WHEN we study The Canon deeply, we
will discover that Pure Land is as a matter of fact the greatest
institution of learning cosmic reality. Pure Land is the achievements of
entering experientially of all Buddhas. What a word means in its broadest,
Pure Land as a matter of fact is the method of becoming Buddha (as a
Bodhisattva does on reaching supreme perfect bodhi).
THERE ARE NUMBERLESS WORLDS IN
COSMOS ... The Four Agamas Sutra say that there are numberless worlds
which have all kinds of beings live there in the cosmos. No matter from
the point of view of numberless planets in so many outer spaces which is
approved by modern scientific research, or from the point of view of
numberless chiliocosm which is put down in writing in The Four Agamas
Sutra and the Mahayana Sutras, they all approve that the world (Earth) we
live, is just one of the groups of star light which has life forms in this
limitlessly great cosmos. THERE are numberless different
kinds of life forms live in limitless world in the cosmos, most of
scientists believe in that, but just cannot approve it, because we have
not reach that territory yet. In some Buddhist Sutras already describe
very clearly about this. THE EARTH –The world we live ...
The earth has three evil paths, and the Pure Land has no evil path. Why?
It is because of the projections of sentient beings in the earth. If we
want the Earth to be like the Pure Land, first thing we have to do is to
get rid of these evil paths. To change the mind of sentient beings and the
projections of deeds of community (collective accumulation of past
activities of all sentient beings), then the quality of the Earth can be
changed. But it is impossible to change the Earth, according to the
reality of present environment, we can see the future of the
Earth. THE WARFARE in this world ... Any
weapon built in this high technical era will easily destroy this world in
just few minutes. And many more countries now own more powerful nuclear
weapons than before, any war happens between any countries will easily
lead this world to the vanished level. From this standpoint of view of
war, killing, and reprisal breeds reprisal, we really cannot get rid of
these evil paths. ECOCIDE OF THE EARTH ... Such as
the more and more desert crisis in Africa, the violation of forest of the
torrid zone in South America, the death of West Germany’s forest because
of the sour rain, the death of the forest in Alps area, and the crisis of
the corals of oceanic oasis in Japan and the whole world, these are only
part of the problems. Almost all forests in this world are damaged by the
sour rain daily. All deserts in this world are expanding day by day. And
many other ecocide are beyond we can image.
AND because of the activities of
human daily life, such as the discards from industries, automobiles, …
these things cause the increase of carbon dioxide and bring about the
hothouse effect, then damage and pollute our surroundings, this is also
why the average air temperature of our planet is higher and higher than
before. THE POLLUTED HUMAN MIND ... “Birds
of the same feather flock together” is the unofficial principle or rule of
living for sentient beings. All sentient beings in this world no matter
what happen to them always follow the principle of “Birds of the same
feather flock together”. The karma of beings is just like magnet. All
beings will follow the circle of karma which is made by being itself,
rebirth and redeath, will live in this kind of retribution
forever. WHEN our mind is in darkness, it
will correspond with the karma of darkness naturally, when our mind is in
brightness, it will correspond with the karma of brightness. This
principle of existence is always existent naturally, with or without
Buddha, with or without Dharma. IN general, there are six
directions of reincarnation in different dimensions around the Earth,
hells, hungry ghosts, animals, malevolent nature spirits, human existence,
and deva existence. THE world we live, is from the
collective and corresponding karma of numberless beings who are greedy and
desirous deeply. That’s why we call this world “the world of impurity or
degeneration”. Same reason the other directions of reincarnations in
different dimensions are created naturally according to the degree of
karma. TODAY, there are many Buddhist and
other religious organizations, many organizations of charity, and many
merciful people try to spread the idea of modernizing religions through
modern media. They are working hard and trying to change the bad moral
atmosphere through religious spreading. Every body has a common
understanding, that the time is changed, the trend is changed, the human
mind is changed, the information science is changed, and the thought is
changed, and the way of spreading abroad teaching should be changed in
order to match the demand of modern world and human mind.
ALL things are changed, but do not
forget that the response of karma cannot be changed, the moral laws of
retribution cannot be changed, the truth of becoming Buddha cannot be
vanished, the foundation of deliverance of transmigration cannot be
vanished, the “in turn” of cultivating the Dharma cannot be vanished.
Therefore we should learn, understand, and practice the Dharma in order to
change societies, countries, and the world.
ALTHOUGH relying on the strength of
small amount of people cannot change the collective karma or deeds of the
community, but remember as long as we are in this world, we must do our
level best to do good things for other people, cultivate Dharma, and
preach Dharma, in order to build the differentiated karma within
collective karma, then we will get more chance to surpass and liberate
ourselves. THE WORLD OF UTMOST JOY – Pure Land
... Why there is no three evil paths in Pure Land (The World of Utmost
Joy)? ... The Earth has three evil paths, because every being in the Earth
has the karma of “greedy for darkness” and we create automatically the
karma net for the Earth. THE World of Utmost Joy has no
three evil paths, the same reason because all the beings in Pure Land,
under the support of power of Amitabha Buddha, do good things for others
and cultivate the Dharma, then Utmost Joy World is created for their
collective karma. MIND LEADS US TO THE TRANSMIGRATION
... Buddhist doctrine tell us, our mind has all kinds of dirty thought and
that’s the reason why we are always in the circle of transmigration,
because these thoughts lead us to do things which correspond with the
circle of transmigration. Therefore we have to observe our mind,
self-reflect our mind, are there any greedy thought, hate thought, ……. in
our mind? NUMBERLESS BEINGS AND NUMBERLESS
KARMA ... The truth of karma and retribution (the chain of cause and
effect) always are existent in appearance of all kinds of things in the
cosmos naturally with or without Buddhas. The transmigration of six
directions is created by the response to collective karma of all beings.
And any direction of these six directions is created by the response to
individual karma of all beings of certain direction.
