Vow to Achieve Rebirth in the Pure Land
Excerpts from the Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra, by Grand Master Ou-i
Grand Master Ou-i explains that after instilling faith in Amitabha, Buddha urges all sentient beings to seek rebirth in the Pure Land and to make vows.
This section is in two parts. The first reveals the supreme causal basis for rebirth in the Pure Land and the second extols the special excellence of the Pure Land.
What is the special excellence of the Pure Land?
Sentient beings can be reborn there carrying their karmic load with them, and thereby transcend the triple world “horizontally.”
Amitabha’s Pure Land is a pure land where saints and ordinary beings dwell together, but it includes all Four Lands (the Land where Saints and Ordinary Beings Dwell Together, and the Land of Expedient Liberation, the Land of Real Reward, and the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light), and reveals the Four Teachings (elementary, common, special, and complete).
Sentient beings who are born in Amitabha’s Pure Land purify the Four Lands completely, see the three Buddha-bodies perfectly, and fully arrive at the point where they cannot fall back from their position, from their practice, or their mindfulness. All the people in Amitabha’s Pure Land will attain enlightenment in one lifetime.
All these special features of the Pure Land are pointed out in the next two sections of the sutra. You should study them carefully.
Now the first passage reads, “None of the sentient beings who are born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss ever fall back into a lower realm [i.e., they are avaivartika]. Many among them have only one more lifetime to go before Buddhahood. Their number is incalculable: they can be spoken of as innumerable.”
The sutra uses a Sanskrit word, “avaivartika”, which means “not falling back” (non-retrogression). There are three senses of this “not falling back” that apply to sentient beings in the Pure Land.
First, they do not fall back from their position: having entered the holy stream (four levels of sagehood culminating in Arhatship), they do not fall back to the level of gods and men.
Second, they do not fall back from their practice: as followers of the Bodhisattva path they continue to work for the salvation of all beings, and do not fall back to the level of the Lesser Vehicles with their concern limited to individual salvation.
Third, they do not fall back from their mindfulness: from mind-moment to mind-moment, they flow into the ocean of all-knowledge.
In Amitabha’s Pure Land, the ten forms of mindfulness are fully developed, and even those who dwell on its lowest level, and have been born in there bringing along their karmic burdens, do not fall back from their position, from their practice, or from their mindfulness.
According to the doctrines of the non-Pure Land Buddhist scriptures, it is a deviation from the established terminology to speak of skipping stages. It is only in Amitabha’s Pure Land of Common Residence, where saints and ordinary beings dwell together, that people are not in any of these stages, and yet in all of them. Such transcendence of names and forms does not exist in any other Buddha-land; this definition of stages and levels, this teaching, does not exist in any other Buddha-land. But how could any of this exist if not for the ultimate reality of the true nature of mind, if not for the special effect of reciting the Buddha-name, if not for the great vows of Amitabha?
In the non-Pure Land Buddhist scriptures, the stage of having only one lifetime to go before enlightenment is generally attributed only to Bodhisattvas. But everyone in the Land of Ultimate Bliss will achieve enlightenment in one lifetime and among them are countless numbers of superlative Bodhisattvas.
Among the teachings given by Sakyamuni Buddha, only the Avatamsaka Sutra explains perfect realization of Buddhahood in a single lifetime. The basis for perfect realization is explained in the Chapter on the “Vows of Samantabhadra”, which shows the way back to the land called “Peaceful Nurturing” (another name for Amitabha’s Pure Land). The Avatamsaka Sutra thus urges the whole assembly in the Flower Store World (cosmos) on toward the Pure Land.
How amazing! Ordinary people in the Pure Land reach the stage of having only one lifetime to go before enlightenment, just like the great Bodhisattvas. What a sublime teaching — it is truly unfathomable! What was given to us in the Flower Ornament (Avatamsaka) Sutra is here in the Amitabha Sutra. Yet from ancient times until now, few have believed in it, and many have doubted it. Complex writings have been produced, but the truth has been sacrificed. All I can do to set things right is give my heart’s blood.
At this point in the sutra, Buddha gives a specific admonition: “When sentient beings hear these teachings, they must take a vow to be born in this land. Why so? So that they can be together with all these Beings of Superior Goodness.”
The Arhats and the Bodhisattvas the sutra talks about at the beginning as part of the assembly listening to Buddha expound the sutra can be called “good people”. But only those who are at the top level of the causal ground for enlightenment, are called “Beings of Superior Goodness” (Beings of the Highest Virtue). The sutra says “all these Beings of Superior Goodness” because their number is large.
“Being together” expresses the idea that in the Pure Land the ordinary and the holy live together. There are sages of real attainment, who still carry some past impure karma, and sages adept in provisional expedients, with their vows of great compassion, so ordinary people in the Pure Land get to live together with holy sages. There are real saints whose desires have been extinguished, and teachers with skill-in-means whose entanglements have been ended. They differ widely in levels of attainment, and of bliss, but for the time being they are together in the Pure Land.
In our mundane world, on the other hand, those who see and hear such holy sages are few, and among those who do have the good fortune to see or hear them, few have the opportunity to approach them.
When a Buddha is in the world, there may be relatively many holy ones [helping to spread the teaching], but after all they are still rare jewels, and they cannot cover the whole world like the stars of the firmament.
But even though Amitabha’s Pure Land is a place where saints and ordinary beings dwell together, their actions and their achievements are different.
Those who have been born in the Pure Land are together due to their transcendental karma and inconceivable deeds. These beings act as one another’s teachers, and work in harmony, so that they may end ignorance and delusion and together achieve wondrous enlightenment.
Therefore, the ordinary sentient beings born in the Pure Land, by virtue of not falling back, have in fact transcended many levels of Bodhisattvahood. If we say they are ordinary people, this is wrong, because they are beyond the cycle of rebirth; they are on the verge of enlightenment, and are no different from the great Bodhisattvas Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta. Although they are going to attain Enlightenment in their current lifetime, still, they must be called ordinary people, and they cannot be called One-Life Bodhisattvas. This state of affairs cannot be encompassed by the systems of the non-Pure Land sutras, and has no precedent in Buddha-lands other than Amitabha’s Pure Land.
Therefore, we must realize that the most urgent task for sentient beings is to cross over to the Common Residence Pure Land Where Saints and Ordinary Beings Dwell Together. The Land of Ultimate Bliss, Amitabha’s Pure Land, is unique — it surpasses all the other pure lands.
Only when we comprehend this can we have deep faith in the power of the vows of Amitabha. Only when we believe in the power of Amitabha Buddha can we have deep faith in the virtues of his name. Only when we have deep faith in the recitation of the name of Amitabha can we have deep faith in the True Nature of sentient beings, which has always been inconceivable. Only when we have this deep faith can we make great vows.
The text of the sutra says sentient beings must take a vow to be born in the Pure Land. This word “must” points to deep faith. Making vows with deep faith is precisely the Mind of Supreme Enlightenment.
In sum, faith and vows are truly the guiding compass leading to the Pure Land. Relying on faith and vows and consistently invoking the Buddha-name is correct practice.
[ Previous: Wonders of Amitabha Buddha | Next: Single-minded Practice ]
Source:
The above excerpt is a translation from the Chinese Commentary on the Amitabha Sutra written by Grand Master Ou-i. Translation comes from the book, Mind-Seal of the Buddhas.
To learn more about the Pure Land teachings from this commentary, read the complete text at The Commentary on The Amitabha Sutra.
Resources:
Five Pure Land Sutras from Pure Land Buddhism
Buddha-name Chanting Music Collection
