[7] Transforming This Sahā World To A Pure Land And Birth In Heaven Are Both Not Easy 转娑婆成净土与生天都不易

【七】：今人不肯念佛，只是轻视西方。

[Part 7]: Nowadays, people [who are] not willing [to be] mindful [of] Buddha, [are] only looking down on [the] Western [Pure Land].

[Note 1: Slighting the Pure Land teachings arises from lack of understanding or being with misunderstanding, for how can the Pure Land created by a Buddha with perfect compassion and wisdom, and as praised by all Buddhas deserve being belittled by any non-Buddha? The Western Pure Land should thus be highly regarded instead.]

不知生西方乃是大德大福，大智大慧，大圣大贤的勾当。

Not knowing [that] birth [in the] Western [Pure Land] to be [the] matter [of those with] great virtues, great blessings, great wisdom [and] great nobility.

[Note 2: If even countless Great Bodhisattvas and Great Masters sought and continue to seek birth in the Western Pure Land to expedite their progress towards Buddhahood, so should we ordinary beings.]

转娑婆成净土，不同小可因缘。

Transforming [this] Sahā [World to] become [a] Pure Land, [is] different [from a] small cause [and] condition.

[Note 3: We should strive to make this world a better place. However, as the essence of making a world a better place is by sharing the right Dharma, we should note that the Buddha taught that this world is already in the Dharma-Ending Age, with less and less of the right Dharma, till there will be none for a very long time. It is what even the Buddha did not teach to be preventable, (even if able to be delayed to some extent). When Maitreya Bodhisattva descends to become a Buddha about 5.6 billion years later, this world will still not yet be a Pure Land. Thus, it makes perfect sense, if not yet realised as a Great Bodhisattva, to ensure Pure Land is reached, for further swift training with the right Dharma there, so as to expedite the purification of this world in good time. Otherwise, in a world with increasingly more wrong ‘Dharma’, one might retrogress to become without the right Dharma at all, thus making sharing of it for purifying the world impossible.]

汝但看此城中，一日一夜死却多少人。

You only [need to] see [that in] this city within, [in] one day [and] one night, how many people [are] dying [and] retreating [spiritually].

[Note 4: As this world is physically and spiritually impure, there are physical death and spiritual retrogression.]

不要说生西方，即生天，千百人中尚无一个。

[If] not speaking [of] birth [in the] Western [Pure Land yet], even if [of] birth [in a] heaven, [of a] thousand hundred people within, [they are] still without one.

[Note 5: As rebirth in any heaven requires great virtues from weak Self-Power (自力), this is not easy. In contrast, with the support of Āmítuófó’s great Other-Power (他力) connected to our Self-Power, it is much easier to reach his Pure Land.]

其有自负修行者，只是不失人身而已。

[Many of] those [who] have self-confidence [with their] cultivation, [are] only [able to] not lose [the] human body.

[Note 6: Those over-confident in reaching a heaven might at best retain their human form, or at worst, lose it to fall into the lower realms. With sincere Pure Land learning and practice, it is easy to have strong and sound confidence to reach Pure Land instead.]

故我世尊大慈大悲示此法门，功过乾坤、恩逾父母，粉骨碎身不足为报。

Thus, our World-Honoured [One, with] great loving-kindness [and] great compassion taught this Dharma Door, [with his] merits surpassing [the] heaven [and] earth, [and] kindness exceeding [our] parents, [that even if with our] powdered bones [and] shattered bodies, [they are] not enough for repaying [him].

[Note 7: The only way to repay this great kindness of the Buddha is by heeding and sharing his Pure Land teachings.]

净土宗八祖莲池大师
Pure Land Tradition’s 8th Patriarch Great Master Liánchí
《云栖净土汇语》：警众（八条）
(Collection [Of] Yúnqī’s Pure Land Sayings: Eight Articles [As] Warnings [For The] Masses)

Namo Amituofo : Translation and notes by Shen Shi’an

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莲池大师「警众」八条文
Great Master Liánchí’s Eight Articles Of Warnings For The Masses
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