往生集序
Preface to the Collection on Rebirth
世尊始成正覺。為諸有情普演佛乘。既而機難盡投。由是於一乘中示三乘法。而復於三乘中出淨土一門。今去佛日遠情塵日滋。進之不能發神解超聖階。退之倀倀乎有淪墜之險。而匪仗此門。其何從疾脫生死。大矣哉。可謂起末世沈疴必効之靈藥也。顧古之効多今之効尠。其咎安在。則亦口淨土心娑婆。而堅勇明悟不及前輩云爾。聞昔有傳往生者。歲久滅沒不可復覩。而斷章遺跡班班。互載於內外百家之書。予隨所見輒附筆剳。仍摘其因果昭灼者。日積之成編。殆存十一於千百而已。今甲申竊比中峯廛居。掩關於上方。乃取而從其類後先之。又證之以諸聖同歸。足之以生存感應。計百六十有六條。而間為之贊。以發其隱義。題曰往生集。俾緇素之流觀於是書將指而曰。某也以如是解脫而生。某也以如是純一而生。某也以如是精誠之極感格而生。某也以如是大悲大願而生。某也以如是改過不吝轉業於將墮也而生。某如是上生。某如是中生下生。庶幾乎考古驗今為淨業者左券。而客有過我者。閱未數傳。勃然曰。淨土唯心。心外無土。往生淨土寓言也。子以為真生乎哉。寧不乖於無生之旨。予俟其色定。徐而謂曰。談何容易。如以無生而已矣。一切斷滅不應尚有唯心。果悟無生則生亦奚礙。生既本無故終日生而未甞生也。且爾已盡漏心否乎。對曰不能。噫漏心未盡則生緣未休。生緣未休則托質有所。茫茫三界大苦海中。不生淨土而生何土。六道之匍匐。九品之逍遙。利與害天淵矣。抑未之思歟。飾虛論而爭高。吾亦能之。所以弗為者。夫亦懼生於識法耳行矣。爾誠不以予言為非。即淨土而之佛乘。蓋未甞間隔絲毫。而奚乖之有。客悚然從坐而作。惘然而自失不覺。其汪然泣下而悲且咽也。整衣莊誦之終卷。亟拜亟請梓焉。梓既成。道其始末如此。
The World-Honored One had just attained perfect enlightenment and universally proclaimed the Buddha Vehicle for all sentient beings. Yet since people’s capacities could not all be met at once, within the One Vehicle he revealed the teachings of the Three Vehicles. And again, within the Three Vehicles he brought forth the single gate of Pure Land. Now we are far from the Buddha’s time, and the dust of afflictions grows daily. Those who advance cannot bring forth spiritual understanding or transcend the stages of the noble ones; those who retreat wander in confusion and face the danger of falling. If one does not rely on this gate, how else can one quickly escape birth and death? How great it is! It may be called a miraculous medicine certain to cure the grave illness of the degenerate age. Yet in ancient times there were many who benefited, while today few do. Where lies the fault? It is simply that people speak of Pure Land with the mouth while their hearts remain in the Sahā world, and their firm courage and clear awakening do not match those of former generations.
I have heard that in former times there were records of those who attained rebirth, but as the years passed they disappeared and could no longer be seen. Still, scattered passages and surviving traces are clearly visible, variously recorded in hundreds of inner and outer works. Whenever I saw them, I would note them down with my brush. I also selected those whose causes and results were most evident, and over time accumulated them into a compilation, though only about one or two in ten or a hundred remain. Now in the year Jiashen, I venture to compare myself to Zhongfeng’s dwelling in a hut, and I have shut myself away in retreat at Shangfang. There I took them and arranged them by category and sequence. I further confirmed them by the shared return of the sages, and supplemented them with responsive signs in life. Altogether there are one hundred sixty-six entries, and here and there I have added verses to bring out their hidden meaning. I titled it the Collected Records of Rebirth, so that monastics and laypeople alike, reading this book, may point and say: “So-and-so was reborn through such understanding and liberation; so-and-so was reborn through such single-mindedness; so-and-so was reborn through such utmost sincerity and profound resonance; so-and-so was reborn through such great compassion and great vows; so-and-so was reborn through such unsparing correction of faults, transforming karma when on the verge of falling; so-and-so was born in the upper grades, so-and-so in the middle or lower grades.” In this way, perhaps it may serve as a contract for those devoted to Pure Land practice, verifying the past and confirming the present.
A guest who came to visit me had read no more than a few accounts when he suddenly burst out: “Pure Land is only Mind; outside Mind there is no land. Rebirth in Pure Land is an allegory. Do you really think there is actual rebirth? Would this not contradict the principle of non-arising?” I waited until his expression settled, then calmly said to him: “How easy it is to talk that way. If you take non-arising and leave it at that, then everything would be annihilation, and there should not still be ‘only Mind.’ If one truly awakens to non-arising, what obstacle does birth pose? Since birth is fundamentally nonexistent, one may spend all day being born yet never have been born. But have you already exhausted the defiled mind? He answered, ‘No.’ Alas, if the defiled mind is not exhausted, the conditions for birth are not ended. If the conditions for birth are not ended, there must be some place to receive a body. In the vast great sea of suffering of the three realms, if one is not born in Pure Land, then in what land will one be born? Crawling in the six realms and roaming freely in the nine grades—the difference between benefit and harm is as vast as heaven and abyss. Have you not considered this? To adorn empty arguments and vie for superiority—I too can do that. The reason I do not is simply that I fear being born into attachment to dharma. Go now. If you truly do not take my words as wrong, then from Pure Land proceed to the Buddha Vehicle. There has never been the slightest separation between them, so what contradiction could there be?”
The guest, startled, rose from his seat. Dazed and at a loss, he did not notice that tears were streaming down and that he was choking with sorrow. He straightened his clothes, solemnly recited the text to the end of the volume, bowed repeatedly, and earnestly requested that it be printed. After it was printed, I recorded its beginning and end as above.
萬曆十二年夏日 杭沙門袾宏識
In the summer of the twelfth year of the Wanli reign, written by the monk Zhuhong of Hangzhou.