FURTHERFORE, the world of hells,
hungry ghosts, animals, malevolent nature spirits, human existence, and
deva existence, all have the same situation, every world is created by the
response to collective karma of the being in that world. And every
directional world has its own all different kinds of worlds of individual
karma and collective karma. These worlds are in all kinds of different
sizes, from big to small, from small to tiny …….. And the collective and
individual karma of numberless beings are intertwined mutually,
intermingled mutually, interwork mutually, reduplicated mutually,
intermixed mutually, hard to understand, incomprehensible, mysterious,
incredible, …….. NUMERLESS beings of good and bad
karma, are back and forth, in and out in the transmigration of this world
and the worlds of ten directions space. And all these cannot be seen and
understood by ordinary eyes and wisdom of human being in this planet. Also
numberless beings of pure karma, are back and forth, in and out in pure
land world of ten directions space. And all these also cannot be seen and
understood by ordinary eyes and wisdom of human being in this
planet. IN doctrine of the Four Agamas
Sutra, we should understand one thing, the regions (class) of being are
numberless, the karma of being are numberless, the worlds which human
collective karma correspond with are numberless, the individual karma
worlds which human individual karma correspond with are numberless, the
impure worlds which human alike bad karma correspond with are numberless,
and the pure worlds which human alike good karma correspond with are
numberless. WORLD OF UTMOST JOY – Pure Land ...
The World of Utmost Joy was built by the cause of Amitabha’s original vow
of redeeming beings from the misery of all worlds, even if the beings have
all kinds of karma in their past life, when they are in the World of
Utmost Joy, all their mind-nature, the force of habit, the remaining
influence of illusion, ……., will be purified by the guides of Amitabha,
all bodhisattvas, and the surrounding of hearing and learning the Dhamas
naturally. The beings in Pure Land, cultivate
themselves with pure mind, therefore the major condition for beings who
want to go to or stay in Pure Land is to purify their mind, when mind is
purified then all the causes of becoming three evil paths will be
destroyed totally. When we chant NAMO AMITABHA, will
destroy all the causes which correspond with three evil paths, then we
will build the good individual karma of collective karma, this will lead
us to the place which correspond with pure karma of beings.
BEINGS IN THE WORLD OF UTMOST JOY
... In our world there are all kinds of human races in different color
because of the weather and surroundings. Also there are confused wrangling
and distance separating one from another because of the difference in
color. All races think that they are the best of all.
IN the Pure Land, there is no such
problem of color of race, because all the beings are the same in color,
and that is the color in gold. Why gold? There are two meanings for the
gold. First, that is the correspondence with retribution of the beings who
cultivate the blessed virtues or all good deeds for many lives, here the
gold means bright and pure, noble and kindly, exemplary conduct and
nobility of character, ……. , second, when the deva existence are in deep
meditation, their body will produce automatically hollow light with color
in bright gold. COLOR IN GOLD ... Scientists have
already proved that the electromagnetism of human being’s body can emit
light, even leaves of tree and beings low in grade also have some kind of
invisible light, with very special photographic skill.
WHY can human being emit light? We
all knew that human body has static electricity, our fingers can produce
or emit light because of the theory of static electricity. As a matter of
fact, every part of our body has this kind of magnetic field’s light,
these lights sometimes are strong, sometimes are weak according to the
power of our body and mind. THERE are seven kinds of lights or
flames in human body: the light overhead, the lights on shoulders, the
light on chest, the light on navel, the lights on knees, the lights on
feet, and the lights on hands. We all have lights on our body, and the
light overhead usually is the color in purple. These lights of human body
are already proved by scientists with very special photographic
skill. THE science also prove, when
practitioners are in deep meditation, their mind are calm, their brain
wave are concentrating, then the super microwave will be produced, and
emitted constantly. These super microwave are much tinier than light wave
and sound wave, when they are emitted just like the laser beam, not just
powerful but also make lots of essential functions.
THE Buddhist practitioners, when
they are in the deep cultivation of wisdom, their body and mind cannot be
tangled, bothered, and mutable then the color of their brain wave will be
changed from the purple of ordinary people to the brilliant gold. The
color in gold does not mean wealth but the highest pure and
brilliance. AS we mentioned in the beginning of
this page, when we believe in Amitabha, and chant Amitabha, then we can
concentrate our mind, we will receive the super energy of Amitabha, when
we reach this step, our mind will be delivered from
imprisonment. MOST of the time the beings in
deva’s worlds are in deep meditation, all emit their light of mind and
materialize their gold, pure, and brilliant appearance, and the degree of
appearance are different according to their degree of meditation and
degree of virtue and wisdom. And because of gold, pure, and brilliant
appearance of all beings, make Pure Land world a pure and brilliant
world. THE seven chief sutras (textbooks)
of Pure Land School all describe that the land of Pure Land is made of
gold, the trees and ponds are made of jewel and all over the places. When
Buddhist sutras describe the environment of deva’s worlds always use the
same words such as gold and jewel. WE should understand the gold and
jewel are just some kind of parable, to hint that beings in Pure Land emit
their gold, pure, and brilliant light of mind, then brighten the world
they live like a world of gold. THE CULTIVATION OF BEINGS OF PURE
LAND ... When human in this world cultivate themselves in blessedness and
goodness without the mind of “Worry”, “Desire”, “Arrogance”, and “Five
skandhas” then it is to cultivate blessedness and goodness in the way of
spiritual world. When we cultivate ourselves with broadening the capacity
of our mind and emptying our mind, then our mind will surpass the
limitation of time and space of this world and become more closed to the
condition of nirvana. THE Wisdom Sutras introduce the
doctrine [When we practice the almsgiving, we have to remember that we
should not have the following notions “the one who gives”, “the one whom
is given”, and “the physical and mental effect due to the giving”]. This
is the “real almsgiving”, and also is the level almost impossible to
reach, unless we enter experientially the emptiness, but this is the
elevation of spirit of Arahat who have already destroyed or removed the
“attach to self” or “persisting in self”.
MOST of the Buddhist misunderstand
the “real almsgiving”, their idea is when practicing almsgiving if they
don’t think that “I am the one who gives”, “Somebody who is given”, and
“Persisting in the materials of almsgiving”, then they will destroy the
mind of “attach self”, “Worry”, “Desire”, “Arrogance”, and “Five
Skandhas”. But this is terribly wrong. “Real almsgiving” is just a example
for cultivating ourselves with the mind of spiritual world. But what is
the spiritual world? According to Nagarjuna Bodhisattva's words: “The
practitioners who search for the world and the spiritual world, and cannot
find, because of that, then should understand that the world and the
spiritual world which exist only in name. To say [the spiritual world] in
order to destroy [the world], the appearance of [the world] is the
appearance of [the spiritual world] and nothing else. The practitioners
cannot find [the world] and do not attach [the spiritual world], when
cannot find [the world] also do not attach [the spiritual world] then the
mind of [Desire] and [Arrogance] are destroyed right away, no more
remonstrate with the beings of [the world]”.
THE beings in Pure Land cultivate
themselves in blessedness and goodness with the mind of spiritual world.
