could the Buddha-dharma possibly hold at all? Likewise, when a person who commits evil deeds appears to receive blessed reward instead, people give rise to precisely this same kind of wrong view, not realizing that this is entirely a matter of prior cause and later effect — of a later, heavier retribution converted into a present, lighter one, or, conversely, a present, lighter retribution converted into a later, heavier one, and every other such complex, uneven circumstance.

復周頌堯書 · Reply to Zhou Songyao 續編

The Buddha-dharma is so vast that it leaves nothing outside it, and so fine-grained that it omits no detail whatsoever — like a single rain that moistens everything, causing every plant and tree to flourish together; the way of cultivating the self, ordering the family, governing the state, and caring for the people is, every part of it, already fully contained within it. Those whose literary work has dominated an entire age, whose accomplishments have resounded throughout the world, and those of utmost filial piety and benevolence, admired across a thousand generations — people know only their outward traces, without ever investigating their true root. Should one trace their origins in careful detail, one would find that their very spirit and moral resolve were, in every case, cultivated through the study of Buddhism. I need not raise other examples: even the Song-dynasty Confucian scholars, in developing their own account of the sage's own mind-method, still drew on the Buddha-dharma as their model — how much more so, then, everyone else? It was only that the Song Confucians, narrow in their own outlook, wished later generations to credit their own wisdom alone for this, and so deliberately spoke against Buddhism — a scheme no better than covering one's own ears while stealing a bell. From the Song through the Yuan and into the Ming, this has, without exception, been the same pattern throughout. Examine the matter with real care, and who is there who did not draw on the Buddha-dharma to better himself? As for their talk of quiet sitting, their talk of investigation — these are precisely where their own effort in practice manifests itself; and their foreknowledge of the hour of their own death, passing away seated, conversing and laughing to the very end — this is precisely where that same effort manifests itself at its final moment. Accounts and anecdotes of exactly this kind, recorded throughout the biographies of Neo-Confucian scholars, are far from rare — how, then, could the study of Buddhism ever be a cause for concern to society at all?

復永嘉某居士書一 · Reply to a Layman of Yongjia, Letter One 正編

The Great Awakened World-Honored One is skilled in treating every illness of body and mind in sentient beings, and skilled in bringing peace to the whole world, ease and joy to its people. What is the illness of the mind? Greed, hatred, and delusion. Once this illness is present, the mind cannot maintain its own proper rectitude, and thoughts that chase after feeling and go against reason arise, blazing forth. Once such thoughts have arisen, one is bound to seek the fulfillment of one's own desire, and the base mind of killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct then manifests directly into actual deeds. This is what is meant by: delusion gives rise to karma, karma invites suffering, and this continues on through kalpas as numerous as motes of dust, with no end in sight. The Tathāgata, in compassion for this, prescribes medicine according to each sentient being's own particular illness. He tells them: the mind of greed, hatred, and delusion is not your own original mind. Your own original mind is perfectly bright, pure, and wondrous, like a clean, luminous mirror, utterly without a single thing within it — and yet, whatever object stands before it, there is nothing it fails to illuminate through and through. When an object comes, it does not refuse it; when the object departs, it retains nothing of it — preserving its own heaven-given, original nature, never turned about by any object at all. To be deluded in mind, chasing after one's surroundings, is called being a fool; to turn one's back on the defiling dust of the world and unite with awakening causes one to enter the stream of sages. Should a person understand this, the illness of the mind is thereby healed. And once the illness of the mind is healed, the illness of the body loses its very root — even should cold, heat, or some other outward affliction still be encountered, there is no longer any danger in it. Once the mind attains its own proper rectitude, the body, too, follows it into rectitude. For once there is no longer any feeling or thought of greed, hatred, or delusion at all, how could there still be any base conduct of killing, stealing, or sexual misconduct? Should every person be thus, then all people would be regarded as one's own kin, all things treated with the same impartial regard. What further cause, then, for contending over land or city, for mutual slaughter? This is why the wise and perceptive rulers and ministers of antiquity, without exception, revered and upheld this teaching — for it is able to bring about order before disorder ever arises, to secure a nation before danger ever threatens it, bringing about great peace, without anyone even being aware of it, in a manner leaving no visible trace at all.

