Don’t misunderstand the idea that “all beings will eventually become Buddhas”

To think that all beings will eventually become Buddhas is a dangerous trap for ordinary, unenlightened people who thus might strengthen the reliance on their false ego. It is another delusory thought of those who “copy and paste” the words of Enlightened Beings without discrimination.

“But the Buddha said this”, someone can argue....

Yes, He said it, but the meaning is that He as a Buddha will never stop until all beings will also become Buddhas. It is not that ordinary people will become Buddhas by their own power at some time in the future, but that the Buddhas will do everything in their transcendental powers to make this aspiration come true. That sentence is the wish and aspiration of the Buddhas, not what people will actually do without their help.

Only if we give up trust in our self power (the power of our unenlightened ego) and entrust ourselves to Amida Buddha’s Power (Other Power) will we become Buddhas. Otherwise, no one can escape birth and death, with the exception of a few special beings who are already very close to perfect Enlightenment but who have struggled for this since timeless past.

The time is infinite, but the Buddhas have enough patience to wait and will always work to make all beings entrust to Amida so that all will eventually be free from birth and death. This is because all Buddhas support Amida Buddha who is the one who provided the best method (His Primal Vow) to make this wish come true: to bring all beings to Buddhahood. Some methods require special capacities on the part of beings, but the Primal Vow requires truly nothing – no virtue, no special quality or ability. This is why this method is universal: both saints and idiots can be saved through it.

If Amida’s Primal Vow had not been made then the beings wouldn’t have had any chance for Liberation and the sentence that “all beings will eventually become Buddhas” would have been spoken in vain.

The Buddha, as the Supreme Doctor, knows that some are too sick to recover. Because He has infinite Compassion He does not wait until they become capable to emerge by themselves from deep hells or other lower realms. What mother would do such a thing – to let her child sink into hell and wait for him on the edge of the abyss until he finally recovers? But what if he does not recover? And in fact, what chances does anybody have to recover by himself if he sank in the ocean of immeasurable pain of the lower realms! No Buddha whose essence is compassion, would wait and see without doing anything. This is why Amida made His Primal Vow and established His Pure Land, because He didn’t want to stay and wait until sentient beings will eventually become Buddhas by their own efforts. It would have been stupid and compassionless had He done that.  He wouldn’t have been a Buddha had He done this.

So, dear friends, please do not rely on words that you cannot understand, but keep in mind the thought of impermanence: the impermanence of your life which can end anytime, and the impermanence of your so-called spiritual realisations based on self power. Please bear in mind that in the ocean of birth and death there is no “you” alone who will eventually become a Buddha. The road to the lower realms is always open for those who rely on their personal power. There is no real spiritual evolution for an unenlightened being like you, no “today I learned someting new and made a new step forward”, no hope, nothing, just Amida’s helping hand. Please accept it.