After Rebirth in the Pure Land — Is There Still a Long Path to Buddhahood? | Master Jingben
【Q&A Series】
After Rebirth in the Pure Land — Is There Still a Long Path to Buddhahood?
Master Jingben Answers: Namo Amitabha. This question touches the very heart of the Pure Land teaching.
The Key Principle: Rebirth Relies on Buddha-Power, So All Are Equal
Rebirth in the Pure Land relies entirely on Amitabha Buddha's vow-power, NOT on our own karma or level of spiritual cultivation. Because of this, all who are reborn there — whether a great cultivator or an ordinary, deeply karmic being — attain the very same fruit. Buddhahood in the Pure Land is not ranked or graded according to each person's prior karma or self-cultivation level.
We may put it this way: by self-power, not a single being can attain Buddhahood; but by Buddha-power, all beings equally and immediately attain it. The difference is entirely the power being relied upon.
Therefore, rebirth in the Pure Land is itself accomplishment. It is not like the long, arduous, retrogression-prone path of self-powered cultivation in this Saha world. The scriptures testify to this clearly:
In the Infinite Life Sutra, Amitabha Buddha (then the Bodhisattva Dharmakara) vowed: "When I attain perfect enlightenment, I shall be named Infinite Life. Beings who hear this name will all come to be reborn in my land — and like the Buddha, they will have a golden-hued body, perfect and complete in every wondrous mark, and they too, with great compassion, will benefit all beings."
In other words, those reborn in the Pure Land attain a body and qualities like Amitabha Buddha Himself — this is swift, assured attainment, not a slow climb based on one's own merit.
The same sutra states that all who are reborn there "dwell in the Stage of Assured Attainment (正定聚)" — that is, they immediately enter the stage of non-retrogression. Furthermore, in His 22nd Vow, Amitabha Buddha promises that beings reborn in His land will "transcend the ordinary course of practice through the bodhisattva stages" — meaning there is no gradual ranking or step-by-step climbing according to one's level.
Master Tanluan, the great Pure Land patriarch, expressed this beautifully: "Though originally there were the nine grades [of beings], now there is not the slightest difference between them." Although beings arrive from all different levels — some great, some humble — upon rebirth in the Pure Land, all such distinctions dissolve, and they become equal.
The Fundamental Reason
Why is this so? The fundamental reason is simply this: it all relies on the power of Amitabha Buddha. When we are reborn in the Pure Land, what we receive is not the fruit of our own limited, varying merit — it is the boundless, already-perfected merit and virtue that Amitabha Buddha accomplished through countless kalpas of cultivation, which He freely bestows upon all who call His name. Because the "substance" of our attainment is Amitabha's own complete and perfect merit — and not the small, unequal merits we each bring — the result is necessarily complete, equal, and swift for everyone.
It is like a destitute beggar who is suddenly granted the entire treasury of a king: in an instant he becomes as rich as the king himself, no matter how poor he was the moment before. His wealth does not come from his own savings, but is wholly given. In the same way, the moment we are embraced by Amitabha's vow, His infinite merit becomes our own, and we are all made equal — destined, swiftly and certainly, for Buddhahood.
So please be at ease and rejoice: for the one who exclusively recites "Namo Amitabha," rebirth in the Pure Land is the guarantee of swift and certain Buddhahood — not through one's own merit, but through the boundless power of Amitabha's vow. Namo Amitabha
微信分享
扫描二维码，或复制链接分享
