1 I bow in great reverence to all past, present and Future Victors, to their Doctrine and Communities. I shall light a Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, At the request of my good disciple Byang-chub-'od.
2 In that they are Inferior or Mediocre or Superior, Persons should be understood as three: The characteristics of each are very clear, and I shall note how they differ from one another.
3 One who by every means he finds, Seeks by the pleasure of samsara, And cares but for himself alone, that one Is known as the Inferior Person.
4 One who puts life's pleasures behind And turns himself from deeds of sin, Yet cares only about his own peace, That person should be called Mediocre.
5 One who wholly seeks a complete end To the entire suffering of others because Their suffering belongs to his own [conscious] stream, That person is a Superior.
The Miracle Stories of the Revised Usnisa Vijaya Dharani (Narrated by Wu Che, the Emperor's Court Couneillor and Assistant)
The Usnisa Vijaya Dharani is the secret treasure of all the Tathagatas, a Dharani Dharma-door, which is also the wisdom seal of the Maha Vairocana Tathagata. Auspicious, excellent and pure, this powerful divine Mantra is able to eradicate sufferings of all evil paths.
During the Tang dynasty in the years of Yi Feng (676-678 AD), the edition of this Dharani translated by Buddhapala was circulated to all Buddhist monasteries in China. Cultivators who upheld It were numerous.
From a very young age, I had already been upholding and reciting It. In the first year of Yong Tai (765 AD), after the death of my wife, I became even more sincere and vigorous in my cultivation and practice, seeking the Way to transcend the world of Samsara. Then there was a palace official called Jiang Xing, who also constantly upheld and chanted this divine Mantra. One day, he came to visit me in my private quarters and told me very happily, "I have now found the ultimate Way (Supreme Way) which is extremely difficult to encounter!"
I sincerely and respectfully asked how this was so, and it turned out that he had obtained a complete version of the Usnisa Vijaya Dharani Mantra. There and then, I invited him to recite it once and found that the version of the Mantra he recited had more sentences and
Question: There are certainly pure lands in all directions, so why make a special point of praising Amitabha's Pure Land in the west?
Answer: This is not a good objection. If we made a point of praising Akshobhya's Pure Land in the east, you would wonder why we were emphasizing the eastern direction, and go on and on with your specious reasoning.
* Question: Why not make the whole universe the focal point instead of Amitabha's Pure Land?
Answer: There are three reasons. We focus on Amitabha's Pure Land because this makes it easy for beginners to develop the Bodhi Mind, because Amitabha's fundamental vows are most powerful, and because Amitabha has a special affinity with the sentient beings in our world....
Question: There are certainly pure lands in all directions, so why make a special point of praising Amitabha's Pure Land in the west?