AMIDA DHARMA - Fascicle 9. The five conditions for birth in the Pure Land

Click here to return to the Table of Contents

1.There are five conditions that someone must meet in order to be born in the Pure Land: karmic good from the past, a good spiritual teacher, Amida’s Light, faith (shinjin) and the saying of Amida Buddha's Name (Nembutsu)

2.The good from the past represents our good karma from past lives and this life (prior to the awakening of faith) which manifests itself as an opening or receptive state of mind towards the message of the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha.

In Jodo Shinshu a very important practice is to listen to the teaching. However, a lot of people hear the teaching about the Primal Vow but few are opened to it. This openness is very important in our tradition and it is the manifestation of the karmic good from the past. Also, if you listen again and again to the teaching in this life, thus becoming immersed with all your being in the Dharma, this listening will become a karmic good which one day will make you open to the Primal Vow.

3.The good spiritual teacher is the one who guides us to the Path of reliance on the Primal Vow. He is the messenger who urges us to take refuge in Amida and his apparition is also a manifestation of the good from the past. He can be a person, a book or a sacred text but his message can be received only through the openness I mentioned before.

4. Amida's Light represents the working and the wish of Amida Buddha to save (lead to Enlightenment) all sentient beings drowned in delusion. The manifestation of this work and wish is His Primal Vow.

5.Amida’s Light is always present upon beings everywhere, opened or not opened to it. Through His Light Amida tries permanently to influence beings and make them accept His salvation contained in the Primal Vow. Some become opened to it sooner while others will do so in the future, but Amida will continue sending His Light until all samsaric realms become empty and all beings attain Buddhahood. 

6.Because of the karmic good from the past, we meet with a good spiritual teacher and we are open to his message – the Primal Vow (Amida’s Light). At this very moment the so-called “Awakening of Faith” or the apparition of the entrusting heart (shinjin), takes place.

Faith means that the follower accepts the existence of Amida Buddha and relies exclusively on Him for the attainment of birth in the Pure Land.

7.The saying of the Name (NamoAmida Bu) appears at the same time with the Awakening of Faith, as an expression of it and of saying „thank you” to Amida Buddha for saving us exactly as we are. This is the only Nembutsu accepted in our tradition – the Nembutsu of faith and gratitude.

8. The karmic good from the past and the spiritual teacher are only conditions that create a beneficial environment for Amida’s Light to manifest, but they are not the direct causes of our birth in the Pure Land. Only faith (the entrusting heart/shinjin) is the direct cause.When it is said in a text that the Nembutsu is the cause of birth in the Pure Land this reffers to the Nembutsu of faith or the Nembutsu as an expression of faith. Only in this way can we say that the Nembutsu is the cause of birth in the Pure Land as well.

9. Faith (shinjin) and the saying of the Name are the manifestations of Amida’s Light in the heart of the practitioner, and cannot exist independently of Amida’s Light. Only because of Amida’s working and His wish to save us (Amida’s Light) are we able to entrust ourselves to Amida and say the Nembutsu.