How Birth in Pure Land = Nirvāṇa

[Zhen Li]

One particular matter of curiosity which I have noticed comes up for people who encounter Jōdo Shinshū is how, precisely, we can say that birth in the Pure Land is the same as Nirvāṇa. Particularly since as Mahāyāna Buddhists we generally see Nirvāṇa, which is equal to Buddhahood and Buddha Nature, as attained after many aeons of practice. Moreover, the Pure Land Sūtras explain various ranks in the Pure Land, so surely it takes time for individuals there to attain Buddhahood according to their karma and Pure Land practice. I finally realised how to understand this as I was reading KGSS Chapter 4.

Firstly, all who are assured of birth, and all who are born in the Pure Land, are on the "Rightly Established Stage" and unfailingly reach Nirvāṇa. This is in the 11th vow.

Later is explained that their nature, by virtue of being born there, is no longer that of a "human" or "heavenly being," but rather they are endowed with bodies of "naturalness, emptiness and infinity" which is equal to Buddhahood.

[11th vow]
If, when I attain Buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not dwell in the Rightly Established Stage and unfailingly reach Nirvana, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment. ...
[Fulfillment]
Sentient beings who are born in that Buddha-land all reside among those who are rightly established, because in that Buddha-land there are neither those who are wrongly established nor those who are not definitely established. ...
[That being born there is equal to Nirvāṇa]
That Buddha-land is pure and serene, resplendent and blissful. It borders on the Unconditioned Nirvana. The shravakas, bodhisattvas, heavenly beings and humans there have lofty and brilliant wisdom, and are masters of supernatural powers. They are all of one form, without any differences, but are called 'heavenly beings' and 'humans' simply by analogy with states of existence in other worlds. They are of noble and majestic countenance, unequaled in all the worlds, and their appearance is superb, unmatched by any being, heavenly or human. They are all endowed with bodies of naturalness, emptiness and infinity. ...
Sentient beings of that land and those to be born there will fully realize the supreme Bodhi and reach the Nirvanic state. For what reason? Because those who are in the wrongly established stage and those who are not definitely established stage are unable to understand that the cause [of birth] has been established [by the Buddha].

To be born there as a human or heavenly being would be the result of past karma, but in the Pure Land beings are born through the power of Amida's vow:

In the realms of various births, whether from womb, from an egg, from moisture or by metamorphosis, one's kinsmen are many, and there are tens of thousands of varieties of pleasure and pain resulting from the inhabitants' different acts [in the past]. In the Land of Peace and Bliss there is no one who is not born transformed from within the pure flower of Amida Tathagata's Enlightenment. [They are so born] by one and the same path of the Nembutsu, and not by other paths. Within the four seas, all [Nembutsu practicers], even those living in the remotest places, are their brothers. Hence, their kinsmen are innumerable.

The nine grades, therefore, are an expedient. We also know this from how the highest grade of the highest rank and the lowest grade of the lowest rank can both be born through faith alone and the Nembutsu. Those born by self-power, i.e. merits, and recitation of the Nembutsu manifest the "borderland" prior to Nirvāṇa. Therefore just birth with faith (shinjin) is Nirvāṇa—all states based on karmic bonds are irrelevant after birth.

Those who wish to be born in the Pure Land are originally divided into nine classes but [after they have been born there] there are no differences, just as the water of the Tzu and that of the river Sheng become of one taste [upon entering the sea]. ...
Accomplishment of the glorious merit of purity is described in the verse as: When I contemplate the nature of that Land I find that it surpasses all states of existence in the three worlds. Why is this inconceivable? When ordinary men full of evil passions attain birth in the Pure Land, the karmic bonds of the three worlds will not affect them any more. Even without severing evil passions, they will attain the state of Nirvana.

The ten bodhisattva stages are a framework the Śākyamuni Buddha teaches for this world, but they are not applicable in the Pure Land, where all Bodhisattvas abide in a single Nirvāṇic state:

If, when I attain Buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the Buddha-lands of the other quarters who visit my land should not ultimately and unfailingly reach the Stage of Becoming a Buddha after One More Life, may I not attain perfect Bodhi. Excepted are those who wish to teach and guide sentient beings in accordance with their original vows. For they wear the armor of great vows, accumulate merits, deliver all beings from birth-and-death, visit Buddha-lands to perform the bodhisattva practices, make offerings to Buddhas, Tathagatas, throughout the ten quarters, enlighten countless sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the River Granges, and establish them in the highest, perfect Enlightenment. Such bodhisattvas transcend the course of practice of the ordinary bodhisattva stages, manifest the practices of all the bodhisattva stages, and actually cultivate the virtues of Samantabhadra.

