The wondrousness of the Western Pure Land is inconceivable. Amitabha’s Pure Land is a land where saints and ordinary beings live together, but it includes all Four Lands. When we go there, of course we go to the Land of Common Residence of Ordinary Beings and Saints because we carry residual karmas.
In all other Buddha-lands of the ten directions, the Four Lands are separate. Sakyamuni Buddha’s Land of Real Reward is in the Dharma Realm of the One Reality, and his Land of Expedient Liberation is in the four enlightened worlds. The lands are separate.
It is like schools in this world. Elementary schools, middle schools, and universities are separate. The Western Pure Land is unique. The students of elementary school, the students of middle school, the students of university, and post-graduate students all share the same classroom. This is unique. This is why it is called a teaching hard to believe.
When we go to the Western Pure Land, we are like elementary school students. But there are also university students, post-graduate students, and Ph. D. students in the same classroom. When we face difficulty, they will help us. An inconceivable world!
Therefore, attaining rebirth in the Land of Common Residence of Ordinary Beings and Saints, the first of the four lands, is the same as attaining rebirth in the Land of Expedient Liberation because arhats are our fellow practitioners.
It is also the same as attaining rebirth in the Land of Real Reward, the third of the four lands, because bodhisattvas are there with us.
It is also the same as attaining rebirth in the Land of Eternally Quiescent Light, the highest of the four lands, because Buddhas are also there with us.
~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra