SuttaCentral
Just compare it to the time of the Buddha using the vehicle of oxcart and today superjet .
Probably this vehicle might inclined towards those whom has little knowledge of the dhamma , old and sick , and perhaps very lazy people .
Pureland teachings can suit variety of different types of people .
P/s : To put it this way , Pureland teachings can be considered as something that in terms of the EBTs will not ever think of .
We haven’t even started going into detail regarding the Zen/Ch’an understanding of Pure Land practice, which is based on sutras like The Sutra on the Contemplation of Buddha Amitayus, The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriach, the Vimalakirti Sutra, etc., which is also vastly different from evangelical Christianity:
Buddhist authors in late-medieval China and Vietnam frequently describe Pure Land Buddhism’s practice of reciting the Buddha’s name in terms of three levels:
Mundane, regular level: reciting the Buddha’s name to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.
Middle-level: reciting the Buddha’s name to “bring out” the Buddha within the practitioner.
High-level: reciting the Buddha’s name with the understanding that there is no Buddha outside the mind.The point is that the “ultimate” teaching of Pure Land Buddhism has nothing to do with an external refuge, but that the Pure Land is the mind itself.
https://klingonbuddhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/a-look-at-chinese-pure-land-buddhism/
“Shariputra, it is the failings of living beings that prevent them from seeing the marvelous purity of the land of the Buddha, the Thus Come One. The Thus Come One is not to blame. Shariputra, this land of mine is pure, but you fail to see it…”
The Buddha then pressed his toe against the earth, and immediately the thousand-millionfold world was adorned with hundreds and thousands of rare jewels, till it resembled Jeweled Adornment Buddha’s Jeweled Adornment Land of Immeasurible Blessings.
All the members of the great assembly sighed in wonder at what they had never seen before, and all saw that they themselves were seated on jeweled lotuses.[5]
The Buddha said to Shariputra, “Now do you see the marvelous purity of this Buddha land?”
Shariputra replied, “Indeed I do, World-Honored One. Something I have never seen before, and never even heard of. Now all he marvelous purity of the Buddha-land is visible before me!”
The Buddha said to Shariputra, “My Buddha-land has always been pure like this. But because I wish to save those persons who are lowly and inferior, I make it seem an impure land full of defilements, that is all.
It is like the case of heavenly beings. All ate their food from the same precious vessel, but the food looks different for each one, depending upon the merits and virtues that each possesses. It is the same in this case, Shariputra.
If a person’s mind is pure, then he will see the wonderful blessings that adorn this land.”
Buddha Lands [Chapter 1]
Then the World-Honored One said: Now do you not know, Vaidehi, that Buddha Amitayus is not very far from here?…
Every Buddha Tathagata is one whose spiritual body is the principle of Dharma-nature, so that he may enter into the mind of any beings. Consequently, when you have visualized Buddha, it is indeed that mind of yours that possesses those thirty-two signs of perfection and eighty minor marks of excellence which you see in a Buddha.
In conclusion, it is your mind that becomes Buddha, nay, it is your mind that is indeed Buddha. The ocean of true and universal knowledge of all the Buddhas derives its source from one’s own mind and thought.
The Sutra of Contemplation on Buddha Amitayus
Blessed Lord! My devotion to reciting the name of Amitabha had no other purpose than to return to my original nature of purity (Buddha-nature) and by it I attained to the state of non-rebirth perseverance (enlightenment).
Surangama Sutra
As one can see, the highest goal of Pure Land practice is to realize Amida Buddha as one’s own Buddha-nature, and thus attain Buddhahood. It is not the worship of a theistic god.
To be fair though, those are not the EBTs, and as a result, almost certainly not the teachings of gotama. The main point isn’t that pure land is similar in some major ways to christianity, that aspect only reinforces the argument, but instead that it certainly isn’t the teachings of gotama. That is what is important. If you choose to follow the teachings of someone else, that’s totally fine, but for those interested in following the original teachings of gotama, the buddha, all I’m saying is pure land isn’t where they should be headed.
