“It is regrettable
indeed that sentient beings doubt what should not be doubted;
The Pure Land is right before us and never out of harmony with us.
Do not ponder whether Amida will take you in or not;
The question is whether or not you wholeheartedly turnabout at heart.”[1]
The Pure Land is right before us and never out of harmony with us.
Do not ponder whether Amida will take you in or not;
The question is whether or not you wholeheartedly turnabout at heart.”[1]
Commentary:
The Pure Land is extremely easy to reach. This is the meaning of the words “right before us”. We’ll go there in an instant at the moment of our death if we have entrusted ourselves to Amida Buddha during this life. It is the easiest country to emigrate – no visas, no special requirements, just say Amida’s Name in faith and wish to be born there, and you will, at the end of your physical body. Being easy to enter, the Pure Land is in harmony with all beings as anybody can go there without discrimination between virtuous and non-virtuous. Harmony mean accessibility, that is, nothing that can be found within our ignorant mind constitutes an obstacle for birth there.
The Pure Land is extremely easy to reach. This is the meaning of the words “right before us”. We’ll go there in an instant at the moment of our death if we have entrusted ourselves to Amida Buddha during this life. It is the easiest country to emigrate – no visas, no special requirements, just say Amida’s Name in faith and wish to be born there, and you will, at the end of your physical body. Being easy to enter, the Pure Land is in harmony with all beings as anybody can go there without discrimination between virtuous and non-virtuous. Harmony mean accessibility, that is, nothing that can be found within our ignorant mind constitutes an obstacle for birth there.
Thus, you should not doubt Amida Buddha’s capacity to save you, but ask yourself if you really have faith in Him. To turnabout at heart means to leave behind any reliance on your self-power and abandon yourself totally to Amida’s Power. As He is the One who manifested His Pure Land, you can only go there through Him. An unenlightened mind cannot create within oneself the cause to birth into the enlightened realm of the Pure Land.
[1] Master Shan-tao as quoted by
Shinran in his Kygyoshinsho, The Collected
Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha,
Kyoto, 1997, p.238
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