Therefore their appearance of retribution are corresponding with the
appearance of retribution that is cultivating with the mind of spiritual
world. IS THERE ANY WAY TO MAKE THIS WORLD
PURE LAND? ... If we want to make this world a kind of pure land, we have
to cultivate ourselves in blessedness and goodness with the mind of
spiritual world. When every body change their thought of envy, hatred,
glower, harm ……. to the thought of gentleness, blessed virtues, not
bothering by material concerns, brilliance, tranquil concentration, glory
……. Then our physical appearance will be greatly changed because of the
changing of that huge collective karma. Also the dependent environment
(surroundings) will be changed totally because of the greatly changing of
collective karma of human being. TO make the dream of pure land of
this world come true, we have to remember that pure land is the projection
of cause of cultivating blessedness and goodness with “the mind of
spiritual world” of huge amount of beings. And also this is the only way
to get rid of the evil paths (same reason the evil paths is also the
projection of our mind) and upgrade the beings in this world.
THE ILLUSION THAT BODY OR SELF IS
REAL ... VIEWING THE EGO AS REAL ... Every being in Utmost World of Joy
(Pure Land) does not have the thought of greed, the greed of keeping the
body forever. The Miscellaneous Treatises of The Four Agamas Sutra
says:{Beings in all the worlds of impurity, the scope of their hearing,
thinking, seeing, talking … and so on are always within “I’, “Mine”,
“Being”, “Other people’s worldly business”, “People’s life span”, “Good
and bad, misfortune and fortune” … and so on.} All the phenomena, we are
talking about here, are a “viewing the ego as real” (persisting the
notions of self). If we can leave these scope of “viewing the ego as
real”, then we are going to be in a elevation of spirit of “spiritual
world”. AND the beings in the Pure Land
never talk about the things like “I, Mine, You, Him, Business, feeling …….
and so on.” therefore they will not have the thought of persisting in self
or ego. WHAT is the “the illusion that body
or self is real”? ... If we look around all the beings in the six
directions of reincarnation, the most important thing to them is nothing
more than the body or the life they have. We know nothing about the future
life, therefore only thing we could is to hold and keep everything we have
at present time. But from the Buddhist doctrine point of view, the body we
have in this life is the karma from former lives, and they will end in any
minute when the karma from former lives is vanished temporarily. And the
phenomena of persisting in present life is called “the illusion that body
or sell is real”. This also include “I” and “Mine”.
SHAKYAMUNI Buddha told us: “All
beings in Pure Land are direct birth by transformation through the lotus.
They all cultivate themselves in leading to Buddha-hood with all their
heart and mind. The only thing in their pure mind is Buddha, Dharma, and
Sangha” TO CULTIVATE THE SAMADHI ... To
cultivate the samadhi is the most important thing for almost all the
Buddhist practitioners if they want to reach the Buddha-hood, especially
for the Pure Land practitioners. FROM now on we are going to
introduce the EASIEST and BEST way to practicing meditation for the people
with DISTRACTED mind all the time. WHEN we try to calm down our mind
(try to make thoughts less), but most of the time it gets worse (more
thoughts come out), sometimes even is impossible to do a little meditative
thing. From the Buddhist point of view, all these are because of the karma
from our past lives. The degree of karma (more or less) influences the
degree of thoughts in our mind (more or less).
THE reason we want to learn more
about the Buddhism is that we want to learn Buddha’s wisdom that extends
beyond the limitations of time and sense. And we want to cultivate the
meditation in order to stop the thoughts in our mind, also we want to
practice the Buddhist teachings in our daily life in order to reach the
elevation of spirit of Buddha some day. THE RELIABLE STEPS FOR REACH THE
MIND OF SAMADHI ... To cultivate calm mind in CHANTING AMITABHA... If we
want to reach the samadhi, we have to calm down the distracted mind first,
plus transforming character by Buddhist doctrine daily, and cultivate
ourselves in any correct Buddhist way according to our different causes,
then gradually we will reach the samadhi.
FOR the Pure Land’s practitioners,
seek forgiveness and repentance for past evil karma by chanting Amitabha
and worshipping the Buddhas, by slow accumulation, the distracted mind
will be getting better and better, then we will understand and perceive
the reality of ordinary things around us. And this is the first step we
have to reach. When we reach this step, anything happen to us, we will
meekly accept the humiliations and deal with them
unperturbedly. TO cultivate samadhi is a very hard
job, once the Shakyamuni Buddha taught us quite a few ways of practicing
samadhi, but today is in the period of decay and termination, not too many
people can accept those perfect teaching of samadhi that were for the
bodhisattvas who are in the degree of “complete and immediate”. And we
have to practice million lives to reach this kind of degree.
PRAJNA WISDOM FOR SAMADHI We need
Prajna wisdom to guide us to cultivate samadhi. But the people in the
period of decay and termination are impossible to perceive and obtain the
prajna wisdom. In The Wisdom Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha told his oldest
student: [Do you know what kind of natural capacity of being can receive
the deep prajna doctrine of unsurpassed samadhi? There are two kinds of
being can receive the meaning of emptiness of prajna. The first one is the
Avaivartika bodhisattvas who already enter the bhutatathata, obtain the
overcoming of illusion, and cultivate in prajna paramita, and the second
one is the one who practice the six paramita for a long time, and always
learn the meaning of emptiness of Mahayana from the experienced teachers,
therefore they got help of “inside blessed virtues” and “outside
co-operating cause”] THE first kind, like the
experienced people say: “The Avaivartika bodhisattva we will not find a
single one in this world.” And the second kind of practitioners who have
been practicing very hard the six prajna paramita for million lives,
therefore accumulating profound virtues and wisdom, it is very hard to
find one in today’s modern world. THE BEGINNERS MISDERSTANDING THE
PRAJNA WISDOM ... Shakyamuni Buddha told us, for the beginners who don’t
know how to control the distracted mind and understand the steps of
cultivating the “eightfold noble path”, shouldn’t teach them the deep
meaning of prajna wisdom. THE beginners who start out for
Bodhi, their good roots and blessed virtues of former existences are very
meager, therefore when they receive the “Fundamentally void or emptiness”,
most of the time they cannot swallow it and cause wrong views. What kind
of wrong views are they? When the beginners who start out for Bodhi, first
time learn the theory of “all things are empty”, then they will attach the
“emptiness” (persisting in emptiness) automatically, and even think like
this “If all things in the world are empty eventually, why should I do
good things for other, and cultivate so hard in blessed
virtues?” CHANTING AMITABHA
... Buddha Shakyamuni understood that not too many people in this world
have practiced the six prajna paramita for million lives and accumulated
profound virtues and wisdom enough to reach the samadhi immediately.
