As the Zen and Pure Land Buddhist, I think it’s my duty to clarify the misconception that people, especially people with different faiths and beliefs, have about Zen and the Pure Land concepts. I don’t believe that it would change their minds and their misconception since they have already made up their minds way before they come to this page, but I hope it will answer their questions as best as it can. It is a straight forward and logical as it can be.
Zen and Pure Land Practitioners are living the pessimistic lives.
As the Buddha Sakyamuni said:
A strong man, who could defeat one hundred other men, is a rare strong champion.
But the man who can conquer his evil mind, I would call that a real strong man.
Confucius, the wise Chinese sage, also said:
First, cultivate and perfect yourself.
Second, manage your family well.
Then, govern your country.
Finally, take good care of the world.
Jesus, according to the Bible, also said:
“Or how can you say to your brother, `Brother, let me take out the speck that is in your eye,' when you yourself do not see the log that is in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take out the speck that is in your brother's eye. (Luke 6 – 42)”
Therefore, the real wise men will cultivate themselves first, then teaching the people surrounding them such wisdom. The real Zen and Pure Land practitioners observed strictly the 10 precepts (basic 5 precepts for lay person), do the ten good deeds, observe and the follow the Eight Folds Path as closely as possible, which by themselves are the living examples for others to follow. How can you tell people to walk the walk while you haven’t done it yourself? Telling people to walk the walk while you could not even do it yourself will classify you as a hypocrite person, and a liar, and a parrot.
A hypocrite because you could not even do it.
A liar because you told people to do something that you absolutely did not experience them yourself.
A parrot because you can only repeat but could not understand enough in order to commit yourself to perform such tasks.
Nothing contagious likes spreading the kindness around. From one happy person, comes one happy family. From one happy family comes one happy village. From one happy village comes one happy city. One happy city comes one happy province. One happy province comes one happy country. One happy country comes one happy world. Is there any else to dispute about?
Buddha nature equals to emptiness.
First, unless one has reached the Buddha hood oneself, one could not possible understand nor gasp the Buddha nature. Therefore, all of the debates about something that one has never experience nor understood would simply reduce to the nonsense debates. One will not try to debate about differential equations while one could not even know how to do a long division.
Second, there were many attempts to explain to sentient beings about the Buddha nature, where the Buddha nature possesses three distinct forms, but not three separate entities:
Where the third forms are the forms that go to may places to help all sentient beings from the bottom place like Hell to the top place like Heaven, taking many forms in order to be closer to sentient beings and guiding them out of the suffering realms. Sentient beings with their limitations can only see the third form but not the first two. Any attempt to describe the first one could not be done since the instant you give it a form and a name, it is no longer the Utmost Bliss Dharma form, but a skewed view as similar as the skewed view of a blind man who attempt to describe the elephant by feeling only one part of its body.
If the blind man could not see the moon, can he describe how the moon looked like to other blind persons? If he does that, would that make him be a liar? If he heard how other described how the moon looked like, can he, at anytime that he wish, describe how the moon should look like to other blindmen? Absolutely not
Misconceptions:
1. A strong focus on enlightenment as the one goal worthy of pursuit, recognizing that it can occur only when it is no longer sought:
A very twisted definition and understanding signified a hasty conclusion from a poor research.
What exactly is enlightenment? To understand it correctly, enlightenment is equal to Buddha, which equals to omnipotent and supreme and perfect Dharma wisdom, where nothing could hinder that entity anymore. Therefore, except the Buddhas, no one had reached the state of total enlightenment. What they have reached were one of the grand seven steps of Bodhisattva ranks (which in turn has divided into 72 granular ranks), and what they have achieved is the “True Dharma Understanding.” and librated themselves from the body Five Hindrances. They are now super beings, yet they are still in their paths to cultivate themselves to become the Buddha.
What is the True Dharma Understanding? It’s the understanding the true nature, and the cause and effect of all things. That anything that has form shall be subjected to decay and death, etc, and every things in this world are created by the minds of sentient beings. Because the minds of sentient beings are corrupted with wrong views, wrong thoughts, and wicked karma, their original mind have turned dull. From one wrong thought as the seed, they build their world and like the silk worm, bind themselves within. Sentient beings that wish to escape the above vicious cycle will focus themselves with the task of punching through their own deceptive shell. If they can escape, why then do they want to continue their focus of escaping the shell any more?
