Question 20 （Doubts and Questions about Pure Land）

by Elder Zen Master T'ien Ju

Question 20

Those who commit evil deeds throughout their lives, not only may take their residual karma to the Pure Land, but may also achieve non-retrogression — solely by reciting the Buddha’s name at the time of death. The vow-power of Buddha Amitabha is unfathomable, truly inconceivable! Can I therefore engage in mundane endeavors, waiting for the time of death to recite the Buddha’s name seeking rebirth?

Answer

What a great pity! What you have just said is very deluded and erroneous. Such thoughts are more dangerous than poisoned wine, harmful not only to yourself but also to clergy and laymen alike!
    
The reason perverse and evil beings manage to recite the Buddha’s name at the time of death is that they have “good roots, causes, conditions, merits and virtues” from the past. That is why they are able to encounter good spiritual advisors, believe in them and act accordingly. This is one chance in a million, not something everyone can look forward to. A Pure Land treatise states:

     “There are ten types of people who cannot recite the Buddha’s name at the time of death:

1. Those who fail to meet spiritual friends and thus have no one to urge them to recite;

2. Those who are oppressed by karmic suffering and lack both peace of Mind and free time to practice Buddha Recitation;

3. Those stricken by sudden illness, which prevents them from actually reciting the Buddha’s name aloud;

4. Those who are insane and cannot focus the Mind on invoking the Buddha;

5. Those who meet with sudden death by fire or drowning and lose their calmness and utter sincerity;

6. Those who are suddenly injured by ferocious beasts;

7. Those who encounter evil friends at the time of death, as such friends destroy their faith;

8. Those stricken by fatal illness, who are unconscious when they pass away;

9. Those who are wounded and die suddenly on the battlefield;

10. Those who lose their lives falling from high places.”

These ten instances are common occurrences, which can befall anyone, clergy or layman. They are due to previous or current karma and occur suddenly, and so are impossible to avoid.

You are not a sage who has attained the “knowledge of previous lives,” and who can thus know in advance whether
or not you will encounter karmic retribution at the moment of death. Neither do you have the faculty of reading other people’s Minds nor supernatural vision, to know whether you will die peacefully or not. (93) Thus, if you do not recite the Buddha’s name in daily life, how will you react if, at the time of death, you inadvertently meet with one of these calamities?

At such a time, even if a living Buddha or a multitude of good spiritual advisors surround you, they will have no way to save you. Your consciousness will then follow your karma and descend upon the Three Evil Paths, subject to the Eight Adversities and enduring many eons of suffering. Who knows whether you will even be able to hear the Buddha’s name as you do now?

Even if you do not meet with these evil conditions, but simply expire after a “mild” illness, at that time the four elements [earth, water, air, fire] separate, your ligaments and bones jerk and retract, Mind and body are aching and in a state of panic, not unlike a turtle being skinned alive or a crab thrown alive into a boiling pot. How can you then recite the Buddha’s name?
     
Even if you die peacefully, without illness, you may not have severed all worldly ties, or you may still be caught up in defiled thoughts. The desire to survive, coupled with the fear of death, disturb your Mind, rendering it perplexed and undecided. In such circumstances as well, you cannot recite the Buddha’s name.
Moreover, if you are a layman, you have, in addition, unfinished family obligations, unsettled projects and plans, wailing wife and weeping children, along with hundreds of other worries and apprehensions. How can you have the leisure to recite the Buddha’s name?
    
Let us not even talk about the time of death. Even in daily life, if you are afflicted with some mild illness, you suffer, moaning and groaning endlessly. As you search for a physician or a cure or seek out monks and nuns to recite verses of repentance, hoping for a quick recovery, your sundry thoughts are legion. It is not easy, then, to concentrate the Mind and recite the Buddha’s name.
     
Even under normal circumstances, when you are in good health, you may be afflicted with old age and declining strength, beset by all kinds of worries and sorrows. Keeping the aging body together is a never-ending task; how can you have time for Buddha Recitation?

Even when you have not reached old age and your body is still vigorous, you are still weighed down by mundane preoccupations and have not yet severed worldly thoughts. You run hither and yon, worrying about ten thousand things. With your sea of consciousness so vast, how can you recite the Buddha’s name?
    
Even if you are free of all conditions and entanglements and are determined to cultivate the Dharma, unless you can see through mundane marks, understand them thoroughly, and sever them completely, you will not be in control of yourself when faced with external conditions. Your Mind, then, will move erratically, following the environment. How can you have the peace of Mind to recite the Buddha’s name?
    
Think about it. You cannot even recite the Buddha’s name with a proper frame of Mind when you are merely old or sick, nor even when healthy and at leisure if preoccupied with something — let alone at the time of death!
    
Moreover, even at this moment you are talking about engaging in mundane endeavors; are these not utterly deluded
words, serious errors of judgement?

