SHAKYAMUNI: “ALL BEINGS CAN BECOME BUDDHAS”

BUDDHA’S TEACHINGS, translated from the Pali by Juan Mascaro, published by Penguin, 1995,

verse 178, p. 35.

Nirvana is described as the goal of all Buddhist practice, to end the cycle of rebirth with its concomitant suffering. Nirvana brings total spiritual liberation and complete enlightenment. It has also been described as the ultimate dimension of reality. 

                                                          16.3.2002 2355

Ibid., verses 102-105, p. 21.

        King Priyadarsi of Magadha, better known as Asoka (reign c.a. 272-232 B.C.), India’s greatest 

        emperor and probably the world’s greatest philosopher-king, inscribed on one of the rock-carved 

        records (Rock Edict XIII): “…Immediately after the Kalingas had been conquered (including 100,000 

        slain and 150,000 taken captive), King Priyadarsi became intensely devoted to the study of Dharma, to 

       the love of Dharma, and to the inculcation of Dharma.

        “King Priyadarsi considers moral conquest  (Dharmavijaya) the most important conquest. He has 

       achieved this moral conquest repeatedly both here and among the people living beyond the borders of 

       his kingdom, even as far away as six hundred yojanas (3,000 miles)…” (Quoted by Robert Thurman, 

       THE PATH OF COMPASSION, published by Parallax Press, Berkeley, California, 1985, 1988, pp. 

       111-112.)

         

       Emperor Asoka became a Buddhist in about 262 B.C., a few years after the bloody war to suppress the 

       rebellious Kalingas on the east coast (modern Bihar). He practiced the Dharma faithfully and 

      diligently, and elevated Buddhism to the official state religion. He’s a model dharma king (dharma 

      raja). 20.4.2002                  

This phrase appears in many sutras, according to Andrew Skilton (born 1957), an English monk

ordained in 1979 with the Buddhist name of Sthiramati, in A CONCISE HISTORY OF BUDDHISM, published by Windhorse Publications, Birmingham, 1994, p. 27.

In a commentary published in BUDDHISM IN PRACTICE (published by Princeton University 

Press, 1995, p. 107), Luis Gomez writes “that all things reflect each other perfectly, so that every thing in the universe may be said to contain in itself the whole universe, and consequently, that the ultimate reality and the wisdom of a buddha are present in each and every being.”

These two themes of universal oneness/wholeness and all-pervasive wisdom are inherent in the all-embracing Mahayana concept of buddhahood.

In What I Am Trying to Do (published 1976), a 3,000-word statement in one unpunctuated sentence, Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) touched on the “omni-interaccommodative” nature of “eternally regenerative Universe”.

In another versified essay on “A Definition of Evolution” published at the same time, Fuller referred to “the omni-intertransformative nature of macro-micro Universe”. Was this internationally-renowned 20^th century American inventor and designer, architect and engineer, talking about the same thing as the Buddha Shakyamuni? Probably so. The Buddha has spoken of the billion-world universe existing in each and every atom or particle of dust. All in one, and one in all. Everything is one and the same. 

Commenting on the Tathagatagarbha Sutra (BUDDHISM IN PRACTICE, pp. 92-106), William 

Grosnick writes that this sutra, which was probably composed around the middle of the third century C.E., introduced into the Mahayanist tradition the belief that all beings have all the latent virtues of a buddha (tathagatha) which are however hidden by a cover (garbha) of impurities. The message is that buddhahood will be revealed when these defilements are eradicated or removed completely.

Matthieu Ricard (born 1945), a French scientist turned Buddhist monk in the Tibetan lineage, has explained that “the essential perfection of the Buddha-nature is inherently present within each living being in the same way that there’s oil inherently present within sesame seeds. In fact, it’s the very nature of living beings. That perfection may be hidden from sight, but needs only to be revealed and expressed as we rid ourselves of what hides it, the obscuring layers of ignorance and the negative emotions that form under ignorance’s influence…” (The Monk and the Philosopher, published by Schoeken Books, New York, 1999, p. 176)                                           17.3.2002 0111

Quoted in BUDDHISM’S ESSENTIAL PRINCIPLES, published by Buddhist Text Translation Society, San Francisco, for free distribution, p. 1.

