Notes Beside the Bamboo Window — Third Collection, Part 28
Continuing the Third Collection (三筆). Three sharp questions about the Pure Land teaching, answered in turn: why the Buddha does not simply transform this suffering world directly rather than requiring a journey to a distant land, whether the sutras' promise of a single recitation erasing eons of sin is literal or figurative, and why a lifelong sinner's deathbed conversion can succeed where a lifelong practitioner's final doubt can fail.
102. 三難淨土 — Three Hard Questions About the Pure Land
Three sharp challenges to Pure Land teaching, posed by different questioners and answered in turn: why the Buddha does not simply transform this suffering world directly, whether the sutras' promise that a single sincere recitation erases eons of sin is literal or merely figurative, and why a lifelong sinner's deathbed conversion can succeed where even a lifelong practitioner's momentary doubt can fail.
一人問：「釋迦如來以足指按地，即成金色世界。佛具如是神力，何不即變此娑婆土石、諸山、穢惡充滿之處，便成七寶莊嚴之極樂國，乃必令眾生馳驅於十萬億佛土之迢迢也？」噫！佛不能度無緣，子知之乎？淨緣感淨土，眾生心不淨，雖有淨土，何繇得生？喻如十善生天，即變地獄為天堂；而彼十惡眾生，如來垂金色臂牽之，彼終不能一登其閾也。是故剎那金色世界，佛攝神力而依然娑婆矣！
又一人問：「經言至心念阿彌陀佛一聲，滅八十億劫生死重罪。斯言論事乎？論理乎？」噫！經云：「一稱南無佛，皆已成佛道。」又云：「禮佛一拜，從其足跟至金剛際，一塵一轉輪王位。」今正不必論其事之與理，但於「至心」二字上著倒，惟患心之不至，勿患罪之不滅。事如是，理亦如是；理如是，事亦如是，何足疑也。
又一人問：「有人一生精勤念佛，臨終一念退悔，遂不得生。有人一生積惡，臨終發心念佛，遂得往生。則善者何為反受虧，而惡者何為反得利也？」噫！積惡而臨終正念者，千萬人中之一人耳。苟非宿世善根，臨終痛苦逼迫，昏迷瞀亂，何繇而能發起正念乎？善人臨終退悔，亦千萬人中之一人耳；即有之，必其一生念佛悠悠之徒，非所謂精勤者。精則心無雜亂，勤則心無間歇，何繇而生退悔乎？是則為惡者急宜修省，毋妄想臨終有此僥倖。真心求淨土者，但益自精勤，勿憂臨終之退悔也。
Someone asked: "The Buddha Śākyamuni, by simply pressing his toe to the ground, instantly transformed the whole world into a golden realm. Since the Buddha possesses such spiritual power, why does he not simply transform this present world of ours — its soil, stones, mountains, and every impure and defiled place — directly into the jewel-adorned Pure Land, rather than compelling sentient beings to travel the vast distance of a hundred thousand million buddha-lands to reach it?" Ah! The Buddha cannot save those with whom he has no karmic connection — do you understand this? A pure connection gives rise to a pure land; if sentient beings' own minds remain impure, then even were a pure land right in front of them, by what means could they actually be reborn there? It is like the ten wholesome deeds giving rise to rebirth in the heavens, which can indeed transform hell itself into heaven — but for beings mired in the ten unwholesome deeds, even if the Tathāgata extended his own golden arm to draw them upward, they would still never manage to cross even the threshold. This is why, though the Buddha transformed the world into a golden realm for a single instant, once he withdrew that spiritual power, the world remained exactly as impure as before!
Another person asked: "The sutras say that reciting Amitābha Buddha's name once, with utterly sincere mind, erases the grave karmic offenses of eighty million eons of birth and death. Is this statement to be understood literally, or merely as a matter of principle?" Ah! The sutras also say: "To utter the words 'Homage to the Buddha' even once is already to have accomplished the path to buddhahood." And elsewhere: "A single bow before the Buddha's image accrues merit equal to becoming a wheel-turning king for as many lifetimes as there are motes of dust between one's own feet and the very diamond-hard bedrock of the earth." There is really no need to debate whether such statements are literal fact or figurative principle at all — the entire matter turns on those two words, "utterly sincere." One should worry only about whether one's own mind has truly become sincere, never about whether one's offenses will actually be erased. If it is fact, it is equally principle; if it is principle, it is equally fact — there is nothing here that need cause any doubt.
A third person asked: "There are those who recite the Buddha's name with genuine diligence their whole lives, yet at the very moment of death experience a single thought of doubt or regret, and so fail to attain rebirth in the Pure Land. And there are those who accumulate wrongdoing their whole lives, yet at the moment of death resolve to recite the Buddha's name, and so succeed in attaining rebirth. Why, then, should the good person suffer such a loss, while the wicked person gains such a benefit?" Ah! Someone who has accumulated wrongdoing his whole life and yet manages right mindfulness at the very moment of death is no more than one person in ten million. Without deep wholesome roots planted in past lives, how could anyone, gripped by the agony and confusion of death itself, possibly manage to give rise to right mindfulness at all? Likewise, a genuinely good person who experiences doubt or regret at the moment of death is also no more than one in ten million — and should such a case actually occur, it must be that this person's lifelong recitation was only ever half-hearted and lazy, not what could truly be called diligent practice at all. To be genuinely diligent means a mind free of distraction and a practice free of interruption — how, then, could doubt or regret possibly arise in such a person? This being so, those who have done wrong should urgently examine and reform themselves now, rather than fantasizing about some lucky last-minute reprieve at the moment of death. And those who sincerely seek the Pure Land need only continue to deepen their own diligence, without any need to fear regret at the moment of death at all.
The Buddha transforming the world into a "golden realm" by touching the ground with his toe is a genuine scriptural episode drawn from the Vimalakīrti Sutra's opening chapter, and Zhuhong's argument that this transformation could not be made to last because sentient beings' own minds remained impure closely parallels the "mind-only Pure Land" (唯心淨土) teaching found throughout his broader Pure Land writings — the idea that a pure land is ultimately inseparable from the purity of the mind perceiving it, not a place that could simply be imposed on unwilling or unready beings from outside; the specific promise that a single sincere recitation erases eighty million eons of karmic offense is drawn directly from the Contemplation Sutra's account of the lowest grade of rebirth, a passage Zhuhong treats here with the same insistence on sincerity over literal-versus-figurative debate that runs throughout his Pure Land teaching generally.