15) The Importance of Faith

It is not easy for sentient beings in this Saha World to progress in their cultivation, living as they are in the realm of the Five Turbidities, subject to heavy afflictions and surrounded by violence. Moreover, they usually go astray and become deluded each time they die and are reborn, so that it is very difficult for them to attain Enlightenment. As the ancients often noted:

Those who enter the clergy are as numerous as hairs on a water buffalo, but those who attain the Way are as scarce as rabbits' horns.

Our Master, Buddha Sakyamuni, experienced the Way to Buddhahood first hand, and knew full well which path was easy to tread and which was difficult. Therefore, with his compassionate, enlightened mind, he purposely taught the special method of Buddha Recitation. Followers of this method, even while not entirely rid of afflictions, may "bring their residual karma along" to the Pure Land. Once reborn there, thanks to the highly favorable conditions of that Land, progress in cultivation and attainment of the Way are as easy as holding an object before one's eyes.

Since Buddha Sakyamuni has such great compassion, one would think that all sentient beings would attain the Way through this method. Nevertheless, relatively few are reborn in the Pure Land. Why is this so? It is because sentient beings have little wisdom and heavy karma, or they doubt the Buddha's words and refuse to cultivate. Or else, they may cultivate but their Faith and Vows are not strong and earnest, or they may recite the Buddha's name but their practice is not in accord with Buddhist teachings. For these reasons, though they may cultivate, their practice will not lead to Enlightenment. The fault lies with the practitioner, not the method.

The Avatamsaka Sutra teaches:

Faith is the basis of the Path, the mother of virtues Nourishing and growing all good ways... Faith can assure arrival at enlightenment. 
(T. Cleary, tr. The Flower Ornament Scripture. Vol. I, p. 331.)

Therefore, Faith is of great importance to the cultivator. If we lose Faith, not only will our base for progress in the Way crumble, but none of our liberating deeds will succeed. This Faith is not blind faith, but is Faith grounded in wisdom, based entirely on the words of the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas and Patriarchs, as taught in the sutras.

Why is it that after relying on wisdom, we should still put our complete Faith in the teachings of the sages? It is because the Pure Land method, belonging as it does to the Mahayana tradition, is concerned with many transcendental realms beyond human knowledge or wisdom. Therefore, there are many realities that ordinary sentient beings cannot readily understand.

Once, when Buddha Sakyamuni was lecturing on the Lotus Sutra at the Vulture Peak Assembly, five thousand great Sravakas (Hearers), many of whom were Arhats, did not believe His words and left the Assembly. Even these venerable Sravakas endowed with transcendental wisdom had doubts about the Dharma preached by Buddha Sakyamuni Himself. We can see, then, that Mahayana teachings are not easy to understand and believe.

For this reason, there are many passages in the Mahayana sutras in which Buddha Sakyamuni requested that such and such a teaching not be preached indiscriminately to those without Faith and with too many view-attachments, lest they develop slanderous thoughts and reap evil karma. When the Mahayana doctrine began to spread widely, the ancient sages, too, admonished Buddhist followers to adopt the following approach to studying Mahayana sutras:

Understand with your mind those passages that you can. As for those passages which you cannot fully comprehend through reflection, just put your Faith entirely in the words of the Buddhas. That is the only way to avoid the offense of vilifying the great Dharma and losing merits and virtues thereby.

In the Amitabha Sutra, Buddha Sakyamuni reminded us about Faith several times, as in the following passage:

Sariputra, all of you should believe and accept my words and those of all Buddhas... Sariputra, just as I now praise the inconceivable merits and virtues of all Buddhas, all those Buddhas equally praise my inconceivable merits and virtues with the words "Sakyamuni Buddha can accomplish extremely rare and difficult deeds! In the Saha World, in the evil time of the Five Turbidities... he can attain Buddhahood for the sake of all living beings and preach this Pure Land method, which people the world over are inclined to doubt."

