Elements of genuine faith: 3)To wish to be born in the Pure Land for the attainment of perfect Enlightenment/Buddhahood

 - click to return to the main list of the elements of genuine faith in Amida Buddha - 

The goal of Buddha Dharma is to become a Buddha. Not to paint this life in different colors, not to become a smart or interesting kind of Buddhist, but to become a Buddha. The Buddhist path is not a method of relaxation or a tablet for headache, something like “how can we become happier and calmer people” or a recipe for momentary happiness, but a road to Buddhahood or complete Freedom for us and all beings.

It is of utmost importance for those who enter the Buddhist path to have the aspiration to become a Buddha. Without this aspiration there is no Buddhism. If we don’t want or don’t feel the urgency of complete freedom from the many sufferings of repeated births and deaths, then Buddhism will remain for us only an object of study, an interesting lecture of mythology or an intellectual delight.

There are, so to speak, two visions one can have about himself and the world. The first is the ordinary vision depending on one's cultural education or daily concerns, and the other is the Dharmic vision.

Elements of genuine faith: 4) The twofold profound conviction (nishu jinshin)

           

- click to return to the main list of the elements of genuine faith in Amida Buddha - 

Faith in Amida Buddha means a twofold profound conviction:

1) to know that we are people of deep karmic limitations, incapable to attain Buddhahood through our own power;

2) to know that only Amida Buddha can save us through His Vow Power (Other Power), without asking anything from us

“Deep mind is deep entrusting faith. It has two aspects. First, to believe deeply and unwaveringly that we are actually ordinary beings of karmic evil subject to birth and death, ever sinking and ever transmigrating in samsara since innumerable kalpas ago without a chance to escape from it. Second, to believe deeply and unwaveringly that the Forty-eight Vows of Amida Buddha enfold sentient beings, enabling them to board His Vow-Power and attain Birth.”[1]

"There are two aspects concerning this mind of trust: the first is to believe oneself to be a foolish being of defiled karma, subject to birth-and-death, from incalculable kalpas past constantly sinking and constantly turning, without any condition that could lead to liberation. The second is to believe deeply and decisively that, since one does not doubt that Amida's Forty-eight Vows grasp sentient beings, one rides on the power of that Vow and will without fail attain Birth.."[2]

Elements of genuine faith: 5)To accept the Primal Vow of Amida Buddha without any doubt and be sure of your birth in the Pure Land

          - click to return to the main list of the elements of genuine faith in Amida Buddha - 

After hearing the Primal Vow you should have no doubt, think that the Primal Vow is reliable and that Amida Buddha will keep His promise and take you to His Pure Land if you entrust yourself to Him, say His Name and wish to go there.

Shinran Shonin said:

"Shinjin (faith) is hearing the Vow of the Tathagata and being free of doubt".[1]

"'Entrusting' is to be free of doubt, believing deeply and without any double-mindedness that the Tathagata's Primal Vow is true and real."[2]

"Hearing the inconceivable selected Primal Vow and the holy Name of supreme wisdom without a single doubt is called true and real shinjin; it is also called the diamondlike mind".[3]

"'Entrusting' is to be free of doubt, believing deeply and without any double-mindedness that the Tathagata's Primal Vow is true and real."[4]

"The Great Sage Sakyamuni teaches
That Amida's land is easy to reach,
And calls the sentient being who doubts the Pure Land path
A person lacking eyes, or lacking ears".[5]

Elements of genuine faith: 6)To accept that birth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha takes place after death

             - click to return to the main list of the elements of genuine faith in Amida Buddha - 

Birth in the Pure Land through the Gate of the Primal Vow means the attainment of Buddhahood and acquiring the special transcendental qualities of the Enlightened Ones, which cannot be found in our present samsaric minds and bodies[1].

                     

Shakyamuni Buddha said:

“However hard you may practice in this life, it can only be for a short while. In the life to come you will be born in the land of Amitayus (Amida) and enjoy endless bliss there. Being forever in accord with the Way, you will no longer be subject to birth and death and be free of the afflictions caused by greed, anger and ignorance.”[2]

Honen Shonin said:

“When they lay aside their present lives, they will enter into the dwelling of the Buddhas, the Pure Land”.[3]

Shinran Shonin said:

"At the end of your life you will enter the family of the Buddhas, that is, the Pure Land".[4]

"At the moment our karmic bonds to this saha world run out and helplessly we die, we shall go to that land."[5]

“We read in the commentary of the Master of Kuang-ming Temple:

‘[…]We should sincerely devote ourselves to this teaching until the end of our life and, after abandoning our defiled bodies, realize the eternal bliss of Dharma-nature.’”[6]

„Those who have been born first [in the Pure Land] guide those who come later, and those who are born later join those who were born before. This is so that the boundless ocean of birth and death be exhausted”.[7]

“When ordinary beings reach the Western Land,

Their karmic evils, countless as particles, from long past

kalpas will perish.