The purpose of Buddhism is to become enlightened oneself, not to merely imitate its founder. A teaching, therefore, is to be judged by its fruit, as to whether it leads to enlightenment:
As for the qualities of which you may know, ‘These qualities lead to dispassion, not to passion; to being unfettered, not to being fettered; to shedding, not to accumulating; to modesty, not to self-aggrandizement; to contentment, not to discontent; to seclusion, not to entanglement; to aroused persistence, not to laziness; to being unburdensome, not to being burdensome’: You may categorically hold, ‘This is the Dhamma, this is the Vinaya, this is the Teacher’s instruction.’
Gotami Sutta: To Gotami
And devotional practice does go back to the beginning of Buddhism:
Devotion in Buddhism
by Nyanaponika Thera
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/devotion.html
Like all Buddhist devotional practice, the ultimate goal of Pure Land practice is to humble the false ego-self enough that enlightenment can be attained:
It is because we have come to think of the symbolic self as “me” that we do not realize that essentially we are Amida Buddha.
So, in the Zen sect, we teach that when a person chants Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu, Namu Amida Butsu…that this is not done toward some Buddha which is separate from you, but rather you yourself are Amida Buddha and then by calling your own name you enter samadhi (a condition of forgetting the ego-self by being completely absorbed in any certain activity).
Untitled Document
Please compare the above to these words of Shinran:
67 The Commentary on the Treatise states:
To aspire to be born in the Pure Land of happiness is necessarily to awaken the mind aspiring for supreme enlightenment.68 Further, it states:
This mind attains Buddhahood means that the mind becomes Buddha; this mind is itself Buddha means that there is no Buddha apart from the mind…69 The [Master of] Kuang-ming temple states:
This mind attains Buddhahood. This mind is itself Buddha. There is no Buddha apart from this mind.
Chapter on Shinjin - The Collected Works of Shinran
May you be happy and well.
I read that, and I agree with it, but that’s not pure land, and that’s just a very small aspect of the overall practice. You know pure land is more than just that. The main point isn’t about devotional practices, it is and continues to be that when compared, pure land to the EBTs, they just are too radically different to what gotama actually taught. Of course they may have some things in common, and pure land is obviously a spin off of true buddhism, but it just isn’t true buddhism. You can try to combine the two, but pure land on its own just doesn’t fit with the teachings of the EBTs. And it does matter where the teachings came from, because I am much more likely to accept teachings from the guy who came up with all these other teachings instead of the guy who came up with some new addition to it way later. So the founder is important, especially when claims are made about what these teachings will do when followed. Maybe it’s just me, but I would rather have faith in the buddha than that other guy. That’s all I’m saying, and that it can be confusing to newcomers when the teachings of that other guy are made to seem as if they came from the buddha.
You are not the first Western convert to Buddhism to reject whatever practices one might dislike as “not true Buddhism,” simply because it seems at a surface level to be too similar to Christianity.
All I am trying to say is that Pure Land Buddhism is the largest school of Buddhism in East Asia, and if we try to better understand it, perhaps we can better respect it as a legitimate expresison of Buddhism, even if we disagree with it in our own personal practice.
May you be happy and well.
It seems in South East Asia and many parts of Asia the peoples were quite comfortable with the pureland teachings .
I supposed in other parts of the world could be different though .
Maybe we can accommodate and accept it while adjusting to the perspective that to a certain point of the dhamma it is still buddhism . We can treat it as an option or open door to enter into the buddhism in general .
Whereas the ultimate goal of Christianity is to serve a god forever in heaven, the ultimate goal of Pure Land practice is to become a Buddha oneself.
Buddha represents the true nature of the universe and human life, which is called “Buddha nature” or true mind. “Buddha” is translated from Sanskrit, and means someone who is totally enlightened.
The Buddha statue represents our original enlightenment and the Bodhisattvas statues represent the application of our original enlightened mind…
Amitabha Buddha (Infinite Life and Infinite Light) represents the infinite enlightenment that is an intrinsic part of our nature.
Buddhism as an Education by Master Chin Kung
As Master Chin Kung explains above, all the celestial Buddhas and Boddhisattvas are really symbolic of enlightenment itself, which is our true, essential nature when the ego-self is peeled away.
