http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/purelan ... s/id3.html
"Neither Shravakas nor Bodhisattvas are able to know
The Sage's Mind exhaustively;
They are like those who are born blind
And yet wish to guide others."

The Buddha further said,
"I have expounded this Teaching for the sake of sentient beings and enabled you to see Amitayus and all in His Land.
Strive to do what you should.
After I have passed into Nirvana, do not allow doubt to arise.
In the future, the Buddhist Scriptures and Teachings will perish.
But, out of pity and compassion, I will especially preserve this Sutra and maintain it in the world for a hundred years more.
Those beings who encounter It will attain deliverance in accord with their aspirations.

The Buddha said to Maitreya,
"It is difficult to encounter and behold Tathagata when He is in this world.
Difficult of access, difficult to hear are the Buddhas' Teachings and Scriptures.
It is also difficult to hear the excellent teachings for Bodhisattvas, the Paramitas.
Difficult too is it to meet a good teacher, to hear the Dharma and perform the practices.
But most difficult of all difficulties is to hear this Sutra, have faith in It with joy and hold fast to It.
Nothing is more difficult than this.
Thus have I formed My Dharma,
thus have I expounded My Dharma,
and thus have I taught My Dharma.
You must receive it and practice it by the method prescribed."

times I speak of a metsudo-teki shutai or nehan-teki shutai, or [the sense of] "Being mediated by nirvana," but this [sense of] Being does not refer to I who am possessed of form, but rather to the formless I who am. That this is what I originally am is what Buddhism teaches.

In Christianity, this is never said. They will never [allow one to] say in Christianity that I am God. There's nothing one can do in Christianity other than to put one's belief in [a] God ["out there"]. Man so-called and God so-called are forever divided. This relation is an absolute one. Here, Christianity and Buddhism are very different.

I think it is a similar case as with rebirth generally. Many cannot move beyond their materialistic ideas and so they want to make Buddhism fit their concepts. In case of Pure Land Buddhism, some like to say that it is only a mental state and there is no such place as an actual buddha-land where beings can be born. And just as without rebirth Buddhism is meaningless, so is the Pure Land path pointless without Amita Buddha escorting beings to his Land of Bliss.

Hello all,

I wish to add my two cents here. I totally disagree with the view of criticizing those who do not see Amida as a literal man who became Enlightened and is dwelling somewhere in some celestial paradise. Those who speak of the deeper profound meaning of Amida Buddha are not saying that Amida is just figurative, but also real. Not real in the sense that he is some human man that became enlightened and now manifest a pure land, but real in that the Fundamental Unity and Love that penetrates all things is absolutely real. The dharmakaya is real. It is said that Amida manifested Shakyamuni Buddha. In my personal opinion the interpretation of this is that Lord Sidhartha awakened to the Dharmakaya so at this point he becomes One that that One Life of all things, so this is the Buddha seeing Buddha. So that is how I take these things. I wrote an article which I will post below on Amida and quotation from Thich nhat hanh, taitetsu Unno, and others.


http://journeytozen.wordpress.com/2010/ ... e-and-now/

In reading the scriptures, there are two kinds of mistakes. One mistake is to cling to the literal text and miss the inner principles. The second mistake is to recognize the principles but not apply them to your own mind, so that you waste time and just make them into causes of entanglement.... Buddha-remembrance is discipline, concentration and wisdom. What need is there to follow texts literally when reading the scriptures?

Believing in inner truth means having deep faith that the ten billion Buddha lands are in reality not outside our Mind. Since there is really nothing outside of this Mind, we have deep certainty that the whole assembly of beings and surroundings in the Western Paradise is a set of reflections appearing in our mind.

"Ordinary people generally think that if the Pure Land is Mind-Only, then it does not exist. This is the understanding of demons and externalists. Such a deluded view, which appears correct but is in reality wrong, affects more than half of all people and causes practitioners to forfeit true benefits."
(Pure-Land Zen, letter 12, p. 57)

Shinran also explained that those who abuse the Dharma are the only persons who cannot attain birth in the Pure Land. Defining the meaning of abusing the Dharma he quotes Vasubandhu: "If one says, "There is no Buddha," "There is no Buddha Dharma," "There is no bodhisattva," or "There is no Dharma for bodhisattvas," such views, held firmly in the mind by one's own reasoning or by listening to others' teachings, are called 'abusing the right Dharma.'" Denying the existence of Amita Buddha clearly cuts away the possibility of birth for then there is neither faith nor aspiration. What's the point of calling it a Pure Land school?

Also we cannot be certain that the Pure Land sutras were spoken by the Buddha, so if we are not going to take the teachings and be able to experience Buddhism now, then why emphasize such faith in something that could be superstition?

http://www.ymba.org/BWF/bwf32.htm#points
Holding the rosary, I am rid of worldly thoughts,
Suddenly, I already became a Buddha a long time ago.
Thus, Pure Land embraces people of all levels.
For those of high capacities it is a sublime method;
for those of limited capacities it turns into a simple method.

