Buddhist Psalms
CONCERNING THE GREAT SUTRA

[paragraph continues] Regions how that they may through sincerity, merit, and hope be born into the Temporal Paradise, He promiseth that no man shall lose salvation, for He hath opened the Gate of Truth.

63. By the Divine Promise of the final salvation hath our Lord instructed the men of the Single Vehicle to recite His Holy Name that is the Essence of all the merit revealed in the Lesser Sutra of the Buddha of Infinite Life.

64. He that reciteth the Holy name by his own effort and in the mind of meditation or of dispersing, being led by the virtue of the divine promise of final salvation, turneth naturally in at the Gate of Truth.

65. He that holds not the True Faith, even though he desire to be born into the Pure Paradise of Joy, must go unto his own place, and it shall be in the border of the Outermost Places, for this is the fruit of doubting the mystery of the Supreme Wisdom.

66. That a man should be a Buddha, made manifest in this world, is a rare thing and difficult. So difficult is it also to hear the excellent doctrine of all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. In all the myriads of Kalpas such a way comes seldom.

67. Difficult is it for men to find a wise Teacher;

so is it also for them to be instructed and to hear the Holy Law. More difficult still is it to receive the True Faith.

68. More difficult is it for men to receive the Divine Promise made unto men than to receive all other teachings.

The Lord Buddha teacheth that this is of all hard things most difficult and yet again more difficult.

69. The true Doctrine teacheth men that they may become Buddhas in reciting the Holy Name, and so therefore is it that all other faiths and moralities are but transitory doorways unto the Truth. Man comprehendeth not that Pure Land of Peace unless he holdeth fast the true Doctrine, casting aside that which is transitory.

70. Seek refuge in the Sole Vehicle of His merciful promise. For the transitory teachings have let and hindered men in the Way of Enlightenment so that they must needs pass through the long weariness of births and deaths.

CONCERNING THE SUTRA OF THE