Pure Land

I’ve recently begun connecting with Amitabha Buddha and practices surrounding being reborn in his pure land. For me, this doesn’t necessarily mean being reborn in a realm after death that is more conducive to enlightenment, but using Sukhavati as an imaginative exercise to see that the reality we currently find ourselves in is, in fact, already a pure land. This is connected with the idea of pure vision in Vajrayana.

Soh Wei Yu also mentioned his baseline experience as being similar to descriptions of Amitabha’s pure land in a recent post:

This is a world where nothing can ever sully and touch that purity and perfection, where the whole of universe/whole of mind is always experienced vividly as that very purity and perfection devoid of any kind of sense of self or perceiver whatsoever that is experiencing the world at a distance from a vantagepoint -- life without ‘self’ is a living paradise free of afflictive/painful emotions, where every color, sound, smell, taste, touch and detail of the world stands out as the very boundless field of pristine awareness, sparkling brilliance/radiance, colorful, high-saturation, HD, luminous, heightened intensity and shining wonderment and magicality, where the surrounding sights, sounds, scents, sensations, smells, thoughts are seen and experienced so clearly down to the tiniest details, vividly and naturally, not just in one sense door but all six, where the world is a fairy-tale like wonderland, revealed anew every moment in its fullest depths as if you are a new-born baby experiencing life for the first time, afresh and never seen before, where life is abundant with peace, joy and fearlessness even amidst the apparent chaos and troubles of life, and everything experienced through all the senses far surpasses any beauty previously experienced, as if the universe is like heaven made of glittering gold and jewels, experienced in complete gapless directness without separation, where life and the universe is experienced in its intense lucidity, clarity, aliveness and vivifying presence not only without intermediary and separation but without center and boundaries - infinitude as vast as an endless night sky is actualized every moment, an infinitude that is simply the vast universe appearing as an empty, distanceless, dimensionless and powerful presencing, where the mountains and stars on the horizon stands out no more distant than one’s breath, and shines forth as intimately as one’s heartbeat, where the cosmic scale of infinitude is actualized even in ordinary activities as the entirety of the universe is always participating as every ordinary activity including walking and breathing and one’s very body (without a trace of an ‘I’ or ‘mine’) is as much the universe/dependent origination in action and there is nothing outside of this boundless exertion/universe, where the purity and infinitude of the marvellous world experienced through being cleansed in all doors of perception is constant. (If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. - William Blake)

You know all the Mahayana Sutras (e.g. Vimalakirti Sutra), old Zen talks about seeing this very earth as pure land and all the Vajrayana talks about the point of tantra as the pure vision of seeing this very world, body, speech and mind in its primordial unfabricated purity as the Buddha field, palace, mandala, mantra and deity? Now you truly get it, you realise everything is really just like that when experienced in its primordial purity and perfection, and that the old sages have not been exaggerating at all. It is as much a literal and precise description of the state of consciousness as it is a metaphor. As I told John Tan before, Amitabha Sutra’s description of pure land resembles my living experience here and now. “To me it just means anatta. When what’s seen, tasted, touched, smelled are in clean purity, everywhere is pure land.” - John Tan, 2019. "If one is free from background self, all manifestations appear in clean purity in taste. Impurities from what I know come from mental constructions." – John Tan, 2020

Author

Aayush Jain Thank you so much for the insights!

I had previously decided to take a similar stance towards the religion; my only worry was that THIS view of the Mahayana practice seems like something the priests keep to themselves, favouring the narrative as I described above. I intend on practicing with the intent of furthering myself in the path of realisation, and it already seems my "eagerness" in talking of such is not so much appreciated in this "Sangha" I'm entering now...

Felipe Utiyama I see, could be different levels of views that are reserved for practitioners of with sufficient experience. But Garchen Rinpoche, in a recent Amitabha empowerment ,made it clear that both views are true simultaneously. By connecting with Amitabha and praying to be reborn in his pure land, we are generating merit to be reborn in Sukhavati at the relative level. But at the ultimate level, we should see that all sentient beings are Amitabha and that our existence is already a pure land. Perhaps other traditions aren't so vocal about the 'ultimate' view, except for more advanced practitioners.

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Author

Definitely seems that way!

I'm lucky enough to have had already been through first awakening, so there was this sense of "everyone is already Buddha" in me from the beginning. Liberation is not "going anywhere", it's staying right here and now, without any filters, leaning into the portals.

I just hope I don't have to keep those opinions to myself, or to when the Priests give me their attention. Let's see what happens, no matter what, 'namuamidabu'! Hahahah

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https://dharmaseed.org/talks/50482/

Rob Burbea also has some interesting talks on the imaginal and connecting with divinities to deepen our experience of the path. This one focuses on practices relating to Amitabha Buddha.

I realized this doesn’t directly address your question on Pure Land practitioners saying that devotion can serve as a replacement for insight oriented practices, but hope it helps anyways.

