by Elder Zen Master T'ien Ju
Question 3
The reason Buddha Sakyamuni appeared in the world was to rescue sentient beings. As Buddhist followers, we should worry only about not having awakenened. Once awakened to the Way, we should be unconcerned about Birth and Death, and follow the Buddha’s example, manifesting ourselves in the evil realms to rescue all sentient beings ….If those who have awakened or attained enlightenment still seek rebirth in the Pure Land, are they not guilty of rejecting suffering, seeking happiness for themselves and abandoning those who are still mired in Birth and Death? I may be deluded and vile, but all the same, I abhor such an attitude!
Answer
You are too impatient — like someone who discovers an egg and wants it to hatch immediately! Do you really think that after a momentary awakening you have extinguished all deluded habits and suddenly reached the stage of non-retrogression? Do you also think that, after such an awakening, you no longer have to study the Buddha Dharma in its totality nor engage in further cultivation so as to attain the various stages of Bodhisattvahood, step by step? Or are you by any chance thinking that, after a glimpse of enlightenment, you have become the equal of the
Buddhas, free to enter and exit Birth and Death, unhindered and unperturbed by obstructing conditions?
If this were the case, the great Bodhisattvas who spent untold eons cultivating the paramitas and the ten thousand conducts should all feel ashamed, compared to you! The ancients have admonished:
“Arhats are still deluded at birth, Bodhisattvas are still deluded in the bardo stage!” [See Glossary.]
If this is true of sages, such as Arhats and Bodhisattvas, what can we say about those who have only superficially awakened and, in the midst of this world, cannot even save themselves?
Moreover, even if your awakening is profound, your wisdom and understanding brilliant and lofty, and even if your practice is consonant with your understanding and you are determined to rescue sentient beings, as long as you have not reached the stage of non-retrogression, your skills and capacities are necessarily incomplete. Under these circumstances, should you decide to remain in this evil world to convert and rescue recalcitrant sentient beings, the sages and saints would not vouch for your success! It would be no different from attempting to rescue
people from the raging sea with a boat that is neither sturdy nor watertight — unavoidably, everyone would drown!
Thus, it is stated in the Treatise on Rebirth:
“If you wish to move freely in the nether worlds, if you wish to rescue deluded, suffering sentient beings, you should first seek rebirth in the Western Pure Land. Only after you have achieved Tolerance of Non-Birth should you return to the sea of Birth and Death to fulfill your original vow. It is because of these causes and conditions that the practitioner should seek rebirth in the Pure Land.”
The sages of old have also said:
“Those who have not reached the stage of non-retrogression nor achieved Tolerance of Non-Birth should never be separated from the Buddhas. They are not unlike small children who should not leave their mothers or young birds who can only hop from branch to branch.”
In this day and age, in this Saha World, Buddha Sakyamuni has entered Nirvana, while Maitreya, the future Buddha, is not yet born. Moreover, along the Four Evil Paths, sentient beings are easily swayed by interlinking cause and effect, exposed to hundreds of heterodox, evil teachings, perturbed by criticism and calumny, lured by beautiful forms and sensuous sounds, continuously under the influence of evanescent circumstances and evil conditions. Under such conditions, with no Buddha to rely on and disturbed by the evil environment, how many of the newly awakened can avoid retrogression?
That is why Buddha Sakyamuni has earnestly recommended rebirth in the Western Pure Land. In that Land, Buddha
Amitabha now preaches the Dharma, and in that Land favorable conditions abound. Once reborn, relying on the help of the Ocean-wide Assembly, the practitioner swiftly achieves the Tolerance of Non-Birth. Moreover, as he is always in the company of the King of the Dharma, he easily attains Buddhahood. At that time, there are no obstructions to prevent him from appearing in the world at will, to rescue sentient beings. Therefore, even
those of the highest capacity, endowed with wisdom, must seek rebirth, not to mention people like you who are of only moderate or low capacities, and are barely awakened!
Do you not know that in the Sutra on the Buddha Visualization Samadhi, the Bodhisattva Manjusri himself recalled his cultivation in past lifetimes and revealed that he had attained the Buddha Remembrance Samadhi and usually dwelled in the pure lands? For this reason Buddha Sakyamuni predicted, “You will be reborn in the Land of Ultimate Bliss!”
