by Master Tsung-pen
Question
In the world there are people who hold exclusively to Zen meditation cases - koans - and make people do their meditation work on them. They hope to awaken to the Path through studying Zen, and do not vow to be born in the Pure Land. What about this teaching?
Answer
People of sharp faculties and superior wisdom are capable of real Zen study and genuine awakening. But if there is the slightest error, [exclusive reliance on Zen] becomes a big mistake.
Question
How do we know this is a mistake?
Answer
The mistake comes in not awakening and going on as before revolving in the cycle of birth and death. It is better to cultivate practice by reciting the buddha-name and be sure of finding a direct road to birth in the Pure Land.
It is not that enlightened teachers do not teach you to study Zen - it's that they are afraid you will not recite the buddha-name. What is the reason? Awakening to the Path by studying Zen is hard. Being born in the Pure Land by reciting the buddha-name is easy.
Haven't you heard the saying of the ancient worthy?
To study Zen it is necessary to completely comprehend birth and death, and not two or three in a hundred succeed. If they seek birth in the Pure Land by reciting the buddha-name, not one in ten thousand fails.
As the saying goes:
With Zen but without Pure Land, nine out of ten go wrong.
Is it not so?
Moreover, studying Zen does not obstruct reciting the buddha-name, and reciting the buddha-name does not obstruct studying Zen.
Now the relative difficulty and ease of Zen and Pure Land is clear. There are indeed eighty-four thousand methods including the direct pointing [of Zen], but none of them is as good as the one phrase "Amitabha Buddha." Although there are seventeen hundred Zen koans, they do not equal the one phrase "Amitabha Buddha."
In the teaching of Amitabha Buddha, there is both sudden and gradual, both inner truth and apparent manifestation. People of superior faculties and wisdom take it up directly, see reality-nature and become buddhas. The middle and lower sort are incapable of sudden transcendence: they rely on the power of Amitabha Buddha and attain birth in the Pure Land. For this reason, the teaching of reciting the buddha-name is superior to all other teachings. The other meditation cases are not one percent as effective as the buddha-remembrance meditation case ["Who is the one reciting the buddha-name?"] What is the reason? If they were equally as effective, then all the past, present, and future buddhas of the ten directions would not have extolled Amitabha Buddha, and all the countless scriptures would not point the way to the Pure Land in the west . . .
In olden times, the Tathagata [Shakyamuni] said to Maudgalyayana:
It is like the floating plants in the myriad ever-flowing rivers. The ones ahead do not look at the ones behind them, and the ones behind do not look at the ones ahead of them, but all of them meet in the ocean. Worldly life is also like this. Though some people are powerful and high-ranking and rich and happy and independent, not one of them manages to avoid old age and sickness and death. Because they do not believe in the Buddha's scriptures, they are unable to be born in the thousand buddha-lands. Therefore I say that the land of Amitabha is easy to go to and easy to attain. But people do not cultivate the practice needed to be born there. Instead they serve the ninety-six kinds of heretical paths. I call them people without eyes or ears.
In the records of birth in the Pure Land and the biographies of eminent monks, [we read that] both worthy people and ignorant people are born in the Pure Land, and both people of ancient times and people of today go there. All of them totally abandoned impure lands and all of them went to the Pure Land. They were reborn [in a lotus flower] in the Seven Jewel Pond [in the Pure Land] and left behind the pains of incarnation in a womb. They transcended ordinary existence and entered into the sagely realm. They attained the Path and witnessed Reality. Without going through three incalculable eons, they achieved the Path of the Buddha. Isn't the power of [Amitabha] Buddha inconceivable?
If you want to rise above the cycle of birth and death forever, and attain the bliss of nirvana, you need the Dharma-Gate of birth in the Pure Land. Why?
This world of ours called "Endurance" is a defiled realm, where all forms of suffering are assembled: if you seek the Path here, it is hard to succeed.
The Pure Land is a realm of bliss, where all good things are gathered together, from which there is no falling back. (41) If you invoke the buddha-name, all the buddhas will protect you and you will be born in the Pure Land. As for generating enlightenment, [in the Pure Land] the light of Amitabha shines on you and promotes your progress, the bodhisattvas and arhats accompany you, and the water birds and forest trees are all reciting the buddha-name. You constantly hear the wondrous Dharma in your ears. In your mind, craving and anger are suddenly cut off, and there is happiness without end. Your lifespan is not limited to one [earthly] lifetime ...
Alas! The faith of those with the first aspiration for enlightenment (bodhi mind) is shallow: without the power of Buddha, it is hard for them to advance in their practice. The vows of our [Amitabha] Buddha are profound: all who have an affinity with him are gathered in.
Good people, since ancient times the buddhas and enlightened teachers have established teachings and shown the method of reciting the buddha-name. Why then do [certain] followers of Zen today not believe in birth in the Pure Land? Cultivating Pure Land practice does not interfere with studying Zen, so why should those who study Zen denigrate it and not cultivate it?
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41. Non-retrogression to the realm of birth and death is a key advantage of rebirth in the Pure Land (compared, for example, to rebirth in the Tushita Heaven, etc.)
related post: True Vows
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.
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