Reading this sutra, one may assume that bodhisattvas in that Land do not rise from one stage to the next. The ten-stage system appears to be a method of guidance provided by Shakyamuni Tathagata for inhabitants of Jambudvipa. Why should other pure lands necessarily be the same? Among the five inconceivabilities, the Buddha Dharma is the most inconceivable.

Let us return home!
We should not stay in our native land of maras.
Since innumerable kalpas ago, we have been transmigrating In the six realms, taking up our abodes everywhere. Nowhere have we seen any pleasure;
We only hear the voices of samsaric pain.
After the end of this life,
Let us enter the Capital of Nirvana.

Shinran also states "Because the cause is pure, the effect is also pure. This we should know." We cannot produce Nirvāṇa with our defiled karmic bodies. Only a Buddha can produce a Buddha. Faith or Shinjin is the Buddha Nature connecting with our defiled minds and enabling our Nirvāṇa. Only by relying on Buddha Nature can we realise the Dharmakāya.

Nangaku one day goes to Baso’s hut, where Baso stands waiting. Nangaku asks, “What are you doing these days?”

Baso says, “These days Dōitsu just sits.”

Nangaku says, “What is the aim of sitting in zazen?”

Baso says, “The aim of sitting in zazen is to become Buddha.”

Nangaku promptly fetches a tile and polishes it on a rock near Baso’s hut.

Baso, on seeing this, asks, “What is the master doing?”

Nangaku says, “Polishing a tile.”

Baso says, “What is the use of polishing a tile?”

Nangaku says, “I am polishing it into a mirror.”

Baso says, “How can polishing a tile make it into a mirror?”

Nangaku says, “How can sitting in zazen make you into a buddha?”

[FiveSkandhas]

Another excellent post.

Although these days I am preoccupied with Shinran Shonin's thought, I originally came to Nembutsu through the thought of Ippen (Ji-Shu founder). I don't know how much you know about Ippen, but he also received Rinzai inka shomei and a lot of his thought has that "flavor" to it.

He also "collapses time" in the mode of medieval Hongaku Shiso (original enlightenment thought) such that for Ippen, the Nembutsu stands at the crux of 'horizontal and vertical time", erasing all dualities. It's an interesting and heady brew.

Ippen writes:

After the one thought-moment in which, realizing the transience of birth-and-death in our own flesh, we once genuinely entrust ourselves through saying Namu-Amida-Butsu, the self is no longer the self. Then, because our hearts are Amida Buddha's heart, our bodily actions are Amida Buddha's actions, and our words are Amida Buddha's words, the life we are living is Amida Buddha's life.

While Ippen and Shinran Shonin are very different in many ways, they both recognize a kind of "eruption" into the self of Amida Buddha through His other power. There is plenty in the Kyōgyōshinshō to suggest a kind of unity or at least inseperability and interpenetration (in the Kegon Kyo sense) of Shinjin and ultimate enlightenment.

[Zhen Li]

I have had trouble finding works on/by Ippen in English, but I'm starting to read Jōdo Shinshū books in Japanese and might have a look for some simple introductions.

Definitely Shinjin is of the same taste as and inseparable from Nirvāṇa. On a certain level I think what Ippen is saying is consistent with Shinran. The "ordinary self" may not undergo any apparent change, but it is the false-self and so one may not expect anything else. Certainly deluded and karmic actions performed with our bodies are not separate from Amida on an ultimate level, but cannot conventionally be said to be of enlightened nature.

[FiveSkandhas]

Some of Shinran Shonin's writings I have come across seem to suggest the need to keep a balance between the assurance that comes with Shinjin and the sense of wretched hopelessness about one's own deluded nature that is a major catalyst for the decisive abandonment of jiriki efforts. It seems that even after attaining shinjin this is not an easy matter...

You've probably come across this in your travels...different thinkers have interpreted it differently, but the narrow white path to the other shore where Amida Nyorai beckons is ones Nembutsu practice, and the fire and water can be thought of as the pitfalls of complacent arrogance and faithless dispair (among other interpretations). It seems that even a life of decisive shinjin, while truly connecting one to Amida Nyorai, is not without it's need for continued caution.

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[Zhen Li]

I think for many there is a process before becoming certain that the white path is the right way. On the other hand, those who are certain (with shinjin) should not, in principle, be acting contrary to the Dharma, but the results of past evil karma may still ripen in their mindstreams and manifest as unwholesome action. I think these are two reasons why Shinran and Rennyō continued to emphasise the idea that we should not look down on good conduct—it is an ideal that would be best to fullful, but it is not at all a condition for birth.