Therefore for the beings who have heavy karma in this world, introduced a
easiest and best way of reaching the samadhi. And this is to chant the
“NAMO AMITABHA”, this is the most correct contemplation, just hold to the
name of Amitabha with all you heart, then we will reach the samadhi,
eventually we will enter experientially the nirvana (please refer to
http://maxpages.com/drfu1) that is “neither dying nor being reborn” or
“neither to be born nor ended”. EVEN easy like this, for some
people are still hard too, when they are chanting Amitabha they notice
that in this chanting Amitabha moment they don't know why so much thoughts
come to their mind and cannot control these thoughts (one thought
vanishing and another thought arising and never stop).
THERE is another way to chant
Amitabha. The way of “hearing, thinking, and cultivating” is to
concentrate on chanting Amitabha through hearing, thinking, and
cultivating. And this is the way that Shakyamuni Buddha perceived
experientially during the moment when HE was reaching the
Buddha-hood. HEARING THINKING CULTIVATING AND
THE SAMADHI ... The beginners think that the “hearing, thinking, and
cultivating” must be a special way of practicing Buddhist doctrine, and
neglect the deep relation between IT and our daily life. The Shakyamuni
Buddha wanted us to observe and perceive all kind of appearance of beings
in our daily life, to think, examine, and understand the true meaning of
life through joys and sorrows, separations and reunions in the drama of
life. THE Madhyamika sastra told us: [The
Buddhas in the past, present, and future preach the Buddhist doctrine
through two categories, the first one is the fact in our daily life
(ordinary categories), the second one is the absolute truth (categories of
reality). If we want to study, understand, and cultivate the Buddhist
doctrine deeply, we have to understand the mutual relation between the
fact and the truth. Otherwise when we talk about truth, we will neglect
the fact, when we talk about fact, we will neglect the truth. We never
understand and perceive the true meaning of Buddhist doctrine. We have to
rely on the fact in order to reach the truth, we have to rely on the truth
in order to reach the nirvana.] WHEN we read the history of
Shakyamuni Buddha, we will get the idea like this, the utmost truth of
Shakyamuni Buddha’s entry experiential was found or revealed through the
research of all kinds of worldly things in our daily life. Therefore we
should understand that we will not find out, understand, and perceive the
absolute truth (categories of reality) without the fact in our daily life
(ordinary categories). And if we don’t understand and perceive the
absolute truth, it will be impossible for us to reach the
nirvana. THE idea we should get from the
Madhyamika sastra is that the Buddhist doctrine will not abandon the law
of this world, because if there is no law of this world, the Buddhist
doctrine will have no dependence. THEREFORE if we want to destroy our
polluted and illusional mind totally, we have to perceive the fact of our
life through the long time thoughtful research of our life, and this
research will be completed through the observation and contemplation of
the reality of cause of birth, age, sickness, death, pain, and
emptiness. THE EIGHTFOLD NOBLE PATH ... Right
View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right conduct, Right Livelihood, Right
Effort, Right Remembrance, and Right Meditation are the Eightfold Noble
Path. In this paragraph we will talk about the relation between the
Eightfold Noble Path and the Samadha of chanting Amitabha.
THE right view is the foundation
for cultivating Buddhist doctrine in any correct way. Buddha Shakyamuni
told us: “When cultivating Buddhist doctrine, always use the right view as
guide or basis, otherwise the other seven noble paths will have no eyes to
guide them, then we will go to the wrong way.”
THE definition for the right view
is that all things arising are depending on conditions (please refer to
http://maxpages.com/drfu4 for more about arising are depending on
conditions). The way to practice the right view is to observe and
contemplate our surroundings, sufferings, and pains, try to find out the
reality of those pains, then we will cultivate ourselves in the correct
way more effectively. This is especially for the Zen practitioners. And
this is the procedure for reaching the Buddha-hood according to Shakyamuni
Buddha’s experience. RIGHT VIEWS FOR PURE LAND
PRACTITIONERS ... Buddha Shakyamuni told us in The Sukhavativyuha Sutra a
special way of surpassing this Saha world that is to beseech for rebirth
in Utmost Joy World. THE first step for beseeching for
rebirth in Pure Land is to understand different kinds of impermanent
appearance in the world correctly and totally, this is called the right
view of the world. The next step is to think, observe, and experience the
suffered, painful, and impermanent world through Buddhist wisdom any time
any place in our daily life. Also quiet our thought and mind on the truth
of impermanent life all the time. SHAKYAMUNI Buddha told us: [If
Buddhist practitioners only concentrate on wisdom obtained from hearing
and do not go further for more and deeper “research and practice” for
utmost Buddhist doctrine, then they will not reach the final destination
of complete enlightenment.] The main reason for us to beseech for rebirth
in Pure Land is to listen to Amitabha Buddha’s preaching directly and
release from the bonds of births-and-deaths eventually.
WE should understand wisely the
phenomena that we experience in this world are all changed quickly even in
the shortest measure of time, changed any minute any second, and nothing
can stop them. All these phenomena of production and annihilation (birth
and death) of things in any second any minute are doubly small and deep,
cannot be compared and seen the difference or noticed by the ordinary
people like us whose mind are always polluted by all kinds of garbage
thoughts. Unless we can get rid of those different thoughts through
contemplation all the time, then we can perceive experientially the
phenomena of production and annihilation of things.
TO UNDERSTAND REALITY OF
IMPERMANENCE IS THE FIRST STEP ... During Shakyamuni Buddha’s cultivating
time, he perceived the reality of impermanence of the worldly things
first, then made up his mind to find a way of deliverance from suffering.
Buddha perceived that all the material or non-material things in this
world are arising depending on all kinds of complicate causes, when causes
are get together, then things are arising, when causes are dispelled, then
things are vanishing. When we observe our surroundings carefully we will
find out that the surroundings are constantly changed because of the
relating and tangling of all kinds of causes.
THE enlightened one of universes –
Buddha told us according to his wisdom of cultivating experientially, we
should know there is no ego at all, not only in the moment our visible
body is vanishing, even in the moment that we are living in this world,
there is no true ego ever existent. All this we see, hear, touch, and
think of are the illusions of unreal ego or the illusory existence of
causes gathering. RIGHT VIEW AND RIGHT THOUGHT ...