In bowing and expressing devotion to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, like when we recite the name of Amida Buddha, we are humbling the ego-self to let our Buddha-nature shine through.
The main reason I am sharing these things is so we can have better respect and understanding for the millions of Buddhists in East Asia who benefit from this form of practice, even if we might not agree with it ourselves in our own practice.
Devotional practice goes back to the beginning of Buddhism, rather than being an aberration of it.
My relationship with the Pure Land Buddhism always was that it is akin to saying Mormonism is a particular form of Christianity or Christianity is the most widely practiced form of Judaism. The Dharmic religious traditions are much more liberal in defining their boundaries than the Abrahamic religions, which I think is the reason why the Pure Land Buddhism is still Buddhism.
The Buddhism I read about in the Nikayas and find partially practiced and professed in the Theravada tradition is a harsh religion. It gives you a very bleak view of existence, more pessimistic and nihilistic than even the atheistic nihilism. It doesn’t offer you the consolation of devotional worship and it doesn’t promise you salvation by faith or any buddhas or bodhisattvas. After having an honest look at this form of Buddhism, I realize that the chances are I and 99.9% of my co-religionists will still be around suffering and dying when Metteya comes, and it is by far not a given we will hear of Him or Dhamma. If I feel an emotional need for devotion, I may kneel in front of the Buddha statue in my apartment or go to the local Theravada temple or even to the Eastern Orthodox church, as I realize my need for devotion and wide-eyed wonder is similar to the all too human desire to be cuddled and cared for, to make sense of anatta, anicca and dukkha. It is a wholesome desire when compared to some others we have, but it is important to understand it has only an instrumental value and doesn’t really have any deep metaphysical grounding.
Compared to this view of reality, Mahayana is a step forward towards anthropologizing the reality, making it easier to digest. Mahayana says the world does care about us after all, the world is essentially good since it is all the Dhammakaya. It is not even necessary to leave the Samsara, what for? The Samsara is part of the Dhammakaya, ergo it is in some sense okay to stay there.
The Pure Land Buddhism has gone much further down this path. Why should anyone be a samana? Why should anyone practice anything described in the EBTs? Why bother at all? The Universe is so good it keeps sending us emissaries of salvations that are pulling us, kicking and biting their merciful hand, out of the swamp we are sitting in. The Dhammakaya will find the way, so sit back and enjoy the ride.
Please keep in mind that I don’t usually call myself a “Pure Land Buddhist.” It would be kind of like a Theravada Buddhist calling himself a “Vipassana Buddhist” because he happens to like Vipassana meditation. I am a Mahayana Buddhist, and Pure Land practice just happens to be the most widely practiced form of Mahayana practice.
In Ch’an/Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, one practices devotion to Amida Buddha with the intent of realizing Amida as our Buddha-nature, not separate or distinct from the mind when freed of karmic obstructions.
At the popular level, the Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha is an ideal training ground, an ideal environment where the practitioner is reborn thanks both to his own efforts and the power of Amitabha Buddha’s vows…
At the advanced level, i.e. for cultivators of high spiritual capacity, the Pure Land method, like other methods, reverts the ordinary, deluded mind to the Self-nature True Mind. In the process wisdom and Buddhahood are eventually attained.
The high-level form of Pure Land is practiced by those of deep spiritual capacities:
“When the mind is pure, the Buddha land is pure …to recite the Buddha’s name is to recite the Mind.”…
Practice generally means reciting the Buddha’s name to the point where one’s Mind and that of Amitabha Buddha are in unison…
Introduction to Pure Land - Pureland Buddhism - Trang Nhà Quảng Đức
Buddhist authors in late-medieval China and Vietnam frequently describe Pure Land Buddhism’s practice of reciting the Buddha’s name in terms of three levels:
Mundane, regular level: reciting the Buddha’s name to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.
Middle-level: reciting the Buddha’s name to “bring out” the Buddha within the practitioner.
High-level: reciting the Buddha’s name with the understanding that there is no Buddha outside the mind.The point is that the “ultimate” teaching of Pure Land Buddhism has nothing to do with an external refuge, but that the Pure Land is the mind itself.
https://klingonbuddhist.wordpress.com/2014/02/16/a-look-at-chinese-pure-land-buddhism/
In the words of Shinran’s Kyogyoshinsho, “There is no Buddha apart from the mind.”
