Clarifying Doubts About the Pure Land (I)
淨土釋疑(一)
Answer to Q33: (6 /6)
But when one has received Amitabha’s Paramitas, it is different. If others truly need help, we will give without even considering ourselves, because what we have received is already so abundant. When insulted or slandered, instead of
merely enduring it, we may ask the other person to forgive us. After all, who have we not wronged in past lives? Who has not suffered insults from us? If not for such karmic entanglements, we would not be beings without the conditions to escape samsara.
When we understand these principles, our hearts naturally soften. This is what is called “becoming gentle upon encountering the Buddha’s light.” When we exclusively recite Namo Amitabha Buddha, we receive Amitabha’s light and our bodies and minds become soft and gentle.
However, reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha can be done in two ways: self-power recitation and other-power recitation. To practice recitation with reliance on other-power, one must understand the principle and true meaning of the six-characters (“Namo Amitabha Buddha”). Everything we have discussed today explains the principle and true meaning of Namo Amitabha Buddha. Then we understand that we are naturally embraced and protected by Amitabha’s light, and gradually transformed.
33問 (6 /6)：
但是，領受阿彌陀佛的救度就不同了，對方真正需要的話，甚至不考慮自 己，因為我們所得的太豐富了嘛；受到人家謾罵、侮辱，以前是忍辱，現在反 而要求他來原諒我們。哪一個人不是我們欠他的？哪一個人沒有受到我們的 謾罵、侮辱（如果不是這樣，我們就容易解脫了，就不是「無有出離之緣」的人 了）？能夠體悟到這些道理，我們的心自然就會軟化，所謂「觸光柔軟」（即稱 念這句名號，就會觸到彌陀的光明，就會變得身心柔軟）。
不過，稱名既然有自力稱名和他力稱名，而他力稱名總要去瞭解六字名號的 原理、真義。那麼，我們今天所講的，都是六字名號的原理，瞭解六字名號的 真義，無形之中就是在受彌陀光明的攝護，就在觸光，就會有所改變。
Namo Amituofo!