Once Shakyamuni Buddha told his followers: [When you have the right view
of this world and perceive that things in this world are impermanent,
therefore are suffering, empty, and no ego, and the appearance of the
things you see, hear, touch, smell, taste, and think of are all unreal.
Then furthermore try to contemplate, think, and enter experientially the
impermanent body and mind.] And the fact is just like the Buddha said, all
the existences in our life are “arising depending on conditions and their
original nature are empty” and “not real but a illusion”.
HOW to REACH this level? ...
Shakyamuni Buddha told his followers: [All the dharma I told you, you have
to remember, and always try to recall every word I told you. Beside that
you should find a quiet place, contemplate why are the body and mind
painful, dream, not real, and empty? Is this physical body real I? Am I
the physical body? Is there mind and cognition without physical body? Is
there physical body without mind and cognition? Am I dwelling in this
physical body? Or is the physical body dwelling in my mind? Does this
physical body belong to me “I”? If the physical body belongs to me, but
why I cannot control it at will always? Another words, supposed “I” belong
to this physical body, then the mind and cognition should be vanished as
the physical body is vanished. But although being’s physical body is
vanished, the “cause and effect” of karma is still existent. So many
practitioners when they are in deep meditation, they approve
experientially the truth of six directions of reincarnation
(transmigration). They tell people the fact of human’s death, when being’s
eighth consciousness leave the unreal physical body, it will follow the
causes of being’s good and bad karma to search for another occasion and
begin another life. In this case, do I belong to this physical body? Or
don’t I belong to this physical body? If I don’t belong to the physical
body of present life, how come my body won’t move without the command of
my consciousness? The reality approve that the “I” and the present body
cannot be separated, it is because of the existence of arising depending
on causes or conditions, there is no mind and cognition can be existent
without physical body, also there is no physical body can be existent
without mind and cognition. ……. When you are in meditation, try to purify
your mind and contemplate always the doubly hard “the concatenation of
cause and effect in the whole range of existence” that is no “I” and
“MINE” (the self and its possessions). Then you will give up passions,
feelings, and desires, destroy worries, you will cultivate the pure living
and deliverance. In your daily life, when seeing things you won’t have
second thought, when hearing things you won’t be influenced by difference,
when smelling things you won’t be greedy for better, when eating things
you won’t be greedy for more, when in different surroundings you won’t
have mind for them, for all the things no matter good or bad around you,
you understand totally, you won’t be removed by any things happened, you
will be less in talking, your mind will be free from temptation and
distress ……. finally you will enter experientially that five skandhas is
“nature void” (immateriality of the nature of all things), and the “nature
void” is five skandhas, eventually you perceive that you have already
entered experientially the nirvana, the retributive body of skandhas of
present life is complete, and the your pure living also has been built,
you know that you won’t have any other retribution in the future. This
kind of nirvana that you perceive and approve experientially is not from
outside, but inside yourself, also you don’t need anybody to approve for
you, you will approve for yourself.] THE Pure Land’s practitioners
should have the same right thought like this, we will introduce more about
the right thought of practicing Pure Land. If we could understand,
cultivate, and perceive no “I” and “Mine” (No self and its possessions),
then we will not attach too many things in present life, and benefit our
goal of beseeching for rebirth in Utmost Joy World.
DECISION OF LEAVING THE PAIN OF
TRANSMIGRATION ... The decision of leaving the pain of transmigration is
the premise of beseeching for rebirth in Pure Land, if we still are greedy
for all kinds of love, feeling, and desire in this world, then rebirth in
Pure Land become impossible. ONLY observing this unreal world of
“as an illusion and as if transforming” in our daily life, contemplating
this unreal mind of impermanence and changing, from here we will build
very strong mood of abandoning the transmigration, then we will have the
real mind of abandoning the transmigration and the real mind of beseeching
for rebirth in Pure Land. This is the right view of Pure Land
practitioners. UNDERSTAND REALITY OF UNREAL LIFE
... To understand the reality of the life is like a dream, smoke, a
bubble, lightning, shadow, and as an illusion is one of the right
thoughts. Buddha Shakyamuni told his followers, according to the
experience of his cultivating in the past, [I was always in deep
meditation in a quiet place, my mind was arising this kind of thought “How
hard for us to become human being from six directions of transmigration,
but we have to go through a series of mishaps of constant changing of
birth, age, sickness, and death. The happiness of our life is too short,
too impermanent, and too painful. However, the human being never try to
find out the reason of causing the birth, age, sickness, and death. Why am
I here? Why should I accept numberless pain and stress? What causes make
the beginning of rebirth? And what causes support the “carry on” of life?”
When thinking of these questions, I was sitting straight with a proper
mind and regulated will, cultivating very hard day and night, meditating
and thinking over and over unintermittedly. One day I suddenly realized
like coming out of a dream, as a matter of fact this world is the unreal
dream of projection of our unreal mind and cognition. The human beings all
are in the unreal dream of “birth and death” of ignorance ever since from
the time without beginning. “I was in the dream ever since I was born, I
was in the dream ever since I had consciousness.”]
SHAKYAMUNI Buddha told us: [If you
want to leave the lifetime dream that is the circle of impermanence, do
not try to get the answer from the surroundings are in front of you.
Because all the things reveal in front of you are all the projections of
your dream.] TWELVE LINKS IN THE CHAIN OF
EXISTENCE ... The twelve nidanas is the right thought of leaving the dream
of life. The Buddha told us: [To surpass the dream of life is not a
difficult thing, the first thing you have to do is not to have a polluted
mind of desiring for all things in surroundings.] [ When we perceive that
life is a huge dream, and do not attach the appearances of dream, in
addition to that, cultivate yourself with right meditation for a period of
time, then you will come out of the huge dream of life.]
THE Buddha told us: [Human beings
don’t understand all surroundings in our present life are the huge dream
that is produced by worries of greed, hatred, and ignorance. And because
our body, mouth, and mind produce all kinds of good and bad karmas,
therefore human beings follow these numberless karmas, which are stored in
our eighth consciousness or database consciousness, and stay in the six
directions of transmigration forever. THE twelve links in the chain of
existence also called twelve links of dependent origination are circulated
forever, therefore all beings cannot break this circle of rebirth and
redeath, and jump out of the dream of birth and death.
HOW TO COME OUT OF THE DREAM ...