Do you not also know that in the Avatamsaka Sutra, the Bodhisattva Samantabhadra urged Sudhana and the Ocean-
wide Assembly to dedicate the virtues of the Ten Great Vows toward rebirth in the Western Pure Land? The Sutra contains the following passage:
“I vow that when my life approaches its end,
All obstructions will be swept away;
I will see Amita Buddha,/And be born in his Land of
Ultimate Bliss and peace.”
(Hsuan Hua, tr. Flower Adornment Sutra, Ch. 40. p.214.)
Do you not also know that, in the Lankavatara Sutra, Buddha Sakyamuni predicted:
“In the future, in southern India, there will be an Elder Master of high repute and virtue named Nagarjuna …. He will attain the first Bodhisattva stage of Extreme Joy and be reborn in the Western Pure Land.”
Do you not also realize that in the Treatise on the Awakening of the Faith, the Patriarch Asvaghosha (61) also extolled rebirth? In the Maharatnakuta Sutra, Buddha Sakyamuni predicted that his father, King Suddhodana; along with seventy thousand relatives, would be reborn in the Pure Land. In the Meditation Sutra, Buddha Sakyamuni taught Queen Vaidehi and her five hundred attendants how to pay homage to Amitabha Buddha ….(62)
[Let us be impartial and ask ourselves this question: if even great Bodhisattvas such as Manjusri and Samantabhadra, and towering Patriarchs such as Asvaghosha and Nagarjuna (64) sought rebirth, vowing to see Amitabha Buddha, who are today’s barely awakened practitioners to reject rebirth? Indeed, to do so is tantamount to considering their own achievements to be higher than those of the Bodhisattvas and Patriarchs! That is
inconceivable!
[In later times, in China, for example, Elder Master Hui Yuan of Lu Shan (334-416) founded the Lotus Society, which was devoted exclusively to Pure Land practice, while many other masters and laymen belonging to both the T’ien T’ai and Avatamsaka traditions personally cultivated Buddha Recitation and widely expounded the Pure Land method.(63) Following one another’s example, they sought rebirth in the Pure Land.
[Furthermore, over the centuries, in China, numerous Zen Masters, in addition to meditation, quietly practiced and propagated Pure Land teachings. (65) Among them are found many Elder Masters of high achievement, including Masters Yung Ming, T’ien I Huai, Yuan Chao Pen, Tzu Shou Shen….](66)
Not only did these Zen Masters follow the Pure Land method, I [Master T’ien Ju] have heard a Zen monk of high
achievement say, “almost all monks, both within and outside the Five Houses of Zen (67), awakened to the Way or not, set their Minds on the Pure Land.” When I asked the reason, the Master replied:
“Elder Zen Master Pai Chang (68) of Huai Hai [one of the most famous Zen Masters of all time] was the direct successor to the great Zen Master Ma Tsu of Chiang Hsi (69). Zen communities throughout the world are established on his model and have adopted the Pure Rules for monasteries which he instituted. Since ancient times, no one has dared to criticize or violate this set of rules.
“According to these Rules, prayers for the benefit of seriously ill monks and nuns include the following passage:‘The fourfold assembly should gather together, and all should recite verses of praise to Amitabha Buddha and chant his name from one hundred to one thousand times. At the end, the following words of transference should be read: “If conditions have not yet come to an end, let him quickly recover. If the time of death has arrived, we pray that he will be reborn in the Pure Land.”Is this not pointing the way back to the Pure Land?
“Moreover, the liturgy for sending off deceased monks includes this passage: ‘the great assembly should all recite the name of Amitabha Buddha in unison, transferring the merits and making the following vow: “Let his soul be reborn in the Pure Land, his karma in the world of dust severed; let him be reborn in the upper lotus grade, with a golden body. May he also receive a prediction of Buddhahood in one lifetime.”’ Is this not pointing the way back to the Pure Land?
“Furthermore, at the time of burial or cremation, the Pure Rules stipulate: ‘The monk in charge of the service should lead the way, striking the small bell, and recite the name of Amitabha Buddha ten times, with the great assembly following in unison. After recitation, the following words of transference should be read: “We have just intoned the Buddha’s name ten times to assist in rebirth ….”’ Is this not pointing the way back to the Pure Land?