香光蓮社三聖殿記 · A Record of the Three Sages' Hall at the Fragrant Light Lotus Society 續編

One must understand: a single recitation of "Amitābha," held fast all the way to its utmost, has power enough even to spare beyond the accomplishment of buddhahood itself — would you then claim that reciting the Amitābha Sūtra, or reciting the Buddha's name, could somehow fail to dissolve even a fixed karmic debt? The Buddha-dharma is like money — its use depends entirely on the person who wields it. If you have money, is there anything at all you cannot accomplish with it? If you are able to devote yourself exclusively to a single dharma, what could you possibly seek and fail to obtain? How, then, could merely holding this one mantra, reciting this one sūtra, obtaining this one merit, somehow fail to obtain every other merit as well?

復周智茂書 · Reply to Zhou Zhimao 正編

One must resolve one's mind with utter determination: at the moment of death, one is determined to be reborn in the West. And do not speak only of refusing to accept again the body of some mediocre, ordinary person — even the body of a king among humans or gods, or that of a monk who, hearing one word, awakens to a thousand truths, attains great dhāraṇī, greatly propagates the Dharma, and universally benefits sentient beings — even this eminent monk's own body should be regarded as no different from a den of poison and crime, with not even a single thought arising to wish to receive it again. Only with a resolve as firm as this can one's own faith, vow, and practice move the Buddha; only then can the Buddha's own vow receive one in turn. Response and resonance meeting along the path, one receives the Buddha's own guidance, ascending directly to one of the nine grades of rebirth, forever escaping the cycle of transmigration.

復高邵麟書三 · Reply to Gao Shaolin, Letter Three 正編

One must understand that the Western Land of Utmost Bliss cannot be reached — this is true not only of ordinary beings, but even of sages of the lesser vehicle, since it is a Mahāyāna realm that lies beyond all conception. Should a sage of the lesser vehicle turn his mind toward the great vehicle, he too can then reach it. But an ordinary being who lacks faith and vow to move the Buddha cannot attain rebirth, even should he cultivate every other excellent practice, holding the name included among them. This is precisely why faith and vow are of the utmost importance. Ouyi said: "Whether one is reborn at all depends entirely on whether faith and vow are present; the grade and rank one attains depends entirely on the depth of one's holding the name." This is an unalterable, ironclad ruling, true across the appearance of a thousand buddhas alike. Should you truly be able to believe this thoroughly, then I can promise you your own share in the West.

復高邵麟書三 · Reply to Gao Shaolin, Letter Three 正編

The method of buddha-recollection places its weight on faith and vow. Should faith and vow be genuine and earnest, then even before the mind has attained purity, rebirth is still secured. And why is this? Because it is the sincere intent of buddha-recollection itself that moves the Buddha, and it is this very movement that brings about Amitābha's own response. It is like the water of a river or the sea: though it may not be entirely free of every ripple and motion, so long as there is no violent wind or towering wave, the bright moon at the midpoint of the sky will still be reflected clearly within it. Response and resonance meeting along the path is like a mother and child recollecting one another. Those who place their weight exclusively on self-power, refusing to rely on Buddha-power, do so entirely because they fail to understand this very principle.

復黃涵之書三 · Reply to Huang Hanzhi, Letter Three 正編

A person who recollects the Buddha, so long as he does so genuinely and earnestly, may thereby rely on the Buddha's own merciful power to be spared from sword, war, flood, and fire. Even should karma from a past life still exert its pull, converting what would have been a heavy retribution in hell into a lighter retribution in this very life — should one happen to encounter such a misfortune, so long as one has held genuine, earnest faith and vow throughout one's ordinary days, one is certain, at that very moment, to be received and guided by the Buddha. As for one who has already personally realized samādhi — such a person has already entered the very stream of the sages; his own body is like a mere shadow, and sword, war, flood, and fire can none of them obstruct him at all. Even should he presently encounter disaster, in truth he suffers nothing from it whatsoever. And yet, throughout this vast, boundless world, how many such people have there ever really been?

