chance you are involved in family affairs and endless worldly transactions, and cannot devote your whole mind to this, then you ought every day to recite Budha's name 3000 or 5000 times, and make a regular constant practice of this. If even this you cannot do, your recitation of this sheet will be reckoned as one degree of merit. Having recited this one hundred times, then dot one of the circles on the margin, and when the dots are all made they will amount to 150,000. Whether it is for yourself or for your father and mother that you are asking for life in the western region; or whether you are asking for your father and mother, protection from disease, peace, increased happiness, or protracted old age—in all such case, you must in the presence of Budha burn one of these sheets. If you pray for the happiness of your deceased parents or for your six orders of relations and their relations, you must, before the ancestral tablet, or over the graves, burn one of these sheets. Whether you worship the gods, or sacrifice to your ancestors, either at the festival of the tombs, the winter solstice, the middle of the seventh month, or the end of the year, you must recite this sheet, and then burn it on the tombs of orphans, or of those who are buried by charity, and thus provide for the happiness of destitute souls who have no relations to sacrifice to them. In doing all this you may rely on the strength of Budha to secure their translation to the pure country. You may do this once or many times, according to your ability; and the merit you will obtain is inconceivable.
I fervently desire that you may together put forth a believing heart, be together virtuous friends, together see Budha, and together arrive at the extreme of happiness.
Hwui Chau, the head priest of the Drum Mountain (Kú Shán,) monastery in Fuhkien has respectfully printed this, bows and exhorts.
Here follows a picture of a vessel in full sail. It is called, "The Compassionate vessel, Poh-joh" (a name of Budha).
The flags have inscribed on them, "For the exceedingly happy world." And, "Receive and lead to the western region."
On the sides of the cabin doors are the two following antithetical sentences:
"Man, if he wants to go on the road to heaven, ought first to think of securing happiness (by worshiping Budha)."
"Among the passages (or defiles) that lead to life or death the Worship of Budha is the chief."
