Assured Birth with Ten Mindful Chants
From Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vow 18
Assured Birth with Ten Mindful Chants
Amitabha Buddha’s Great Vow 18
Sakyamuni Buddha speaks of the monk Dharmakara, his practice, and his forty-eight vows before he became Amitabha Buddha. Excerpted from the Infinite Life Sutra:
When I become a Buddha, beings in the ten directions who hear my name, believe and rejoice with utmost sincerity, dedicate the merits from all their good roots in every thought to the vow of being born in my land, and chant mindfully even as few as ten times will be born in the Pure Land. If this is not so, I will not attain perfect enlightenment. The only exceptions are those who have committed the five grave offenses or slandered the proper Dharma.
- Vow 18. Assured birth with ten mindful chants.
The eighteenth vow is important because it teaches us the method of being born in the Western Pure Land. To be born in the Pure Land, one needs to have utmost sincerity in one’s belief, vow, and sincere chanting of Amitabha Buddha’s name.
“Beings in the ten directions” includes every one of us.
The condition “who hear my name” applies to all of us who have encountered the Pure Land method. Upon hearing the name, those who believe and accept will obtain the benefits from the teachings. “My name” means not just Amitabha Buddha’s name. It also includes everything about Amitabha Buddha, his forty-eight vows, and the magnificence of his land and the bodhisattvas who live there.
These teachings about Amitabha Buddha and the Pure Land are found in the three Pure Land sutras and the Rebirth Treatise. Only those who believe and accept upon hearing Amitabha Buddha’s name will benefit. Because beings are all different, they will have varying levels of belief and aspiration. But no matter their degree of belief and aspiration, all who believe and aspire will benefit.
The phrase “who hear my name” also appears in other vows to tell of additional benefits.
Next, Dharmakara talks of “believe and rejoice with utmost sincerity.” A wise scholar explained that sincerity is a mind without a single rising thought.
What is utmost sincerity?
It is the ultimate sincere mind. This is the true mind. And the true mind is true nature. This is a very difficult level to achieve. Only Dharma-body bodhisattvas, having let go of attachments, discriminations, and subtle wandering thoughts — not just our more discernible wandering thoughts — have achieved this level. One needs to practice treating everyone and everything with a true mind, not a false mind. One must be sincere in one’s actions. Learning to use one’s true mind is crucial to birth in the Pure Land.
Uncovering the true mind is extraordinarily difficult for us beings in samsara to achieve. But a level we can achieve is being mindful of Amitabha Buddha. This is described in the “Chapter of the Perfect and Complete Realization of Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattva” from the Surangama Sutra, which says to control the six sense organs and maintain continuous mindfulness of Amitabha Buddha.
Continuous mindfulness of the buddha-name of “Amitabha Buddha” allows us to get closer to uncovering the true mind. Let go of all worldly thoughts and attachments. Let go of greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubts about proper teachings. Let go as much as possible.
Let go even of other Dharma doors.
In the past, Great Master Shandao said that with focused practice, “If 100 people cultivate the Pure Land method, 100 will be born in the Pure Land.” When Pure Land practice is intermingled with other methods, however, “of 100 practitioners only one or two can be born in the Pure Land, and of 1,000 practitioners scarcely three to five can be born in the Pure Land.” The benefits varied widely.
From what the Master said, we can conclude that today, due to people’s polluted minds and our polluted environment, if people intermingle with other methods, achieving birth in the Pure Land will be almost impossible. Great Master Shandao’s words remind us that we should stay focused on one method.
“Believe” means rely on and accept without any doubt.
“Rejoice” means cherishing, aspiring, and loving. The meaning also includes joy and celebration. Such a mind is one that will “with utmost sincerity believe and rejoice.” It is completely filled with joy and wisdom. This is Dharma joy.
One who has Dharma joy will not be deluded but will have a very clear understanding and wisdom in all interactions with people and situations. The more sincerely one cultivates, the happier one becomes, and the more one enjoys practicing. There are those who do not feel Dharma joy when learning Buddhism. Why? They have not delved deep enough in their practice. Practicing for a short while is insufficient to receive Dharma joy. Most people require constant practice for a prolonged period of time.
Truly believing and rejoicing in practicing the Pure Land method, we will in our every thought aspire and dedicate merits to being born in the Pure Land.
