Sept 4

Sep 4, 2017
慧淨上人法語
淨土宗宗風真諦

There are two parts of the tenets and traditions of the Pure Land School of Buddhism. The first part covers the ultimate truth—the way leading to rebirth (in the Land of Bliss), and the second part covers the relative or worldly truth—the way of life (in the mundane world).

No matter learning Buddhism in the capacity of a world-renouncing practitioner (monastic) or a lay practitioner (householder), the purpose is mastery of the law or teaching (“dharma” in Sanskrit), which is composed of dharma of this world (loka-dharma in Sanskrit) and dharma of the transcendental world (lokuttara-dharma in Sanskrit).

The dharma of this world is the worldly truth—the way of life; the dharma of the transcendental world includes the “Difficult Path and the “Easy Path”. Our transcendental dharma is an Easy Path, i.e. the Pure Land School that focuses on rebirth by Amitabha-recitation. In other words, the so-called “worldly truth” refers to the benefits of living in the present life, and “ultimate truth” to the benefits of rebirth through Amitabha-recitation.

「淨土宗宗風」有兩部份，第一部份是真諦──往生之道，第二部份是俗諦──處世之道。

學佛不管是出家也好，在家也好，都是為了「法」。法有世間法、出世間法。世間法就是俗諦──處世之道，出世間法有「難行道」，有「易行道」。

我們的出世間法是「易行道」，也就是「淨土法門」，就是「念佛往生」。易言之，所謂「俗諦」是現世生活的利益，「真諦」是念佛往生的利益。

Namo Amitabha!