Chanting Amituofo - Great Good Fortune
January 11, 2010 The general guiding principle for practice in this sutra is belief, vows, and mindful recitation of the Buddha-name. Belief and vows are the practice of wisdom, or signs of having good roots. Mindful recitation of the Buddha-name is a sign of having good fortune. One who mindfully chants “Amituofo” has an abundance of good fortune. One who would not mindfully chant “Amituofo” has little good fortune. Indeed, there are many people who just will not chant “Namo Amituofo” or “Amituofo.”
One who is able to mindfully chant “Amituofo” all day long has wondrous good fortune. We see many impoverished people who chant “Amituofo” all day long. Those who are diligent mindfully chant “Amituofo” one hundred thousand times every day. I heard that Mr. Huang Nianzu mindfully chanted “Amituofo” one hundred and sixty thousand times every day during the last two or three months of his life. He was a Vajra Master of Esoteric Buddhism. He set an example for us by single-mindedly chanting “Amituofo” before he passed away. We should know that he did this out of great compassion.
There is no one in this world or beyond who has as much good fortune as a practitioner who mindfully chants “Amituofo” all day long. Why? Because this practitioner will be reborn in the Western Pure Land and attain Buddhahood in one lifetime. Who can compare with this person? No one! Even Brahma or Shiva, who reside in heaven, cannot compare with this practitioner, let alone humans. Brahma and Shiva are still ordinary beings in the Six Paths; they cannot transcend the Six Paths as they do not mindfully chant “Amituofo.”
One who would mindfully chant “Amituofo” will be reborn in the Western Pure Land. When one is truly awakened, one will mindfully chant “Amituofo”; one will not be interested in any kind of glory or pleasure of this world. This person is only interested in according with conditions and honestly[1] chanting “Amituofo.” Only a truly awakened person can do this.
~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra
[1] Honestly means “no doubt, no intermingling, and no interruption.”
Reader Comments (8)
https://richardingate.wordpress.com/
Do you have any information about who the vajra master Mr. Huang Nianzu was? It'd be good if everyone knew about these masters from the past about their cultivations. It'd be great if we could learn more about the pureland patriarchs.
Amitofo.
Please forgive my ignorance but I do not understand the end where it says we do not seek glory or pleasure of this world. How do I do that one? I have spent the last 2-3 years chanting vigorously. Now I have a dog and it gives me great pleasure to take care of this dog even though others may have put the dog to "sleep" I now am enamored with this old lady of a dog. I continue to chant very diligently alright every once in awhile I wonder how my dog is doing in the middle of a few Amitoufous and wonder if she needs more pads to keep her bed dry at night. My caring and concern for this dog has turned into a great deal of pleasure and joy and service with a purpose. Therefore could you elaborate about pleasure and joy of this world.
anybody would appreciate your comments
...One who would mindfully chant “Amituofo” will be reborn in the Western Pure Land. When one is truly awakened, one will mindfully chant “Amituofo”; one will not be interested in any kind of glory or pleasure of this world. This person is only interested in according with conditions and honestly[1] chanting “Amituofo.” Only a truly awakened person can do this.
~ Based on Ven. Master Chin Kung's 2003 lecture series on the Amitabha Sutra
Regrettably, I do not know of anything on Mr. Huang Nianzu nor have we translated anything.
Regarding the comment, "We see may impoverished people who chant Amituofo all day long": I can understand that poverty, like any kind of intense suffering, could increase one's aspiration to never return to samsara and to go to the Pure Land. What I find perplexing is that if the desire to chant the Buddha's Name and go to the Pure Land indicates good roots and good fortune, then why would these people be impoverished? I would have thought that they would have better karma.
I admit that the reason that I have pondered this issue before is that I feel that my situation is similar. I've wondered quite often how it can be that I can have good enough karma to be on the Pure Land path, and yet also have, for quite a long time now, fairly dismal worldly karma. I'm not being self pitying here - without going into details, I can honestly say that life has been almost unbearably hard for a long time. It seems clear from this that spiritual and worldly karma don't necessarily parallel each other, but I still wonder how there can be such a disparity between them, if you get what I mean. If one was spiritually oriented enough in past lives to have practised the Pure Land path or earned enough good karma to be on it now, how could one also have committed enough negative acts to now be suffering intensely in this life?
