The philosophy of Pure Land

The Origin of Chanting Name of Buddha

During the time of Sakyamuni Buddha, the pupils could get all answers from Buddha directly, therefore, all pupils were easy in mind for their life of cultivation. But when Buddha liberated from existence, pupils and followers had no way to pay their respects or look up to Buddha’s physical body. In this moment, the frame of mind of admiring Buddha were extremely heavy, especially when meeting with distress (temptations of the passions and of ignorance which disturb and distress the mind), therefore, trying their best to contemplate Buddha in their mind in order to improve the spiritual power. This kind of frame of mind of keeping Buddha in mind built the method of contemplating Buddha later on, and this method is called “Samadhi”, Visualization Sutra and Pratyutpannasamadhi Sutra (the samadhi in which the Buddhas of the ten directions are seen as clearly as the stars at night) are all generated from this standpoint of view.

One who wants to contemplate Buddha should meet the following essential requirements:

Mind : Thinking of Buddha with deeply respect... Desire : Beholding Buddha with warm and sincere... Practice : Concentrating with serious manner.

The Evolution of the Thought of Repeating the Name of a Buddha
	First, originating from admiring the moral standing of Buddha, Second, becoming cherishing the memory of Buddha’s appearance of adornment, glory, honor, and ornament, Third, forming the method of meditating and thinking (the practice of samadhi), Fourth, the last one, forming the repeating the name of Buddha.

The central idea of repeating the name of Buddha is the FAITH, and the result of this idea is to beseech for rebirth in Pure Land, therefore, the thought of repeating the name of Buddha should have four parts of philosophy, Meditating and Thinking, Repeating the Name of Buddha, Faith, and Pure Land.

Three Pure Land Sects in China
	The Chinese Pure Land School has three sects, the first one is the Hui-Yuan sect of Lu-San, the second one is the Master San-Dau sect, and the third one is the Master Hui-Jih sect.

Hui- Yuan’s Pure Land is to contemplate Buddha in the mind and repeat Buddha’s name, the first step is to get into Samadhi, the second step is to meet Buddha, and the last step is to rebirth in Pure Land. The Samadhi is the highest state of complete combination of body and mind, when reaching this state we can accommodate ourselves to any kind of circumstances and can do anything as we like, we can contemplate the wonderful and supernatural sphere which human eyes and ears cannot reach, but we have to treat Buddha as the object of contemplation, then the contemplation can be reached.

Hui-Yuan thought that the Pure Land is the corresponding of karma, therefore, the ordinary people can only rebirth the pure land of phenomenon but not pure land of noumenon nor pure land of real. Besides, the theory of Hui-Yuan’s Pure Land is to rebirth the Pure Land through contemplating Buddha of reality, it belongs to “According to the reason” or “Logic” or “Meaning” or “Knowledge” or “Common Sense”, and this idea later on was adopted by Idealism School, Three Sastra School, Tien-Tai Sect, and Hua-Yen School, they all treat the Pure Land as the pure land of expedient method (which is temporary, as its occupants still have remains to be purged away), is not the real pure land.

Master Tan-Luan and Master San-Dao supported the thought of original vow and admitted that ordinary people can beseech for rebirth in the land of reward (the Pure Land). The Pure Land of Amitabha Buddha is a glorious pure land which is made of the power of Amitabha Buddha’s original vows, this pure land also is the land of reward, is not the land of reincarnation. Try to understand and perceive the Buddha’s wisdom with the heart of great mercy, it is because any vows from the heart of great mercy are very powerful, can cover all kind of wisdom. If ordinary people can beseech for rebirth in this Pure Land all because of the Amitabha’s great power of unbelievable vows. Master San-Dao leads us to the world of reality with the power of vows.

The theory of pure land of Hui-Yuan is for the man of superior character of capacity (with superios organs of sight, hearing, etc.) and the theory of pure land of San-Dao is for those are born with base character, or of low capacity.

In Tang Dynasty of China, Master Hui-Jih came back from India and supported the beseeching for rebirth in Pure Land with chanting the name of Amitabha Buddha, later on it became another section of chanting Buddha in Chinese Buddhist Pure Land School.