Mirror wrote: ↑Tue Aug 30, 2022 6:11 pm
Thank you very much for your answer.
I'll put it differently. Can a person (according to Jōdo Shinshū) die early (intentionally) in order to be reborn in Sukhavati sooner than that person normally would (for example out of old age)?
The reason we don't do that is because shinjin is like a magnet that draws us to Buddhahood—but it is not just one being indivudally: all beings. The two go together as a pair. To aim to aid beings to awakening is to act out of gratitude to the Buddha and what he has done for us in bringing our beginningless mind-stream to a suitable conclusion. Therefore, Shandao writes in the Ojo Raisange:
To realize shinjin oneself and to guide others to shinjin
Is among difficult things yet even more difficult.
To awaken beings everywhere to great compassion
Is truly to respond in gratitude to the Buddha’s benevolence.
So, after awakening shinjin, one receives great motivation to aid others. This is because shinjin is imbued with bodhicitta. If you cannot generate this desire in yourself before shinjin, it comes about by natural working after receiving shinjin. So, to end your life early would be to act contrary to this motivation and may indicate lack of shinjin. If that happens it is entirely due to one's own karmic evil and destructive emotions, and not due to or because of shinjin—the latter would imply that Amitābha is permitting or being responsible for killing, which is an impossibility. Let death come when your karmic roots dictate, and don't unnecessarily attempt to prolong your life, for that too is coming from a place of afflictive emotion. In the natural span of life, aim to benefit beings as much as possible—this is evidenced by the lives of all Pure Land masters. In this sense, too, an aspect of buddhahood does make itself evidenced in this life.