Wonderful Metaphors in the Pure Land School
淨土宗妙喻
Metaphor 60: Genes for Perfect Enlightenment (2 /5 continued)
Those who are born by transformation are practitioners who have faith in and accept Amitabha’s deliverance, and exclusively recite Namo Amitabha Buddha. They are reborn by transformation, emerging from the lotus flower of Amitabha’s perfect enlightenment and beholding the Buddha at once.
The other type of birth is womb-born. According to the Larger Sutra, those who doubt the Buddha’s wisdom and deliverance are born in womb-like lotus buds. However, they believe in retribution and reward for their actions, have generated bodhicitta, practiced the Six Paramitas, and dedicated such merits to rebirth in the Pure Land.
As Bodhisattva Nagarjuna points out in his Chapter on the Easy Path, “If one nurtures meritorious roots but doubts [Amitabha’s wisdom], the lotus flower in which one is reborn [in the Pure Land] will not immediately open. In contrast, if
one’s faith [in Amitabha] is pure, one’s flower of rebirth immediately blooms and one sees Amitabha.”
(to be continued tomorrow)
60. 基因喻 (續 2/5)
「化生」指信受彌陀救度、專稱彌陀名號，一旦往生極樂淨土就從彌陀的正覺 華化現出來，不需經過多少的時間才花開見佛。
「胎生」就是指對於阿彌陀佛的救度有所懷疑，可是相信有因果報應，而發菩 提心，廣修六度，功德迴向往生極樂，這個都是在胎宮裏面。龍樹菩薩在《易 行品》說：「若人種善根，疑則花不開；信心清淨者，花開則見佛。」
Namo Amituofo!
