Looking for a historical text or a contemporary study of such text on how it is that this world is or isn't a "pure land"
Upvote:-1
The question "how it is that this world is or isn't a "pure land". Presumably the Buddha Sakyamuni has or had a pure land?" Thanks to your question and the fine answers I understood what "pure land" means. It is what some may call the mind of peace, or the mind that does not vacillate. Reading SA 557 helps. Do not rely on its Pali counterpart AN 9.37, which has been modified to suit the Pali tradition. The world according to Buddha is a person's individual experience. How is it brought about? It is done via data that enters through the six entry points, if any of those are touched, that leads to Impure lands. "Touch" has a specific meaning. If the data enters via these six places without being influenced by the signals the objects emit, then one has found the "Pure land"
An excerpt from SN 35.95 "Not impassioned with forms — seeing a form with mindfulness firm — dispassioned in mind, one knows and doesn't remain fastened there. While one is seeing a form — and even experiencing feeling — it falls away and doesn't accumulate. Thus one fares mindfully. Thus not amassing stress, one is said to be in the presence of Unbinding"
Right mindfulness most succinctly stated in SN 47. 42 Sutta on Origination or Samudaya, offers us clues as to how to dwell in the pure land.
Based on this discussion "unbinding" in the above verse sounds to me like "Pure Land". "Pure land" in other words would be a land without defilements, or a consciousness that is un-fastened. When we begin naming the forms that arise in our minds, that leads to "Impure Lands"?.
Upvote:1
The bolded statements below show immediate birth into the Pure Land in this life itself.
The way I see this explanation is that the Pure Land is a "place of mind".
From Japanese Pure Land Philosophy on Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy:
Thinkers like Shinran and Shōkū, however, both understood the utterance of nembutsu to be fulfilled practice because it arises from the oneness of being and Buddha expressed as shinjin or taking refuge. Further, because of this oneness, a person’s attainment of birth in the Pure Land is completely settled in the immediate present.
The effects of the oneness are manifested not only in the occurrence of birth in the Pure Land at death, but also in various ways in present life. Shōkū speaks of a variety of benefits received in the present by the person of the nembutsu, including the elimination of the effects of past evil acts, extension of life, avoidance of various calamities, protection of buddhas, seeing of Amida, and so on. One should not pursue such benefits for their own sake, but they naturally come about for the person of the nembutsu whose birth in the Pure Land is settled. Thus, to express the condition of the nembutsu practitioner, Shōkū even distinguishes two types of Pure Land “birth,” “immediate birth” (sokuben ōjō) while remaining burdened with afflicting passions in present life and birth into the Pure Land at the time of death (tōtoku ōjō).
More post
- 📝 Does illegal downloading or viewing of copyright material violate the second precept?
- 📝 What is actually Nirvana -- what are some Tripitaka sources?
- 📝 What is fruition in Buddhism?
- 📝 Can Dukkha be considered as the consequence of a psychological allergic reaction?
- 📝 Can one lose jhana?
- 📝 How is the exterior suffering?
- 📝 How to change myself?
- 📝 About the compatibility between meditation methods, guides, trainings and teachers, and other questions regarding Samadhi
- 📝 What are the 4 wheels and 9 doors in Snp 1.29?
- 📝 Difference between abiding nirvana and non-abiding nirvana?
- 📝 How this quote by Mahathma Ghandi is compatable with non-violence teaching of Buddhism?
- 📝 Can karma operate at the level of groups i.e. collectively?
- 📝 What is suchness (esp in Tendai or Soto)
- 📝 Mindfulness question
- 📝 Is enlightened cognition more than its parts?
- 📝 Balancing the Five Powers
- 📝 Emptiness and one taste
- 📝 After months of daily meditation I can't concentrate
- 📝 Do Buddha represent the Cosmic Man? Does it have similarity to Brahman?
- 📝 What is life like after having achieved nirvana?
- 📝 Does Mahayana Buddhism discourage attaining enlightenment under the Gautama Buddha Sasana?
- 📝 Websites with the Chinese canon translated into English?
- 📝 The Sangha extinguished, the Dhamma sold out: what now?
- 📝 Can lay people be involved in the weapons business?
- 📝 How to deal with loved ones who don't support you?
- 📝 Is every Dhamma cause of suffering?
- 📝 Is it OK to purchase cat food?
- 📝 What significance does the dragon hold within Buddhism?
- 📝 Can lokuttara citta's be defined as the true knowing essence (yathabhuta nana dassana)?
- 📝 Importance of Posture in Meditation
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 Looking for a historical text or a contemporary study of such text on how it is that this world is or isn't a "pure land"
- 📝 How can I remove my desire for a relationship/girlfriend?
- 📝 In meditation, should one pursue tranquility first, prior to looking for insight?
- 📝 How much is the minimal time for practicing Vipassana in daily life for achieving better mindfulness?
- 📝 How to use Sloth and Torpor as an object for meditation
- 📝 How do you trade a career for a life geared toward becoming awakened?
- 📝 How does one escape suffering when they cannot provide for those they love
- 📝 How to Study the Suttas?
- 📝 Looking for references to skeptical debates on the subject of rebirth
- 📝 If karma is objective, how come it's cause for "good" rebirth?
- 📝 Looking for a Buddhist story about trust
- 📝 How do I proceed to seriously study Buddhism?
- 📝 How does one do an "eye opening" for a new statue?
- 📝 Why does Mara, the Evil One one comes looking for consciousness at death?
- 📝 Looking for a book that covers the biography of the Buddha's life
- 📝 How does kamma create a new set of aggregates for a rebirth; how do the mechanics of this process work?
- 📝 How do you decide when to stick up for yourself and when to let things go?
- 📝 How do Buddhists handle mental illness such as depression or bipolar disorder?
- 📝 How to reconcile 'You are already enlightened. There's no need to strive!' with 'You should strive for enlightenment. Purify your mind!'
- 📝 In the wheel of life, how can death be a condition for ignorance?
- 📝 How we can develop metta for terrorists?
- 📝 How can you use daily walks for spiritual growth in Diamond Way Buddhism?
- 📝 How to determine whether a 10 days S.N. Goenka Vipassana course is safe for my friend or relative?
- 📝 How do you balance your desire for liberation with your wordly desires?
- 📝 What exactly are the last two of the Arupa Jhanas? How can we transcend them and for what?
- 📝 How should a theravada centre approach the lay people for support?
- 📝 Looking for negative reference to women in the Avatamsaka Sutra
- 📝 How does our inactions contribute to Karma?... For eg:How can you justify act of your cook killing an animal for your non buddhist guest?
- 📝 How do we focus on stress for the first noble truth?
- 📝 How can Name-and-form be the cause and condition for the manifestation of the consciousness aggregate?