After We Become a Buddha

Question: After we become a Buddha in the Western Pure Land, do we create our own pure land and help people? Or do we we stay in the Pure Land and help people from there?" 

Response: When we are still practicing in the Pure Land as Bodhisattvas, we can have (1) reward body that stays in the Pure Land to learn from Amitabha Buddha and (2) manifestation body that can be anywhere we need to be to help beings.

After one becomes a Buddha in the Pure Land, one may continue to assist Amitabha Buddha in teaching beings and also manifest in any of the Ten Dharma Realms to help beings.

Do we need to create another Pure Land to help beings?

It depends on what one's causal vows (vows made when one is a Bodhisattva cultivating to become a Buddha) are. When one becomes a Buddha, one's causal vows will be fulfilled. One can also vow to help all beings become Buddhas by teaching them to attain rebirth into Amitabha Buddha's Pure Land. Since the Pure Land is the best school there is to help beings to become Buddhas, it is not necessary to create another Pure Land. Actually, the Pure Land is a manifestation of the pure mind. When our minds are pure, though we are here on Earth, we are already in the Pure Land. All Buddhas help Amitabha Buddha to help beings become a Buddha.

path to peace

path to peace from Bee Ho.

Do We Come Back From the Pure Land to Help Others?

Question: When we born in Pure Land, do we come back to to the world to help others?

Response: The first of the Four Great Vows is "Sentient beings are innumerable, I vow to help them all." We go to the Pure Land not just to end our own suffering, but to help all beings end theirs.

This vow becomes the underlying inspiration for our cultivation, practice, and learning.

In the Pure Land, we learn all the different methods to be able to skillfully and wisely help others. We are thus able to come back to this world, and to others, to help those we have affinities with. We do so through the strength of our vows, not the pull of our karma. Our true being remains in the Pure Land when we come back so we are never separated from the Pure Land and run no risk of again being lost in samsara.

This way we always continue to progress towards Buddhahood and help others progress as well.

The Doors of My Heart

Opening the doors of my heart 

wider,

wider still,

I step through and find

I am not alone and vulnerable.

My heart has not been left behind.

It has expanded to include all beings,

is one with all beings.

Too Scientific to Practice Wholeheartedly?

Question:

Do you have suggestions for people like me who are too 'scientific' in outlook to practice wholeheartedly, and is there a way to distinguish between faith and wishful thinking?

Response:

Science incorporates the principle of cause and effect, trying to discern the cause of a known result or a result from a known cause. Doing experiments and finding the cause and effect are consistently connected moves the concept more firmly into the realm of fact. For example, my letting go of an object and observing that it falls to the floor every single time leads me to conclude there’s cause and effect at work: release and falling.

Buddhism follows the same principle of experimentation. The Buddha never told us to blindly believe what he said. We learn his teachings and put them into practice. We then can discern the result he spoke of for ourselves.

I calm my mind, and I discern am less anxious.

I reduce my wants, and I realize that I am more content with what I have.

I think before I speak, and I observe that I say fewer things that hurt others and get me into trouble.

So by learning and doing, through experimentation, I prove for myself that he spoke the truth when he said such things as quiet the mind, let go of desire, and be aware of our thoughts before we act on them.

Through doing what the Buddha advised, our confidence, belief, or faith will grow as we experience the truth in the teachings for ourselves. With this, there will be no need for wishful thinking for we will begin to know the reality.