If Sakyamuni Buddha, in his wisdom, has spoken these words, we can see that the Pure Land Dharma door is indeed difficult to grasp, and that Faith is very important! The ancients have likewise stated:

It is very difficult to believe deeply in the Pure Land method. Only sentient beings who have planted the good roots of Buddha Recitation or Bodhisattvas at the Equal Enlightenment stage can truly believe and accept it. Other sentient beings, including even Arhats, Pratyeka Buddhas, and Bodhisattvas at the Expedient Stage, sometimes do not believe in or accept this method.

Reading such remarks, this writer was surprised at first and asked himself why Buddhist disciples did not believe Buddha Sakyamuni's words. The sages of the Two Vehicles (Sravakas and Pratyeka Buddhas) and Bodhisattvas at the Expedient Stage have transcendental wisdom and their attainments are already high; why is it that they do not believe in the Pure Land method? Later on, however, upon observing that there are monks and nuns who can explain the Dharma in a thorough manner but do not believe in the Land of Ultimate Bliss and reject the idea of seeking rebirth there, he conceded that this observation was indeed true. Looking for an explanation, he found it written in the sutras that... the perception of the Arhats, Pratyeka Buddhas and beginning Bodhisattvas is limited; they cannot fully participate in what the Buddhas perceive and understand.

The critical elements of the Pure Land method are Faith, Vows and Practice. These three conditions interact like the three legs of an incense burner; if one is lacking or broken, the incense burner cannot stand. Among these conditions, Faith is fundamental. If this critical condition is missing, the mind of Vows and sincere Practice cannot truly develop.

This element of Faith consists, in general, of three factors. First, we should believe in the words of the Buddhas, truly acknowledging that the Pure Land, from its inhabitants to the environment itself, does "exist."[23]Next, we should believe that the Lord Amitabha Buddha is always true to his Vows, and that however deep the evil karma of sentient beings may be, if they earnestly recite His name, they will be reborn in the Pure Land. Finally, we should believe that if we recite Amitabha Buddha's name and vow to be reborn in the Pure Land, we will certainly see the Buddha and be reborn there, as cause and effect cannot diverge. These three factors are, of course, only generalities.

The first factor encompasses faith in the words of the Buddhas and in the noumenal and phenomenal aspects of the Pure Land. The second encompasses faith in the great Vows of Amitabha Buddha and in his "other-power" to rescue us and lead us to rebirth in His Land. The third factor encompasses faith in our own Self-Nature, our own vows, and the cause and effect of the practice of Buddha Recitation. To recognize these three factors fully is to have deep Faith.

Moreover, deep Faith is not a question of words or discriminating thought; it is a profound realization, it is the Pure Mind without a trace of doubt. In this regard, a layman of old once asked a wise monk: "How can we fully ensure rebirth in the Pure Land?" The monk replied, "You need only have a mind of deep and true Faith for rebirth in the Pure Land to be assured." Having been enlightened by this answer, the layman acted accordingly and later on did in fact achieve his aspiration.

Deep Faith is, therefore, of great benefit indeed.

16) Actions that Reduce and Destroy Faith

There are cultivators who teach Buddha Recitation, but do so according to the practices of externalists (non-Buddhists).[24] There are others who vilify Buddha Recitation because they lack deep knowledge or because they have an erroneous understanding of Pure Land. Thus, some clarification of the Pure Land method is required.

Let us leave aside, for the moment, those who do not believe in cause and effect or the Dharma and consider only those who are connected, at least on the surface, with Buddhism.[25]

There are some externalists who appear to be monks and nuns, residing in temples and pagodas. However, they neither study nor understand Buddhism and only follow the practices of externalist cults. These people are peddling a hodgepodge of other beliefs under the label of Buddhism. They and their followers secretly transmit their beliefs to one another. Many of them, while claiming to practice meditation, in fact specialize in exercises to balance energy currents, with little knowledge of what meditation is all about. As far as the Pure Land method is concerned, they teach that one should visualize the Buddha's name "shooting" from the navel to the back of the body and up the spinal column, and then returning to the navel. This, they say, is "turning the Dharma wheel." This is the practice of "releasing blockages in the energy system," according to certain non-Buddhist schools.[26] Such teaching is not consonant with Buddhism.

