Shíshí hǎo niànfó 時時好念佛
The Niàn-fó That Is Good in Every Moment by 果能 (GǔHáng Xīxī Yùchí dàorén Guǒnéng, 述)
About the work
A short single-juǎn Pure Land devotional tract composed (shù 述) by the late-Qīng Hangzhou-area monk 果能 Guǒnéng 果能, self-designated GǔHáng Xīxī Yùchí dàorén 古杭西溪玉池道人 (“Wayfarer of Yùchí at Xīxī, Ancient Hángzhōu”). The text is a deliberately-simple primer on monthly and time-based niànfó practice, designed for elementary lay-Buddhist readers — particularly those without literary or canonical training.
Abstract
The Shíshí niànfó xù 時時念佛序 (preface) is signed by the author and dated Guāngxù sān nián qī yuè 光緒三年七月 (= August 1877). The author opens with the Léngyán jīng 楞嚴經 axiom guī yuán wú èr lù, fāngbiàn yǒu duō mén 歸元無二路，方便有多門 (“the return to the Source has no second path; the expedients have many gates”), then frames his pastoral motivation: in the present mòfǎ age, ordinary uneducated lay practitioners are caught up in popular songs and indulgent entertainments, with no access to the Buddhist canonical literature; he has therefore composed simple verses adapted to monthly and seasonal calendars, structured to “remind the practitioner of the original person, month after month indicating the way home, moment after moment alerting the original person.”
The body of the work consists of accessible verse-pieces:
- Shíèr ge yuè niànfó jì 十二個月念佛偈 (twelve monthly niànfó gāthās);
- Shíèr shí zhōng niànfó jì 十二時中念佛偈 (twelve daily-watch niànfó gāthās);
- Jièshā fàngshēng jì 戒殺放生偈 (gāthās on prohibiting killing and releasing animals);
- Zhīzú jiāngjiù jì 知足將就偈 (gāthās on being content and accommodating);
- Xiūxīn wǎngshēng bǎotǎ tú 脩心往生寶塔圖 (a stūpa-diagram of the cultivation of the mind for rebirth);
- Xiūshēn chéngfó bǎotǎ tú 脩身成佛寶塔圖 (a stūpa-diagram of the cultivation of the body for Buddhahood);
- and other devotional materials.
The work is one of the most accessible and popular-pastoral Pure Land tracts of the late-Guāng-xù Hangzhou region, conceived for the broadest possible lay audience. Preserved in the Xùzàngjīng 卍續藏 as X1200.
Translations and research
No substantial secondary literature located.