Next, in “dedicate the merits from all their good roots in every thought,” the phrase “in every thought” means a mind in which every thought is pure and single-minded, a mind of continuous pure thoughts.
“Dedicate” has the meaning of returning to. As we practice, we may accrue merits and virtues, and good fortune, but we do not want to enjoy them personally. Instead, we dedicate them to what we aspire to achieve — helping all beings throughout the Dharma realms to be born in the Pure Land. All the merits and virtues, and good fortune one accrues go to benefit all beings. Thus, we will all meet Amitabha Buddha and be born in the Pure Land.
If we have no merits and virtues, then there is nothing to dedicate. Our dedication will be in name only. We will be deceiving ourselves and others. We need to have real merits and virtues to help and benefit others.
Next, the sutra talks about “good roots.” Goodness must have roots. When thoughts of greed, anger, and ignorance are absent, good roots are developed through the goodness of mental, verbal, and physical karmas. The good karmas from body, speech, and mind will be strong and cannot be uprooted. These are good roots. From these roots of goodness, they will bear fruit. From this fruit, more goodness will grow.
The best root is mindfulness of Amitabha Buddha, and the best way for us to achieve this is mindfully chanting Amitabha Buddha’s name. Chanting the buddha-name can help us to be born in the Pure Land and once there, to never retrogress. It is the foremost goodness. The good roots from this chanting can help us perfectly achieve buddhahood. Mindfulness of Amitabha Buddha can also be accomplished through focused, daily reading of a Pure Land sutra.
As Great Master Ouyi wrote in Essentials of the Amitabha Sutra, “Only when one has belief, makes the vow, and mindfully chants the buddha-name will one’s every chant bring ample good roots and good fortune. Even when one chants the buddha-name with a scattered mind, one’s good roots and good fortune are incalculable, let alone when one does so with one mind undisturbed.”
The phrase “the vow of being born in my land” tells the goal of dedication. We vow to be born in the Pure Land and hope that all beings will do the same.
Next is that those who “chant mindfully even as few as ten times will be born in the Pure Land.” When we chant the buddha-name, either aloud or silently in our mind, we must be continuously aware of and focus on Amitabha Buddha. This is chanting mindfully.
When our thoughts arise, regardless of whether they are good or bad, we do not mind them. Our next thought will be Amitabha Buddha. We chant his name to replace each of our rising thoughts. We need to realize that both good and bad thoughts are deluded thoughts. We need to replace these thoughts with Amitabha Buddha’s name. Those who can accomplish this will be true Pure Land practitioners. Our cultivation efforts will be strong and effective when we practice this way for two or three years. Our thoughts will no longer arise for they have all been replaced with the buddha-name. Such a state is constant mindfulness of Amitabha Buddha.
“Even as few as ten times” refers to chanting Amitabha Buddha’s name mindfully — as we breathe our last breaths. Chanting mindfully, ten chants are what we need to be born in the Pure Land. It is, therefore, of utmost importance that we chant daily. Failing to do so, it is unlikely we will be able to chant mindfully in the crucial moments at the end of our lives. We need to practice chanting the buddha-name and to do so mindfully.
Being born in the Pure Land requires belief, vow, and mindful chanting. Without belief and vow, we will not be born there, even with 10,000 chants. With belief and vow, even ten chants will suffice.
Chanting the buddha-name is an ongoing practice. It can be scheduled or spontaneous. But it is not just for the end of one’s life. The person who can attain birth in the Pure Land after having chanted the buddha-name ten times in their final moments is someone who has mindfully chanted innumerable times and thus has accumulated ample good roots, good fortune and virtues, and causal connections.
The practice of chanting throughout one’s life also enables a person to overcome their afflictions so that they can chant mindfully at the end of their present life.
Chanting during this end-of-life period is difficult. We need the right conditions to chant — the right environment and people who support our chanting. And we need to be conscious and have a clear mind.
We cannot just wait till the last moments to chant.
Dharmakara concluded, “The only exceptions are those who have committed the five grave offenses or slandered the proper Dharma.”
This sentence first addresses people who previously committed the five grave offenses and continue to do so even after learning the Buddha-dharma. The five are patricide, matricide, killing an arhat (or a bodhisattva), intentionally shedding the blood of a Buddha, and creating dissension in the sangha. This line in the sutra tells us that those who commit the five grave offenses are unable to be born in the Pure Land, even with chanting.
