Maitreya and Tusita Heaven, or Amitabha and Pure Land
To those seeking rebirth: What’s the difference?
Excerpted from Ten Doubts About Pure Land, by Master Zhi-yi
Bodhisattva Maitreya is a One-Life Bodhisattva (a Buddha-elect) who is now residing in the Tusita Heaven. He will succeed Buddha Sakyamuni and become a Buddha in this world in the future.
One may think that we should cultivate the Ten Virtues and seek to be reborn in the Tusita Heaven, to see Him in person. When the time comes for Him to descend to this world and become a Buddha, we will follow Him and certainly achieve Sagehood in the course of His three teaching assemblies. So, where is the need to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Amitabha?
The 6th Century T’ien T’ai Chinese Patriarch Master Zhi-yi had once addressed this in the book “Ten Doubts About the Pure Land”:
Seeking rebirth in the Tusita Heaven could be considered equivalent to hearing the Dharma and seeing the Buddha. It seems very similar to seeking rebirth in the Western Pure Land. However, there are many great differences between the Tusita Heaven and the Western Pure Land.
Let’s bring about two points for discussion.
First, about the “welcoming and escorting” expedience.
Even though we may cultivate the Ten Virtues, it is not certain that we will achieve rebirth in the Tusita Heaven. As stated in the sutras:
“The practitioner must cultivate the various samadhi and enter deeply into right concentration to obtain rebirth in the Inner Court of the Tusita Heaven.”
From this we may see that the Bodhisattva Maitreya lacks the expedient of “welcoming and escorting” that cannot be compared to the power of Amitabha Buddha’s Original Vow and His power of infinite light, which can gather in and rescue all sentient beings who concentrate on Him.
Also, when Buddha Sakyamuni explained the meaning of the “welcoming and escorting” expedient in his exposition of the nine grades of rebirth, he earnestly enjoined sentient beings to seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land. This expedient is very simple. The practitioner need only recite the name of Amitabha Buddha, and thanks to the accord of sentiment and response, the practitioner will immediately achieve rebirth.
Second, about achieving the stage of non-retrogression.
The Tusita Heaven is, after all, still within the Realm of Desire (to which our Saha World also belongs). Therefore, those who retrogress are legion. In the Tusita Heaven, the birds, rivers, forests, trees, wind… do not preach the Dharma and thus cannot help sentient beings get rid of afflictions, focus on the Triple Jewel nor develop the Bodhi Mind. Moreover, in the realm (the outer court) of the Tusita Heaven, there are goddesses who kindle the five desires in the Minds of celestial beings, to the point where few of them escape distraction and infatuation.
How can this be compared to the Western Pure Land, where the trees and birds proclaim the wonderful Dharma, and the wind sings of enlightenment, eliminating the afflictions of sentient beings and reinforcing the Bodhi Mind of practitioners?
Moreover, in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha, there are no seductive beings or beings concerned with self-enlightenment alone. There are only pure vessels of the Mahayana way. Therefore, afflictions and evil karma cannot arise.
Under these circumstances, how can cultivators fail to achieve the stage of non-retrogression swiftly? We have only drawn a few points of comparison, yet the differences between the Pure Land and the Tusita Heaven are already obvious. How can there be any further doubt or hesitation?
Moreover, seeing the Bodhisattva Maitreya and achieving the fruits of Arhatship is not necessarily a sure thing! During the lifetime of Buddha Sakyamuni, there were many who saw the Buddha but did not achieve sagehood.
In the future, when the Bodhisattva Maitreya appears in this world, the same would be true — countless sentient beings will see Him and listen to the Dharma but not attain Arhatship.
Such is not the case in the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha — to be reborn there is to be assured of attaining the “Tolerance of Non-Arising” (anutpattika-dharma-ksanti), with no possible retrogression to the Three Realms nor bondage to the karma of Birth and Death.
To illustrate this, there was a story in the “Records of the Western Regions of the Great Tang” (“Da Tang Xiyuji 大唐西域記” completed in 646), which was written by Xuanzang 玄奘 (ca. 602–664), the celebrated translator and pilgrim-monk in times of ancient China’s Tang Dynasty, about the account of his 16 years of journey to ancient India.
The three Bodhisattvas, Asanga, Vasubandhu, and Simhabhadra, all of whom practiced meditation, determined to seek rebirth in the Tusita Heaven.
They all vowed that if the first one of them to die were reborn in the Inner Court of the Tusita Heaven and saw the Bodhisattva Maitreya, he would return and inform the others.
Simhabhadra died first, but a long time elapsed and he still had not returned. Later, when Vasabandhu was nearing death, Asanga said to him, “After paying your respects to Maitreya, come back and let me know right away.”
Vasabandhu died, but did not return for three years. Asanga inquired, “Why did it take you so long?”
Vasabandhu answered, “After paying my respects to the Bodhisattva Maitreya, listening to His sermon and exhortations, and respectfully circumambulating Him three times, I came back immediately. I could not return sooner because a day and night in the Tusita Heaven is equivalent to four hundred years on earth.”
Asanga then asked, “Where is Simhabhadra now?”
Vasubhandu replied, “He has strayed into the Outer Court of the Tusita Heaven, and is now entangled in the five pleasures. From the time of his death to now, he has been unable to see Maitreya.”
We can see from this anecdote that even who are reborn in the Tusita Heaven are subject to delusion, not to mention us ordinary mortals!
Therefore, practitioners who wish to be assured of non-retrogression should seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land rather than the Tusita Heaven.
Resources:
Biography of Master Zhi-yi (538–597 CE)
See also: Sentient Beings and Their Experiences in the Pure Land
See also: Vow to Achieve Rebirth in the Pure Land
(Note: There is another account about the life of Vasabandhu, which referenced that Asanga actually died earlier than Vasabandhu and that the discrepancies between the accounts seemed unverifiable. See Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.)