The causes for creating dream of birth and death are the result of greed,
hatred, and ignorance of all human beings. If we could get rid of all the
desires of greed, hatred, and ignorance in our mind, then we will not
create the new karma of good and bad, for which we will have more and new
retributions. LET'S review the twelve links in
the chain of existence. Ignorance, activity or conception, consciousness,
name and form, the six sense organs, contact or touch, feeling or
sensation, craving or desire, clinging or grasping, becoming or existing,
birth, aging and death are the chain of existence.
IGNORANCE is the condition for
activity or conception. Activity or conception is the condition for
consciousness. Consciousness is the condition for name and form. Name and
form is the condition for the six sense organs. The six sense organs are
the conditions for contact or touch. Contact or touch is the condition for
feeling or sensation. Feeling or sensation is the condition for craving or
desire. Craving or desire is the condition for clinging or grasping.
Clinging or grasping is the condition for becoming or existing. Becoming
or existing is the condition for birth. Birth is the condition for aging
and death. Aging and death is the condition for ignorance.
THE idea for coming out of the
dream of birth and death is: To get rid of totally the worries of greed,
hatred, and ignorance that are existent ever since time without beginning,
then we will not make new karma, if there is no new karma, we will not
follow the activity-consciousness to have another life, if there is no
another life, we will have no contact or touch, if there is no contact or
touch, we will have no feeling or sensation, if there is no feeling or
sensation, we will have no craving or desire, if there is no craving or
desire, we will have no clinging or grasping, if there is no clinging or
grasping, we will have no becoming or existing, if there is no becoming or
existing, we will have no birth, if there is no birth, we will have no
aging and death. STARTING OUT FOR BESEECHING FOR
REBIRTH IN WESTERN PURE LAND ... The Pure Land practitioners also should
be cultivating in destroying the worries of greed, hatred, and ignorance
with the way of twelve links in the chain of existence. The practitioners
should concentrate on chanting AMITABHA with all their heart, vow for
beseeching for rebirth in Western Pure Land with all their heart also,
then every thought in our mind is “chanting Amitabha”, when we are doing
this, all the causes for retribution will be removed, we will not be
distracted by material world, then, the mind of desire, erroneous
thinking, and worries will be destroyed totally.
WITH all the though of chanting
Amitabha, our unreal mind of greed, hatred, and ignorance will turn into
pure thought of Buddha. And the dream of trouble of the world will be
vanished gradually because of the less and less desire. Then the
practitioners will be reaching the “Right concentration of chanting
Amitabha”. RIGHT SPEECH RIGHT CONDUCT RIGHT
LIVELIHOOD ... Wherever and whenever the Buddhist practitioners should
always observe their work of mouth, watch the evil karma produced by the
mouth, especially from lying, double-tongue, ill words, and exaggeration.
In addition do not do any talking against the truth. The practitioners
should always observe their work of body, watch the evil karma produced by
the body, especially from fighting, killing and all the karma operating in
the body. In addition do not do any activity that will hinder the
deliverance of birth and death. The practitioners live in this world with
right livelihood or right life in order to seek after the truth, the
correct doctrine, and the deliverance, therefore remember strongly these
words “abstaining from any of the forbidden modes of living.”
SHAKYAMUNI Buddha told us: [……. In
order to reach the goal of deliverance, you should feel terrible anywhere
anytime for anything may cause you a tiny dirty thought that will lead you
to make bad karga. You have to guard yourself against this kind of thought
carefully, so call a little spark can cause a conflagration, this tiny
dirty thought in your mind, will become the karma seed and let you receive
the retribution of transmigration in the future, with changing and
cumulation of surroundings, experiences, thinking, and causes
…….] SHAKYAMUNI Buddha told us: [……. No
matter you are working in the city, eating, rescuing from life of pains
and misery for others, and especially when you are planting all virtuous
roots for being with carrying a almsbowl and begging for food, you have to
think this way: Today I beg for food lowly in order to cut off my mind of
greed for food and destroy my mind of arrogance. Going to houses one by
one, no matter rich or poor, and begging for food with pure mind. If I am
eating, at the same time seeing beautiful things or people, and making the
greedy, desiring, and polluted thoughts arising, then I will make the
cause of “planting all virtuous roots for being” less and also I will
violate the rule of deliverance of birth and death, this will hinder me
for reaching the deliverance. In order to enter experientially the nirvana
that is free from temptation and distress, also in order to plant all
virtuous roots for being, therefore no matter I am begging food in the
street or eating in place of assemblage, I should contemplate my thoughts
and mind with wisdom and all my heart. When I see or hear beautiful
things, if any impurely greedy, desired, and polluted thoughts are arising
……. then I should right away contemplate that the original force of the
form and sound are the impermanent and unreal appearance which are arising
depending on causes temporarily, and do not have their entity existent.
All things are arising depending on causes, all things also are vanishing
depending on cause. Only the nirvana of calmness and extinction, is our
hometown which is real, eternal, and no birth and death. With seeking
after the truth, urge yourself in cultivating the correct Buddhist way,
for a while, when you are begging for food, if you see things you will not
go with them (your mind will not be moved), if you hear sounds you will
not go with them (your mind will not be moved) very naturally. Any moment
any place you can control your own mind and thoughts completely and
without any delusion ……. ] SONG dynasty of China, Pure Land
transcripts of Long Shu sayings: “For the people no matter we know or we
don’t know, we should have this kind of good thought in our mind always
that we should try to find the best chance whenever wherever use the
easiest and clearest words to introduce the wonderful and auspicious West
Land to them in order to lead them to the Pure Land. Even birds that fly
and beasts that run, insects, worms, crawlers … and so on, anything
visible as long as we see them, we should always chant NA MO AMITABHA few
times for them, and start out a vow: [With the reward of virtue of
chanting Amitabha, wish you could be reincarnated as being in good path,
to turn and rely on the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha (Triratna), cultivate
yourself in Pure Land doctrine, beseech for rebirth in Western Pure Land
(Utmost Joy World), when I become Buddha, I will save and release you from
the ocean of misery first, we will ascend the yonder shore
together.] RIGHT CONDUCT OF PURE LAND
PRACTITIONERS ... Ming dynasty of China, West Pure Land transcripts of
Yuan Hung Dao: [For those who want to achieve the Buddhahood in chanting
Buddha category, should cultivate themselves in pure commandment. The pure
commandment is the door for all pure categories, the foundation of
cultivating all good dharmas, and also the door for entering all Buddha’s
pure land. Here we will give ten pure commandments for cultivating purpose
for those who have already started out their vow for rebirth in Pure
Land: FIRST, Greed Commandment: the pure
land practitioners should practice wealth almsgiving (offerings or gifts
of material goods) and dharma almsgiving (the almsgiving of the
Buddha-truth including preaching and explanation), even sacrifice
themselves for saving other beings, in order to destroy the mind of greed,
and corresponding with all pure and bright categories earlier.