In today’s context, the third grave offense of killing an arhat can be the harming of a teacher, monastic or lay. This teacher is someone who can help beings awaken and be liberated from suffering. Without someone to teach the Buddha-dharma, many beings will lose the opportunities that will enable them to transcend the cycle of birth and death. This rare opportunity of being able to learn the proper teachings may not occur again for many kalpas. The harming or killing of such a teacher is equivalent to killing an arhat.
The Buddha is no longer in the world. So today, intentionally damaging or destroying a Buddha’s image or statue in anger or hatred is equivalent to shedding a Buddha’s blood, which is the fourth grave offense. If, due to carelessness, one causes accidental damage to a Buddha’s image, one has committed a fault, not a grave offense.
The fifth grave offense is creating dissension in the sangha. A sangha is a group of four or more Buddhist practitioners who practice together. Dissension within this group could destroy it. Disharmony can manifest in many ways, initiated and perpetuated by one’s words and actions. Again, the opportunity to learn proper teachings will be disrupted or even destroyed. We must be careful not to disrupt the harmony of the sangha.
And finally, what of slandering the proper Dharma? This is a very serious transgression. Such criticism and slander result in many more people losing confidence and also slandering the proper Dharma.
In the Commentary on the Treatise of Rebirth, we read, “You only know that the five grave offenses are very severe, but you do not know that the five grave offenses are due to the absence of proper Dharma. So, slandering the proper Dharma is the most serious transgression.” We also read in the commentary that “If one slanders the proper Dharma, even if one commits no other offenses, one will not be born in the Pure Land.” Why not? One who slanders the Dharma does not believe in it. So, when one slanders the Dharma, one will not be born in the Pure Land.
Great Master Tanluan wrote in a commentary that the sutras taught that those who commit the five grave offenses will fall into the Avici Hell and suffer the punishments for their transgressions for one kalpa. Those who slander the proper Dharma will suffer even more. After being reborn in the Avici Hell for one kalpa, they will be reborn in another Avici hell, then another and another. They will continue to be reborn in hundreds of thousands of Avici Hells. Even the Buddhas cannot say when they will leave.
The Collective Praises on the Infinite Life Sutra explained the reason for Dharmakara saying that “the only exceptions are those who have committed the five grave offenses or slandered the proper Dharma.” This line cautions people against committing the five grave offenses or slandering the proper Dharma.
For those who have committed the five grave offenses, the Buddhas can still help them go to the Pure Land. The Buddhas will not neglect nor give up on anyone. We learn of this great compassion in the Visualization Sutra. Those who have committed the five grave offenses can be born in the Pure Land if — with clear minds — they sincerely and deeply repent their offenses and, in their final moments, still believe, vow, and mindfully chant the buddha-name. In true repentance, the person feels deep remorse for their actions. They then reform by never repeating the action or by having such thoughts. Having regretted and reformed, they uphold the teachings.
Very few people can accomplish this because their minds need to be clear, and their repentance must be utterly sincere. A visit to a hospital will show how few people are clear-minded at the end of their lives. And far fewer are those who committed the five grave offenses.
Vow eighteen is the essence of the forty-eight vows, for it shows us how to be born in the Pure Land. We need to have sincere belief, vow, and mindful chanting. There are infinite merits and virtues in the buddha-name, and those who sincerely and mindfully chant Amitabha Buddha’s name will have inconceivable merits and virtues, and good fortune.
>> Learn more: The Initiation, Amitabha Buddha’s Forty-eight Vows
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Dedication of Merit
May the merits and virtues accrued from this work
adorn the Buddha’s pure land,
repay the four kinds of kindness above,
and relieve the sufferings of those in the three paths below.
May all those who see and hear of this
bring forth the bodhi mind
and at the end of this life,
be born together in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Note: The above is excerpted from the book “Awakening the Bodhi Mind: Amitabha Buddha’s Forty-Eight Vows”, which is available for download at eLibrary collection, Amitabha Gallery.
The Amitabha Buddha’s forty-eight vows is derived from the Chinese verses of the Infinite Life Sutra, that we are immensely grateful to the compilation efforts by Mr Xia Lianju. Translation credits go to The Pure Land Translation Team, Pure Land College Press.
