Master Huijing’s Short Pure Land Teaching (1)
淨土短文 (一)
Master Shandao’s Commentary on the Contemplation Sutra sets forth these essential principles:
1. The nine grades of rebirth pertain only to ordinary beings.
2. The Pure Land is the Reward Land, not a Transformation Land.
3. Rebirth in the Reward Land is attained by exclusively reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha.
4. Namo Amitabha Buddha fully embodies both the vow and the practice.
Master Shandao thus established, as a model for ancient and modern times alike, the doctrine that ordinary beings can be born in the Reward Land.
The System of Master Shandao’s Thought
● Two Teachings: the Sacred Path and the Pure Land Path.
● Two Stores: the Store of the Difficult Practice and the Store of the Easy Practice.
● Two Gates: the Gate of the Holy Path and the Gate of the Pure Land. ● Two Kinds of Faith: self-power faith and other-power faith. ● Two Kinds of Practice: mixed practices and exclusive practice. ● Right Practice
● Right Karma of Assurance
● Reciting the Name in accordance with the Original Vow
● Ordinary beings entering the Reward Land
Meaning of “Right”:
To “adhere to the one” is to be right; to rest firmly at the proper point without wavering is right.
Meaning of “Practice”:
Practice refers to one’s cultivation and deeds.
Meaning of “Mixed”:
Mixed means various colors blending together — a condition in which different elements are fused and intermingled.
On the Four Modes of Practice:
Among the four types of practice, the first three and the last one all aim directly at remembering and repaying the Buddha’s grace.
Even so, they are not called auxiliary karmas (i.e., not “supporting practices”), because they are wholly contained within the exclusive recitation of Namo Amitabha Buddha.
Summary of the Five Kinds of Mindfulness:
Among the Five Mindful Practices, exclusively reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha is regarded as the eye, the essential one. Of all practices, exclusively reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha is the most intimate and direct.
“Even one thought”:
1. According to Master Shandao, this covers the entire range — from lifelong recitation down to a single thought or utterance of Namo Amitabha Buddha.
2. According to later Japanese Pure Land interpretations, “one thought” refers to the single moment in which the practitioner attains the mind of faith, that is, the one-mind of true entrusting .
善導《觀經疏》：（一）九品唯凡，（二）是報非化，（三）念佛往生報土，（四）名號 具足願行。主張凡夫入報以楷定古今。
善導大師思想體系：二教，二藏，二門，二信，二行，正行，正定業，本願稱名、 凡夫入報。
正：守一而止為正，止於所應止之處而不動為正。行：行業，修行。
雜：五色相交。種種物混雜一處之狀態為雜，雜沓、混雜。
前三後一行，意直念佛恩，亦不名為助業也。總通五念，稱念為眼。偏標念佛最為親。
乃至一念：
（一）善導以上盡一形，下至一念（一聲）之稱名念佛。
（二）真宗學者解釋為獲得往生心行時刻之一念，亦即信心之一心。
Namo Amituofo!
