[52] Can Scattered Niànfó Eliminate Transgressions? 散心念佛能除罪吗？

问：散心称名，亦除罪否？

Question: [Does with a] scattered mind reciting [the] name [of Āmítuófó], also eliminate transgressions?

答：名号功德不可思议，宁不除罪，但不定往生。

Answer: [As the] name’s meritorious virtues [are] inconceivable, how can [it] not eliminate transgressions? However, [this does] not definitely [lead to] rebirth [in Pure Land].

以悠悠散善，难敌无始积罪故。

With drawn out [and] scattered goodness, [it is] difficult [to] oppose beginningless accumulated transgressions thus.

当知积罪假使有体相者，尽虚空界不能容受，虽百年昼夜弥陀十万，一一声灭八十亿劫生死，然所灭罪如爪上土，未灭罪如大地土。

[It] should be known [that] accumulated transgressions, if having physical form, exhausting empty space’s realms, [they will] not [be] able [to] contain [or] receive them. Although [for a] hundred years’ days [and] nights [reciting] Āmítuófó’s name ten thousand times, [with] each [and] every recitation eliminating 80 koṭis [i.e. 10 million each] of kalpas’ [i.e. world cycles of about 1.3 trillion years each] births [and] deaths’ [transgressions], however, those eliminated transgressions [are] like dirt [in one’s] fingernails, [while] yet [to be] eliminated transgressions [are] like [the] great Earth’s dirt. 

唯念至一心不乱，则如健人突围而出，非复三军能制耳。

Only reciting to reach wholeheartedness without being scattered, is thus like a strong person breaking out of an enclosure and escaping, not again [by the] three armies [from the left, middle and right] able [to be] subdued.

– 净土宗九祖澫益大师
《佛说阿弥陀经要解》

– Pure Land Tradition’s 9th Patriarch Great Master Ǒuyì
(Essential Explanation [Of The] Sūtra [In Which The] Buddha Speaks [Of] Amitā[bha] Buddha)

Namo Amituofo : Translation by Shen Shi’an

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下文: 阿弥陀佛号为毕竟不退之金刚种子
Next Section: Āmítuófó’s Name As The Ultimately Non-Retrogressive Vajra Seed
https://purelanders.com/2019/01/14/amituofos-name-as-the-ultimate-non-retrogressive-vajra-seed

《佛说阿弥陀经要解》全英译
Complete English Translation Of ‘The Essential Explanation On The Amitābha Sūtra As Spoken By The Buddha’
https://purelanders.com/yaojie