Rennyo had the idea of the distinction between chewing and swallowing—chewing is continuing to do evil as a result of our karma, but swallowing is justifying evil or thinking it to be good, or neutral, or thinking that the Nembutsu is a reason we can or even should do evil. Every evil act we do, if we do it, including eating meat, needs to be done with a mind of reluctance. Antinomianism really is contrary to Jōdo Shinshū, which in essence, is pure Mahāyāna in ethical orientation.

It has been said that, one may know about chewing but not swallowing. ''This means," said Rennyo, "we have wives and children, and we eat fish and fowl. Though filled with evil, this is not an excuse for our behavior."

[FiveSkandhas]

Ideally I think that if you are truly "Grasped...never to be abandoned" by Amida Nyorai, you would feel a deep shame at acting counter to morality, because you would recall how hard Amida Nyorai worked to become a Buddha for universal salvation, how stringently he cultivated the way of the sages and formal vinaya morality so we don't have to. You would feel the need to thank Him and to live righteously as a kind of natural gratitude for a debt so enormous we can never repay it.

And as Shinran Shonin put it, "just because one has the antidote is no reason to drink poison."

[Zhen Li]

Ideally I think that if you are truly "Grasped...never to be abandoned" by Amida Nyorai, you would feel a deep shame at acting counter to morality, because you would recall how hard Amida Nyorai worked to become a Buddha for universal salvation, how stringently he cultivated the way of the sages and formal vinaya morality so we don't have to. You would feel the need to thank Him and to live righteously as a kind of natural gratitude for a debt so enormous we can never repay it.

And as Shinran Shonin put it, "just because one has the antidote is no reason to drink poison."

This is what many people have difficulty with. Because on the one hand, we continue to view acting immorally is wrong. On the other, as Rennyo said, quieting our kleśas is sundry practice, and faith alone is necessary for birth.

I have thought of this often. Having encountered Amida we may end up doing more good than we would have otherwise, and yet we know it has no bearing on our salvation. This is why any good that exists, at all, is due to the power of Amida, and we are utterly incapable of it by our own power—we are still, simultaneously, mired in saṃsāra and our kleśas. Good deeds are a side effect of shinjin, or a result. But they are not a necessary result.

This is why promoting "engaged" Buddhist practices at Jōdo Shinshū temples is missing the point. The focus should be on gaining shinjin, any good that can be done or which may result would come thereafter.

[FiveSkandhas]

This is why promoting "engaged" Buddhist practices at Jōdo Shinshū temples is missing the point. The focus should be on gaining shinjin, any good that can be done or which may result would come thereafter.

Ah this is so true. The dharma is its own reward. Personally I jokingly call myself a "disengaged Buddhist." Isn't freedom from attachment a generally recognized basic Buddhist virtue?

The "engaged" Buddhist can do good things, if his or her actions flow naturally from spiritual attainment. But I can't help but feel the rush to "engaged Buddhism" is a symptom of people who have lost their connection with the Dharma, who no longer believe their practice will really lead to anything meaningful.

[Malcolm]

The "engaged" Buddhist can do good things, if his or her actions flow naturally from spiritual attainment.

Sorry, but, it just flows from the practice of the six perfections, aka engaged bodhicitta.

But I can't help but feel the rush to "engaged Buddhism" is a symptom of people who have lost their connection with the Dharma, who no longer believe their practice will really lead to anything meaningful.

You really think Thich Nhat Hahn, Johanna Macy, Bernie Glassman, Bhikku Bodhi, HH Dalai Lama, Gary Snyder, etc., have lost their connection to Dharma and don't believe their practice leads to anything meaningful?

[LastLegend]

I think for many there is a process before becoming certain that the white path is the right way. On the other hand, those who are certain (with shinjin) should not, in principle, be acting contrary to the Dharma, but the results of past evil karma may still ripen in their mindstreams and manifest as unwholesome action. I think these are two reasons why Shinran and Rennyō continued to emphasise the idea that we should not look down on good conduct—it is an ideal that would be best to fullful, but it is not at all a condition for birth.

Rennyo had the idea of the distinction between chewing and swallowing—chewing is continuing to do evil as a result of our karma, but swallowing is justifying evil or thinking it to be good, or neutral, or thinking that the Nembutsu is a reason we can or even should do evil. Every evil act we do, if we do it, including eating meat, needs to be done with a mind of reluctance. Antinomianism really is contrary to Jōdo Shinshū, which in essence, is pure Mahāyāna in ethical orientation.

