Grigoris: Where, in the quoted section, does it say that it works when you do it for others?
This is where your ignorance of Pure Land and the Lotus Sutra matters:
That's Ch. 25 the famous Kwan-Yin chapter of the Lotus Sutra; Kannon can use her karma to overcome the individual's bad karma, who calls upon her. The Pure Land sutras explain that Amida and Kannon build up huge amounts of good karma due to their vows and when individuals with crap karma call upon them, wishing to be born in their pure land, by karmic transfer those individuals can be born there. That's how it works: via karmic transfer. Now you can do this for others simply by transferring the merit of the pure land practice. So if I call upon Amida and pray for someone's Birth in the Western Pure land, I transfer the merit to them at the end of my practice. Everyone in East Asia does this practice: for the living for the dead for pets...all sentient beings.
And another point: if a normal joe like me can call Amitabha Buddha/Guanyin to save me from all sorts of illness and danger, then why did the Buddha allow himself to die of a gastric infarction? Why didn't he save himself? Why didn't Ananda save him by praying to Amitabha Buddha/Guanyin? Maybe the Buddha and Ananda did and it was due to a lack of faith that it did not achieve the desired result?
Again you need to read the Lotus Sutra, specifically Ch. 16
The Thus Come One's Life Span it spells it out quite clearly: The Buddha isn't dead, and never really died, he's on Sacred Vulture Peak. To the unenlightened it just looks like he lived and died. I'm really surprised to ever see you write such a thing;
From the time I attained Buddhahood,
The eons that have passed
Are limitless hundreds of thousands of myriads
Of kotis of asamkhyeyas in number.
I always speak the Dharma to teach and transform
Countless millions of living beings,
So they enter the Buddha Way.
And throughout these limitless eons,
In order to save living beings,
I expediently manifest Nirvana.
But in truth I do not pass into quiescence.
I remain here, always speaking the Dharma.
I always stay right here,
And using the power of spiritual penetrations,
I cause inverted living beings,
Although near me, not to see me.
The multitudes see me as passing into quiescence.
They extensively make offerings to my sharira.
All cherish ardent longing for me,
And their hearts look up to me in thirst.
Living beings, then faithful and subdued,
Straightforward, with compliant minds,
Single-mindedly wish to see the Buddha,
Caring not for their very lives.
At that time I and the Sangha assembly
All appear together on Magic Vulture Mountain,
Where I say to living beings
That I am always here and never cease to be.
But using the power of expedient devices
I manifest "ceasing" and "not ceasing" to be.
For living beings in other lands,
Reverent, faithful, and aspiring,
I speak the Unsurpassed Dharma.
But you who do not hear this
Think that I have passed into quiescence.
I see living beings
Sunk in misery, and yet
I refrain from manifesting for them
In order to cause them to look up in thirst,
Then, when their minds are filled with longing,
I emerge and speak the Dharma.
With such powerful spiritual penetrations,
Throughout asamkhyeyas of eons,
I remain always on Magic Vulture Mountain
And also dwell in other places.
When beings see the eon ending
And ravaged by the great fire,
My land is peaceful and secure,
...... Sometimes for this assembly,
I speak of the Buddha�s life span as limitless.
To those who see the Buddha only after long intervals,
I speak of the Buddha as being difficult to meet.
The power of my wisdom
The unlimited illumination of my wisdom
Is such that my life span is one of countless eons
Attained through long cultivation and work.
Those of you with wisdom,
Should not have doubts about this.
Cut them off entirely and forever,
For the Buddha�s words are real, not false.
http://www.buddhistdoor.com/OldWeb/reso ... otus16.htm
gassho
Rory
