Discover your Buddha nature with Amida's help

Fragment from my book 
Simple Teachings on Emptiness and Buddha nature

Question:

I heard somebody say that we do not need to aspire for birth in the Pure Land because “everything is in the mind”.

My answer:

Those who say that we don’t need the Pure Land to attain perfect Enlightenment and discover our innate Buddha nature because “everything is in the mind” are gravely deluded. As we all know from daily life, in some places and with some people we become more agitated or more calm. Although everything happens in the mind, the environment and the people around us influences our minds. There will always be more peace in our minds when we are in the presence of peaceful people.

The samsaric environment in which we live is the effect of our personal and collective karma. It is like the dream which occurs at night because of our thoughts and actions during the daytime. It is our manifestation and emanation. Here everything, from noisy people to evil beings and various difficulties, can be an obstacle for the mind to discover its own inner peace and Buddha nature. However, in the Pure Land everything is leading to Enlightenment. That environment is manifested by Amida from ultimate Reality and it is filled with His enlightened presence and various Enlightened saints. Unlike here where every material object can hurt us or cause us drown even more in illusions and attachments, in the Pure Land the water, the trees, the “food”, the flowers, the breeze are all emanating deep enlightened sounds and teachings because those are enlightened manifestations, not samsaric phenomena like here in our world. This is why in that enlightened realm the various layers of our illusory personality are immediately melt and our mind naturally finds its true essence – the Buddha nature.  

Please never forget the Base, the Path and the Fruit.

Buddha nature is the base in the sense that we already have it, just it is now covered by the many layers of illusions and blind passions. It is also the fruit meaning that we’ll discover it when we attain perfect Enlightenment in the Pure Land, while the Nembutsu of Faith in Amida’s Primal Vow is the Path. We cannot discover our innate Buddha nature without Amida’s help and birth in His enlightened realm.