By Master Jingzong

Someone once asked me, "Is there any way to attain Buddhahood while lying still? I am so exhausted!"

"Good question!" I replied. "We are just too tired to achieve Buddhahood. If we were lying around, we would have done so already. The Shurangama Sutra tells us, 'When our agitated spirit rests, enlightenment follows.'"

As it lies still, a log can be fashioned into all varieties of furniture so long as it does not resist the carpenter's tools. A stationary rock can be transformed into an exquisite Buddha statue as long as it accepts shaping by a stonecutter's hammer and chisel. Similarly, as long as we ordinary beings of the Three Domains do not refuse processing by Amitabha Buddha's six-character name, how can we fail to attain Buddhahood while lying still?

The log is turned into furniture without any effort of its own. Nor does the rock become a Buddha statue because of its own diligence. So it is with sentient beings, as they become Buddhas through the recitation of Amitabha's name.

These transformations all result from other-power.