Common Knowledge in Pure Land Teaching
淨土小常識
The Form and Shape of the Three Domains
The Three Domains refer to the Desire Realm, the Form Realm and the Formless Realm. These are the realms that ordinary beings enter and exit in the cycle of birth-and-death.
Regarding the form and shape of the Three Domains, Master Tanluan says, “The Three Domains are the form of: falseness, contamination, invertedness, destruction, recycling, and endlessness.
Among sentient beings in the Three Domains, both cause and effect are false and unreal. They are: contaminated, impure, inverted, lacking in knowledge and view, and destructive. As they are impermanent and constantly changing, they keep recycling within the various realms endlessly.
He also says, “These Three Domains are all nether homes where ordinary beings reincarnate in the cycle of birth-and-death.” In addition he says, “These Three Domains are produced by the flawed and deviant path. No one knows how to leave there, as all of them live in a dream in endless sleep.”
三界相狀
「三界」指欲界、色界、無色界,是凡夫生死往來的境界。
三界之相狀,曇鸞大師說:「三界是虛假相、污染相、顛倒相、破壞相、輪轉相、無窮相。」
三界眾生,因、果都是虛假的,不是真實的;都是污染的,不是清淨的;都是顛倒的,不是正知正見的;都是破壞的,念念都在無常轉變,不是永恆存在的;都是在地獄、餓鬼、畜生等當中一直輪轉,無有窮盡。
又說:「此三界,蓋是生死凡夫流轉之暗宅」,「此三界皆是有漏邪道所生,長寢大夢,莫知悕出」。
Namo Amituofo!
