A Wonderful Parable of the Pure Land School
淨土宗妙喻
9. The Impoverished Son
If we cannot be reborn in the Land of Bliss by virtue of practicing good deeds, what else can we rely on to gain rebirth there?
The Infinite Life Sutra says, “I (Amitabha) will open the Dharma-store for the multitudes and endow them all with treasures of merit.”
The Sutra also says that, “Amitabha will enable all sentient beings to accomplish countless merits and virtues.”
As it also points out, “Those who hear the Name of that Buddha (Amitabha), and rejoice and recite his Name even once shall receive the utmost benefits, unsurpassed merits and virtues.”
Reading through those passages in the Longer Sutra, we see clearly that Amitabha Buddha universally bestows upon ordinary beings the great treasure of his merits and virtues in the form of his six-character Name. By doing so, he enables those of us who are bereft of merits and virtues to become rich with them.
Amitabha shares his great compassion for all iniquitous ordinary beings, who have no hope of being liberated from samsara due to their lack of merits and virtues.
Amitabha Buddha opens the treasure trove of the Dharma and bestows on us his treasures of merit, universally and without discrimination. Hence, the Longer Sutra says, “Amitabha will open the Dharma storehouse for the multitudes and endow them all with treasures of merit.” Amitabha’s treasure of merits and virtues is shared through his Name, “Namo Amitabha Buddha”.
We yearn for the merits and virtues we do not have. We are worried that “No matter what virtuous practices we cultivate, we will still fail to attain enlightenment or to realize the ultimate reality of all dharmas. The best we can do is to cultivate the five precepts and the ten virtues for our rebirth in the human and celestial realms respectively. However, these cultivations are insufficient, because the practitioner is still stuck in the six realms. How are we supposed to achieve Buddhahood?”
The Infinite Life Sutra says, Amitabha Buddha cultivated the immeasurable meritorious practices of the bodhisattva path for countless eons, so that “sentient beings can partake of such merits and virtues.”
Below is a parable known as the “Story of the Impoverished Son,” (cited in the Lotus Sutra), that illustrates Amitabha’s endowment to sentient beings.
(to be continued tomorrow)
9. 窮子喻之妙喻1則
我們此世所做善行不能往生，那靠什麼往生呢？
《無量壽經》說：為眾開法藏，廣施功德寶。
又說：令諸眾生，功德成就。
又說：其有得聞彼佛名號， 歡喜踴躍乃至一念。當知此人為得大利，則是具足無上功德。
這幾段經文放在一起，就很清楚地看出來：阿彌陀佛普遍布施給我們六字名號的功德大寶，讓我們這些沒有功德的人功德成就，而且是具足無上功德。
阿彌陀佛憐愍我們造罪造業， 沒有出離之緣，無法脫離六道輪迴， 沒有功德法財，為我們打開佛法的寶藏，普遍、平等地布施給我們功德之寶。所以說：「為眾開法藏，廣施功德寶。」
阿彌陀佛的功德寶就是「南無阿彌陀佛」。
我們沒有功德，我們盼望功德， 我們希望自己成就功德，我們擔心：「我這樣修行、那樣修行，可是也沒開悟，沒契入諸法實相，頂多是有漏的人天善法，這怎麼辦？」《無量壽經》說：阿彌陀佛兆載累劫的修行， 是要「令諸眾生，功德成就」，要令我們成就功德。
Namo Amituofo!
