Talk:Sukhavati
I'm writing this short essay for the wiki. Because the longer sutra is not yet published by 84000 I can't link to exact place in the sutra but would it be suitable if I add the appropriate references?
Besides receiving the most praise and most detailed description in the Mahayana sutras, one of the main reasons Sukhavati became the most popular Pure Land, is that it is said to be the easiest for practitioners to be reborn in. Unlike many other pure lands, which require achievement of at least the first bhumi[1], rebirth in Sukhavati can be attained by ordinary beings, solely through their faith in Amitabha and their heartfelt wish to be reborn in his pure land.
This is because of one of the 48[2] vows Amitabha made in a previous life as the monk Dharmakara, as listed in the Amitabhavyuha Sutra[3]:
- Vow 18: If, when I attain buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and think of me even ten times should not be born there, may I not attain perfect enlightenment. Excluded, however, are those who commit the five crimes with immediate retribution and abuse the Right Dharma[4].
Another reason is the protection of Amitabha’s vows, which ensures one will never again be reborn in the three lower realms[5] or regress on the path to Buddhahood once one is reborn there[6]. The importance of this should not be underestimated, because as Shakyamuni warns us in the longer Sutra, “millions of bodhisattvas, fall back in their progress towards full awakening, because they have not heard discourses on the Dharma such as the these”.
Unlike in East-Asia, there was no separate "Pure Land" school in Tibet. But masters of all four schools wrote aspiration prayers for rebirth in Sukhavati. In addition, one of the most widely recited aspirations, Samantabhadra's Aspiration to Good Actions concludes with an aspiration for rebirth in Sukhavati:
- When it is time for me to die,
- Let all that obscures me fade away, so
- I look on Amitābha, there in person,
- And go at once to his pure land of Sukhāvatī.
- ↑ *Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, Karma Chakme’s Mountain Dharma, vol 4, Ch. 4 The Guide on the Quest for Jewels: Choosing a Pure Realm, 2010
- ↑ according to chinese translation by Saṃghavarman, different translations list different amount of vows
- ↑ The Three Pure Land Sutras, page 14
- ↑ i.e. renounce the Dharma or have wrong view. Khenpo Sodargye explains wrong view in this context as having no faith Sukhavati really exists or denigrating other Buddhist schools, see below: Part 2 of teaching on Youtube
- ↑ Vow 2. "If, when I attain buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should after death fall again into the three evil realms, may I not attain perfect enlightenment."
- ↑ Vow 11. "If, when I attain buddhahood, humans and devas in my land should not dwell in the definitely assured stage and unfailingly reach nirvana, may I not attain perfect enlightenment".