Five Years of the Buddha's Name, Heard Without Knowing — How My Father, Who Never Believed, Was Received by the Buddha
True Account
Five Years of the Buddha's Name, Heard Without Knowing — How My Father, Who Never Believed, Was Received by the Buddha
Namo Amitabha Buddha. I am Fo Rong, from Singapore. My father passed away on 12 July 2011. He had never believed in the Buddha in his lifetime, and our family had originally been Taoists; his only connection with Amitabha Buddha was a Buddha-name recitation device in his home.
In 2006, my mother passed away. A year later, I placed a recitation device in front of the ancestral tablets in my father's home, playing the Buddha's name day and night. My father knew nothing of the Dharma, yet in this way, without ever realising it, he listened to the Buddha's name for five years.
On the morning of 6 July 2011, my father told the helper that his chest felt very uncomfortable. He had always been in robust health, with no chronic illness; nothing like this had ever happened before. The helper informed me at once, and we called an ambulance and took him to the hospital. After completing the admission procedures and settling him into the ward, I hurried back to the office. Right at the hospital entrance, I met a lotus friend who recited the Buddha's name. She wanted me to stay, but my mind was full of work, so I wrote the ward number down for her and left in a hurry.
That evening, when I went back to the hospital to visit my father, I found that a recitation device had appeared beside his pillow. I knew that the lotus friend had brought it, and I was deeply grateful.
On the sixth day in hospital, 12 July, at five in the afternoon, my father passed away.
At eight that evening, my brother, my two sisters and I hurried to the wake. The lotus friends arrived too, and at once began reciting the Buddha's name for my father. We joined in, and the assisted recitation went on for a full thirteen hours, ending only at nine the next morning.
After the funeral staff had bathed my father's body, they told me, with evident joy, that dressing him had gone very smoothly, because his body was remarkably soft. After he was placed in the coffin, we also noticed that the age spots on his face had vanished, and the spots on his hands had all disappeared as well; his face was serene, full and rosy, and he looked many years younger. He was eighty-one that year.
At that time, I had not yet come into contact with the Dharma. The lotus friends told me to recite the Buddha's name morning and evening, and to dedicate the merit to my father. The truth is, Amitabha Buddha was still a stranger to me then; I could only pray silently in my heart: "Amitabha Buddha, if my father has truly reached the Pure Land, please let me know."
To my surprise, one night within the forty-nine days after my father's passing, I dreamt that he appeared in the sky, smiling at me. He looked dignified and serene, and many years younger. I could not help calling out "Dad!"—and woke up.
From then on, I truly came to believe in and accept Amitabha Buddha's compassionate deliverance, and I vowed to be reborn in the Pure Land, never again to be parted from Amitabha, our compassionate father, and from my loved ones. I am deeply grateful to have met, in this life, the unconditional deliverance of Amitabha Buddha; and so, whenever I have the time, I follow the Masters and the lotus friends to recite the Buddha's name for those who have passed away.
Namo Amitabha Buddha.
With palms joined, Fo Rong
Submitted to the Pure Land Amitabha Temple, Singapore
A Note from Master Jingben
How does Amitabha Buddha deliver sentient beings? He does not ask how far they have progressed in practice, nor does he rely on profound doctrine to awaken their minds; rather, he fashioned the whole of his own merit into a single Name, "Namo Amitabha Buddha," and lets that Name deliver beings. The Infinite Life Sutra (Song-dynasty translation) records the vow Amitabha made long ago: "When I attain perfect enlightenment, my name shall be Infinite Life; all beings who hear this Name shall come to my land." Attaining Buddhahood and establishing the Name are one and the same act; the Name was established precisely so that beings might encounter it and be delivered.
Why the Name, of all things? To contemplate the Buddha's marks requires the power of concentration; to understand the teachings requires wisdom; to practise requires strength. The most helpless beings can reach none of these. The Name alone asks nothing—whether one knows or does not know, believes or does not believe. The moment it enters the ear, a bond with the Buddha is formed; the moment one recites it, even in passing, deliverance is attained. For saving the most helpless of beings, nothing surpasses this: it is the easy path at its most sublime.
Look back over this account, and one thing becomes clear: from beginning to end, it was the Name at work. The daughter placed a recitation device for her late mother, and the father listened for five years without knowing it—the Name reached his ears first. When he fell ill and was admitted to hospital, another device appeared beside his pillow—the Name kept him company in his suffering. The person she met at the hospital entrance was a lotus friend who recited the Name. And what saw him off at the last was, once again, the same "Namo Amitabha Buddha." He had known nothing of the Dharma in his lifetime, yet the Name never once left him—and in the end he was received by the Buddha and reborn in the Land of Bliss.
This is what it means to say that Amitabha delivers beings by his Name: the power of deliverance lies not in how strong our faith is or how deep our practice, but in the Name itself. So a recitation device playing in the home is no mere ornament—it lets the Name deliver our family. And reciting the Buddha's name ourselves is not a discipline to be perfected—it lets the Name enter our own lives. May everyone believe in and accept this Name: recite it yourself, and let your family and friends form a bond with the Buddha, so that together we may enter the ocean of Amitabha's Vow. Namo Amitabha Buddha.
This article was finalized in October 2026.
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