Endowed with the six supernatural powers, they attain

unrestricted freedom in action;

Forever freed of old age and sickness, they are liberated from impermanence.”[8]

---

[1] Please reffer to the chapter "A collection of passages on the true meaning of birth in the Pure Land of Amida Buddha", from my book against wrong views - The True Teaching on Amida Buddha and His Pure Land, Dharma Lion Publications, Craiova, 2015, p.113

[2] Shakyamuni Buddha, The Larger Sutra, The Three Pure Land Sutras, translated by Hisao Inagaki in collaboration with Harold Stewart, revised second edition, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Berkeley, California, 2003, p. 53

[3] Honen’s Senchakushu – Passages on the Selection of the Nembutsu in the Original Vow (Senchaku Hongan Nembutsu Shu), translated and edited by Senchakushu English Translation Project, Kuroda Institute, University of Hawai’i Press, Honolulu and Sogo Bukkyo Kenkujo, Taisho University, Tokyo, p.121

[4] Kyogyoshinsho – On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 132.

[5] Shinran Shonin, Tannisho, chapter 9, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p. 666.

[6] Shinran Shonin, Kyogyoshinsho, chapter IV, Kyogyoshinsho – On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, p. 175.

[7] Shinran Shonin, Kyogyoshinsho, chapter VI, The Collected Works of Shinran, Shin Buddhism Translation Series, Jodo Shinshu Hongwanji-ha, Kyoto, 1997, p.291

[8] The hymns by Fa-chao, based on the Sutra in Praise of the Pure Land (Sukhavativyuha), quoted by Shinran in his Kyogyoshinsho, chapter II,   Kyogyoshinsho – On Teaching, Practice, Faith, and Enlightenment, translated by Hisao Inagaki, Numata Center for Buddhist Translation and Research, Kyoto, 2003, Idem, p. 41-41.

Elements of genuine faith: 7) To say the Name of Amida Buddha

             - click to return to the main list of the elements of genuine faith in Amida Buddha - 

When one has faith (shinjin), one is convinced that Amida Buddha and His Pure Land exists, and that the Promise He made in His Primal Vow is true, so he simply entrusts to this Buddha and wishes to go to His Pure Land (Buddha-field of Amida) after death. Saying Namo Amida Bu[1] often or seldom means exactly this – “I entrust to Amida Buddha/I take refuge in Amida Buddha and I wish to go to His Pure Land”. It also means, “Thank you Amida Buddha for saving me and taking me to your Pure Land at the end of this physical body”.

The genuine saying of Amida's Name comes automatically after entrusting to Him. Thus, the Nembutsu is both an expression of faith and gratitude that you are saved as you are by Amida Buddha.

Shinran Shonin said:

"Although the one moment of shinjin and the one moment of nembutsu are two, there is no nembutsu separate from shinjin (faith), nor is the one moment of shinjin separate from the one moment of nembutsu."[2]

Elements of genuine faith: 8) To not mix nembutsu and devotion towards Amida Buddha with other faiths and practices from inside or outside of the Buddha Dharma

             - click to return to the main list of the elements of genuine faith in Amida Buddha - 

For example, a person of genuine faith will not entrust to, nor rely on the "god" of the monotheists[1] or any other gods or spirits of various religions.  

"Based on the true intent of the Buddha’s teaching and the expositions made and transmitted by the masters of the past, I will clarify that the path of sages is provisional and the Pure Land path is true, and caution people against non-Buddhist teachings, which are perverted, false, and wrong".[2]

“Those who take refuge truly and wholeheartedly, freeing themselves from all delusional attachments and all concern with the propitious or unpropitious, must never take refuge in false spirits or non-Buddhist teachings.”[3]

"Here, based on the sutras, the true and the false are determined and people are cautioned against the wrong, false, and misleading opinions of nonbuddhist teachings:
The Nirvana Sutra states:
'If one has taken refuge in the Buddha, one must not further take refuge in various gods.'