In “The Prayer of Great Power”, the original Buddha Samantabhadra (known in Tibetan as 

Kuntuzangpo, the “Omnibeneficient”), declares:

   “For all the sentient beings of the three realms

   Are equal to me, the Buddha of the universal ground.

   Forgetful, they’ve drifted down to bewilderment’s ground,

   And so now are engaged in meaningless deeds…

   By my aspiration as the omnibeneficient,

   May all sentient beings, none excepted,

   Become buddhas in reality’s expanse!”

This Tibetan prayer, in the 19^th chapter of The Tantra which Teaches the Great Perfection,

the Penetration of Samantabhadra’s Intention, teaches the powerlessness of sentient beings not to become buddhas when they recite this powerful prayer, which tens of thousands of Tibetans do daily.

The Nyingma school (Tibet’s oldest, founded by Guru Rinpoche Padmasambhava in the late 8^th century of the common era) teaches that “by coming to recognize the nature of awareness (rig-pa), and by resting in that recognition, the highest enlightenment may be effortlessly won”, to quote Matthew Kapstein of the Department of Religion in Columbia University ( BUDDHISM IN PRACTICE, p. 81).

Kapstein comments (p. 82): “Because this enlightenment is grounded in our essential nature, when it is indicated to us we become, in a sense, powerless not to become buddhas...”

In PURE LAND ZEN/ZEN PURE LAND (published by Sutra Translation Committee of the United States and Canada), the editors explain in the glossary (p. 235): “Amitabha Buddha at the highest or noumenon level represents the True Mind, the Self-Nature (Buddha Nature) common to the Buddhas and sentient beings – all-encompassing and all-inclusive…”

8.   BUDDHISM: A Brief Introduction, by Venerable Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua, published by 

Buddhist Text Translation Society, Burlingame, CA, 1996, and reprinted in Malaysia for free distribution, August 1998, p. 108.

9.     Master Fu (497-569), a Ch’an Buddhist, attained enlightenment one day while he was farming. And he composed a poem on his experience, entitled The Mind King:

         “… When you realize original mind,

          The mind sees Buddha.

          This mind is Buddha;

          This Buddha is mind…”

   Commenting on this poem in The Poetry of Enlightenment: Poems by Ancient Ch’an Masters  (published by Dharma Drum Publications, New York, 1987, pp. 15-16), Master Sheng-Yen (born 1930), one of the foremost living masters in the Ch’an/Zen tradition, has written: “The Mind King describes the mind after enlightenment. It is not the rational mind of analysis or judgement; rather, this mind is the basis of all the Buddhas. If we can understand this mind then we can really see that we are also the Buddha.

     “From the point of view of the Buddha, neither mind nor form exist, but from the discriminating

     mind full of vexations, this mind is pure, and empty of desire and aversion. Although sentient 

     beings are attached to desire and aversion, they have never really departed from the pure mind.

     As soon as we let go of our vexations, our pure mind will manifest, and it will be free and easy,

     the same as the Buddha. Thus the mind of vexation and the pure mind are fundamentally one

     and the same…”                                                                      18.3.2002  1725

.

10. “Anyone who devotes himself to cultivation will eventually become a Buddha,” Master Hua said, 

echoing what Shakyamuni Buddha had declared two and a half millennia ago.

In 1948 Master Hua succeeded Elder Master Hsu Yun to become the Ninth Patriarch of the Wei Yang sect of the Ch’an (Zen) school, the 45^th generation since the First Patriarch Mahakashyapa.

In 1962 Master Hua brought the Dharma to America and the West, where he lectured exclusively on the major works of the Mahayana Canon. He also established various institutions of religious studies and monasteries, including the Dharma Realm Buddhist Association, the City of Ten Thousand Buddhas, the International Translation Institute, etc.

11. In TAMING THE MONKEY MIND: A Guide to Pure Land Practice by the Buddhist scholar

Cheng We-an (published by Sutra Translation Committee of the United States and Canada, February 2000, and reprinted for free distribution by Amida Fellowship, Kuala Lumpur, Vesak, May 2000), the author quotes the ancients (p. 17):

   “Utter one fewer idle phrase;

   Recite the Buddha’s name one more time;

   How wonderful it is!” 

