Also called the Pure Land, it is a pure and peaceful realm, completely free from the five defilements and the eight sufferings like the filthy Saṃsāra where sentient beings currently reside. The Pure Land is also a practice, teaching people to focus on reciting the Buddha’s name and doing good deeds so that, with the help of Amitabha Buddha, they can be guided to be reborn in the Ultimate Bliss (Pure Land).
The Pure Land has four realms, depending on each person’s practice ability to attain:
1/-Realm of Ordinary and Holy Residents: In this Pure Land, sentient beings attain realization by practicing pure conduct (reciting the Buddha’s name and doing good deeds). As a result, they can reside together with the Holy Ones of the Three Vehicles, which is the Ultimate Bliss realm of Amitabha Buddha.
2/-Realm of Convenient Residual Existence: This realm is for the Second Vehicle level. Although practitioners have eliminated conceptual confusion and left the three realms, two remnants remain: ignorance and the dust-like afflictions are not completely eradicated, hence called “residual.” Therefore, the ultimate goal has not yet been fully achieved.
3/-Realm of Real Reward Adornments: This realm is achieved by practitioners of the Great Vehicle, who have accumulated merit over many lifetimes, attained wisdom free from defilements, and possess countless excellent features, truly adorned. Here is the rei Tam Hien Bodhisattva.
4/-The Pure Land of Dharma Nature: Also called ‘Constant Tranquil Light Pure Land.’ This realm only abides in the Dharma Body of the Buddha (originally pure), so it has no form. Because a practitioner has completely attained liberation, it is also called achieving the ‘Complete Enlightenment Nature’ or ‘True Emptiness and Wonderful Existence.’ It encompasses the virtues of: True Permanence (not born, not destroyed), True Purity (free from all defilements and afflictions), and True Prajna (wisdom light illuminating the ten directions). In the Vimalakirti Sutra it says: ‘If you want a Pure Land, make your mind pure; when your mind is pure, the Buddha Land is also pure.’ -So here, ‘Pure Land’ refers both to the Pure Land as opposed to the worldly realm in the poem above, and to the Dharma Practice of Buddha Recitation. The Master once said: ‘Living with a Pure Land mind is complete.’
(Exhortation Oracle Vol.5)
Notes on Oracle Vol V (1975)
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