Wonderful Metaphors in Pure Land School
淨土宗妙喻
Eight Wonderful Metaphors Explaining that Rebirth in the Pure Land is Amitabha’s Doing, Not Ours.
What kind of Buddha Body comprises Amitabha? What kind of Pure Land is the Land of Bliss? According to the Pure Land teaching of Master Shandao, Amitabha Buddha is a Reward Buddha, and the Land of Bliss is a Reward Land. In his “In Praise of Dharma Practices”, Master Shandao described the Pure Land of Bliss as “unconditioned Nirvana.” In the Pure Land of Bliss there is no birth and no death, no decay and no change, and no acts result in karma. It is a realm of Dharma Nature and Buddha Nature. The Reward Land of Bliss is supreme and wondrous! How can ordinary beings be reborn?
Question: “Considering that Amitabha’s Pure Land is a truly profound and wonderful realm of rewards in which it is difficult even for Theravada sages to be reborn, how could ordinary beings suffering from defilements and karmic obstructions possibly gain rebirth there?”
Answer: “Indeed, ordinary beings are too often barred by their own defilements and negative karma from aspiring to and gaining rebirth in the Land of Bliss. However, because there is the strongly augmentative cause of the power of Amitabha’s vow , all beings of the Five Vehicles — humans, celestial beings, Sravakas, Pratyekabuddhas and Bodhisattvas are able to be reborn in that realm.”
This response should answer your question. The fact that we ordinary beings can gain rebirth in Amitabha’s Land of Bliss, a profound and wonderful realm of rewards, is not our doing. The depth or shallowness of our meditative concentration, the number of good deeds or sins we have committed, and our accumulation of some or no merits are all totally irrelevant. Only the power of Amitabha’s vow guarantees our rebirth. After all, ordinary beings are plagued by defilements and karmic afflictions. If Amitabha were to require these conditions for rebirth, iniquitous and delusive ordinary beings would never be delivered into his Pure Land.
In other words, our rebirth in the Land of Bliss depends on nothing but the power of Amitabha’s great Vow . As it is said, “Due to the Buddha’s Vow”, which is a strong augmentative cause for our rebirth, “all beings of the Five Vehicles are able to be reborn in the Pure Land”. This means that everyone (from highly virtuous sages such as Bodhisattvas who have achieved the stage of near-perfect enlightenment), to ordinary beings (who have committed the five gravest transgressions) can all be equally delivered to Amitabha’s realm of rewards.
Below are some further metaphors illustrating that ordinary beings’ rebirth in Amitabha’s Land of Bliss is not our doing, it is Amitabha’s doing.
5. 不論凡夫,只論彌陀之妙喻8則 - 釋淨宗
阿彌陀佛到底是怎樣的佛身? 極樂世界到底是怎樣的淨土? 依淨土宗開宗祖師善導大師的教理,《觀經》九品皆是凡夫,阿彌陀佛是報佛, 極樂世界是報土。善導大師在《法事讚》中用「無為涅槃界」五個字說明極樂報土的景象。極樂世界是遠離造作、不衰不變、不生不滅的,是法性本身的境界,是佛本身的境界。極樂報土是如此高妙的境界,凡夫如何能往生呢?
善導大師在《觀經四帖疏》中設了一個問答 ⇒
問曰:「彼佛及土,既言報者,報法高妙,小乘難階,垢障凡夫,云何得入?」
答曰:「若論眾生垢障,實難欣趣;正由託佛願以作強緣,致使五乘齊入。」
這個問答,就給了我們答案,凡夫能往生「報法高妙」的極樂世界, 不在凡夫這邊論——論深、論淺,論福、論罪,論有功德、無功德,只看阿彌陀佛那一邊。因為眾生這邊不可論,畢竟凡夫都是罪垢、業障。阿彌陀佛不論這些,如果這樣論的話,我們罪惡生死凡夫就無法往生了。
我們能往生,只論阿彌陀佛的大願業力,所謂「正由託佛願」,託阿彌陀佛的願力作為強緣,所以「五乘齊入」。「五乘齊入」則是上到等覺菩薩,下到五逆凡夫,都平等往生到彌陀報土。
以下用幾則譬喻說明凡夫往生極樂世界報土境界,不論凡夫,只論彌陀。
Namo Amituofo!