       The translator Elder Master Suddhisukha (Thich Tinh Lac) comments (p. 18): “…To replace sentient 

       beings’ thoughts with Buddha thoughts, while not necessarily a sublime method, is still a rare 

       expedient which can turn delusion into enlightenment.” Rare in the sense of being highly valuable and

       extraordinary, but not uncommon since reciting the Buddha’s name is the key practice of Pure Landers.

       The famous Chinese poet Su Tung-p’o (1036-1101) is quoted (pp. 19-20):

          “Recite the Buddha’s name while walking;

          Recite the Buddha’s name while seated.

          Even when busy as an arrow,

          Always recite the Buddha’s name…”

       Cheng Wei-an comments (p. 20): “The ancients practiced Buddha Recitation with such eagerness

       indeed! Truly, they should be emulated.”                                             17.3.2002  1700

       The Tibetan tantric teachings say that “whoever has stable faith with a simple mind” is close to attaining siddhi (spiritual accomplishment). The supreme accomplishment is complete and perfect enlightenment.

A Pictorial Biography of Sakyamuni Buddha, published by Fo Guan Publications, Petaling Jaya, October 1999, p. 234.

Pure Land Patriarch Tao-ch’o (562-645) referred to the Contemplation (Meditation) Sutra to show that the Buddha Shakyamuni taught his father the Buddha Recitation Samadhi to attain salvation in the Pure Land.

Ibid., p. 305.

       14.  Quoted in Lectures on Three Buddhist Sutras by Venerable Master Hsing Yun, delivered at the 

             National Art Centre in Taipei on October 1978, and published by Fo Kuang Publisher, Taiwan,

             1987, 1992, p. 54.

15. Commented Master Hsuan Hua: “…In a single thought you can be reborn in the Land of Ultimate

Bliss. Hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands are not beyond that one single thought.”

And, he added: “We now recite: “Namo Amitabha Buddha” and there is nothing more important 

than this (spiritual) work…”  (Buddha Root Farm, published by the Sino-American Buddhist

Association, Buddhist Text Translation Society, San Francisco, February 1976, p.8).

Cultivation of the Dharma is to achieve spiritual liberation, the highest and the only truly ever-lasting form of liberation for a human being. And the supreme enlightenment of Buddhahood is the ultimate goal of the Buddhist spiritual quest.

In Contemplating Mind, Han Shan Te Ch’ing (1546-1623), the great Ch’an master, scholar and

writer, has composed:

   “…The Pure Land or the Heavens

         Can be traveled to at will…”

Commenting on this poem on the mind after enlightenment, Master Sheng-Yen has written in The Poetry of Enlightenment  (p. 89): “…Most of the poem discusses the method of contemplating the emptiness, yet completeness of the mind… But then Han Shan says that this method itself must be discarded as soon as the mind is purified, or enlightened. At this point one will realize the great powers and perfection inherent in the mind, which is nothing other than the Buddha...”

Following the two lines quoted above, Han Shan has written:

   “You need not seek the real,

     Mind originally is Buddha…”

And, to quote from an ancient gatha:

   “There is a Buddha in every mind.

     In the Dharma ending age

     Among the people there is little faith.

    They look for the Buddha Dharma

    Outside the mind, not knowing

    That every mind is a Buddha…”

A present-day Pure Lander living in the third millennium has written (19.7.2000 1119): 

          “The essence of the “non-I”

            of the I-llusory “I”

            is but one drop

            in the vast ocean

            of illuminating wisdom.

           Yet the whole universe

             is in the core

             of this single drop

             of pure consciousness.

           And the boundless ocean of light

             is Amitabha.”

Sogyal Rinpoche has written that Amitabha “is the primordial Buddha of the Lotus or Padma family, which is the buddha family to which human beings belong; he represents our pure nature, and symbolizes the transmutation of desire, the predominant emotion of the human realm. More intrinsically, Amitabha is the limitless, luminous nature of our mind…” (The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, published by Rupa, Calcutta, 1997, p. 232)

In Dharma Drum: The life and heart of Ch’an practice (published by Dharma Drum Publications, New York, 1996), Master Sheng-yen (who experienced his initial enlightenment at the age of 19, in 1949, while speaking to Ch’an Master Ling-yuan) has written (p.183):  “Amitabha means limitless life and infinite light. Life refers to time and light refers to space. Being able to surpass time and be free of its limits is called “limitless life.” “Infinite light” indicates the universally shining light of wisdom, the great strength that is limitless in depth, distance, and width. It pervades space and surpasses the limits of space. When birth and death are transcended, limitless life and infinite light appear.” This, it may be added, is the infinite bliss of total spiritual liberation as well as the omniscience of fully enlightened consciousness and transcendent wisdom..

