The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra is an early Mahayana Buddhist scripture, which probably originated between the 1st century BCE and 2nd century CE in the Gandhara area of northwestern India. The full title for this text is Pratyutpannabuddha Saṃmukhāvasthita Samādhi Sūtra, which translates to, "Sūtra on the Samādhi for Encountering Face-to-Face the Buddhas of the Present". The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra was first translated into Chinese by the Kushan Buddhist monk Lokaksema in 179 CE, at the Han capital of Luoyang.This translation is, together with the Prajnaparamita Sutra, one of the earliest historically datable texts of the Mahayana tradition. The Pratyutpanna Samādhi Sūtra contains the first known mentions of the Buddha Amitābha and his pure land, said to be at the origin of Pure Land Buddhism in China. Bodhisattvas hear about the Buddha Amitābha and call him to mind again and again in this land. Because of this calling to mind, they see the Buddha Amitābha. Having seen him they ask him what dharmas it takes to be born in the realm of the Buddha Amitābha. Then the Buddha Amitābha says to these bodhisattvas: "If you wish to come and be born in my realm, you must always call me to mind again and again, you must always keep this thought in mind without letting up, and thus you will succeed in coming to be born in my realm.
Samatha and Vipassana. Samatha – to stop the delusion. Vipassana – to observe all dharmas as they really are.
Stop and observe. Stop - stop delusional thoughts. Observation - observe all phenomena as they really are. Stopping belongs to "samadhi", also known as "silence", and its physical nature is "quiet"; insight belongs to "wisdom", also known as "illumination", and its physical nature is "bright". Stopping all external thoughts and focusing on the object is concentration. Right view is the insight to know that all dharmas are as they really are, are suffering, empty, and not self.
Bodhidharma, the first founder of Chinese Zen Buddhism, advocated the Mahayana "wall view" (meaning the heart is like a wall), which has the same meaning.
There was a rich man in the country of Avanti. He accumulated a lot of wealth, but he was stingy by nature, had a bad temper, and was very harsh on his servants. One morning, the Venerable Mahākātyāyana went out to preach Buddhism. Facing the breeze, he heard a sad and crying voice. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana was moved by his compassion and followed the sound to the riverside. He saw an old woman with unkempt hair and tears on her face. She was holding a water bottle in her hand, apparently fetching water from the river, and she was crying very sadly. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana asked the old woman: "Old mother, why are you so sad?" The old woman replied: "Venerable Sir, I am very unhappy. I am the slave of the rich man here. I am enslaved by the rich man from morning to night. There is no moment of rest. As long as I make the slightest mistake, the rich man will whip me with a whip. My clothes can't cover my body, and my food can't fill my stomach. I'm getting older and older. I can't live or die. I have no place to tell my pain, I can only cry here." The Venerable Mahākātyāyana replied to the old woman: "Since you are poor and suffering, why don't you sell your poverty?" The old woman asked in surprise: "How can you sell poverty? Even if it can be sold, who will be the buyer?" The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said: "Poverty can really be sold." The old woman did not understand and asked again and again. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana gave the same answer three times. The old woman suddenly said to herself: "If this is really the case, I should ask for advice on how to sell poverty." Then the old woman asked very respectfully: "Sir, how can poverty be sold?" The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said: "If you really want to sell yourself out of poverty, you need to be sincere, get rid of caress, and do as I say." The old woman held up her hands and said, "Please have mercy on me, sir, and tell me this method." The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said: "You go back and bathe first, and then come and ask me after bathing." The old woman hurried back to her master's house, hid in a secluded place, bathed, and then came to askThe Venerable Mahākātyāyana sincerely. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said: "If you want to escape poverty, you must give alms." The old woman was shocked and said: "I am so poor, what can I give? There is only an old water bottle around me. This bottle is the only relic left by my grandfather to me which I can make the decision and give to others. Apart from this water bottle, I have nothing to give to others." The Venerable Mahākātyāyana handed his alms bowl to the old woman and said, "Please take this bowl and get some clean water." The old woman took the clean water and presented it to The Venerable Mahākātyāyana respectfully. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana took the alms bowl and blessed the old woman, wishing that all her past sins would be eliminated and all her future blessings would increase. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana also explained to the old woman the merits of not killing and the merits of chanting the Buddha's name without thinking. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana asked the old woman again: "Do you have a place to stay?" The old woman said: "I have no place to stay. If I am grinding flour, I will sleep next to the millstone when I am tired; when I am pounding rice, if I am extremely tired, I would sleep next to the rice pound. When I was cooking, if I was very tired, I would just close my eyes on the roadside, not daring to sleep for fear of being beaten. Occasionally, when nothing happened, I would sleep next to the dung pile. " The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said: "You should take good care of your mind. From now on, put down all the things in the two worlds of body and mind, and don't have any thoughts anymore. Don't worry about right and wrong, gain and loss, suffering and happiness, before and after. Even if when thoughts arise in your mind, be aware of them immediately and do not let them continue. If your master asks you to work again, do it respectfully without any resentment. You should know that the tragic situation in front of you is the result of your past karma. When the karma is over, the pain will naturally be relieved. Just like throwing objects into water, heavy objects will naturally sink, and light objects will naturally float. What should sink will definitely sink, and what should float will definitely float. Since water has no discrimination between these two kinds of items, the difference in results depends entirely on the items themselves. " The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said to the old woman again: "Tonight, after everyone in the master's house has fallen asleep, open the window, just make a seat with clean straw in the corner, sit there, think straightly about the Buddha, and don't get any bad thoughts." After saying that, the Venerable Mahākātyāyana went to other places to preach the Dharma. At this time, the old woman suddenly felt enlightened and relieved. She returned to her master's house and followed the teachings of The Venerable Mahākātyāyana. At midnight that day, she transformed and was reborn in the Trayastika heaven. The rich man got up early the next day and saw the old woman dead in the corner of the house. He got angry and said, "Why did this old thing die here? Throw her into the woods!" So the old woman's body was thrown into the nearby woods. For all heavenly beings who are reincarnated in the heavenly realm, some have deep wisdom roots and are able to know their own destiny and previous life, while others who do not have deep enough wisdom roots do not know their own destiny and previous life. The old woman was reincarnated in the Trayastika heaven and became an heavenly emperor. He doesn't know about his past life. It happened that the Venerable Śāriputra was in the Trayastika heaven. Seeing that he did not know his previous life and only cared about enjoying himself in the heaven, the Venerable Śāriputra taught him the method of understanding his previous life. The heavenly emperor finally saw his previous life, and he was very grateful to the Venerable Mahākātyāyana. So the heavenly emperor took five hundred heavenly beings to the woods where his body was found in his previous life and scattered flowers on the body. The woods are illuminated by the heavenly light. The rich man saw the light in the woods from a distance and was very frightened, so he took his servants to the woods. Everyone saw many heavenly beings scattering flowers on the old woman's corpse. They were very surprised and asked: "This old woman was very dirty when she was alive. Why did the heavenly beings scatter flowers after she died?" The heavenly emperor said to everyone about the karma of his previous life, the heavenly emperor led five hundred heavenly beings to the side of the Venerable Mahākātyāyana and asked the Venerable Mahākātyāyana to teach the Dharma again. The Venerable Mahākātyāyana preached about the merits of giving, the merits of observing the precepts, and the causes and conditions of all rebirth in heaven. Finally, The Venerable Mahākātyāyana said: Staying away from impure thoughts is the only way to eliminate sin and increase blessings. At this time, everyone benefited a lot from listening to the words of the Venerable Mahākātyāyana. - "Escape from Sin by Selling Poverty"
There was a Hui Muslim named Ha Jiu in Hanximen, Jiangning Prefecture, who made a living by running a restaurant. A Jiangpu man brought a bag with 50 taels of silver in it, which he lost in Ha Jiu's restaurant. In order to find the owner, Ha Jiu chased him to the riverside and finally returned the money to the Jiangpu man.
After they parted, the Jiangpu man returned to his hometown, Jiangpu. He happened to see a boat in the river overturned by a strong wind, and more than 20 people fell into the water. The man suddenly thought: "I will pretend that Ha Jiu did not return the money to me, and I will use this money to do good deeds." So he called the surrounding fishing boats and said: "Everyone go and save people! For every person you save, I will pay the rescuer 5 taels of silver!" The people on the fishing boats went to save people. But everyone was busy for a long time, and only one person was saved. When asked, it turned out to be Ha Jiu's son. This happened on March 23, the fifth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty.
Gu Rong, a minister in the late Western Jin Dynasty, was the grandson of Gu Yong the prime minister of Sun Wu, and the son of Gu Mu the prefect of Yidu in Sun Wu. When Gu Rong was in Luoyang, he once attended a banquet at the invitation of others. At the banquet, he noticed that the servant who served the food had a look on his face that was eager for barbecue. So Gu Rong picked up his share of the barbecue and gave it to the servant who was serving the food. The people at the table laughed at him for losing his dignity. Gu Rong said: "How can there be people who cook barbecue all day long but don't know the taste of barbecue?" Later, wars broke out, and a large number of people in the Jin Dynasty crossed the Yangtze River to the south. At that time, Sima Lun was defeated and Gu Rong was in danger. There was always a person who helped him and protected him.So Gu Rong gratefully asked this person why, only to find out that this person was the servant who served the barbecue. "Book of Jin·Volume 68·Biography 38"