“It is for these reasons that this old monk said, ‘Zen Masters the world over all set their Minds on the Pure Land.’”
I listened to the Zen Master’s explanations and, as they were fully substantiated, cannot find any reason to refute them. The profound and lofty meaning behind Master Pai Chang’s Pure Rules then dawned on me ….
Residing as you are in a monastery complex, you must have “sent off” countless monks. Your ears must have heard and your mouth uttered “ten recitations” an untold number of times. Your Mind must have focussed on the transference of merit to the Pure Land innumerable times! In spite of all this, you have not yet awakened nor have you understood the real intentions of the Patriarchs, and are deluded to the point of claiming that “those who have awakened or reached enlightenment do not seek rebirth.” Truly, your disease of grasping, of clinging to Zen, has no equal in the whole, wide world!(70)
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61. Asvaghosha:
“Indian poet and Mahayana philosopher who lived in the first to second centuries and is considered one of the most important Buddhist authors.” (Shambhala Dictionary.)
Author of the famous work 'Treatise on the Awakening of the Faith.
62. For Meditation Sutra, see Glossary “Three Pure Land Sutras.”
63. “The national master Qingliang, who succeeded to the position of patriarch of the Huayan [Avatamsaka] school, and who was acclaimed as an incarnation of Manjushri, taught that Amitabha is … Vairocana. He also wrote a commentary on the Contemplation of Amitabha Sutra, and propagated Pure Land techniques widely.” (Quoted by J.C. Cleary in Pure Land, Pure Mind.)
64. Nagarjuna. One of the most important philosophers of Buddhism (2nd–3rd centuries, founder of the Madhyamika (“Middle Way”) School.
“Nagarjuna is revered in all of Mahayana as a great religious figure, in many places as a Bodhisattva. Not only Zen, but also the Tantric branch of Buddhism and the devotional communities of Amitabha Buddha, count Nagarjuna among their patriarchs.” (Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, p.44.)
65. “Since the Pure Land [School] was organizationally weak, it was dependent on the Ch’an monastic orders. Many important Ch’an masters were at the same time Pure Land devotees.” (Sung-peng Hsu, A Buddhist Leader in Ming China, p.44 and 174, Note 94.)
In East and Southeast Asia, according to most observers, there is no real division into Zen and Pure Land temples, as the two forms of practice tend to co-exist in the same premises. In Japan, on the other hand, there are distinct Zen and Pure Land temples.
66. These three sections between brackets are summaries of the original text, which is at least four to five times longer.
Some fourteen Zen masters are cited here by name as practicing and propagating Pure Land teachings.
“During the Sung period, sometimes with the support of the masters and sometimes against their opposition, the nembutsu made greater and greater inroads into Zen monasteries. This process of mixing religious practices continued through the Yuan period and came to term during the Ming dynasty. The simultaneous practice of Zen and the nembutsu became a matter of common practice. In trying to judge this whole development, we must not forget the inner affinities of the two practices. The psychological effects of the meditative repetition of the holy name are close to the effects of Zen meditation.” (H. Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, p.286.)
67. See Glossary, “Five Houses of Zen.”
68. Pai Chang (720-814).
“Pai Chang was the first to lay out a clearly formulated rule for Zen monks ….Drawing on the traditions of … vinaya [monastic discipline], Pai Chang created a new rule adapted to Zen …. The Pure Rule of Pai Chang included the basic Buddhist commandments … as well as additional injunctions against luxury…. Both the lifestyle that Pai Chang spelled out as well as the architectural form of his monastery became models for later Zen monasteries. The service he rendered the monastic community life of Zen earned him the epithet, ‘the patriarch who created the forest.’” (H. Dumoulin, Zen Buddhism, p.170.)
69. Ma Tsu. See Glossary.
70. For an interesting aside on Zen and its special method of teaching, see the following:
“It’s said that one day Brahma, lord of creation, offered the Buddha a flower and asked him to preach the Dharma. When the Buddha held up the flower, his audience was puzzled, except for Kashyapa, who smiled. This is how Zen began. And this is how it was transmitted: with a flower, with a rock wall, with a shout. (emphasis added.) (Red Pine, The Zen Teaching of Bodhidharma„ p.xvi.)
related post: Question 4 （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.
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