Question 1 (Doubts and Questions about Pure Land)

by Elder Zen Master T'ien Ju

Question 1

I venture to think that Elder Zen Master Yung Ming received the Direct Transmission Dharma with National Master Shao of T’ien T’ai Mountain. He was also in the direct lineage of Elder Master Fa Yen.(56) As the Abbot of the Ching Tzu Temple in Hangchou, he enlightened many monks and nuns to the Way. His eloquence and flexible wisdom were like the swirling winds and the roaring thunder. Zen monks at home and abroad praised him as a master of the highest achievement.
    
Nevertheless, why is it that, while preaching Zen, he personally cultivated Pure Land as well, exhorted others to recite the Buddha’s name and wrote treatises propagating the Pure Land method? Moreover, he authored the verse “Four Options,” [Ssu Liao Chien Chieh] which states in essence:(57)

   “With Zen but without Pure Land, nine out of ten seekers of the Way take the wrong road ….Without Zen but with Pure Land, of ten thousand who practice, ten thousand reach the Pure Land ….”

With these lines, the Master seems to advocate the Pure Land method, disparaging his own school of Zen. Were his words not an exaggeration? My mind is filled with doubts on this point, and I would like to seek your instruction.(58)

Answer

That is a very good point. However, Elder Master Yung Ming did not, in fact, extol Pure Land excessively while denigrating Zen. Rather, his answers are of great benefit for both the Zen and Sutra Studies methods. Unfortunately, in the “Four Options,” the Great Master merely gave a general explanation, which did not bring out all the subtleties of his thoughts. Therefore, he could not dispel the doubts of Zen disciples.

I am a follower of Zen and am not well-versed in the Pure Land method. However, through the treatises and sutras of that School, I can give you the following general explanation.

Pure Land is a method which is easy to practice and through which it is easy to achieve enlightenment. However, it is also difficult to explain and to believe in. When Buddha Sakyamuni was preaching the Amitabha Sutra, He was aware that sentient beings in the Dharma-Ending Age would have difficulty believing Him. He therefore quoted the earnest words of the Buddhas of the six directions to dispel the doubts and develop the faith of later generations. Near the end of the Sutra, referring to the various Buddhas who praised Him, Sakyamuni Buddha said:

   “Shariputra! You should be aware that, in this evil age of five corruptions [see Note 33], I did this difficult thing: I obtained the highest perfect knowledge. For the sake of the whole world I preach this Dharma, which is difficult to believe in. This is extremely difficult.” (H. Seki, Amida Kyo, New York: American Buddhist Academy, 1973, p.74)

These are sincere, thorough words of instruction, enjoining people to develop faith in the Pure Land.
     
Moreover, with great, overflowing compassion, Buddha Sakyamuni has come to the world’s rescue in this Dharma-Ending Age. Each of his words is accepted and put into practice by humans and celestial beings alike. Nevertheless, some sentient beings have doubts about this specific Pure Land teaching. Why is this so? It is because the Pure Land teaching is all-embracing, yet its practice is extremely simple, and these two opposing characteristics seem difficult to reconcile. This is why the Pure Land method easily engenders doubts in the Minds of listeners.

The method is all-embracing because it gathers in people of all capacities. Not only do the highest level and One-Life Bodhisattvas seek rebirth in the Pure Land, even unsophisticated men and women, as well as those who have committed the five grave offenses or the ten evil acts, will all achieve rebirth. They need only put their faith in and direct their Minds toward the Pure Land with utmost determination.(59)
    
On the other hand, this method is simple because the practitioner is not subjected to too many difficulties and hardships, nor does he have to pass through many different states of Mind, when he could easily be misled.(60) He need only recite the Buddha’s name to ensure escape from the Saha World (our world), be reborn in the Western Pure Land and achieve non-retrogression until Buddhahood is finally attained.
   
Because of these two characteristics of the Pure Land method, all-embracing yet simple, even the wise develop doubts. Thus, if you fully understand this point, you will realize that Elder Master Yung Ming’s words of praise truly have a profound meaning and are not an exaggeration.
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56. Fa Yen (885-958), founder of one of the Five Houses (divisions) of Zen. See Glossary, “Five Houses.”

   “In the House of Fa-yen, the Avatamsaka world view occupied an even more prominent place than it did in other Zen schools. The master studied the Avatamsaka Scriptures intensely ... Fa-yen carried on the methods of the Tang Zen masters. He loved paradoxes and aimed at inducing sudden enlightenment.”

National Master Te Shao (891-971) was Fa-yen’s most illustrious student. Zen Master Yung Ming was Te Shao’s best known disciple.

