Master Yinguang’s Short Teaching offering the Advice of Practicing the Particular Teaching and Discarding Self-Power
印光大師「全是佛力」之文(坐船過海之喻)
A grain of sand will sink immediately when placed in water. However, even If tons of gravel and boulders are placed on a big ship, they will easily be transported to other places without sinking. Gravel and boulders resemble sentient beings’ heavy karma, and the big ship resembles the power of Amitabha’s infinite compassion.
If we do not recite Amitabha’s Name but rely on our own power of cultivation to end being trapped in the cycle of birth-and-death, we must reach the state in which our karma is completely extinguished and we reach a meditative state of emptiness. We cannot be liberated from the cycle of birth-and-death if we have even a tiny shred of affliction and delusive karma remaining. We are like grains of sand that sink to the bottom of water, in the way that a grain of sand cannot get out of water on its own.
譬如一顆沙子,入水即沉,縱有數千萬斤石,裝於大火輪船中,即可不沉而運於他處,以隨意使用也。石喻眾生之業力深重,大火輪喻彌陀之慈力廣大。
若不念佛,仗自己修持之力,欲了生死,須到業盡情空地位方可。否則縱令煩惱惑業斷得只有一絲毫,亦不能了,喻如極小之沙子,亦必沉於水中,決不能自己出於水外。
Namo Amituofo!