復永嘉某居士書三 · Reply to a Layman of Yongjia, Letter Three 正編

Whatever one does — reciting sūtras, holding mantras, prostrations and repentance, relieving disaster and aiding the poor, and every other kind of charitable merit — must be dedicated toward rebirth in the West; one must never, under any circumstance, seek instead the blessed reward of a human or heavenly rebirth in a future life. The very moment such a wish arises, one's own share in rebirth is already lost. And since birth-and-death remains unresolved, the greater one's blessing, the greater, too, one's karma — and in a further future life, one can hardly avoid falling into one of the three lower paths of hell, hungry ghost, or animal. Should one then wish to recover a human body once more, and once more encounter this very Dharma-gate of the Pure Land that resolves birth-and-death within this life, it would be as difficult as climbing to heaven. The Buddha taught people to recollect the Buddha and seek rebirth in the West precisely so that they might be done with birth-and-death within this very life; to seek instead the blessed reward of a future human or heavenly rebirth is itself already a betrayal of the Buddha's own teaching. It is like taking a priceless jewel, the finest in the entire world, and trading it away for a single piece of candy — is this not a tragic waste?

一函徧復 · A Letter to All 續編

One must understand: a person who truly recollects the Buddha, without seeking any worldly blessed reward at all — such as long life free of illness, a household at peace, flourishing descendants, every condition falling out as one wishes, every affair turning out auspicious — obtains worldly blessed reward of himself even so. But should one instead seek worldly blessed reward directly, unwilling to dedicate one's merit toward rebirth, then the very worldly reward one obtains turns out, on the contrary, inferior and base — and, one's mind no longer single-pointed, rebirth itself becomes difficult to secure at all.

與陳錫周書 · Letter to Chen Xizhou 正編

You must understand: to be reborn as a human being in a future life is even more difficult than attaining rebirth at the moment of death. And why is this? Because, throughout a single lifetime, a person creates offenses in numbers beyond counting. Setting aside every other kind of offense, the offense of eating meat and killing living beings alone, from one's very childhood, is truly overwhelming in its sheer amount. One should instead arouse a great compassionate heart, seeking rebirth in the West; and once one has beheld the Buddha and attained the path, one may then liberate these very beings oneself — relying, meanwhile, on the Buddha's own merciful power, one need not repay this karmic debt directly at all. Should one instead seek a future human rebirth, one lacks the great mind of the path, and even should one's own effort in cultivation be good, its merit remains limited — for it is carried out entirely from within the ordinary self-and-other mind of an unenlightened being, and so possesses no great merit at all. Moreover, across immeasurable kalpas past, you yourself have created offenses beyond all reckoning; and should this past karma come to fruition, falling into one of the three lower paths would be all but impossible to escape — and to hope, then, to become human once more would be exceedingly, exceedingly difficult. This is why it is said that seeking rebirth in the West is, in fact, easier than seeking a human rebirth in a future life: relying on the Buddha's own empowering blessing, one's own past evil karma is easily dissolved away; and even should it not be entirely dissolved, through the Buddha's own power, one is still spared from having to repay it directly.

復智正居士書 · Reply to Layman Zhizheng 三編

One must understand that the power of the Buddha is inconceivable, the power of the Dharma is inconceivable, and the power of the merit and virtue of one's own inherent nature is inconceivable. These three inconceivable powers, without a sincere heart of faith, vow, and buddha-recollection, have no way to manifest themselves at all. But with a sincere heart truly seeking rebirth in the West, these three inconceivable, great, majestic, spiritual powers are thereby manifested. It is like riding a great chariot of fire while also catching a favorable wind — without ever departing from that very thought, one is at once reborn in the West.