DHARMASEED.ORG

Dharma Seed - Between Ikon and Eidos: Image & Hermeneutics in Meditation (Part 6 - Amitabha Buddha)

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Aayush Jain I consider myself a Pantheist (every religion, including the lack thereof, is a valid and "true" way for liberation), so Deities are not only tolerated by me, but I'd even say 'favoured'. I'm very much into chaos magick and Advaita Vedanta, so no problems with THAT. My concern is not finding the support to further my Vipassana practice, for one.

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Admin

I don’t see anything wrong with these types of practices if you authentically resonate with them. Authenticity is key.

In addition to what I said above you have every right to pursue kensho with or without any one’s permission, be they Buddhist or not.

I have to say to assert that it is wrong or a waste of time to pursue kensho is not in line with what Buddha/Dogen/etc etc intended. Quite the opposite in my not so humble opinion. Take that as you will

Also even if you procrastinate etc that does not preclude kensho

. It’s more a matter of whether you are willing to inquire with sincerity (not about what anyone else tells you it’s important to inquire about, rather what is most fundamentally important to you), and what you are willing to let go of.

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I have had a talk with the temple's Priest before being called in to practice, and I spared no words about my personal experience. Drug use, first awakening happening WHILE on entheogens, etcetera, and he just made questions such as "how old were you when this/that happened", and in the end simply said "Wow, I imagine you're quite unable to talk about this to a regular person, right?", which was absolutely relieving to me. He seems to understand my quest, and allowed me to practice with them, but I do feel like even whilst I'm entering a new Sangha, the TRUE number of people I'll be able to talk with will be about three or four. Nevertheless, it's progress, makes me get out of my house and do something that seems to put me in more direct contact with the Dharma.

Admin

Felipe Utiyama sounds like a good fit!

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Admin

I would be curious about John Tan’s thoughts on this post.

John Tan

Angelo Grr I agree with what u said.

Infact I never talk about zen or anatta to my family members

; contrary I encourage my parents to chant Amitabha and visualize pureland according to what their teachers taught them. It is a dedicated daily practice for my parents. These practices are much more skillfull, intuitive and beneficial for them imo. My dad has very fruitful experiences and he even has dreams of clarity of pureland and trigger many valuable insights, he just discussed with me one of his experience and insight yesterday

I know many great zen teachers like Ban Zhan, Han Shan and Tien Tai Chih-I also encourage pureland practice. Even the late zen master Sheng Yen also spoke positively of pureland practices. In China, it is not uncommon to see chan and pureland dual practices 禅净双修 but Japan I m not sure, never heard of any.

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John Tan aww that’s great about your father

. Thx for your input.

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John Tan

Yeah. My dad's discipline is superb. At the age of 80, he still want to challenge me certain yoga poses that is even quite challenging for youngsters.

He feared everyone in the family but he makes effort to discipline everyday and work on the pose.

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Admin

John Tan incredible. Also fortuitous to have inherited such discipline

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Mr./Ms. JJ

I personally wouldn't stick around something that doesn't resonate with me.

I also don't buy their ideas. If there are no other temples near you, you can always look for online groups or create your own meditation group.

Also I had this cheeky thought: you are procrastinating your practice and now you found a place that procrastinates it till death

(don't take this comment too seriously)

Author

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Yea, I'm not necessarily going to expect the same insightful conversations I can have around HERE, but I seem to have become stuck in a loop of thinking about insight and never really putting myself in any situation where I could really concentrate and progress; but I feel comfortable enough with my 'universalist' interpretation of the sutras to have quite a nice time doing it at the ceremonies. As long as I have a Sangha such as this one in here, I can also have some progress with theirs.

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Mr./Ms. JJ

Honestly, I'd check out how you can stop the procrastination. IMO the best way is to build a habit around meditation.

The way I do it is to stack it onto another habit that I do daily. In this case it's waking up. So every time I wake up I meditate. It could be brushing teeth as well. It's just important that you know that every time you do x you will do y.

I'd also start with something small like 10 or 15 min of guided meditation. It's more important to build the habit first before trying to increase the time.

And of course, check in with yourself what's really motivating you to do this. That can help to see how you can strengthen the motivation so you are more likely to follow through when things are a bit tough.

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Admin

When you awaken in pure land, Amitabha will tell you to come back and help people. Better to awaken here and help people.

Traktung Rinpoche:

Between that death and this birth there was no fracture in the continuity of awareness. Between the two was a moment, a brief moment, spent at Tsog in the pure land of Zangdokpalri. Translucence and joy permeated everything and then Guru Rinpoche told me to return to this place, this time, this circumstance. I was not overjoyed (laughter) and what followed was the conversation which became the Dakini Night Poem.

In this life my first conscious feeling, for it was long before the brain had acquired language, was “How do I return to that realm of wonder?” This was like a thorn in my heart, a Fisher King Wound, that plagued me throughout my life and pushed me to discover the answer.

It was only in resolving the duality of awareness appearance into the singularity of AwarenessAppearance …. only in coming to live in the knowing that everything, moment by moment is embraced by and resolves in timeless awareness – the luminous divinity that is Zangdokpalri that this ache was removed.

