Major Expositions

KGSS II:20-23

[Tao-ch'o]

20 The Passages on the Land of Happiness states:

It is declared in the Sutra of the Buddha-Contemplation Samadhi:

[Sakyamuni] urged his father the King to practice nembutsu-samadhi. His father the King said to the Buddha, "Why do you not have me, a disciple of yours, practice the virtue attained in the Buddha-stage -suchness, true reality, the highest virtue of emptiness?" The Buddha answered his father, "The virtue attained by the Buddhas is a realm unfathomably profound and excellent, where one attains supernatural powers and emancipation [from blind passions]. Since this is not a realm to be practiced by foolish beings, I encourage you, my father the King, thus to practice nembutsu-samadhi." His father the King asked the Buddha, "What are the characteristics of the working of the nembutsu?" The Buddha replied to his father the King, "Suppose there is a forest of eranda trees forty yojanas square, in which there is a single gosirsa-candana tree. The candana has roots and sprouts, but has yet to arise forth from the soil. The eranda forest emits only foul odors, without the least trace of a pleasant scent. If one should ingest its flowers or fruit, one goes insane and dies. In time, the roots and sprouts of the candana gradually shoot forth, and just as it grows into a tree, its fragrance fills the air, finally transforming the forest and imparting everywhere its own fragrance. Sentient beings who see this are struck with wonder." The Buddha said to his father the King, "Thus is the heart of the nembutsu for all sentient beings in birth-and-death. If one simply engages in the nembutsu and does not cease, without fail one will be born in the Buddha's presence. Once one has attained birth, all one's evils are immediately transformed and one realizes great compassion. This is likened to the transformation of the eranda forest by the fragrant tree.

The eranda tree here represents the three poisons and the three hindrances within the bodily existence of each sentient being and the innumerable acts of grave karmic evil arising from them. The candana stands for the heart of the nembutsu. "Just growing into a tree": when any sentient being simply accumulates the practice of the nembutsu without ceasing, the causal act [for attainment of birth] will unfailingly be fulfilled.

Question: By measuring the working of one sentient being's nembutsu one knows that of all. How is it that the working of a single nembutsu can destroy all hindrances, just as a single fragrant tree can transform a forty-yojana eranda forest and make all within it fragrant?

Answer: The inconceivable working of nembutsu-samadhi may be clarified by quoting from various Mahayana scriptures. The Garland Sutra states:

Suppose a person strings a lute with the sinews of a lion. When he strikes but a single note, all other kinds of string rend. Likewise, when a person practices nembutsu-samadhi in the aspiration for enlightenment, all blind passions and hindrances are sundered and destroyed. Again, suppose a person takes milk from a cow, a ewe, and an ass, and places it all in a single vessel. If he casts in a single drop of milk from a lion, the lion's milk will immediately pass unhindered through all the other milk, and the various kinds of milk will be broken down and transformed into pure water. Likewise, if a person simply practices nembutsu-samadhi in the aspiration for enlightenment, he or she immediately passes by all evil demons and obstructions without the least hindrance.

Further the sutra states:

Suppose there is a person who has a potion that renders him invisible. As he travels about from place to place, other travelers cannot see him. Likewise, when persons practice nembutsu-samadhi in the aspiration for enlightenment, they are not seen by any evil demons or obstructions, and wherever they go there is nothing that can impede them. This is because putting nembutsu-samadhi into practice is none other than the king of all samadhis.

21 Further it states:

A Mahayana work declares,

It is not that all other samadhis are not samadhis. For there is a samadhi that can eliminate only greed but is incapable of eliminating anger and folly; a samadhi that can eliminate only anger but is incapable of eliminating folly and greed; a samadhi that can eliminate only folly but cannot eliminate anger. There is a samadhi that can eliminate the obstructions of the present but not all the obstructions of the past and future. But if one constantly practices nembutsu-samadhi, one eliminates all the obstructions of past, present, and future without distinction.

22 Further it states:

A gatha on the Larger Sutra declares,

If persons hear the virtuous Name of Amida, Praise the Buddha with joy, and wholeheartedly take refuge Even but a single thought-moment, they gain the great benefit. That is, they come to possess the treasure of virtues.

Even though the great thousandfold world be filled with fire, Pass through immediately to hear the Buddha's Name! If one hears "Amida," on will never retrogress. For this reason I wholeheartedly bow my head in worship.

23 Further it states:

Again, as declared in the Sutra of the Questions of Maudgalyayana,

The Buddha said to Maudgalyayana, "In every stream and river there are grasses and trees, and regardless of which follows or which goes before, all are carried down to gather in the vast ocean. So it is with this world. Though one may freely enjoy power, station, riches, and pleasure, one cannot escape either birth, aging, sickness, or death. Simply because of failure to follow the Buddha's teaching, one born as a human being in the next life will still suffer great hardship and be incapable of attaining birth in the lands of the thousand Buddhas. For this reason I teach thus: The land of the Buddha of Immeasurable Life is easy to go to, easy to attain; nevertheless, there are people incapable of practicing and being born there, for they devote themselves instead to the ninety-five false paths. I call such people 'those without eyes' and 'those without ears'."

Such is the teaching of the sutra. Why then do people not abandon the difficult and rely on the path of easy practice?