Master Shen-yen has also advised (p.200): “If your method of practice is to recite the Buddha’s name, then you only need to sincerely and whole-heartedly recite Amitabha Buddha’s name to be born in the Western Pure Land….” And in doing so, you will attain your spiritual liberation.

Buddhist Reflections, published by Samuel Weiser, Inc., Maine, 1991, p. 177.

Amitabha has also been described as “the celestial reflex” of Shakyamuni, according to Ernest Eitel (HANDBOOK OF CHINESE BUDDHISM: a Sanskrit-Chinese dictionary, originally published in 1870).

In Dharma Drum (p. 150).  Master Sheng-yen has written: 

               “A person may generate the mind for practice late in life, but attain Buddhahood sooner than a 

               person who started practicing early on. 

       “Those who have faith, confidence and a willingness to truly practice are closest to 

       Buddhahoo.d..”   

   

NAMO AMITABHA

AMITABHA, BUDDHA OF BUDDHAS

AMITABHA THE NUMBER ONE BUDDHA

   “Amitabha Buddha is number one,” Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua (1918-1995) said. “This is because of the power of His vows. This power is so great that when you recite “Na Mwo E Mi Two Fwo” (the Mandarin rendering of “Namo Amitabha Buddha”, translated as “Homage to Amitabha Buddha”), you can very quickly realize Buddhahood. To become a Buddha, all you need to do is to recite the Buddha’s Name…”

   It is said:

   “Of all the Buddhas of the three periods of time (past, present and future)

               throughout the ten directions (throughout the entire cosmos),

   Amitabha Buddha is foremost.”

   Why? “His awesome virtue is unfathomable,” Master Hua said. “The power of Amitabha’s great awesome virtue is incomparable. No other Buddha can compare with Him.”  (1)

   In the Infinite Life Sutra,  Shakyamuni, the Buddha of recorded history, has said that Amitabha had cultivated as a Bodhisattva (then known as Dharmakara) for innumerable kalpas to acquire His superpower status of supreme omniscient wisdom, boundless great compassion and sublime virtues. Amitabha became a Buddha 10 kalpas (cosmic ages) ago. 

   “In the Infinite Life Sutra, Buddha Shakyamuni was very clear in praising Buddha Amitabha as the most respected, with the brightest of light, the King of all Buddhas,” said Master Chin Kung (born 1927), a leading Pure Land teacher of today.

   “When returning to (one’s original Buddha-nature, the pristine state of Buddhahood) and relying upon a Buddha (for one’s spiritual fulfillment), who would be better than the best?

   “Buddha Shakyamuni did not ask us to return and rely upon himself but rather upon Amitabha Buddha, for he is the ultimate Buddha of all Buddhas…”  (2)

   To quote Patrul Rinpoche, the great 19^th century Tibetan Buddhist teacher:

   “…Seated on the cushion is your glorious root teacher, incomparable treasure of compassion, in essence embodying all the Buddhas of the past, present and future, and in form the Buddha and Protector,  Amitabha. He is red, like a mountain of rubies embraced by a thousand suns…”  (3)

   About 800 years ago, the great Japanese scholar-monk Shinran also regarded Amitabha as the ultimate Buddha. In the nembutsu (reciting or chanting Amitabha’s Name), he said he heard his spiritual life “enfolded, embraced, fulfilled by Amida’s wisdom and compassion.”  (4)

   As seen by Shinran, Amitabha is forever risking His Buddhahood for every living being, having vowed and committed Himself to universal salvation.

   In the light of His 48 great vows, Amitabha’s attainment of perfect enlightenment can also be seen as fundamentally supporting and underwriting His primal vow to save all sentient beings. If He can become a Buddha, He wants to make sure – through acquiring the necessary purifying power over countless eons -- that all other beings can also become Buddhas like Him, by empowering them to realize their innate Buddha-nature. 