Other persons teach that we should stop breathing and recite the Buddha's name at one stretch, then rapidly swallow saliva. This, they say, consolidates our "true source." Still others teach that we should figuratively distribute the words "taking refuge in Amitabha Buddha" all around our body. Yet others explain the Shorter Amitabha Sutra in a non-Buddhist way, claiming that the seven jewel lotus pond represents the stomach, the seven rows of precious trees stand for the rib cage, the water of the eight virtues represents blood, marrow and other bodily fluids ... Such persons who purport to practice the Dharma do not represent the correct Faith. How, then, can they be reborn in the Pure Land and escape Birth and Death?

Apart from these externalists who hide in the shadow of the Dharma, we should mention true followers of the Buddhas. Among them are some who believe in, understand and accept the teachings of the Buddhas with regard to Pure Land, but do not find Buddha Recitation consonant with their deep preferences. They therefore follow other methods. These are, of course, genuine cultivators of the Dharma. However, there are other persons who do not understand Pure Land in depth, or who, because of their attachment to a particular school, not only do not believe in Buddha Recitation but even criticize it

For example, we can think of some Zen followers with not much practice who object a priori to Buddha Recitation. Little do they realize that many high-ranking Zen Masters of the past,[27] having experienced Awakening and seen their True Nature through meditation, subsequently favored Pure Land. Within the Zen tradition, these Masters were renowned spiritual advisors who taught meditation. In the Pure Land tradition, they were Masters of great repute and virtue who taught Buddha Recitation. This shows that Zen and Pure Land are complementary.

We also have the example of Zen Master Hsu Yun, a high-ranking Chinese monk who passed away not many years ago. He was recognized by all as a transcendentally enlightened Master. However, whenever he was in a Zen hall, he would preach meditation; in a Buddha Recitation hall, he would urge followers to recite the Buddha's name. Not only did he not oppose the Pure Land School, he in fact spoke highly of it.

There are also followers of the Mind-Only school, who, barely having taken up their studies, begin to oppose Buddha Recitation. Little do they realize that the founder and first Patriarch of that school in China, the Great Master Hsuan Tsang, whose teachings they are now following, not only did not oppose Pure Land, but actually propagated it. Indeed, when he brought Indian sutras back to China, he took along a copy of the Amitabha Sutra in Sanskrit, which he translated into Chinese. Even the Second Patriarch of the Mind-Only school, the Great Master K'uei Chi, authored two commentaries favorable to Pure Land.

Furthermore, the Great Master T'ai Hsu, a high-ranking Chinese monk of recent times, is recognized by everyone as the foremost Master who revitalized the Mind-Only school; yet, whenever Pure Land followers requested his teaching, he would lecture on and explain Buddha Recitation. He wrote numerous books on the Pure Land method, containing thousands of fascicles, which are still being reprinted. This demonstrates that high-ranking Patriarchs of the Mind-Only school not only did not criticize or reject Pure Land, on the contrary, they spoke highly of it and disseminated its teaching.

The first criterion of Pure Land is correct Faith and understanding. If Faith is lacking, how can we make vows, let alone practice? As indicated earlier, there are generally three types of people who create misunderstanding of the Pure Land teaching. First are those ordinary people who do not believe in cause and effect or the Dharma and therefore belittle the practice of Buddha Recitation. Second are those externalists who hide behind the label and appearance of Buddhism to teach Buddha Recitation in a manner inconsistent with the Buddhas' teachings. Third are those within Buddhism proper who criticize Buddha Recitation because they have only an elementary understanding of it. Pure Land followers should be aware of these persons and their views, realize what is false and what is true, and firmly maintain their Faith in the Way.