Buddha, Dana, Seven Gems

Whose blessings are more abundant, reciting the Buddha’s Name once or making the offerings of seven gems?

Let us take the analogy of a man who walks a thousand miles a day from the day he is born for a thousand years. The ground he walks by is not made of earth but from seven jewels. He uses these seven gems of gold, silver, lapis lazuli, crystal, agate, red pearls and carnelian to make offerings to the Buddha. Are not the blessings very great?

Now let us compare this blessing to the Wheel turning King in India. During the Buddha time he was a little boy playing sand with his friends. When he saw the adorned Buddha walk pass, he was filled with joy and offered the Buddha a handful of sand. The Buddha smiled and accepted it. Later he was born as the Wheel Turning King by the name Ashoka. With his awesome blessing he was able to ask the ghosts and spirits to build 84,000 pagodas all over the world to make offerings to the Buddha’s sharira. He was able to bring together all the states in India under his control and governed them. HIs awesome blessings and virtues were incalculable.

With the offerings of sands to the Buddha sincerely he was born as the Wheel Turning King after the extinction of the Buddha. Just imagine you make the offerings of sands to the Buddha enable you to reap such a great blessing. What is more if you offer the Buddha a diamond?

This new born man walks past the ground of seven jewels and gems for a thousand miles in a thousand years. And he uses all these jewels to make offerings to the Buddha. How abundant his blessings will be?

‘But his blessings are still incomparable to a man who in the Evil Dharma Ending Age recites the Buddha’s Name once.’

The evil world refers to the present world of five turbidities. –refers to the kalpas, views, afflictions, living beings and their ways of life. For a man who recites, ‘Na Mo Amitabha Buddha’ his blessings far-surpasses the man who plants the blessings of Dana to the Buddha. The causes and conditions of the accrued blessings just by reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha one time is more than the man who makes offerings of seven gems to the Buddha.

Can you believe in this? If you believe, it means you genuinely believe the Buddha’s wisdom. You are a wise man. This is not a fake analogy. This is written in the Shastra of Crossing Over with Great Wisdom by the India First Pure Land Patriarch Nagarjuna Bodhisattva.

Explanation:

All the blessings in offerings can be calculated. The quantity of jewels, the time taken and the journey are countable. But the blessings of the Buddha’s Name are uncountable, immeasurable and limitless. It is because the blessings, merits and virtues pervasively envelope the space, the dharma realm. So, the blessings of this wholesomeness are incomparable.

An extract of the Dharma Teaching by the Venerable Master Shi Jing Zong, the Abbot of the Hong Yuan Temple, Xuan Cheng in the province of Anhui, China.

谁的福报更多，念佛一声，还是供养七宝？比如， 有一个人能一天走一千里路。从他出生那天开始走，这样走了一千年。他走过的地不是泥土，而是七宝。他就用这些七宝来供养佛。他大福报应该很大了，对吗？

再看印度转轮圣王。 小时他和小朋友玩泥沙。看到佛陀走过，他高兴的拿一把沙供养佛。佛陀微笑而接受这供养。后来，他出生为转轮圣王阿育王，具足殊胜福报，能遣鬼神在全世界造了84 千座舍利塔来供养佛的舍利子。他能统治整个印度。所以， 他的福德也不可计。

他以虔诚心供养佛一把沙，在佛入灭后出生为转轮圣王，想一想，供养佛一把沙的功德得到如此的的福报，如果是供养佛一颗钻石的福报会怎样大？

这个人从出生每天走一千里路，走了一千年，路都是七宝成就的。他用这些七宝供养佛！ 可以想想他的福报是怎样的大？

‘但是，他的福报还是比不上在末法时代恶世中称念南无阿弥陀佛一次！’

恶世是指现在这个五浊的世界-这个浊恶的时代，众生充满邪见，烦恼，生命环境都污染，浊恶。如果有人能称念南无阿弥陀佛一声，他的福报竟然超越前面那个以七宝共佛的人。念佛一声所集的福德因缘竟然超过供养七宝的人。

你能相信吗？如果你相信，这是说你真的相信佛陀的智慧。你就是有智慧的人。这个比喻不是假的。这个比喻是记载在净土宗第一祖龙树菩萨所造的大智度论中。

解释：所有供养的福报都可以算出来。我们可以知道他供养了多少七宝，时间和路程。但是佛的名号福德是不能计算的，无量无边的。这是因为佛的福报，功德充满了整个法界空间。所以，这个完整福报是难以比喻的。