Words of Wisdom delivered at The Temple Of Ultimate Bliss of Tainan Taiwan—What causes rise or decline of a community where people practice Buddhism？ （Episode 7） 2018/1/10 No：32-258-0007_en
Can we attain rebirth in Pure Land? This is a good question. If you cannot attain rebirth after learning Buddhism, you accomplish nothing in this life. Whether you can attain rebirth or not depends on yourself. You can attain rebirth if you have firm belief and vow. If you see it as a joke and don’t learn Buddhism seriously, you cannot attain rebirth in Pure Land. The conditions of attaining rebirth in Pure Land are belief, vow, and practice. The first condition is to believe that Pure Land truly exists. Buddhas and Bodhisattvas never lie. Do not misunderstand them. If you think Buddhas and Bodhisattvas would cheat people, you are totally wrong. The second condition is taking vow to attain rebirth in Pure Land. The place is fantastic. Why don’t you go? With firm belief and vow, you are qualified to and will definitely attain rebirth in Pure Land.
There are 9 levels of rebirth in Pure Land. This is related to your accomplishment of practicing Buddha-name recitation method, not related to whether you can attain rebirth. Whether you can attain rebirth in Pure Land depends on your vow and belief. If one hadn’t recited “Amitabha”, but sincerely recited “Amitabha” 10 times before he passed away, he then attained rebirth. This is a very low level, the lowest level of rebirth in the Land of Common Residence of Ordinary Beings and Saints, but he has infinite life. He will only progress and never retrogress in Pure Land. He will be the student of Amitabha. It will be true guilt if you ignore this. This is such a good opportunity, but you didn’t grab it. This guilt cannot be forgiven.
Therefore, we must follow the Three Blessings of the Pure Land Doctrine, Three Refuges, and Ten Virtues. When interacting with people, we should follow the Six Points of Unity. What causes rise or decline of a community where people practice Buddhism? If people get along with one another, the community will thrive. If people criticise one another, the community will decline. This is true no matter how big the community is. You must observe carefully.
People must learn to praise instead of making enemy with others. Finally, we select Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra. Samantabhadra proposes Ten Great Vows in Avataṃsaka Sūtra, from respecting Buddhas, praising Buddhas, to dedicating merits to all sentient beings. Dedicating merits to all sentient beings helps broaden one’s mind. All sentient beings are past parents and future Buddhas, so we need to see them as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
Everything in this world is false. Nothing is real. We commit guilt when doing false things. We attain rebirth in Pure Land when we do right things.