   And according to Shinran, all the other beings will also achieve mujobutsu, the ultimate Buddhahood, on par with Amitabha, once they awaken fully to their true potential.

   While in deep mediation, Vasubandhu, the outstanding Indian Patriarch and Bodhisattva of the fourth century in the common era, visualized and saw Amitabha as the Buddha of transcendent Light shining everywhere without hindrance. So he took refuge in Amitabha and aspired to be born in the Pure Land. And he said: “The sacred Name which enlightens living beings is heard throughout the ten directions.”  (5)

INVOKE AMITABHA, AWAKEN BUDDHA-NATURE

   According to the early T’ang Pure Land Patriarch Shan-tao (613-681), one only has to repeat Amitabha’s Name with singleness of mind to be born in the Pure Land. This pre-eminent seventh century Chinese sage has called it the act of right assurance, being in accord with the Buddha’s vow and thus assuring oneself a lotus dwelling-place in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

   While in samadhi (deep meditative concentration), Shan-tao also saw Amitabha and perceived this Buddha as the embodiment of immeasurable pure merits.  (6)

    The spiritual significance of the sacred Name is rendered in The Flower Ornament Scripture (The Avatamsaka Sutra) as follows:

   “The reason for suffering in the past

   Over countless eons

   Revolving within birth and death

   Is due to not hearing the Name of Buddha…  (7)

   “Hearing the Name (of) Buddha and developing faith

   Is a monument in the world…” (8)

   “The Name of Buddha Amitabha contains infinite meanings. It is the Name of the universe, so it includes everything,” Master Chin Kung has said. 

   In the fulfillment of Amitabha’s 17^th Vow (glorification of the Name), Amitabha is glorified and praised by all the innumerable Buddhas in the ten directions of the universe.

   And, Master Chin Kung has added: “This Name alone contains all of Buddhism as well as all laws throughout the universe. Therefore, to chant this Name is to chant all sutras…”  (9) 

   Sogyal Rinpoche has written: “As you invoke Buddha, your own Buddha-nature is inspired to awaken and blossom as naturally as a flower (such as a sunflower) in sunlight.”  (10)                                                                                   26.11.2001 2255

   In the Surangama Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has described the human mind as “the temple of enlightenment” (bodhimandala).

   An ancient gatha (stanza or poem) has got it down:

   There is a Buddha in every mind.

   In the Dharma-ending age

   Among the people there is little faith.

   They look for the Buddha Dharma

   Outside the mind, not knowing

   That every mind is a Buddha.  (11)

   Wei Lang, aka Hui Neng (638-713), the Sixth Ch’an/Zen Patriarch in China, told his disciples in a final address at the Kwok Yen Monastery several hours before he passed away: “Within our mind there is a Buddha, and that Buddha within is the real Buddha. If Buddha is not sought within our mind, where shall we find the real Buddha? Doubt not that Buddha is within your mind, apart from which nothing can exist…”  (12) 

   Hui Neng also advised them: “What you should do is to know your own mind and realize your own Buddha-nature (“the Essence of Mind”)…”     (13)

   To Saicho (766-822), a great scholar-monk and founder of the Tendai school in Japan, Amitabha is an embodiment of the absolute reality and is to be sought in one’s mind. He also encouraged reciting Amitabha’s Name.  (14)

   Master Chu-hung (1535-1615), the Eighth Patriarch of the Lotus school in China, has taught that one’s mind is indeed the Buddha and also that Buddha is one’s mind. This means that it is a fallacy to believe only in Buddhahood in one’s own mind. Through the practice of the nien-fo (reciting or chanting the Buddha’s Name) which presupposes the existence of the Buddha outside the mind, one comes to realize its true nature within.

   :

   The great Chu-hung has also taught that:

Amitabha has a particularly close relationship (affinity) with the people of this world. Even wicked people sometimes call his Name, and those in distress and sorrow involuntarily recite it. That is why one should think only on this Buddha and call his Name. 

The people in the last Dharma age should seek birth in the Pure Land only by uninterrupted mindful recitation of the Name. For all, whether of inferior or superior capacity, single-minded concentration on the Name leads to realization of the true nature of one’s mind.

