第101集 — 淨土宗不談無相不談離念

「可見此乃聖者之所難，安能期之於具縛凡夫」。縛是煩惱的代名詞，凡夫煩惱重，不可能做到無念無生。

“It can be clearly seen that absence-of-thought and nirvana (not subject to birth and death) are difficult to be accomplished by saints, let alone ordinary beings who are heavily afflicted.” In other words, it is impossible for heavily afflicted ordinary beings to attain absence-of-thought and nirvana.

「是以善導大師《四帖疏》曰：今此觀門等」，《觀經》這個註解，善導大師作的叫《四帖疏》，這個裡頭有十六觀，「指方而立相，住心而取境，總不明無相離念」。淨土宗不談無相，不談離念，而且什麼？

“So, Patriarch Shan Tao ^[1] commented in the Four Options, ‘We now talk about the Contemplation Sutra here’” -- the Contemplation Sutra annotated by the Patriarch is called the Four Options, which comprises sixteen contemplations. “Setting the mind on the Western Pure Land and establishing an image; the mind abides in something and somewhere; formlessness and renouncing thoughts are generally not talked about.” Pure Land Buddhism does not talk about formlessness and renouncing thoughts. What does it talk about then?

指方，指定西方極樂世界，立相有極樂世界，有西方三聖，叫你把心住在佛號上，這叫住心取境。

It talks about ‘setting the mind on the Land of Ultimate Bliss as well as the existence of this Land and the three saints of the West (namely Amitabha Buddha, Avalokitêśvara Bodhisattva and Mahāsthāmaprāpta Bodhisattva)’ -- it tells you to let your mind abide in Amitabha Buddha’s name. This is called ‘the mind abiding in something and somewhere.’

其他的是心裡面什麼都不能有，有就錯了。淨宗法門心裡准許有阿彌陀佛，阿彌陀佛之外的不能有，這就好辦多了，容易太多了。我們把心裡頭念頭雜念統統清除掉，只把阿彌陀佛放進來，二六時中就守住這一句阿彌陀佛。

Other than this, you cannot keep anything in your mind. Keeping other things in the mind is wrong. Pure Land Buddhism allows you to have Amitabha Buddha in your mind but not anything else. This is so much easier to accomplish. We clear out all the distracting thoughts in our mind and only retain this Amitabha Buddha’s name all day long.