Nosta wrote:Rory thanks for the link. I will read it as soon as possible.Ryoto wrote:rory wrote: If you belong to a Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc Pure Land tradition you will suffer rebirth if you fail to do nembutsu to samadhi on your deathbed.
gassho
Rory
I would rather go by what the Sutra says rather than what tradition says what. And the 18th Vow of Amida Buddha makes it quite clear that those who recite the Nembutsu just as little as 10 times will achieve birth. No where in the vows does it state deathbed recital, samadhi etc. is required. The vows are pretty straight forward. Honen was quite correct in rejecting deathbed practices as our liberation is dependent on Amida alone hence the focus on "other power"
Honestly i am confused with these somewhat opposite interpretations: some say that one can recite just a few times in life, others urge us to make it all the time and others advises us to practice until we can do it correctly right after death.
Anyway, i think that even the people who believes that 10 recitation during life is enough, will not loose anything if they recite also right after death. Its what i call, playing cautious.
If you belong to a Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, etc Pure Land tradition you will suffer rebirth if you fail to do nembutsu to samadhi on your deathbed.
rory wrote:Amida is not the most Compassionate: beings are excluded from his famous 18th vow
Amida's 18th Vow 'only
excepting the Five Rebellious Sins and Blasphemy against the
True Dharma.”
1. Whereas: Shakyamuni, the Eternal Buddha saves Everybody.
2. The Lotus Sutra teaches us to abandon the former expedient teachings:
what has this to do with Shakyamuni's admonition that we abandon expedients and follow the One Vehicle?
3. Common People can keep and follow the teaching of the Lotus Sutra!
2. I said Jodo Shinshu - the biggest Japanese Pure Land sect, certainly the educated priests I met regarded the Pure Land as a metaphor & most of the Western practitioners here.
When I have become a Buddha,
My land shall be most exquisite
And its people wonderful and unexcelled;
The seat of enlightenment will be supreme.
My land, being like nirvana itself,
Will be beyond comparison.
I take pity on living beings
And resolve to save them all.
rory wrote:
Jikan the sutra explicitly states that previous teachings were expedients that should be cast aside & this is the last major & most revered teaching of the Buddha.
gassho
Rory
rory wrote:Aeimlius; why did you stop at the reward for those who merely copy the sutra?
As we continue;
"Universal Worthy, if after the passing of the Thus Come One, in the last five hundred years, you see a person who can receive, uphold, read, and recite the Dharma Flower Sutra, you should think, Before long, this person will go to the Way-place and destroy the demon hordes. He will attain anuttarasamyaksambodhi, turn the Dharma-wheel, beat upon the Dharma drum, blow the Dharma conch, let fall the Dharma rain, and soon sit on the Lion Dharma throne among the great hosts of gods and humans.
"Therefore, Universal Worthy, if one sees a person who receives and upholds this Sutra, one should welcome him from afar and revere him as one would the Buddha."
Here is the link to the Lotus Sutra, chapter 28 and people can read it and decide for themselves:
http://www.buddhistdoor.com/oldweb/reso ... otus28.htm
And if you don't achieve buddhahood in this life, then we are born in the Pure Land of Sacred Eagle Peak,Mt. Ryojuzen. The great Kegon teacher Myoe and the famous Hosso teacher Jokei, the scholar-poet Sugawara no Michizane aspired to be born there and taught it. (Stone, [i]Original Englightenment [i]p.293)
rory wrote:"If there be living beings who do not believe in it [the Lotus Sutra], do you show, teach, benefit, and rejoice them with the other [tactful] profound laws of the Tathagata." (Lotus Sutra, Chapter 22).
Exactly! And you all believe in the Lotus Sutra! It is called the King of Sutras by all Mahayana followers. All Mahayana Buddhists follow its tenets;
the one vehicle, Ekayana
All beings will become Buddhas
Faith and devotion
So why don't you worship Shakaymuni Buddha the Eternal Buddha (ch.16)
why don't you cast aside expedients (ch 2)
why don't you practice it as all you need is the mind of following joy,” (The “Chapter of the Distribution of Merits” 17)
Jikan the sutra explicitly states that previous teachings were expedients that should be cast aside & this is the last major & most revered teaching of the Buddha.
gassho
Rory
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