Sounds Like Christianity to Me
December 13, 2009 Question: A while back a person that I met on line gave the address to the Amitabha Gallery. At that point I had never heard of Pure land Buddhism before. Needless to say I had a hard time with it. I had spent the last 20 years with virtually no belief just a faith in the teaching of Buddha. Now I was faced with a teaching that so much resembled that of Christianity I had very hard time accepting it. I would study it and then walk away. After a while I would study some more, and yet again walk away. I couldn't accept this new teaching. Then one day while mediating I realized, Pure Land mind, thats what we are all striving for, and its not some place out there. It seem not so different from Zen "in many ways". Sorry I will get to the question now.
In our study group we are studying the Zen method, which has always seemed to me very easy to understand. The other day as I was talking with them I looked at this group and realized that most of them will not have 20 plus years to study and hope for some level of enlightenment, much less attain Buddhahood and break the cycle of rebirth, I became very sad. As I was looking at them I seen also the reflection of myself. At almost 50 I to would not break the cycle in this life time. Understand, I want to come back, I cannot imagine leaving behind those who still suffer, I want to come back and help. The risk of coming back is what bothers me, Will I find the Dharma in the next life or will it be lost to me. It was hard enough to find it this time.
Realizing that the Pure Land method would be the best by far for this group, and myself. I just don't know how to introduce it to them with out the thoughts of, This is worshiping a god, this is a heaven, this is an after life, This is just like Christianity. My fear is that most want take the time to understand and will walk away. If you could help me with this approach I would really appreciate it.
Response: To newcomers looking in, Pure Land can seem like Christianity. This may say more about the culture many people grew up in rather than about Pure Land. But the reality is that neither Amitabha Buddha nor any other Buddha can "save" us. They cannot override the force of our karma. All they can do is teach us and show us by example. If we fail to put in the hard work of living morally, of letting go of our attachments, of chanting "Amituofo" in our meditation until our mind becomes one with Amitabha Buddha and we are able to do as we are dying, Amitabha cannot "save" us.
In Buddhism, there is no being to forgive our transgressions. We still have to undergo the outcomes of our deeds.
Additionally, Christianity is a religion with a God who is worshipped. Buddhism is a teaching of universal truths that all Buddhas teach. As the Buddha replied over 2600 years ago, Buddhas are not Gods, but rather ordinary beings who have perfectly awakened. So while there is only one God in Christianity, in Buddhism there are more Buddhas than you and I could count.
We do not worship these Buddhas, we respect them. An Asian way of showing respect is to prostrate. Those who do not understand often view this as worship. We have images of Buddhas and bodhisattvas not to worship, but to remind us of our own Buddha-nature and of qualities like compassion and understanding.
We seek rebirth in the Pure Land not as a final goal but rather as an intermediary step to Buddhahood. A step beyond the cycle of rebirth and within reach of supreme, perfect enlightenment: Buddhahood.
And, yes, the Pure Land we seek is not "out there," it is already within us.
About time, interestingly, you have reached the point many past Zen masters also reached—not enough. And so the ancient masters changed their focus to Pure Land. Because of their decades of daily practice for many hours in Zen, they were able to progress quickly in their chanting "Amituofo" and attain rebirth in the Pure Land.
Once in the Pure Land, they were—and we are—assured of never again falling back in our practice. This is vitally important because we encounter many problems in striving to achieve Buddhahood. One of them is that we are very rarely born as humans. When we are, we are very rarely born at the time the Buddhadharma is known. If we manage these two extraordinarily difficult conditions, we have to be in a place where we are able to practice (freedom to practice, economic and personal conditions allowing practice), we have to find the right method for us, and we need to find a teacher so we can follow just one path and not waste that precious commodity of time. All very rare.
Then, when we have one of those remarkably rare lifetimes in which all the pieces come together for us to practice, we as easily—if not more easily—regress as progress.
You wrote "Understand, I want to come back, I cannot imagine leaving behind those who still suffer, I want to come back and help. The risk of coming back is what bothers me, Will I find the Dharma in the next life or will it be lost to me. It was hard enough to find it this time." To truly help others we need a great deal of time. Even as a monastic, I do not have enough time even though everything I do is aimed directly or indirectly at helping others. There are simply far too many beings to help and far too short a lifetime left to me in which much of my time is spent sleeping, eating, and doing all the other things humans do.
The best way to truly help is to be reborn in the Pure Land so we can learn all the different methods to help different beings. Also, once there, we will never again regress in our practice. As we return to help others beings, there will be no risk of again being caught in the cycle of rebirth. No risk of falling prey to our past bad habits. No risk of being ensnared by greed, anger, or ignorance.
