Pure lands and six realms?

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DannyDevitoFan
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Pure lands and six realms?

Post by DannyDevitoFan »

How to the pure lands of the different buddha families relate to the six realms? Are they apart from them in a relative sense?
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明安 Myoan
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Re: Pure lands and six realms?

Post by 明安 Myoan »

A bump for this question.

Amitabha's Pure Land at least is not within the Six Realms by design.
The shorter Amitabha sutra emphasizes that even the names of the evil realms of transmigration do not exist there, "how much less the realms themselves."
It does mention the three lower realms specifically, but I believe this benefit pertains to all realms.
Why? Because an important feature of that pure land is non-retrogression, i.e. no rebirth into any realm unless one wishes in order to fulfill bodhisattva vows.
So even if a being has the residual karma to be born through ignorance into one of the Six Realms, it's no longer possible once in that pure land, like seeds cast on a marble floor.

To your other question, the way Amitabha interacts with the realms of suffering is through his 48 Vows, especially the famous 18th, 19th, and 20th. Please check out the Longer and Shorter Amitabha Sutras to get a better idea.

For the others, I can't say. I only have familiarity with Amitabha.
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GoingHome
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Re: Pure lands and six realms?

Post by GoingHome »

csmorg96 wrote: Sat Oct 21, 2017 1:54 am How to the pure lands of the different buddha families relate to the six realms? Are they apart from them in a relative sense?
From my understanding, all Buddha Pureland contains six realms. The realms are separated example: human can't see the hell, ghost, heaven or bodhisattva (same as our Saha). Only Amida Buddha Pureland is void of hell, animal, and ghost realms. Even though the people born there are called "human" or "Deva", it is just an expression. From the 3 Pureland Sutra we can clearly see that whoever born to Amida Pureland all obtained non-retrogression which indicate they are all great bodhisattva.
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