That brief, all to brief, moment in Zangdokpalri was 100 years here and then suddenly, all to suddenly, with a whoosh and whirling this life with its encroaching veils of forgetting. Suddenly 9 pounds 14 ounces of flesh and hospital lights. This life has been a game of concealing revealing ….. the movement of a chess piece on the game board. To be a chess piece in the hand of Guru Rinpoche is the greatest of joys – though I did not think so at the moment of birth. – t.k., from A Moments Pause ...interviews forming a autobiography

…

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https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DHwcywjXWUA&feature=youtu.be

Admin

YOUTUBE.COM

Dakini Night Poem

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Admin

I think Greg Goode who wrote books on Advaita and then Madhyamaka and has good insights on these, also went into pure land or jodo shinshu.

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Admin

So you can do both practices.

“Greg is a well-known innovator for having combined the ancient “direct-path” method of self-inquiry with modern electronic media. Nondual inquiry includes the powerful teachings of Advaita Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism. Greg studied Advaita Vedanta through the Chinmaya Mission, Sri Atmananda, Jean Klein, and Francis Lucille. He studied the Mahayana teachings of Pure Land Buddhism through Jodo-Shinshu, and studied Chinese Middle-Way Buddhism through the lineage of the pre-eminent scholar of Chinese Buddhism, Master Yin-Shun of Taiwan, P.R.C., author of The Way to Buddhahood.”

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Thank you very much for the references!

It's quite interesting to see this duality in the Mahayana teachings between the laypeople and the monks!

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One thing I've always wondered about chanting mantras in general: they often say it's about how many times you say them, but for me it feels better to do one really authentically than 100 halfheartedly. Is there a consensus view on this? Is one suppose…

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I personally prefer voice chanting over internal chanting right now, even though the latter is said to be better; in regards to the number, I like the feeling of doing it "ad infinitum", because there's a moment where the feeling of being "the one chanting the chant" goes away and there's only non-dual"chanting chanting the chanting".

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I've heard Garchen Rinpoche say many times that quantity doesn't matter if there is no meaning or devotion behind it, and that counting mantras for the sake of counting is missing the point. That being said, he encourages people to complete the Ngondro accumulations, and has retreats where participants are encouraged to actively keep track of recitations. My interpretation is that counting is important, only in so far as it enables a deeper connection to the practice, and makes one more likely to chant authentically later on. Personally, I count using a mala during formal practice sessions, but don't when I decide to chant spontaneously during the day.

Author

As with any set of "rules" in the path, I understand the counting as just a way of creating "muscle memory", a means of more reliably getting to the point where you must abandon everything, training/counting included, to achieve liberation.

Buddhism's purpose, in the end, is to burn even the Buddha, is it not?

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Also, it's hard for us as deluded sentient beings to judge what is an authentic recitation and what is driven by impure intent. I remember I would occasionally chant Mani mantras a few years ago when I was in a pretty negative headspace and it seemed like they didn't really do anything. But earlier this year, I randomly started feeling a strong devotion to the path, particularly Vajrayana, which I feel is because of the seeds I planted back when I wasn't as serious about the practice. So that's another super subjective take, I guess.

Aayush Jain This is very interesting. I feel I have a good sense of when I am being authentic and when I am not. Because I was raised in the Advaita tradition, the felt sense of being authentic I describe as like being in the presence of God (or united with Him). The more authentic, the more the tears flow lol. So maybe this is a good indication. Of course, it's also possible that I'm still overlooking something.

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Angelo Grr In your recent video where you talk about "orienting toward the living truth," the above is how that translates for me. I imagine it's related?

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Author

Amazing example there!

Sometimes when I pray the rosary with my Catholic grandmother I feel a lot of energy (maybe that's what some schools call "piti") and tears flow naturally. It's a state I've been a handful of times in my life, and I also associat…

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Admin

Aditya Prasad yes very good example

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Ah, I see. I’ve also heard Malcolm mention that you can use mantras to raise practice to the level of Dharmata, to aid in Dzogchen practice. So they can be chanted while connecting with insights, which I guess is one way to tell if the practice is authentic.

But the more I learn about and practice mantras the more vast a subject they seem! No wonder the ancient Indians felt it could be an entire science! And of course there are so many different practices involving mantras, so I imagine there is no one size fits all answer. I think Nafis Rahman posted some interesting resources about mantras a while back, I’ll see if I can dig them up when I get a chance.

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Felipe Utiyama Given the above, I wonder if it's worthwhile to recite the nembutsu while holding the intention for Amitabha to help awaken you rather than to be reborn in his pure land. I imagine he'd sort of have to oblige, being a buddha and all. And even if it feels a little weird to go against the intention of the temple, I have a hard time that bodhicitta is ever unethical. Not that I know anything.

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Good sir, you seem to always have some very insightful comments!

I take an open stance about Nenbutsu. It is said one should 'abandon oneself in Amitabha', so I do it; the difference is that it seems most people surrender in faith/hope of a pure land that comes after death, and I focus on surrendering the feeling inside me that "there is something to be done". For me, that's a very honest way to still 'seek salvation', whilst nevertheless undestanding that the Pure Land is HERE AND NOW, and asking for Amitabha to 'save me' by allowing me to see and feel it, unfiltered.

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