Clarifying Doubts About the Pure Land (II)
淨土釋疑(二)
Question 50: If we rely on the power of Amitabha Buddha’s Vow, is there any difference between reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha throughout one’s life and reciting it only ten times?
Answer: What is meant by reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha throughout one’s life and reciting it ten times is expressed as “from the upper limit of one’s entire life down to ten recitations, or even one recitation.” This is why the Eighteenth Vow says “even down to ten recitations”.
Whenever you encounter and accept this Dharma teaching, you should recite Namo Amitabha Buddha from that point onward, throughout the rest of your life. If you encounter this teaching just before you’re about to die, then you recite Namo Amitabha Buddha up to ten times.
In other words, after hearing and embracing this Dharma, one no longer relies on any other expedient practice; but, exclusively recites Namo Amitabha Buddha and relies on the power of Amitabha’s Vow for rebirth.
Therefore, for those who practice this Dharma, if one thinks, “My rebirth is already assured and I am assured of non-retrogression in this life, so I no longer need to recite Namo Amitabha Buddha.” That would be a mistaken understanding.
People who have truly attained “rebirth assured in this life” will certainly “never abandon their recitations.” Such people will recite Namo Amitabha Buddha throughout their lives; because they have deeply understood the meaning of the Twofold Deep Faith ( in the aptitude of sentient beings and in the Dharma).
Imagine that someone whose entire being has been engulfed by the flames of hell, and is utterly unable to save himself, is rescued by Amitabha Buddha. How
would such a person live the rest of his life? Surely, reciting Namo Amitabha Buddha would become the most important matter of his life.
If this teaching remains merely an intellectual concept without being genuinely experienced and understood, it is impossible to develop the attitude of “never abandoning the recitation, moment after moment.”
(to be continued tomorrow)
第50問：如果靠佛願力，一生稱名和乃至十念稱名，有沒有不同？
答：所謂一輩子的稱名和十念稱名，意思是上盡一形、一輩子，下至十聲、一 聲，所以是「乃至」。你什麼時候遇到這個法門，就從此之後乃至一輩子稱名， 是斷氣前十念才遇到的，就十念稱名。就是聞此法門後，從此不假方便，一向 稱念彌陀名號，靠彌陀願力往生。所以學我們這個法門的人，如果認為我已 往生決定現生不退，可以不念佛了，那就錯了。
一個真正「平生業成」的人，他一定會「念念不捨」，一輩子念佛，因為體會到 「機法兩種深信」的道理。一個被地獄之火燒到的人，在沒辦法自救的情況下 被阿彌陀佛拉上來，他此後的人生會怎樣？一定是以念佛為他人生最重要的 事。如果這個道理只停留在觀念上，沒有真正體會，就不可能「念念不捨」的 念佛。
Namo Amituofo!