SECOND, Prohibiting Defamation
Commandment: for the beginner of cultivating pure land doctrine should
keep the first five of Ten Commandments (against killing, stealing,
adultery, lying, and intoxication liquors) very strictly. In order to
deliver all beings and ask them to keep the pure commandment for rebirth
in Pure Land, the practitioners should make themselves serve as example to
others, give heed to their behavior and demeanor, otherwise might cause
satirizing of beginners and forfeit the cause of beings who want to
beseech rebirth in Pure Land. The practitioners should chant NOMO AMITABHA
with all their heart in order to destroy all the worries of greed and
hatred whenever walking, standing, sitting, and lying in every state, then
the practitioners will satisfy their wish of superior order of birth in
the Pure Land. THIRD, Hatred Commandment: when the
practitioners of Pure Land are not in agreement with what they want for
all kinds of things in daily life, they should handle with the way of
meekly accepting humiliations, readjust and submit our thought of impulse
with the word “Tolerance”. Fourth, Loose Commandment: ……. If
you let the five desires (arising from the objects of the five senses,
things seen, heard, smelt, tasted, and touched. Or the five desires of
wealth, sex, food-and-drink, fame, and sleep) run wild, and any behavior
against the pure commandment, these will become the bad karma, also the
cause of blocking you for beseeching for rebirth in Pure Land.
Fifth, Dispersal Commandment: the
practitioners of Pure Land should always control the dispersal mind, cut
off the bad cause, purify the six sense-organs, and chant NAMO AMITABHA
with all your mind and all your life …….
Sixth, Ignorance Commandment: the
practitioners of Pure Land should always destroy the illusion, delusion,
and doubt in the mind with the wisdom of entering experientially truth
……. Seventh, Arrogance Commandment: the
practitioners of Pure Land shouldn’t have the thought of arrogance in the
mind because of the higher practical ability, forensic skill, wisdom, and
exposition ……. Eighth, Coverture Commandment: if
the practitioners of Pure Land have any behavior of harming the pure land
cultivation, should always confess the crime or problem in front of the
Buddha or Bodhisattva and do not offend again …….
Ninth, Non-benefit Commandment: the
practitioners of Pure Land should leave argument, seeking profit,
frivolities ……and so on, because this kind of vulgar business will delude
the mind and block the idea of rebirth in Pure Land.
Tenth, No attachment Commandment:
the purpose for the practitioners of Pure Land is to seek for deliverance
and get the wisdom of Prajna, then try their best to deliver all beings in
all directions of the universes. So attaching the fame, wealth, becoming
beings in heaven, and becoming human being again is not the purpose of the
practitioners of Pure Land. THE LIVELIHOOD OF PURE LAND
PRACTITIONERS ... Song dynasty of China, Pure Land transcripts of Long Shu
sayings: [For the Pure Land practitioners who have family and business or
career, should cultivate doctrine with this kind of attitude:
FOR those who are in student post,
should study hard for knowledge, obey parents, and be kind to
brothers. FOR those who hold an official
post, should practice kindness to the people and associate with the
virtuous and benefit public utility in order to cultivate goodness in the
field of blessedness. And devote their merits to West Pure Land
……. FOR those who hold a wealth post,
should help with food, necessities or money to the poor, famine victims
according to situation ……. FOR those who are slow-witted or in
straitened circumstances, do not blame God and others, should seek for
repentance and forgiveness in front of Buddha or budhisattvas, and always
chant NAMO AMITABHA in order to get rid of the hindrance of past karma,
and increase blessed virtues, all good deeds, or the nutriment of
blessedness ……. FOR those who are in business of
agriculture, trade, and industry ……. should always remember do not have
the illegal behavior or improper demand. And always chanting NAMO
AMITABHA, having the mind of seeking for repentance and forgiveness,
starting vows for seeking after the good …….. and also starting a vow in
front of Buddha “Wish when my life ends, I could be in West Pure Land,
behold the Buddha when the lotus blossom, and enter experientially the law
of no-birth, then I will deliver first the beings who were killed by me in
past life, second I will deliver the beings who were my relatives,
friends, and enemies in former existences, and also all the beings who are
either affinitive or non-affinitive with me.” …….
FOR those who are in business of
fishing, hunting, butchering, cooking, and running restaurant, should
always examine oneself strongly that “all the animals no matter in the
sea, sky, and ground, are all like the human being, are life form with
consciousness. If I kill them I will make numberless karma of enmity.”
Changing job is the best way, otherwise should cut down the amount of
killing, do not kill them for bodily desires, remember the animals in the
sea such as spiral shellfishes, eels, and turtles are hard to kill, they
will die with crying pitifully for quite a long time ……. (If we have to
kill animals for making living or job, during the time we doing that, we
should always chant NAMO AMITABHA for the animals we kill, and wish them
could be in good paths in their next life.)
