The Pure Mind, the Still Mind

Trying to grasp the concept of a pure mind is difficult because the phrase means different things to different people. Many faith and ethical traditions speak of purity and purifying one's mind. And most likely, they define it differently.

We define the pure mind as the mind that has no wandering and discriminatory thoughts, or attachments. It is the mind that has no thoughts of like or dislike, favorable or unfavorable. It has no greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, doubt, or wrong views. It is the calm mind that is no longer affected by the environment.

In other words, it is the still mind, the mind unmoved by what is going on around us. In our practice, we can attain it by chanting "Amituofo" or "Namo Amituofo" or "Amitabha Buddha" or the Amitabha Sutra. Since our chanting needs to be focused and without a rising thought, the short "Amituofo" will be easier to stay focused on than the much longer Amitabha Sutra.

If we do get distracted during our chanting, does that eliminate all the benefits? No, because the seeds will have been planted in our Alaya Consciousness. But they will help us in the long run, not in the short run. Concentrating and chanting without being distracted will bring us many more benefits and we can receive them much sooner if we are reborn in the Pure Land at the end of this life.

In daily life, we can work toward attaining a still mind by only thinking about what we need to, but not being distracted by all the images and sounds, all the ideas and information, all the stuff that vies for our attention every moment of the day.

So the pure mind is nothing mysterious or strange, it is simply the mind that is calm and serene.