I suppose, pre-empting your response, that karma really is complex, mysterious and imponderable, as there are so many strands coming together from so many different lives that any kind of situation is possible.
Our attachments keep pulling us back into samsara. I remember Teacher saying once, "Don't be attached to the area you live in. If you do, you could end up being reborn as an ant that lives there!"
Your wonderful dog you have rescued has a very short lifetime. Yes, you can help her finally get the care we would wish her to have, but what about the next lifetime, which could begin at any moment?
Unless you can transcend samsara by being reborn in the Pure Land you will not be able to alleviate her suffering in the future. So being distracted from your chanting by thoughts of her comfort will keep you from the single-minded concentration on "Amituofo" that you need to truly help her,
So before you chant, by all means get her comfortable, happy, and secure. Then quit worrying and chant "Amituofo" without any other thoughts. Broaden your heart and mind to care for all beings unconditionally. Remember the first vow of Buddhas and bodhisattvas "Sentient beings are innumerable, I vow to help them all." Focusing our love on one being precludes all the others and narrows our heart. Broadening our hearts and focusing our minds--and transcending samsara--are the way we help all beings.
Pleasure and joy in this world are transitory and illusory. Here today and gone tomorrow as they turn into suffering. They simply do not last. Neither be attached to nor averse to the pleasure or the suffering. Remember the mirror analogy. See everything clearly but do not attach.
Yes, our lives are a "complex, mysterious and imponderable" web of good and bad karma. Even after, he was enlightened, the Buddha had a headache. When asked about it, he related what he had done to create it in a long-past lifetime. So even an awakened being with incalculable good fortune can encounter some misfortune as well.
All of us undergo lives in which a mixture of some good and some bad seeds mature. The kinds of good fortune we experience depend on those seeds. The tone of our lives is a reflection of the ratio of good seeds to bad.
To be able to practice the teachings, we need certain seeds. Perhaps we practiced in the past or helped others learn and practice in the past. To have healthy lives, we need to have practiced the giving of fearlessness. To have wealth, we need to have practiced the giving of wealth (money, our time and effort, etc.). To have wisdom, we need to have unconditionally taught.
Those who have good health but are impoverished are reaping the results of having practiced the giving of fearlessness but not of wealth. Those who are wise but in ill health are reaping the results of having practiced the giving of teaching but not of fearlessness.
To harvest beans, we need to plant bean seeds. To harvest oranges, we need to plant orange seeds. Knowing the cause and result will help us to know what we need to plant more of to be able to reap what we want in the future.
In response to your answer to my earlier question:
...So before you chant, by all means get her comfortable, happy, and secure. Then quit worrying and chant "Amituofo" without any other thoughts.
Okay, this is clear.
...Broaden your heart and mind to care for all beings unconditionally. Remember the first vow of Buddhas and bodhisattvas "Sentient beings are innumerable, I vow to help them all." Focusing our love on one being precludes all the others and narrows our heart. Broadening our hearts and focusing our minds--and transcending samsara--are the way we help all beings
///Not so clear let me share with you why. Maybe I am hung up on wording so lets review shall we hmmm.
If I open my heart to one being it may preclude others for the moment. Once the heart is open securely and sincerely without any threat or temptation of backsliding or regression then the otherwork can be achieved. Broadening our hearts and focusing our minds--and transcending samsara.
The heart muscle needs a workout to be strong. At least mine does. I am sure others reading this have already achieve undying care for all beings they meet. However, my experience is different. I am old, grumpy not very trusting of others in general.
Therefore,what better way than to achieve this altruistic love for others but with a dying dog that is absolutely helpless unless we humans intervene with loving kindness and compassion.
Chanting may breakdown the barrier for others to reach alturism/ bodichitta/ metta/ Broadening our hearts and focusing our minds--and transcending samsara--are the way we help all beings.
Compassion in action seems to be the way to go for now. The trick is not to get all caught up in it. Just do, chant, do some more doing and chant. Then do it all over again.
Thank you for your attention to this matter. It is truly something remarkable to experience at this end of the continent.
Amitoufou,
anybody
Pleasure and joy in this world are transitory and illusory. Here today and gone tomorrow as they turn into suffering. They simply do not last. Neither be attached to nor averse to the pleasure or the suffering. Remember the mirror analogy. See everything clearly but do not attach.