示馮右書臨終法語 · Dharma Words for the Deathbed, Given to Feng You 續編

The Sūtra of Immeasurable Life says that even the ten recollections are, without exception, gathered in — with the sole exception of those guilty of the five heinous crimes and those who slander the true Dharma. This is spoken in terms of ordinary times, not in terms of the moment of death. This is because such a person, already guilty of the utmost grave offense of the five heinous crimes, has, in addition, a wrong view so deep that he slanders the true Dharma, claiming that everything the Buddha spoke of — transcending the ordinary and entering sagehood, being done with birth-and-death, and the dharma of buddha-recollection and rebirth — is nothing but a fraud invented to deceive foolish men and women into following that religion, with no reality behind it whatsoever. Because of this extremely grave karmic obstruction, even should such a person possess a single thought or ten thoughts' worth of good roots, lacking any sense of the utmost shame or the utmost faith, he still cannot attain rebirth.

The lowest of the low grades in the Contemplation Sūtra, by contrast, is spoken in terms of the very moment of death, when the marks of the Avīci hell are already appearing before that person. Though it does not explicitly mention slandering the true Dharma, since such a person is already guilty of the five heinous crimes and the ten evils, possessing every kind of unwholesome deed, he can hardly have failed to slander the true Dharma as well. Were there truly no matter of slandering the Dharma involved at all, how could he have come to kill an arhat, cause a schism in a harmonious Saṅgha, or draw the blood of a buddha? There are those, time and again, who interpret this case as involving no slander of the Dharma, while that other case does — and this too has its own considerable merit; but if there were truly no slander of the Dharma involved, how could such a person have gone on to commit these three great heinous crimes as well?

From this one knows: the forty-eight vows are spoken in terms of ordinary times; the lowest of the low grades in the Contemplation Sūtra is spoken in terms of a person who has already beheld the utmost suffering marks of hell before him. Such a person's terror is beyond all words; the very instant he hears the Buddha's name, he cries out in anguish, begging to be saved and protected — with not a single other thought remaining, only the thought of imploring the Buddha to liberate him. Though this is a case of suddenly hearing and suddenly recollecting, at that very moment his whole mind is already the Buddha, and the whole Buddha is already his mind — there is no buddha outside this mind, no mind outside this buddha. And so, even with only ten recollections, or even a single recollection alone, he too is received by the Buddha's own merciful power and guided to rebirth. The forty-eight vows are spoken in terms of ordinary times; the lowest of the low grades in the Contemplation Sūtra is spoken in terms of the moment of death. Because the occasion and circumstance differ in each case, what is gathered in differs accordingly — to call this a contradiction is to become, oneself, a man splitting hairs over a dead letter.

復善覺師書 · Reply to Master Shanjue 續編

As for one who remains within the lotus flower for twelve great kalpas before it opens: this is because, in his life, his karmic offense was heavy and his roots of goodness shallow, and so his flower's opening is delayed the longest. And yet, even the joy such a person experiences while still within the flower already surpasses the joy of the third dhyāna heaven — the very highest joy this world has to offer — what cause for regret could there possibly be in this?

復恆慚師書 · Reply to Master Hengcan 三編

This is truly because the Buddha regards every sentient being as his own only child. Toward those who are compliant and good, he can, of course, nurture them with kindness; toward those who are wicked and rebellious, he gives rise to twice the compassion instead. Should a child turn his own mind back toward his parent, the parent will certainly extend kindness and gather him in. And further, the mind-nature of every sentient being is no different from that of a buddha; it is entirely because of delusion and turning-away that affliction arises and karma is created, imprisoning and obscuring one's own original mind, so that it cannot manifest itself. Should one be able, in a single thought, to turn one's own light back upon itself, this is exactly like clouds parting to reveal the moon: one's own nature was never actually lost, the moon itself was always inherently there — and so kalpas upon kalpas of accumulated feeling and worldly dust can be cut off all at once, in a single thought. It is likewise like a room darkened for a thousand years: light a single lamp, and it is bright at once.

南五臺西林茅蓬記 · A Record of the Xilin Thatched Hermitage on South Wutai 正編