Questions about the Pure Land Buddhism
Question: What is Amitābha?
The Venerable Master Hsuan-Hua replied:
Your own Prakṛti is Amitābha. Your Amitābha this Svabhava also lives in your own Chitta. If you understand your Prakṛti, you know that your own Svabhava exists, is here motionless, and is always bright, which is the same as if this king is here; If your Svabhava is gone, this king will also be gone. If you understand Chitta and see Prakṛti, this is the appearance of Amitābha.
Answered by Venerable Master Hsuan-Hua
Q: Why should we chant Buddha's name at ordinary times?
Venerable Master Hsuan-Hua answers:
Chanting Buddha in daily life is just a preparation for the dying. If you don't have the habit of chanting Buddha's name at ordinary times, when you are about to die, you will not be able to remember to chant Buddha, or you don't even know about chanting Buddha.
Q: Practice Buddha seven, chant Buddha's name every day, what is it?
Venerable Master Hsuan-Hua responds:
This is called: Planting the Buddha seeds.
If you chant one Buddha sentence, you will plant one Buddha seed, and if you chant ten Buddha sentences, you will plant ten Buddha seeds. We chant millions of times of Buddha every day, and we plant millions of seeds of Buddhas.
Question: Although the method of reciting the name of the Buddha theoretically claims that if ten thousand people practice it, ten thousand people can reborn to Sukhāvatī. And there are many examples of Venerable successfully reborn to Sukhāvatī. But overall, although there are many people who recite the Buddha's name, not one out of ten thousand people has succeeded in being reborn to Sukhāvatī. Because its focus is on'one mind', it is really not an easy task. In Sad-Dharma-Vipralopa, sentient beings have poor abilities and shallow wisdom, making it difficult for them to achieve "one mind". The vast majority of people can only cultivate good roots by chanting Buddha's name, but they still cannot escape the suffering of reincarnation. Since this is the case, the Pure Land Buddhism has no special points compared to other Dharm.
Elder Lay Buddhist Li Bing-nan answers:
Wholeheartedly: There is a difference between short-term and long-term. Those who persevere for a long time will be reborn as high-grade people, and those who have some interruptions in the middle will be reborn as middle-grade or low-grade people. Although this kind of state is rare, if you really believe in your sincere wish, often lift the thought of reciting the Buddha's name, and never forget it when you are dying, that is, your mind is not in Viparyāsa, you will definitely be able to be reborn in the Pure Land.
The Sutra says "one mind with no confusion" to teach people to look upward and make the most certain plans. Many people cannot be reborn to the Pure Land successfully because they have untrue beliefs, insincere wish, frequent interruptions in pure thoughts, and the inability to frequently lift the idea of reciting the Buddha's name.
These people's minds are absent-minded, wandering east and west, wavering, and of course they have no chance of being reborn in the Pure Land. Practice other methods, you have to eliminate doubts, clarify Chitta, seeing Svabhāva before you can achieve success, so it is called the difficult path. To practice the Pure Land Sect, as long as you discipline your body and mind and recite the Buddha's name wholeheartedly, you will be able to sense Taoist connections and carry your karma to the Pure Land, so it is said to be an easy path. The ancient great master said: "It does not take three kalpas to cultivate blessings and wisdom, but only six characters to leave the three realms." Compared with other Dharm, how could it not be extraordinary?
李炳南居士《淨土法門疑難問題解答》225
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