Furthermore, worldly careers and undertakings are like a dream, an illusion, a bubble, an echo, existing for but a moment before returning to the void — they offer no real benefit to the cultivator on the path of liberation. Even if you have built huge, stately temples and monasteries, achieved great influence and high position, established friendships with numerous important persons of status and wealth, feeling deep pride “inside,” thinking that you have succeeded on your path of cultivation, little do you realize that you have violated the very admonition of the ancient sages! This is because they have specifically warned:

   “Those who have entered the Order should set their Minds and focus on achieving liberation and not be unduly preoccupied with mundane endeavors, as these entail numerous errors. Not only will they fail to see the heavens, the karma of hell has already been created! If the issue of Birth and Death is not resolved, all mundane activities are but the causes of suffering. One day, once their eyes are closed, they will revolve in samsara according to their karma. At that time, they will discover that their past actions have only added chains to their yoke and firewood and charcoal under the ‘boiling cauldrons,’ the Dharma robe (94) no longer covers their bodies, while the paths of various realms keep changing ad infinitum throughout the eons!”

With these words, those who have set their Minds on liberation should ponder their own lot and be moved to the point of shedding tears! Patriarchs and Elder Masters have earnestly admonished you in this way. They have not enjoined you to engage in mundane endeavors, waiting for the moment of death to recite the Buddha’s name!

Do you not know what Zen Master Ssu Hsin (“Dead Mind”) has said:

   “In our world, do not those who are extremely wealthy, with houses full of servants and retainers, wish to remain eternally young to enjoy worldly blessings day and night? However, because their lifetimes are limited, old age comes swiftly with the passage of months and years. Death is blind to wealth and nobility, while the power of karma neither respects nor spares the talented and intelligent. At that moment, perturbed as they are by transgressions and evil karma, where are the civilized, leisurely ways of yore? In a world of karmic retribution, repayment and further indebtedness, there is only regret for a dissipated life!

   “What has just been alluded to has been witnessed by most of us with our own eyes and ears. Ordinary people usually drag their feet until old age, waiting until they have fulfilled their family obligations before reciting the Buddha’s name. However, death waits neither for the old nor the young. In any case, although we may reason this way, how many elderly persons actually practice Buddha Recitation assiduously?”

The ancients have said,

   “Do not wait until old age to recite the Buddha’s name. Deserted hilltops are filled with the graves of the young!”

They have added further:

   “From the time they are young, people seek wives, raise children and are busy in their professions. They must endure the countless vagaries and sufferings of daily life. On their deathbeds, they must leave everything behind, be it family or wealth, to follow their karma only. If their children are filial, they will shed a few tears, burn a few stacks of paper money and invite monks and nuns to recite a few sutras. On death anniversaries, they may prepare a meal in memory of the departed. This is called being filial toward one’s parents.
       
   “If, unfortunately, the children are not filial, as soon as the parents have closed their eyes, head and bones not yet cold, they are already busy fighting over houses and other property. They sue one another and, upon receiving their share, squander it on evanescent pleasures to the point of even forgetting the anniversaries of their parents’ deaths. Thus, an entire lifetime ends in such a pitiful way. What is there to look forward to?
      
   “Therefore, the wise should begin practicing Buddha Recitation and cultivating early in life. Children and grandchildren have their own merits and blessings; parents can only help to a certain extent. They should not, for the sake of their children, toil like oxen and horses throughout their lives!”

Here again I quote a few lines by the ancients:

   “A cold laugh for the rich family’s patriarch. He is busy as can be managing his enterprises. In his storehouses, weevils are in the grain; in his treasuries, the cords on which the coins are strung are rotting away. All day long he holds the scales; … at night, by lamp light, he figures his accounts. His body is like a puppet. Don’t let the strings break, old man!” (J.C. Cleary, Pure Land, Pure Mind.)

Elder Master Ssu Hsin took great pains to give you earnest reminders and counsel. Did he ever enjoin you to engage in mundane endeavors and wait for the time of death to recite the Buddha’s name?
 
Therefore, you should bear in mind that the human condition is uncertain and ephemeral, like sparks among stones, or a bolt of lightning illuminating the horizon. Things appear and disappear in an instant; nothing is permanent or lasting. You should understand this thoroughly and take advantage of the fact that you are not yet old and disease-ridden to put aside all mundane concerns and cleanse your body and Mind. Each passing day is a day of Buddha Recitation; each moment is a moment of cultivation. At the time of death, everything is settled, the western sky is ready as well, its path vast and radiant! (95)

Unless you conduct yourself in this way, when conditions and karma meet, the time for regrets will be long gone! You should ponder this most carefully!
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93. “Knowledge of previous lives,” “faculty of reading other people’s minds,” “supernatural vision” are supernormal powers of the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. They possess these powers to the highest degree because they are free from all grasping and attachments, following the adage “no doer, no receiver, no gift….”             

94. The Dharma robe and the begging bowl are the traditional symbols of a Buddhist monk or nun. Buddhist followers (and by extension, the King of the Hells) accord them the utmost respect.                              

95. “As the Buddha told king Bimbisara, when a man accumulates good acts, at his death he will have no disturbing thoughts. This is like a tree which leans to the west and will necessarily fall in that direction in which it has been bent …. Also one should have several like-minded companions joined together in an agreement that when the end of one’s life approaches, one will spell another every morning in calling upon the name of the Buddha Amitabha, desiring birth in Sukhavati….” (Leo Pruden, tr. “A short Essay on the Pure Land by Dharma Master Tan Lun.” The Wastern Buddhist, May 1975, p.95.)   

related post:  Question 21 （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.