Through the steadfast mindfulness of the Buddha, one comes to realize that the Pure Land of Tranquil Illumination is nowhere but here, and Amitabha is not outside one’s mind.  (16)

   The New York-based The Van Hien Study Group explains: “The most common Pure Land practice is the recitation of Amitabha Buddha’s Name (Buddha Recitation or Buddha Remembrance). This should be done with utmost faith and a sincere vow to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.

   “Along with this popular form of Pure Land, there is a higher aspect, in which Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life, is equated with our Buddha Nature, infinitely bright and everlasting  (Self-Nature Amitabha, Mind-Only Pure Land). Thus, to recite the Buddha’s Name is to recite the Buddha of our own mind, to return to our own pure mind.”  (17) 

   The pure mind is Buddha; the pure mind is also the Pure Land.                 22.11.2013 03:33  

   As interpreted by Master Chin Kung: “…Our self-nature was originally awakened. So, the Buddha that we rely upon is not to be found outside ourselves but is innate to our self-nature. The Pure Land School teaches “Buddha Amitabha and the Pure Land are already within our self-nature”. Buddha Amitabha, Buddha Shakyamuni and all Buddhas manifest from our self-nature. Therefore, what we rely upon is the Buddha or awakening of our self-nature. From now on we should be awakened and never again be deluded or filled with attachments for if we do so then we have not turned back…”

  Turning back spiritually is to return to our original Buddha-nature and to reclaim it in its pristine clarity and pureness.

   Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An, a Vietnamese Zen master, has written: “Every living being has within himself the Buddha nature, the principle of enlightenment. To become a Buddha is simply to discover this Buddha nature, always present within, eternally shining…”  (19)

   On the practice of chanting Amitabha Buddha’s Name which purifies and transforms the mind, Thich says: “The Chinese thus chant, “Namu A-mi-to-Fou,” the Japanese, “Namu A-mi-da Butsu” and the Vietnamese, “Namo A-di-da Phat.” They all mean: “I pay homage to Amita Buddha”.”

   And Thich goes on to stress that “the important thing is to chant with one mind, concentrating upon the chanting and excluding all other thoughts from the mind…

  “We practice it until our mind becomes perfectly calm and quiet and Amita Buddha is always with us.

   “We practice it further until we and the Buddha become one, until there is no name to be chanted and no one to chant it.

   “When this happens, this land and the Pure Land become interfused in a perfect harmony beyond the realm of perception and knowledge.

   “Then we change this Samsara into Nirvana, the suffering world into the Blissful Land of the West, this world of impurity into the Pure Land.

   “To experience this reality, one only needs to chant, “Namo Amita Buddha,” in complete sincerity, mindfulness and faith.”  (20)

REDEMPTION FOR THE SINNERS

   For even the greatest of sinners, the Pure Land message is that the vast redemptive power of Amitabha can save them from the depths of the Avici hell. In the Contemplation Sutra, Shakyamuni told Ananda and Queen Vaidehi: “…Because he (a sinner) calls the Buddha’s Name (ten times), with each repetition, the evil karma which he has committed during eighty kotis (800 million) of kalpas of Samsara is extinguished…”   (21)

   Calling on Amitabha with sincerity and faith signals a change of heart and a break with the confused and troubled past.

   According to the Pure Land Patriarch Tao-ch’o (562-645), even a single nien-fo that grows in the mind can destroy all impurities. Quoting from the Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra which states that the nien-fo can destroy all evil passions and hindrances, he dubbed this mindful practice of reciting the Buddha’s Name as the king of samadhis (meditative concentrations).  (22)

   Another great exponent, Genshin (942-1017) has written in his comprehensive work on the Pure Land (A Collection of Essential Passages Concerning Birth in the Pure Land): “Those with extremely heavy evil karma have no other means (of salvation); by only repeating the Buddhas’s Name, they can attain birth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.”  (23)

   In a recent article on Pure Land faith and practice, Dr. J. C. Cleary has written that “above all it is the power of Amitabha that makes birth in the Pure Land possible for sinners as well as saints, because Amitabha has vowed to save all who faithfully and single-mindedly invoke His name...”  (24)

UNIVERSAL SALVATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

   The redemption of sinners is, of course, subsumed in Amitabha’s assurance of Buddhahood for all beings. The essence of the Pure Land faith and practice arises from Amitabha’s commitment to universal salvation.