Also, there will be no risk of not being able to attain our own goal of Buddhahood due to not enough time to practice.
And all this will be due not to the intervention of another being, but as a result of our own hard work, confidence in what the Buddha taught, and aspiration to help all beings. We'll be reaping the results of our own causes and benefiting from the teachings of a wise and infinitely compassionate Buddha.
Reader Comments (7)
However after practicing the Pure Land method for a little while, I gradually came to see some similarities in the Christian practice, though the understanding behind the practice may be different. This is not to say that the Christian practice is the same as the Pure Land practice or that one is better than the other. But it's given me a greater appreciation and a deeper respect for the Christian teachings and their way of practicing.
I used to feel uncomfortable with some aspects of Christianity. May be I didn't understand what people were trying to explain to me, or I just did not meet a good teacher. Now I feel more unity with what Jesus taught and that the proper teachings of Jesus can really benefit people.
I don't think I will have this openness if I did not practice reciting Amituofo. It is as if by practicing the recitation of Amituofo I am also practicing all the other proper ways of practicing, be they from the different methods of Buddhism or Christianity.
Reciting Amituofo has helped me feel more at ease with different people from different backgrounds with different beliefs. It has also helped me work better with them and build better relationships with them as I feel more connectedness with the people I interact with.
Amituofo
Buddhas do not differentiate among the various moral teachings. So the calmness we achieve in our chanting Amituofo allows us to have the wisdom to see that any teaching of love and compassion is a good teaching. We simply need to respect all of the teachings and realize that there are far more similarities in the practices and moral striving than there are differences.
Thank you for the reminder!
Amituofo
Thank you for this very inspirational comment.
You say that no Buddha can save us, including Amitabha. What then do you make of the Japanese Shin Buddhist doctrine of salvation by faith alone? From what I understand, this idea of faith is often misinterpreted as a kind of blind faith, when really the idea is of "shinjin" or calm entrusting in the compassion and power of Amida. Repetition of the Buddha Name is still important, but is uttered more out of gratitude and joy for what has been already achieved in timeless time (our rebirth in the Pure Land and enlightenment) through Other Power. The idea of trying to attain rebirth through self-effort is seen as a misunderstanding of the Pure Land teaching. The Shin teaching is that in reality it is Amida who causes us to repeat the nembutsu and to aspire to the Pure Land. I assume you would not agree with this approach, or else you would be a Shin Buddhist, but do you think there is any truth to this teaching? Or, if you feel that this teaching misses the mark, can you explain why?
Not having studied Shin Buddhism, I am not qualified to comment on the practice.
Chinese Pure Land, which goes back to the 4th century and before in China, has three primary sutras. One of them, the Visualization Sutra speaks of the Three Conditions.
From Venerable Master Chin Kung’s Buddhism: The Awakening of Compassion and Wisdom, we read how the Buddha taught Queen Vaidehi "to practice the Three Conditions, explaining that they were “the true causes of pure activities of all Buddhas of the three time periods.” This important statement tells us that all Buddhas of the three time periods [i.e., the past, the present, and the future] rely on the Three Conditions as foundation of their cultivation and attainment of Buddhahood. This is like constructing a building. No matter the height or the appearance of the building, it requires a foundation. The Three Conditions form the common basis of the Buddha’s teachings, and we must rely on this basis to make achievements in Buddhism. This is an extremely important point.”
The Three Conditions are: 1. Be filial and provide and care for parents, and be respectful to and serve teachers; be compassionate and do not kill, cultivate the Ten Virtuous Deeds. 2. Take the Three Refuges; abide by precepts; behave in a dignified and appropriate manner. 3. Generate the Bodhi mind; deeply believe in the law of cause and effect; recite and uphold the Mahayana sutras; and en-courage others to advance on the path to enlightenment.
The Ten Virtuous Deeds are: No killing, stealing, sexual misconduct, false speech, harsh speech, divisive speech, enticing speech, greed, anger, or ignorance.
In other words, we need to live a moral life.
By living a moral life, we plant the seeds that will help us accumulate the good fortune, merits and virtues to be able to practice. For those of us with Pure Land roots, all the pieces come together and we are extraordinarily fortunate to again encounter the Pure Land teachings. As Pure Land practitioners, we focus on these Pure Land teachings but have to remember the context in which they were taught: precepts (self-discipline), meditative concentration, and wisdom.
For those wishing to examine this issue further, I suggest reading Charles B. Jones’ article "Foundations of Ethics and Practice in Pure Land Buddhism." It’s available under the Further Reading tab on the menu bar to the left.