Also, in the words of Shinran, “For the one who entrusts in Amida Buddha, their heart already and always resides in the Pure Land.”
Buddha-name recitation is a practice as old as Buddhism itself. It falls under right mindfulness and right concentration in the Eightfold Path.
When a Chinese Mahayana Buddhist recites “Namo Amituofo,” that is like a Theravada Buddhist who recites “Namo Buddhaya.”
Indeed, with some similarities, but also with some differences as well, as was discussed in a subdiscission on thread you started on DhammaWheel, if I may move a few quotes from there to here:
Thai forest meditation generally begins with Buddho. The two syllables, Bud and dho, are coordinated with the in and out breath, respectively. The student is directed to maintain concentration on the coordinated breath/sound to the exclusion of all other thought and sensory input. Samadhi, concentration, lays the necessary foundation for wisdom, panna. It is argued that without the penetrative power of samadhi, insight can only be shallow. The practice of Buddho is near universal among forest monks. While other methods are suggested, the recitation of Buddho is the favoured object of sitting meditation. Ajahn Chah for instance recommends that at the commencement of a meditation period a body scan is helpful; nonetheless, he continues to advocate Buddho as the primary practice. This is evident in his instructions to a dying lay follower as he urges her to let go of all concerns and just be with Buddho (2002, p. 323).
The work Meditations on the Word Buddho for Beginners (2015) by Chaiwutimongol is one of the few in print discussions of this primary practice. A progressive set of levels of Buddho are prescribed beginning with coordination with the breath. The mantra is eventually located in the heart or the solar plexus region. The systematic presentation by Chaiwutimongol fills in gaps in our knowledge, but it may be misleading. The researcher never encountered such an orderly or thorough practice of Buddho. This presentation may be an ideal composite. Nevertheless, in the field, Buddho was practiced to establish basic samadhi.
Once the mind has become unified with Buddho/breath, the practice becomes more subtly and even divergent. The attainment of a stable absorption in Buddho is a critical junction and signals a higher level of practice.
(Alan Robert Lopez, Buddhist Revivalist Movements: Comparing Zen Buddhism and the Thai Forest Movement, 61)
The linking of the recitation of the name with, specifically, what seems like an adaption of basic Buddhist breath-observation, is a characterizing feature, it seems by the above, of the Thai Forest practice of Buddho-recitation. I have never been instructed in the practice and am poorly exposed to it, is the above an inaccurate presentation of at least a cursory glance at the practice?
It would be interesting to see if Pure Land developed a similar practice of recitation combined with a meditative practice, it would be even more interesting if that specific meditative practice involved observation of breath or breathing.
What is similar, though, between Buddho-recitation and niànfó, and aside from the more obvious similarity of them both being ‘conceived of’ as forms and/or methodologies of buddhānusmṛtayaḥ (recollections of the Buddha), is that they both seem to incorporate a certain amount of non-dual teachings between the practitioner and the object of practice.
In niànfó, the mind becomes ‘unified’ with Amitābha Buddha by virtue of, ultimately, being Amitābha Buddha, in a manner of speaking and from a certain perspective.
In the above quotation from Lopez, if it is correct with regards to Thai Forest tradition teachings/practices, the “mind becomes unified with Buddho”, which is understood, it seems, as ‘identical’, in one way or another of reckoning, to the very breath involved in the uttering the word. It would be interesting, from here, to see how they further differ and correspond.
Lastly, is this conducive to the OP and in agreement with the intentions of the thread regarding the OP, or should this reverie into niànfó-Buddho comparatives be its own thread? If it is contrary to the wishes of the OP or the forum to have this subdiscussion here, it can be moved to its own thread, or deleted, but I think it would enrich the general conversation personally.
In regards to the recitation of Buddho in the Thai Forest Tradition of LP Chah; I believe he was using the word for its original meaning ‘the one who knows/is aware/is awake’. Throughout his teaching along with LP Sumedho, LP Pasanno and Aj. Amaro there is a constant theme of ‘being the knowing’. Being awake to the way things are with equanimity. The recitation of Buddho is a reminder to be awake, aware, knowing. As I understand it it wasn’t as much a devotional practice.
I don’t know much about LP Mahabowa’s lineage but from listening to a few talks by Ajahn Dick Silaratano I believe it’s similar.
LP Jamnien has also spoken about recitation of Buddho in the above way. Interestingly LP Jamnien didn’t make any obvious gestures of respect towards the Buddha rupa when I was on retreat with him. He did give a massively powerful paritta blessing at the end of the week though!
Here’s a link to show LP Chah’s explaination of Buddho.
https://books.google.com.au/books?id=jobemT3YciMC&lpg=PA344&ots=lVoABsLJxN&dq=buddho%20being%20the%20knowing&pg=PA344#v=onepage&q=buddho%20being%20the%20knowing&f=false
I think you’re on the right track. There are more similarities between Buddha-recollection practice in Mahayana and Theravada than there are differences.
It is also interesting to compare this tradition with the Eastern Orthodox hesychasm making an extensive use of the constant oral and mental recitatiosn of the Jesus prayer combined with breath control and concentration until the practicing monks started seeing ‘the uncreated light of God’, i.e. possibly experiencing strong nimittas or even entering jhanas. Hesychasm is still an official doctrine and meditative practice of the Eastern Orthodox churches.
It is very intriguing to compare these practices as I suspect they are extremely similar, while all of them have different underlying metaphysical assumptions. So, it may turn out that you don’t even have to be a Buddhist to more or less successfully practice samatha, which is certainly very interesting and useful, but it means that OP can hardly use this particular practice argument to defend the Pure Land devotional practices and metaphysics.
The teaching of Shinran is simple yet profound, that Amida is Dharma-body itself and the Pure Land is the realm of Nirvana. In gratitude for Amida’s boundless compassion, we recite the Nembutsu and seek to live a better life.
Sure, but that is not my point. Your teaching may be simple but yet profound, I don’t know, I just think you can’t use similarities between the Theravada and Pure Land practices as a proof that your teaching is correct beacause of the Hesychasm, unless you want us to seriously consider the Hesychams as an alternative, is all.
I used to be an Eastern Orthodox Christian, and there are similarities between the Jesus Prayer and the Nembutsu, at least on a surface level.
Shinran’s understanding of the Nembutsu, however, might be different than others, in that he didn’t see it as for the purpose of attaining anything, but instead as an expression of gratitude for what we’ve already received from Amida Buddha.
While Hesychasm is for the purpose of deepening one’s knowledge of God, and ultimately attaining union with God, Shinran saw the Nembutsu as a spontaneous expression of gratitude, rather than one’s own effort to attain anything.
So it may be different from the Buddho meditations and it may be different from the Hesychasm understanding as present by Gregory Palamas. Could you please dwell on these differences a bit, please?
While Hesychasm is for the purpose of deepening one’s knowledge of God, and ultimately attaining union with God, Shinran saw the Nembutsu as a spontaneous expression of gratitude, rather than one’s own effort to attain anything. There is no particular effort to concentrate or even recite for a set number of repetitions under Shinran’s understanding of the Nembutsu.
The nembutsu is a phrase, Namu Amida Butsu, that expresses our happiness and thankfulness. It isn’t a mantra or a prayer—it doesn’t accomplish anything other than letting out that bottled-up gratitude in a joyful utterance. When we say Namu Amida Butsu, we aren’t begging to get into the Pure Land or trying to win favors with the Buddha. We are saying, “How wonderful to receive so bountifully! Thank you very much!” I find that Buddhists in lineages other than the Pure Land schools often misunderstand this point.
Saying the nembutsu is just the most visible edge of a grateful life. On a deeper level, our practice is to respond thankfully in all areas of our lives. Every day brings innumerable gifts— life, love, nourishment, shelter, challenges, friendship, and more—and is an opportunity to recall our indebtedness as we reflect within ourselves. On a basic level, we try to remember the presence of power-beyond-self (Amida) in our lives, say the nembutsu, and do our best to give back by being patient, helpful, and caring.
The Path of Gratitude | Lion’s Roar