Total enlightenment is the stage that I am not in, so I cannot talk about it. Furthermore, only the Buddhas are qualified to talk about it, not even the Ten Rank Crowned Dharma Prince Bodhisattvas.
Like a person never knows how his own face looked like, he sought out to find ways to see his face. When he satisfy with his quest, should he continue to find his face again?
2. Buddhist’s preoccupation with their inner states is an inappropriate response to our global crisis situation.
The best thing to do amid the crisis is to be calm and find the most optimum way to solve a problem. Without a calm head and a clear view, any response to a problem would have more chance to contribute to more problems or generate more side problems. Notice that most of the crises in the world right now are divided into three categories:
Religion:
In fact, Buddhist preoccupations with their inner states are the exact examples that all religions should adopt and follow. Realizing that the holiest places are their minds, they did not seek out to destroys the other religions, yet they have coexisted with the Hindus, with the Taoists, with the Confucius followers, with the non-believers, and almost with all others.
In contrast, Christians and Muslims however have been the most oppressive, prejudice, and single minded relegions to all other religions as their followers had shown so far. The Christians had the Crusader wars and many excuses to intrude into other countries in the name of protecting the Christianity Gospel, the Muslims with their invasions and systematic destructions of Buddhism in the Northern Indian continent. The current conflicts that the Muslims have caused by forcing people to obey their laws why they are conveniently ignore or don’t obey the laws of the others. The Christians with the “in-your-face” gospel that attacked all other beliefs yet cry foul when they are replied in kind. (The above statement does not mean that every Christian or Muslim is like that, but as indicated by their own fruits or historical facts. Some may argue that those were not true Christians or Muslims, and it's possible that the argument is corrected. However, for those followers, they are very much believe that they are true Christians (or Muslims) and are doing God's deeds. They, in turn, may think that the moderate believers are not the real Christians or Muslims at all)
And the Jewish think that they are real God's people, and they act very arrogantly in their opinions and deeds. Only humility and caring to the lesser fortunate people and treat them as equal, shall they have peace.
All because they believe that Their-God-is-Bigger-and-Better-than-Other-Gods. And the worst case, they believe that their Gods give them the rights to step on others and won't be responsible for their actions.
What kind of appropriate response would you propose to solve the above problem? It has been over 2,000 years but the Jews are still being persecuted by both Christians and Muslims. It has been over 2,000 years but the birth place of Judaism, Christian, and Islam is the most hot spot and suffering place in the world.
Would you start from the minds of these people first?
But there is nothing that one could do since their dogmas have effectively tied them, and restricted them from daring to think outside of the box. There is no hope, no peace, no love, and no reconciliation for them. All because they believe that their religion is right and others are wrong, and in the name of their God, destroying other religions are doing their God deed, and will be rewarded in their after lives.
If you cannot even find happiness in this currently world, in this current life, and you could not validate by your own experience and finding that what you thought what your God really want yout to do, then you are fooling yourself. What makes you think you can find hapiness or heaven later?
Properties:
Greed is the second force that nations go to war with each others be that power, land, fame, fortune, oil, or strategic places. If all of them be contented with what they have and help each others. There will be no war.
Greed is the force that allowed the politicians to make failed promises and incite unrest in order to manipulate others. Wealth, fame and fortune they may gain, but leaving pain, suffering, and hatred along their returning roads which are litter with mankind bones.
Rights: If everyone treat each other with respects and focus on their short comings first, there would be no sadness, sorrow, and oppression because of the unequal rights. Right thoughts required right minds, and they must be started from the inner states.
So, as long as there are the Have and the Have-not, conflicts will arise until both sides will have or in the worst case both side will not have at all.
Definitely, the inner states of the mind are the main core of the peaceful world.