   “Yung Ming introduced a development that truly bore fruit only later…. He may be considered the pioneer of the unification movement between Zen and the nembutsu tradition, a movement that later on was to gain the upper hand in Chinese Buddhism.” (Heinrich Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, p.234-235)   
                                
57. See the following partial translation of these verses:
    
   “With both dhyana [Zen] and the Pure Land
    One is like a tiger with horns;
    In the present age a teacher of man,
    In the future a Buddhist Patriarch.

    With dhyana but without the Pure Land
    Nine out of ten will take the wrong road;
    Without dhyana and with only the Pure Land,
    If ten thousand practice, ten thousand will go.”
    (Hsuan Hua, Pure Land & Ch’an Dharma Talks, p.23-24)

58. This commentary consists of a dialogue between two Zen Masters. Therefore, the reader should bear in mind the paradoxical method of reasoning in Zen, as described earlier in Note 40. See also the following passage:

   “Beliefs are mistaken as long as they are supposed to be absolutely true, in contrast to other beliefs which are then considered false; they actually become absolutely true only when their relative nature is fully realized and there is no longer any question of true versus false.
        
    For example, one of the American astronauts, standing on the moon and looking up at the earth in the sky, is said to have suddenly realized that he was standing in what had formerly been the sky for him and looking up at what was once the ground. To see that earth and moon are simultaneously ground and sky to one another is a Hua Yen [Avatamsaka] insight. Again, there is a popular story of the Zen master who separately told two quarreling disciples that each of them was right. When a third disciple protested that they couldn’t both be right, the master said, ‘You are right too.’ This also expresses the Hua Yen attitude. (Historically speaking, Hua Yen teachings have in fact had a great influence on the Zen tradition.)” (A-J. Prince, “The World of Hua Yen Buddhism.” Reprinted in Phâ․t Ho․c (CA, USA), no. 6, 1986, p.135-136.)

This article by a professor at the University of Sydney (Australia) provides an excellent, in-depth view of Hua Yen Buddhism. It kindled the editor’s interest in Hua Yen philosophy and started him on his translation pursuits.              

59. This concept of faith is very important in all Buddhist schools, Zen, Pure Land and Tantric, etc. alike. See the following quote from D.T. Suzuki:
   
   “A thoroughgoing enlightenment, however, is attained only through the most self-sacrificing application of the mind, supported by an inflexible faith in the finality of Zen … The necessary requirements are faith and personal effort, without which Zen is a mere bubble.” (D.T. Suzuki, An Introduction to Zen Buddhism, p.115.)

See also the following quote from the Avatamsaka Sutra:
   
   “Faith is the basis of the Path,
    the mother of virtues,
    Nourishing and growing all good ways,
    Cutting away the net of doubt,
    freeing from the torrent of passion,
    Revealing the unsurpassed road to
    ultimate peace.”
    (Thomas Cleary, tr. The Flower Ornament Sutra, Vol I, p.331.)

On the issue of faith at the time of death in Pure Land teaching, see the following quote:

   “There is even a place in the Western Paradise for the worst sinners. The Meditation Sutra relates that even if a person has committed the five sins or ten sins, if this sinner earnestly recites Amitabha’s name ten times on his deathbed, a lotus throne will appear and will bear him to the lowest stage in Paradise — the lower birth of the lower degree. Instead of being condemned to eighty million kalpas in hell, the sinner will be born in the Western Paradise in a closed lotus flower; after a period of six kalpas the lotus throne will open and release him. This teaching of the nine possible levels of birth was an extremely effective way to reward good deeds on earth while still offering the promise of salvation to all, regardless of how much merit they had accumulated.” (Joji Okazaki, Pure Land Buddhist Painting, p.52.)                            

60. “Thus, when you are practicing Zen, all thoughts other than the method [kung an] should be considered as demons, even if it feels like you have entered a ‘heavenly’ state. Some people, as they are sitting, may suddenly enter a completely new world which is very beautiful and comfortable. Afterwards, they want to return to it in each meditation. They may be able to get into that state again, but nonetheless it is an attachment. There are also other states that are terrifying. Such visions, good and bad, are generally manifestations of our own mental realms.” (Master Sheng-Yen, Faith in Mind, p.66.)           

related post:  Question 2 （Doubts and Questions about Pure Land）

Source Of Information:
《Pure Land Buddhism (Dialogues with Ancient Masters)》, by Elder Zen Master T'ien Ju, translated with annotations by Master Thich Thien Tam, printed and donated for free distribution by: The Corporate Body of the Buddha Educational Foundation (11F, 55, Hang Chow South Road Sec 1, Taipei, Taiwan), printed in February 2023.
*** The information provided above does not contain personal opinion of this blog.