The Patriarch Yin Kuang has these words of praise:
"Persons of the highest capacities can attain samadhi if they practice Buddha Recitation with an undisturbed mind.
Those of the lowest capacities will still succeed with only ten utterances [as they may be reborn in the Pure Land and ultimately achieve samadhi and Buddhahood].
This is an outstanding feature not found in any other method.

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .than.html
A1. "Now, householders, of those brahmans & contemplatives who hold this doctrine, hold this view — 'There is nothing given, nothing offered, nothing sacrificed. There is no fruit or result of good or bad actions. There is no this world, no next world, no mother, no father, no spontaneously reborn beings; no priests or contemplatives who, faring rightly and practicing rightly, proclaim this world and the next after having directly known and realized it for themselves' — it can be expected that, shunning these three skillful activities — good bodily conduct, good verbal conduct, good mental conduct — they will adopt & practice these three unskillful activities: bad bodily conduct, bad verbal conduct, bad mental conduct. Why is that? Because those venerable brahmans & contemplatives do not see, in unskillful activities, the drawbacks, the degradation, and the defilement; nor in skillful activities the rewards of renunciation, resembling cleansing.

A2. "Because there actually is the next world, the view of one who thinks, 'There is no next world' is his wrong view. Because there actually is the next world, when he is resolved that 'There is no next world,' that is his wrong resolve. Because there actually is the next world, when he speaks the statement, 'There is no next world,' that is his wrong speech. Because there actually is the next world, when he is says that 'There is no next world,' he makes himself an opponent to those arahants who know the next world. Because there actually is the next world, when he persuades another that 'There is no next world,' that is persuasion in what is not true Dhamma. And in that persuasion in what is not true Dhamma, he exalts himself and disparages others. Whatever good habituation he previously had is abandoned, while bad habituation is manifested. And this wrong view, wrong resolve, wrong speech, opposition to the arahants, persuasion in what is not true Dhamma, exaltation of self, & disparagement of others: These many evil, unskillful activities come into play, in dependence on wrong view.

A3. "With regard to this, a wise person considers thus: 'If there is no next world, then — at the break-up of the body, after death — this venerable person has made himself safe. But if there is the next world, then this venerable person — on the break-up of the body, after death — will reappear in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. Even if we didn't speak of the next world, and there weren't the true statement of those venerable brahmans & contemplatives, this venerable person is still criticized in the here-&-now by the wise as a person of bad habits & wrong view: 2 one who holds to a doctrine of non-existence. If there really is a next world, then this venerable person has made a bad throw twice: in that he is criticized by the wise here-&-now, and in that — with the break-up of the body, after death — he will reappear in the plane of deprivation, the bad destination, the lower realms, in hell. Thus this safe-bet teaching, when poorly grasped & poorly adopted by him, covers (only) one side, and leaves behind the possibility of the skillful

http://buddhistfaith.tripod.com/purelan ... s/id3.html
To obtain human life is difficult in the extreme;
To meet a Buddha in this world is also difficult;
It is difficult, too, for a man to attain faith and wisdom.
Once you have heard the Dharma, strive to reach its heart.

If you have heard the Dharma and do not forget it,
But adore and revere it with great joy,
You are my good friend. For this reason,
You should awaken aspiration for Enlightenment.

Even if the whole world is on fire,
Be sure to pass through it to hear the Dharma;
Then you will surely attain the Buddha's Enlightenment.
And everywhere deliver beings from the river of birth-and-death.

The Buddha further said,
"I have expounded this teaching for the sake of sentient beings and enabled you to see Amitayus and all in His Land.
Strive to do what you should.
After I have passed into Nirvana, do not allow doubt to arise.
In the future, the Buddhist Scriptures and Teachings will perish.
But, out of pity and compassion, I will especially preserve this Sutra and maintain it in the world for a hundred years more.
Those beings who encounter it will attain deliverance in accord with their aspirations.

The Buddha said to Maitreya,
"It is difficult to encounter and behold Tathagata when He is in this world.
Difficult of access, difficult to hear are the Buddhas' teachings and scriptures.
It is also difficult to hear the excellent teachings for Bodhisattvas, the Paramitas.
Difficult too is it to meet a good teacher, to hear the Dharma and perform the practices.
But most difficult of all difficulties is to hear this Sutra, have faith in it with joy and hold fast to it.
Nothing is more difficult than this.
Thus have I formed my Dharma, thus have I expounded my Dharma, and thus have I taught my Dharma. You must receive it and practice it by the method prescribed."

Isn't it better now to let everyone preach what they want?

Huseng,

I see, so you're saying that even the churches and abbots don't care about the quality of their teaching. That is sad indeed. Then perhaps you should study hard and become a reformer priest!