Dharma Flower wrote: ↑Sat Feb 10, 2018 5:43 am
What I meant is that, if I were to believe that the Pure Land is a literal place billions of galaxies away, with lotus flowers the size of carriage wheels, clear ponds, jeweled trees, etc., then it might cause me to have a sense of anxiety over whether or not that belief is true and real.
I would rather seek the non-dual experience of Amida Buddha as our true nature, here and now, than worry about whether or not I will meet him as an external being after death.
My point is that if you recognize your nature, you will understand that these worries and anxieties were all unnecessary and a complete waste of time.
So why not focus on the steps prescribed by a teacher to accomplish that recognition (involving nembutsu or whatever other means your teacher judges appropriate for your conditions) and forget for now about the paths followed by others which (ideally) accord with their conditions?
If you are a Zen practitioner but have not yet entered the gate of seeing one's nature, we can say you are doing Buddhist practice perhaps, but it's not yet Zen at all. In that case, you will not able to understand what Zen practice is in the slightest...let alone discern how the practices of other paths do or do not approach the same essential point.
Apologies for my presumption, but from what you've written in the past it seems your interest is primarily as a practitioner. That being the case: if I were you I would forget the words "One Mind" and "non-dual," stop arguing theory, and just start doing nembutsu ceaselessly day and night as if my life depended on it, while cultivating a relationship with a good teacher. The point being: if you are at the stage where you have not yet recognized what Zen calls one's "nature," you don't have time or energy to waste here opining regarding the "correct" approach to Pure Land practice.
~ Meido