True Vows

Pure Land master Tz'u-chao said: 

Practice without vows means the practice will be isolated. Vows without practice means the vows will be empty. If you have neither practice nor vows, you live in the world in vain. If you have both practice and vows, you enter directly into uncontrived reality. 

Thus vows are the basis of the buddhas' and patriarchs' cultivation of Pure Land practice. Why? Understanding is guided by wisdom, practice flourishes because of vows. When vows and practice are given equal weight, understanding and wisdom are both present. 

To vow [to do something] means to want to do it. If you want to be born in the Pure Land in the west, if you want to see Amitabha Buddha, you must make a vow: only then can you go to the Pure Land. Without the intent of the vow, the roots of goodness will disappear. The Flower Ornament (Avatamsaka) Sutra says: 

Those who do not make great vows are controlled by delusion. All forms of service to Buddha arise from vows. If you want to attain the Supreme Path, you must attain the perfection of vows. 

This is why Samantabhadra's vows are vast and boundless as the ocean, and Amitabha took forty-eight vows. 

Thus we know that all the buddhas of the ten directions and all the sages from ancient times onward have all achieved enlightenment on the basis of the power of their vows. The Perfection of Wisdom Treatise says: 

People cultivate a little bit of merit and a little bit of discipline, but they do not know the correct basis for liberation. They have heard talk of the pleasures of humans and devas, and in their minds they are always vowing to enjoy them after the end of their [present] lives and be reborn as humans or devas. This will be brought about by the power of their vows. Bodhisattvas seek birth in the Pure Land. This is a matter of having a firm will and strong vows - only then will they attain it. 

The Perfection of Wisdom Treatise also says: 

Even though people have only cultivated a little bit of merit, because they have the power of their vows, they will attain great rewards. 

The Great Adornment Treatise says: 

[Being born in] a buddha-land is a great affair. It cannot be achieved through the merit of isolated practice. It requires the power of vows as an aid: only then can you attain birth in a buddha-land and see Buddha. 

The Flower Ornament (Avatamsaka) Sutra chapter on practice and vows [of Samantabhadra] says: 

When a person is on the brink of death, in his last moment, all his faculties disintegrate, and he is bereft of all his kinfolk; all his powers are lost and none of his possessions remain with him. The only thing he does not relinquish is the power of his vows: at all times, they lead him forward. In an instant, he attains birth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. 

From this we can infer that we must make vows all the time to honor birth in the Pure Land, and pray every day that we will not regress. Thus it is said, "The Gate to the Dharma is vast and great, but without vows we cannot go through it." This being so, Buddha fulfills people's vows according to [the condition of] their minds. 

Alas! These days we often see people who aspire to join a Buddhist congregation because of the pain of illness, or to repay their parents, or to protect their families and homes, or who maintain a vegetarian diet because they fear [the consequences of] their wrongdoings. Though they have faith, they do not have practice or vows. Though they say they are reciting the buddha-name, they have not comprehended the basic root [of buddha-remembrance, namely, vows]. 

All those who cultivate good causes do so in order to repay promises they have made. Those who take vows to recite the buddha-name and seek birth in the Pure Land rarely do so for the sake of their own [liberation from] birth and death. Usually when they burn incense and candles at shrines, or make dedications and transfer merit, it is only to announce their offerings to the spirits, to ward off disaster or extend their lives. They go against the fundamental idea of repentance explained in the scriptures and do not accord with the basic vow of the buddhas. Even if they chant the scriptures throughout their lives, they do not understand their meaning, and they misuse their effort. This is what is called "counting the treasures of others all day long but not having half a cent for oneself." The reason why such people do not go to the Pure Land when they die is that they have no [real] practice or vows. 

There is another sort of ignorant people who when they take refuge with Buddha and receive the precepts, burn incense in front of the Three Jewels and swear that if they break the precepts they will willingly accept [all sorts of dire punishments], fall into the clutches of the government in this lifetime, and after they die descend into the three mires [to be reborn as hungry ghosts, as animals, or in hell]. Alas! These people do not know that the buddhas and enlightened teachers operated with compassion, and never taught people to act like this. This is all the fault of misguided teachers, who wrongly consider taking oaths on pain of punishment to be making vows. What utter confusion! 

I think of these people with pity, and urge them to take correct vows along with us, vowing to seek birth in the Pure Land, and to become buddhas together. They say, "We are ordinary people. How can we dare to hope to be born in the Pure Land and become buddhas? If we thought this, it would be false imagination." 

I answer them: Not so. "Buddha" means "enlightened one." The Pure Land is Mind. Who does not possess this Mind? If you awaken, you are a buddha; if you are deluded, you are an ordinary being. 

Worldly people turn their backs on enlightenment and join with the dusts of sensory experience, to revolve in the Triple World through various forms of birth in the six planes of existence. Their good and bad karmic connections, and the good and bad results they receive, are all because they falsely accept the physical body as their true body and the sensory world as really existing. They flow along day and night following these illusory objects. Never for a moment do they realize that they should turn the light around, keep a vegetarian diet and maintain discipline, and recite the buddha-name. 

From birth to old age, all they do is worry that their family affairs will not be taken care of and that their wealth will not be enough to please them. The more they have, the more they seek; the more they covet, the more dissatisfied they are. 

Though they claim they are accumulating virtue and serving Buddha and paying homage to Buddha and making merit and offering incense, all that they are hoping for [by doing this] is [to gain] riches and high rank and glory and eternal life. As soon as they do a little bit of good, they are hoping that it will guarantee them full granaries and prolific silkworms and famous descendants and fertile livestock. As soon as something goes against their wishes, they resent Buddha for not safeguarding them. Day after day they happily add to their wealth, saying that this is the response they have earned from the devas and nagas. 

Such covetous calculations are indeed false thinking. Though these people claim that they recite the buddha-name and seek birth in the Pure Land, since they are entertaining these false thoughts, are they not very deluded? 

Some say that making merit all belongs in the category of contrived action, and is a worldly, defiled causal basis, not a practice of the uncontrived world-transcending Path. You children of Buddha should think this over carefully. Today you have a causal connection and have gotten to meet with the Buddha Dharma. You must investigate the root: don't argue over the branches. 

Turn the light around for a moment and cultivate the world-transcending Dharma. 

Vow to abandon this world "Endurance" and vow to be born in the Pure Land, as if you were a long time traveller in another land who longs to return home. 

How can this vow to be born in the Pure Land and become a buddha be compared to the false thinking of ordinary people? Haven't you read what it says in Pure Land Repentance! 

I vow that when I am about to die, I will clear away all obstruction, and see Amitabha Buddha face to face, and be born in the land of peace and bliss. 

As the saying goes, "one morning you step onto the road to the future, and for the first time you realize that you have been misusing mind." 

related post:  Pure Land and the Bodhisattva Path according to the Great Teacher Chih-i of T'ien-t'ai

Source Of Information:
《Pure Land Pure Mind 心净佛土净》, by Master Chu-hung and Tsung-pen, translated by J.C.Cleary, distributed by: Persatuan Penganut Agama Buddha Amitabha Malaysia, 90 & 92, Jalan Pahang, Gombak, 53000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)
*** The information provided above does not contain personal opinion of this blog.