FOR those who are in business of
prostitute or relating work, should always realize and examine themselves
that the job or work of immoral conduct, obscene talk, porno, violating
female, violating plays ……. are the main cause of blocking rebirth in Pure
Land …….] RIGHT EFFORT RIGHT REMEMBRANCE AND
RIGHT MEDITATION ... Right effort for the Chan or Zen practitioners
Shakyamuni Buddha once told his followers: {When the Vipasyin Buddha was
still on his way to buddhahood, in one of his past life, he was sitting on
mats of grass, with cross-legged and soles upward under the Bodhidruma
(the wisdom-tree), contemplate the twelve nidanas (twelve links in the
chain of existence) day and night, neither sleep nor rest …….}. There was
another time, the Boddha told his followers: {If you want to deliver
yourselves from birth and death, you should be zealous courageously day
and night in contemplating meditation thoughts of truth (Chan)
opportunely, also should calm your mind within …….}
WHAT is Chan or Zen? The meaning of
Chan, in fine, “is wisdom of becoming enlightened”. The contemplating
opportunely means contemplating the truth of calm thought with the
opportune wisdom. And all the truth that are from contemplating,
observing, and choice with the mind of consciousnesss, we could call them
“opportune wisdom”. HOW TO CULTIVATE THE RIGHT EFFORT
... Like Shakyamuni Buddha used to praise Nanda bhiksu: {that good sons
(one of the Buddha’s terms of address to his disciples like we say
“gentle” today), the Nanda bhiksu, after he comprehends experientially the
twelve nidanas (links are “the concatenation of cause and effect in the
whole range of existence”), he closes his senses as doors (through which
illusion enters), enjoys the drink and food the right way (drink and food
these two things on which sentient beings depend, desire for them is one
of the three passions, offerings of them are one of the five forms of
offerings), cultivates himself in right Buddhist way with right effort,
accomplish the correct knowledge (samyagjnana), purifies himself
completely, and builds up the pure living (the discipline of celibacy
which ensure rebirth in the Brahmaloka, or in the realms beyond form) with
all his life.} RIGHT REMEMBRANCE FOR CHAN
PRACTITIONERS ... The remembrance is generated in mind, when the mind does
not leave the right path, and only remember the “with form” (from the
point of view of phenomena) and “without form” (from the point of view of
void), therefore is called the right remembrance. When we have the right
remembrance, then will correspond with the Bodhi, the mind will make no
mistakes. RIGHT MEDITATION FOR CHAN
PRACTITIONERS ... When we have the right view and understand the reality
of twelve links of dependent origination, then we will start by ourselves
automatically, guard our senses as doors (through which illusion enters),
tranquilize our thoughts and mind, control our food and drink, comprehend
spiritual reality with right effort all day and night. [Contemplating the
five skandhas(the five fundamental conditions of passions and delusions),
no “I” and no “Mine” (no subject and object)(I and Its possessions), all
these are the projections of our dreams. Understanding the differences of
appearance of five skandhas, and contemplating the unreal appearances of
five skandhas with right remembrance, purifying the hindrances of five
skandhas, cultivating the pure living with all our heart. Getting rid of
the lust for sleep when in cultivating. Do not doubt the law of correct
Buddhist doctrine. Trying to leave all the delusive bondage of desire to
its environment in order to get the correct remembrance and knowledge,
then we will enter the right meditation.
ENTER EXPERIENTIALLY THE TRUTH OF
WITHOUT FORM AND WITH FORM THROUGH PRACTICE ... For the Chan
practitioners, if there is no Prajna wisdom (right view and understanding)
as guide, no matter how much improvement we have gotten in cultivating
meditation, this is just the illusion of consciousness, eventually we will
go to the wrong way. Also if there is no practice or cultivation in
performing the proper duties, the meaning of teachings, and meditation, no
matter how much result we have gotten in research, hearing the doctrine,
and recognizing, eventually we will be in the level of “take a
wait-and-see attitude”, “I know”, “I understand”, and “but I can’t do it”
forever. UNDERSTANDING OUR NATURAL CAPACITY
... We are the ordinary people, the only difference between us and the
others, who don’t know or never heard of Buddhist doctrine, is that we
accumulate a little bit karma of blessedness in our past numberless lives,
and these karma of blessedness lead us to the Buddhist world.
BUT if we want to deliver ourselves
from the ocean of birth and death (rebirth and redeath) in this life, is
almost a hundred percent impossible. Because we need several lives even
several hundred lives to complete the procedures we mentioned above. And
remember nobody knows what will be the next life, not always human being,
maybe some kind of animal, ghost, or even in hell, supposed we go to
heaven, eventually we still have to reenter this circle of the
transmigration. PRACTICE IN PROPER ORDER ... For
the Chan practitioners, right view, right understanding, right thoughts,
destroying desires, and cultivating the pure living is the foundation of
the deliverance. Same reason for the Pure Land practitioners, right view,
right understand, right thoughts, destroying desires, cultivating the pure
living, and chanting Amitabha with pure thought is the foundation of
beseeching rebirth in West Pure Land. WHEN we read the Buddhist
scriptures, we should understand that for a budhisattva practitioner,
Right View, Right Thought, Right Speech, Right conduct, Right Livelihood,
Right Effort, Right Remembrance, Right Meditation, Destroying desires,
Destroying worries, Cultivating pure living, and Purifying the senses in
the daily life are just a basic practice, a very basic practice. When we
have this kind of practice for certain time, then when we are in the
environment of quality of sight, sound, smell, taste, touch, and thought,
our mind won’t be tangled, illusive, and polluted.
WHEN we understand the Buddhism,
the law preached by the Buddha, or the principles underlying these
teachings, and purify our mind for quite a long time, we will discover the
side of “nothing exciting” and “direct honest” of the Buddhism, we will
also discover the limitless treasure of the true, the good, and the
beautiful in human being’s mind nature. Then we will start out our first
step of cultivating Buddhist doctrine that is lower our desire and cut off
our worries, and try to understand and perceive “the time of depending
arising also is the time of cultivating” in our daily life and the
environment of depending arising. THE GOAL OF PURE LAND PRACTITIONERS
... The Pure Land practitioners although are doing their level best for
delivering from the circle of transmigration and becoming Buddha, but the
first step or first goal for the Pure Land practitioners is to beseech
rebirth in Pure Land. WHEN the Pure Land practitioners
start out a decision of leaving this Saha world of impermanence, then all
their thinking, thoughts, and actions are for the purpose of perceiving
the Pure Land truth, the deeds which lead to birth in the pure land, and
devoting their merits to the Pure Land. In this present life, repeating
(chanting) the name of Amitabha,, exhorting others to chanting Amitabha,
and proclaiming the Pure Land truth widely, eventually they will rebirth
in the West Pure Land because of the great vows of Amitabha’s great
mercy. PURE LAND PRACTITIONERS’S RIGHT
VIEW RIGHT THOUGHT ... BASIC SUPPLIES FOR BESEECHING FOR REBIRTH IN PURE
LAND... We should have some ideas about the supplies for beseeching for
rebirth in Pure Land according to the “Amitabha Sutra”, such
as: THE practitioners must believe in
the utmost joy world just like Shakaymuni Buddha said: {Passing from here
through hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddha-lands to the West,
there is a land called Ultimate Bliss.} THE practitioners must start out
vows “I beseech for rebirth in the West Pure Land”, must hold and chant
the holy name of Amitabha with one heart unconfused in daily
life. WHEN the practitioners approach the
end of life, their heart must be without inversion. In the moment, before
the practitioners will appear Amitabha and all the Assembly of Holy Ones,
the practitioners must beseech for rebirth in West Pure Land, then almost
at the same time the practitioners will be reborn in West Pure
Land. FOR the Pure Land practitioners,
these ideas “hold and chant the holy name of amitabha with one heart
unconfused in daily life” and “approach the end of life, their must be
without inversion” are the pivot of the door of opening West Pure Land
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Namo Amitabha