3. There is an identity crisis between the self and the Amita Buddha.
Amita Buddha is the external Buddha. Yours to be Amita Buddha is your Buddha. One drop of water is no different than a big ocean fill of water. Yet one water molecule is unique to the others. Since sentient beings worry about the I, the Me, and Myself so much, they would worry about their identity which is as real as the mirage in the Saha dessert. Only when one realize that they too do have the capability to become similar like the Amita Buddha, then they determine to follow the path, then the Amita Buddha can help them, like the medical students now have the doctors to be their mentors and instructors, and they can advance much more quickly than the one who does not have one.
4. Is trusting Amita simply a step toward the attainment of a higher spiritual condition in which such trust is no longer needed?
No. Would you not trusting your teacher anymore if you go from 1st grade to 2nd grade? Would you not trust your parents anymore as you are getting older? Would you not trusting your God anymore right after you reach your heaven?
5. The Primal Vow of Amita is a gift.
If it is a gift, then there is something to give.
If there is something to be given, then there is a granter, and there is accepter.
If the is something to be given, then such gift will always be countable, and therefore will be limited, and the giver would not have it anymore but the receivers.
The Buddhists understand that there is no material to be given, no giver, and no receiver. It’s all cause and effect, not real, and does not have the real Dharma values but for karmas, which they don’t really care or wish for.
The primal vow of Buddha Amita is for sentient beings who wished to be in his land to cultivate themselves to become the future Buddha. It’s neither a gift nor it’s not.
6. The recitation of his name, a means of attaining a desired spiritual condition.
Chanting his name is used to focus one mind so that all stray thoughts would not be able to come in and corrupt the mind, then gradually brings it back to the Original Mind. Chanting the Amita Buddha name is used to invoke the inner Amita Self Buddha that has the exact Dharma merits as the previous, but it is also one of the Zen phrase, or magical mantra depends on the person.
7. The historical connection to Sakyamuni does not play the same essential role for Pure Land Buddhists.
In contrast, the historical connection to the Sakyamuni Buddha played a very essential role for all Buddhists, and via the Sakyamuni Buddha, the Amita Buddha was introduced. A continuity of Buddha is established to help sentient beings of this Saha world, and the method to self salvation was shown and encouraged by the Sakyamuni Buddha. Without a mother, there would be no offspring. Either people would be aware of such connection or not, but their ignorance is not a fact for the above conclusion.
8. Pure Land Buddhism identified its founder with a mythical figure, Dharmakara.
It’s very important to notice that it was the Sakyamuni Buddha who offered the discourses regarding the Amita Buddha, and advised the later generations of what to come, and what method is the best for self-salvation: “As time goes on, more and more of my teachings would gradually disappear from the world. There will be less and less of the sages / partriarchs with clear Dharma eyes and Dharma ears to help sentient beings with their quests to attain the enlightenment. The only thing that would help them is the name of the Amita Buddha, and the method of reciting his name either out-loud or in secrecy is the only way to help those unfortunate sentient beings. All of the Buddhas in the ten world directions could not help all sentient beings if they do not include this Dharma in their teachings...”
Therefore, if the true Buddhists take heed of the Sakyamuni Buddha words and teachings, and believe in the Sakyamuni Buddha, then it can be best understood that there is a new “person in charge” after the Sakyamuni Buddha entered the nirvana, which in this case, happened to be the Buddha Amita, or also known as the former monk with the name Dharmakara. Buddha Amita works directly with his support staff to take care of all sentient beings per their requests to ensure that there is no discontinuity of support structure in this world during the period of no Buddha. Thus, when the future Buddha Meitraya arrives, there will be a transferred of Dharma teaching on this world. In the layman term, the president comes and goes, but the principle of the government and its services are remained the same.
If you still insist that because the former monk, Dharmakara, was a mythical figure since he did not exist in human history. Then, you will automatically equate your God and your doctrines to the mythical classes since they did not exist in any human history, simple as that. If you told the Buddhists not to trust the words from the Sakyamuni Buddha himself about the Amita Buddha, then you also should do the same to your holy figures and doctrines since they were not verifiable by other religions and other cultures.
And yes, Faith is the first and most important key in order to save yourself. What is the Buddhist true faith : That all sentient beings have the Buddha Essence. And following the Buddha teachings will allow one to be free from the circle of life and death, and will become a Buddha later.