Dharma Flower wrote:Admin_PC wrote:
What is being disputed is that people in the Pure Land somehow don't help sentient beings in this world.
I don't remember making that claim, so I am sorry for causing any possible confusion. When the Infinite Life Sutra says "after one more life," where is that life to be, in the Pure Land or in the saha world? I am only interested in better understanding what the text itself is intending to say, since I might be misunderstanding the meaning. I appreciate your help.
Re-read what I quoted in red.
The Infinite Life (Larger Sukhavati) Sutra itself says that "after one more life" is not set in stone.
Here is another translation of the 22nd vow:
BDK Translation wrote:22. If, when I attain buddhahood, bodhisattvas in the buddha lands of
the other directions who visit my land should not ultimately and unfailingly
reach the stage of becoming a buddha after one more life, may I not attain
perfect enlightenment. Excepted are those who wish to teach and guide sentient
beings in accordance with their original vows. For they will wear the
armor of great vows, accumulate merit, deliver all beings from birth and
death, visit buddha lands to perform the bodhisattva practices, make offerings
to buddha tathāgatas throughout the ten directions, enlighten countless
sentient beings as numerous as the sands of the Ganges River, and establish
them in highest, perfect enlightenment. Such bodhisattvas transcend the
course of practice of ordinary bodhisattvas, manifest the practices of all the
bodhisattva stages, and cultivate the virtues of Samantabhadra.
It's an exception to the "one more life" statement. Those following lives can be anywhere, BUT they will not be in a state of retrogression, they will continue to progress towards Buddhahood, and they will do so with their faculties and wisdoms as told in my earlier post.
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Sheng-Yen's only partially right (he's not really a Pure Land expert after all and was known to have said "no true Chan follower would ever rely on another Buddha") - Buddhas must be born as humans in order to exhibit the standard, archetypal displays of a Supreme Nirmanakaya Buddha. According to various other Mahayana & Vajrayana sources, Buddhas actually become Supremely Awakened in the Pure Land of Akanistha. Regardless, the acts of a Buddha's life in the human realm are merely a display in Mahayana. The Mahayana position is that Shakyamuni himself was actually awakened in the distant past, his life here on earth just acting out a play (he says so explicitly in the Lotus Sutra). The story of the Naga princess of the Lotus Sutra also reinforces this idea.
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Shantao's main practice however was recitation, not visualization. The idea that he taught nembutsu, but practiced something else is not verified by his writings:
Jodo Shu Research Institute wrote:Consequently, Shan-tao asserted that the recitation of the nembutsu referred to in the Meditation Sutra corresponds to the intent referred to in the original vow (hongan) expounded in the Sutra of Immeasurable Life (Wu-liang-shou ching). For that reason he defined it as the practice essential to attaining birth in the Pure Land. He regarded the various visualization practices expounded in the Meditation Sutra as auxiliary to nembutsu recitation. In this way, Shan-tao brought a new stage of development to the idea that an ordinary deluded person can attain salvation through the Pure Land teachings.
At the very end of the Meditation Sutra, Shakyamuni says to his disciple Ananda, "You must uphold these words. To uphold them is to uphold the name of Amida Buddha." Shan-tao interpreted this passage to mean that Shakyamuni was recommending not just the mental visualization of Amida Buddha, but especially the verbal recitation of Amida Buddha's name. Shan-tao explains this in the last part of his Commentary on the Meditation Sutra as follows:
Shantao's Commentary on the Meditation Sutra (Taisho 1753) wrote:Although this sutra has carefully expounded the thirteen visualizations of the Pure Land and the nine levels of practice proper for the nine levels of beings, its most important explanation is reserved for the last lines of this sutra. It concerns the very heart of Amida Buddha's vow; that one must recite the name, the nembutsu.(T. 365, 12:346b)