It has been said that, one may know about chewing but not swallowing. ''This means," said Rennyo, "we have wives and children, and we eat fish and fowl. Though filled with evil, this is not an excuse for our behavior."

Conduct is to keep generating new karma and take care of old karma.

The question of mindstream that’s another topic? What it is and whether worth perceiving it?

[LastLegend]

The whole point of mahaprajnaparamita is to uproot what we perceive or not perceive so that we can enter our Buddha mind quickly.

[Sādhaka]

The "engaged" Buddhist can do good things, if his or her actions flow naturally from spiritual attainment.

Sorry, but, it just flows from the practice of the six perfections, aka engaged bodhicitta.

But I can't help but feel the rush to "engaged Buddhism" is a symptom of people who have lost their connection with the Dharma, who no longer believe their practice will really lead to anything meaningful.

You really think Thich Nhat Hahn, Johanna Macy, Bernie Glassman, Bhikku Bodhi, HH Dalai Lama, Gary Snyder, etc., have lost their connection to Dharma and don't believe their practice leads to anything meaningful?

Well if the Dalai Lama is a emanation, then he’s just acting spontaneously according to the karmic propensities of the perceptions of those who have a karmic connection to him.

As for the others, well they can do as they please, and I wish them the best; but I personally don’t have much confidence in the things they do generally speaking.

The texts seem to say that there’s not much one can do “engaged Buddhism”-wise until the First Bhumi; and that before First Bhumi, one’s own practice, study, visualized offerings, etc. are better than anything else, that is for the Two Accumulations.

There is a author who said that morality springs from spirituality, and not vice-versa. Of course the two are reciprocal, in a sense; but I agree with the gist of what FiveSkandhas is getting at, in light of what I just wrote.

[Malcolm]

There is a author who said that morality springs from spirituality, and not vice-versa.

Mipham, interestingly, disagrees. He argues that Dharmic virtues arise from mundane virtues, but this is off-topic here.

[LastLegend]

It’s different in attitude of Pure Land and sudden schools. Sudden schools the main emphasis is entering our Buddha mind.

My parents are Pure Land practitioners...I practice Buddha recitation too. I do support Pure Land.

[Zhen Li]

You really think Thich Nhat Hahn, Johanna Macy, Bernie Glassman, Bhikku Bodhi, HH Dalai Lama, Gary Snyder, etc., have lost their connection to Dharma and don't believe their practice leads to anything meaningful?

He is definitely referring to a situation in contemporary Jōdo Shinshū. Essentially, many ministers give up what has traditionally been taught and feel like something was lacking. To fill the void they begin introducing zazen sessions into the temples and try to get politically involved. FiveSkandhas does not think what you are asserting.

Well if the Dalai Lama is a emanation, then he’s just acting spontaneously according to the karmic propensities of the perceptions of those who have a karmic connection to him.

As for the others, well they can do as they please, and I wish them the best; but I personally don’t have much confidence in the things they do generally speaking.

I agree that there are some vain and superficial attempts at relevance which are not genuine. However, in Jōdo Shinshū we'd say that all good that we do is, in the end, a result of Amida's Other Power. Neither I nor FiveSkandhas specifically mentioned or intended to disparage any teacher who does good. I think the whole point of what we have been saying thus far is, rather, that despite admitting our evil natures, Jōdo Shinshū continues to hold a traditional Mahāyāna distinction between good and evil acts, between good and evil karma, and merit and demerit. Never encouraging evil, always encouraging good, but admitting that for attaining Buddhahood we can only rely on Amida.

The texts seem to say that there’s not much one can do “engaged Buddhism”-wise until the First Bhumi; and that before First Bhumi, one’s own practice, study, visualized offerings, etc. are better than anything else, that is for the Two Accumulations.

Essentially, in Jōdo Shinshū the ten stages are seen as an expedient for beings in our world, but no longer relevant from the Pure Land perspective. The best way to engage with beings is through "merit transferrence of return." There are two kinds of merit transferrence, one is for going forth to the Pure Land—this is by the Buddha's power. The second is for returning to this world to aid beings—this too, is by the Buddha's power. I often think it is best to assume that anyone we meet in day to day life could be a Bodhisattva engaging in merit transferrence of return—they are teaching us, even though we may not realise it.

It’s different in attitude of Pure Land and sudden schools. Sudden schools the main emphasis is entering our Buddha mind.

Jōdo Shinshū classifies itself as a sudden approach. Both in terms of attainment of irreversibility at the one thought moment of shinjin, and in terms of the attainment of Buddhahood after birth. The point of this thread, ultimately, is that attaining shinjin is entering our Buddha mind.

[FiveSkandhas]