   It is declared in The Flower Ornament Scripture Book 1:

   The Buddha’s boundless wisdom light

   Can destroy the net of ignorance and illusion

   Saving all beings in all worlds…

   Far more than others, the ignorant and the sinful need Amitabha to save them spiritually. One attains spiritual emancipation, breaking free from the karmic gravity of the world of samsara, the moment one is reborn in Amitabha’s Pure Land. And rebirth in this Pure Land can be secured by having faith in Amitabha and reciting/chanting His Name as an act of mindfulness and devotion.

   The Pure Land Patriarch T’an-luan (476-540) has emphasized that ordinary beings full of evil passions should avail themselves of the Other Power to attain salvation  He was the first to use the term of “the Other Power” to describe Amitabha’s infinite and self-renewable spiritual resource to save and enlighten all sentient beings.  (25)

   To Honen (1133-12120, the founder of the Japanese Pure Land school, who found enlightenment in the Name of Amitabha at the age of 43 after more than 30 years of study and practice,  the nembutsu is the supreme practice which can bring salvation to even the most wicked of errant human beings. 

   As insightfully perceived by Shinran, the best-known and boldest of Honen’s leading disciples, and felicitously expressed by two of his present day followers in Hawaii, Shoji Matsumoto and Ruth Tabrah:

   “Amida’s enlightenment is pledged to each of us. This is the reality of the fulfilled vows, the reality of the light that we can no longer ignore. 

   “This light opens us to empathy from and with Amida.

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   “It gives us the courage to face the reality of our impermanence.

   “It enables us to respond to the certainty of Buddhahood which Amida’s vow-fulfilment freely promises each one…  (26)

   “Amida’s wisdom and compassion is always piercing the dark cover of our self-imprisoning ignorance… (27)

   “In the inescapable light of wisdom and compassion, none is helpless. No one is worthless. No one is excluded from the unconditional salvation of vow-powered enlightenment…”  (28)

   Cleary has also written: “Believers put their faith in Amitabha Buhha and recite His Name, confident in the promise He has given to deliver all who invoke His Name. All classes of people, whatever their other characteristics or shortcomings, are guaranteed rebirth in the Pure Land and ultimate salvation, if only they invoke Amitabha’s Name with single-minded concentration and sincere faith...”  (29)

   Amitabha has vowed to attain complete and perfect enlightenment on the condition that it can ensure that all sentient beings will be born in His Pure Land where they will achieve their own spiritual liberation and perfection like Him. Moreover, He has vowed that all will be born in His Pure Land if they entrust themselves to Him, desire to be born there, and call His Name with faith and sincerity (even once or up to ten times).

   Referred to as the Primal Vow, it can be read as Amitabha’s sworn undertaking to assure Buddhahood for all the faithful since He has attained His consummate enlightenment with this all-embracing and altruistic objective in mind.

   Known as bodhicitta, the aspiration for full enlightenment to benefit and save all beings, constitutes the very first vow of all bodhisattvas in Buddhist practice.      

   While a period of about three kalpas of spiritual cultivation is required for a dedicated bodhisattva to become a Buddha, Amitabha (then known as Dharmakara Bodhisattva) practised for innumerable kalpas to develop an inexhaustible power plant of pure karmic energy to fulfill all His vows. 

   The supreme accomplishment is recorded in The Flower Ornament Scripture::

   “Buddha practiced for boundless eons

   Purifying and mastering transcendent vows;

   Therefore He appears throughout the world

   Saving beings forever and ever...”  (30)

   

 Amitabha has become a Buddha on the condition of being able to fulfill His 48 great vows. And His success in achieving the ultimate Buddhahood clearly signifies that He will also succeed in accomplishing universal salvation as well as the enlightenment of all sentient beings. His Pure Land serves as the main platform for His spiritual mission.      

   Amitabha’s boundless great compassion equates and equals universal salvation.

  Amitabha’s Infinite Light of Omniscient Wisdom is forever and ever pledged and dedicated to the enlightenment of every one who has faith in the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life.

  To quote Master Hsuan Hua:

     “To become a Buddha, all you need to do is to recite the Buddha’s Name…”

         NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA