Clarifying Doubts About the Pure Land (I)
淨土釋疑(一)
Answer to Q41 continued (3 /3):
For example, suppose we swallow a fragrant medicinal pill. Every breath we exhale carries its fragrance. From morning until night, countless fragrant breaths emerge, yet all of them originate from that single pill within us.
Namo Amitabha Buddha is like that fragrant pill.
Each recitation is like a breath carrying its fragrance. Even if there are millions of fragrant breaths, they all come from that one pill. Likewise, even if there are millions of recitations, they all come from Amitabha.
It is the "fragrant pill" of the Name that enables our rebirth in the Pure Land. The recitation of Namo Amitabha Buddha is simply the manifestation of that Name.
It is not that we are inwardly empty and must rely on how many times we recite today, how many offenses we eliminate, how much merit we accumulate, or how much confidence we gain through our own efforts in order to secure rebirth. That is not the way it works.
Of course, for one who has accepted Amitabha's deliverance in faith, the greatest matter in the world is the grace of Amitabha's salvation. Therefore, such a person will naturally remember Amitabha and recite Namo Amitabha Buddha, while other worldly concerns gradually fade into the background.
As the saying goes:
"When thoughts of the Way are strong, worldly thoughts become weak;
when worldly thoughts are strong, thoughts of the Way become weak."
Therefore, a person who has truly accepted Amitabha's deliverance will naturally remember him and recite Namo Amitabha Buddha.
續答 (3 /3)：
比如說，我們吃了一粒妙香丸在肚子裏，一呼出來的口氣就有香味，從早呼 吸到晚，呼出來的香味就很多，可是沒有離開肚子裏的香丸。
名號就好比香丸，我們每一聲稱名，就好比呼出來的一口香氣，千萬次呼吸 的香氣也就是這一粒香丸，千萬聲的稱名就是這句名號，就是這個名號香丸 讓我們往生。名號香丸顯現出來就是稱名。
不是說我們裏面空空的，然後才靠我們今天念了多少聲、滅了多少罪、增長 多少功德、對往生有多少把握，不是這樣的。
當然，信受彌陀救度的人，對他來說，天下最重大的事情就是彌陀的救恩，所 以他會自然地去憶佛念佛，其他的事情就會淡了。
有句語說：「道念濃厚，俗念就淡薄；世念濃厚，道念就淡薄。」所以，信受彌陀 救度的人自然會憶佛念佛。
Namo Amituofo!
