念佛門 贈白處士
(The Gate of Mindfulness of Buddha, Presented to Retired Scholar Baek)
心則緣佛境界, 憶持不忘; 口則稱佛名號, 分明不亂. 如是心口相應, 念一聲, 則
能滅八十億劫生死之罪, 成就八十億劫殊勝功德. 一聲尙爾, 何況千萬聲? 一念
尙爾, 何況千萬念耶? 所謂“十聲念佛徃生蓮池”者, 此也. 然在口, 曰誦; 在心,
曰念. 徒誦失念, 於理無益. 思之, 思之.
The mind conditions the realm of the Buddha and retains the memory of
that without forgetting; the mouth calls on the name and titles of the Buddha
clearly and is not confused. If the mind and mouth accord with each other
like this, and they chant (nian) a sound, then you will extinguish the sins of
the lives and deaths of eight billion eons and achieve the surpassing merits
of eight billion eons. If even one sound is so, how much more so a thousand or
ten thousand sounds. If even one (moment of) mindfulness is so, how much
more so a thousand or ten thousand (moments of) mindfulness. This is the so-
called “If you chant (the name of) the Buddha ten times you will be reborn in
the lotus pond.” So when it is in the mouth it is called chanting; in the mind
it is mindfulness. If you only chant and yet lose mindfulness, there will be no
benefit (for attaining) the principle. Think of this, think of this.
佛爲上根人說, 卽心卽佛, 惟心淨土, 自性彌陁, 所謂西方去此不遠, 是也. 爲下
根人說, 十萬 <十惡> 八千 <八邪> 里, 所謂西方去此遠矣. 然則西方遠近, 在於
人而不在於法也; 西方顯密, 在於語而不在於意也.
The Buddha preached “this mind is Buddha” for people of superior
faculties, as well as “only mind is the Pure Land, your own nature is
Amitābha,” which is the so-called “the Western (Pure) Land is not far
from here.” For people of lesser abilities he preached “100,000 [ten evils]
and 8,000 [eight perversities] leagues,” which is the so-called “the Western
Land is far away from here.” So then the distance to the Western Land
resides in the person and not in the Dharma, and the revelation and hiding
of the Western Land resides in the language and not in the meaning.
若人不生一念, 前後際斷, 則自性彌陁獨露, 而自心淨土現前矣. 此卽頓悟頓修,
頓斷頓證, 故無地位矣. 雖然, 翻妄行相, 非一朝一夕, 要假歷劫熏修. 故曰,“佛
本是而勤念, 業本空而勤斷.”
If a person does not produce a single thought, and cuts off the former
and later periods, then the own-nature Amitābha alone is revealed, and
the Pure Land that is their own mind is manifested before them. This is
sudden enlightenment and sudden cultivation, sudden cutting off and
sudden realization, and therefore there are no stages or stations (to be
passed through). Even so, turning over the false mental activities is not
(done) in a morning or an evening, but needs habitual cultivation through
eons. Therefore it is said, “Although the Buddha originally is right, yet he
is diligent in mindfulness; karma is originally empty, and yet be diligent in
cutting it off.”
From the Collected Works of Korean Buddhism, Volume 3: Hyujeong: Selected Works, pp. 314-317 (Translation by A.C. Muller)
http://www.acmuller.net/kor-bud/collected_works.html