A PURE LAND ON EARTH: PRACTICE AND TEACHING | A Pure Land on Earth

In the not too distant past, Buddhists believed that to practice Buddhism, you had to devote your entire life to a monastic style of practice. You had to stay in a remote place and devote your entire life to reading the sutras, prostrating before the Buddha’s statue, and meditating. In modern times we have returned to the way Shakyamuni Buddha practiced Buddhism. The Buddha left home to become a monk because he saw sentient beings fighting among themselves and with themselves. Conflict existed in the inner mind and spread through words and action to the world beyond. All suffered from these fights, conflicts, and confusion. The Buddha vowed to find a way to help sentient beings alleviate this suffering.

Having attained enlightenment, a mind of peace, wisdom, and compassion, he found five disciples and shared his attainment, experience, and method with them. This was the original Buddhist Sangha. With his teachings, the five disciples attained enlightenment in a very short time. He exhorted the five disciples to travel the world over to spread the message and means of liberation. He cautioned them not to travel together so that they could disperse in five directions and cover more territory.

Until his parinirvana at the age of 80, the Buddha never stopped travelling and teaching. Even at the very end of his life, he did not forget sentient beings. The Buddha devoted his entire life to spreading the teachings of peace. This tradition of peace teaching continues today in all Buddhist communities.

The notion of “a Pure Land on Earth” is particularly emphasized in the Mahayana tradition of Buddhism. The Hua-Yen Sutra (Avatamsaka Sutra) [Taisho.9, 449] states: “The moment you give rise to the sincere and earnest intention [to attain enlightenment], you have attained enlightenment.” This means that, as soon as you give rise to the aspiration to attain the Buddha’s mind of compassion and wisdom, you have become a Buddha. Although you are not yet a perfect and complete Buddha, your mind is in harmony with the enlightenment of all Buddhas. As long as you are a Buddha, the world you see is a Pure Land, for when seen through the Buddha’s eye of wisdom and compassion, every place in the world is a Pure Land. In other words, peace is created in and
with a mind at peace.

A similar idea can be found in the Mahaprajnaparamita Sutra, which teaches that in helping others accomplish their enlightenment you accomplish your own. Where do we find people to help? In this world, and in every world in the ten directions, but mostly right in your immediate surroundings–your family, friends, colleagues, and especially, your adversaries, whom you should regard as bodhisattvas. Thus may the Pure Land exist on earth.

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