Thich Nhat Hanh - Finding Our True Home: Living in the Pure Land Here and Now

Parallax Press

P.O. Box 7355

Berkeley, CA 94707

www.parallax.org

Parallax Press is the publishing division of Unified Buddhist Church, Inc.

2003 by Unified Buddhist Church.

All rights reserved.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Nht Hanh, Thch.

Finding our true home: living in the Pure Land here and now / Thich Nhat Hanh.

p.cm

ISBN 1-888375-34-5 (pbk.)

1. Tripitaka, Sutrapitaka. Sukhavativyuha (Smaller)Criticism, interpretation, etc.

I. Title.

BQ2047.N47 2003294.385dc22

2003015421

Front cover design by Nguyen Dong.

Ebook ISBN9781935209140

v5.1

a

Here is the Pure Land

T HICH N HAT H ANH

Here is the Pure Land

The Pure Land is here

I smile in mindfulness

And dwell in the present moment

The Buddha is seen in an autumn leaf

The Dharma is a floating cloud

The Sangha body is everywhere

My true home is right here.

Breathing in

Flowers are blooming

Breathing out

I am aware that

Bamboo is swaying

My mind is free

And I enjoy every moment.

Contents

The Pure Land is Now or Never

SISTER ANNABEL LAITY

What Is Pure Land Buddhism?

T HE P URE L AND SCHOOL is currently the most popular school of Buddhism in China, Vietnam, and Japan. Pure Land Buddhism is based on the faith that there is a Land of Happiness (Sukhavati). This faith can range from a popular belief to a deep personal experience of liberation in the present moment.

The popular belief is that there is a land to the West that is billions of Buddha lands away from the world of our every day experience on earth. Someone who has practiced mindful recollection of this placewith all its special attributes and recollection of the Buddha Amitabha who presides over itcan be reborn there after death. Once reborn, the person cannot regress on his or her spiritual path. He or she can only go forward in transforming afflictions and finding greater and greater freedom. He or she will become a Dharma instrument who will eventually be able to liberate others from their suffering. Sukhavati, the Pure Land, is the land of happiness which provides the ideal conditions for the spiritual practice.

The deeper practice is to experience that Buddha Amitabha is your own nature and the Land of Happiness is in your own heart and mind.

The phrase Pure Land (in Chinese ching tu,), is a later term for Sukhavati coined in China. The Land of Happiness came to be seen as a land that is free of the spiritual pollution that we find in many places here on our own planet earth. It was seen that true happiness can only be experienced as a result of the practice of a spiritual dimension in our daily life.

According to the Mahayana teachings of the Avatamsaka Sutra, the one contains the all. Someone who reveres Amita Buddha as her teacher needs to understand that Amita Buddha is in all other Buddhas and all other Buddhas are in Amita Buddha. Sukhavati is a tolerant and inclusive land. It accepts anyone whose practice is guided by any Buddha. It does not have to be Amita. It also accepts those whose practice is still in the early stages and whose purification of the afflictions is not yet complete.

Young and Old in the Pure Land

Every two years, a delegation of monks, nuns, and lay people, led by Thich Nhat Hanh, visits China. The calligraphy, courtyards planted with trees and flowers, architecture, statues, and bells help us practice giving right attention without effort. When we walk through the entrance of a temple there, we already feel that we are in another world, protected from the traffic and commercialism outside.

We are in a world that is over a thousand years old and when we practice there we are only doing what generations of Chinese Buddhists have done before us. We enter that stream without effort. What is the Pure Land if it is not a place where conditions for the spiritual practice are ideal so we can quickly realize the Buddha nature?

During our 2002 trip to China, we stayed in the Bao Quoc Temple at the foot of E Mei Shan. This mountain is the home of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra, the Bodhisattva of Great Action. There, the monks practice in the way of the Pure Land. Every evening, there is a ceremony of recollection of the Buddha Amita. A large part of that ceremony consists of walking the circle of the recitation hall while chanting the name of the Buddha: Namo Amita Buddha. More than a hundred monks, nuns, and lay practitioners walk and chant together, creating a strong energy of mindfulness and concentration.

If we were to look into the minds of each person reciting the name of the Buddha, we would find many different objects of concentration. There would be those concentrating on a Pure Land which is far away from this earth and in which they hope to be born when they die. Others would be touching the Pure Land right here where they are, without any thought of the future or another sphere.

The elderly often find comfort in the contemplation of a Pure Land after death. This allows them to continue in their path of practice in the next stage of their existence. But how is the Pure Land practice relevant for the young? Can we expect young people who have been educated in the modern sciences to have faith that such a land exists somewhere in the western direction? During our trip to China, we talked with young people who have had scientific educations and lived in cities, but still felt at a loss. They had no desire to be caught in the old culture and wanted to imitate the Western ways. They wanted to consume as young people in the West consumed, but what they wanted most of all was a spiritual path which could liberate them and bring them an authentic happiness.

Can Pure Land Buddhism offer them that path?

In Plum Village in France, where Thich Nhat Hanh lives, many young people come and practice Pure Land Buddhism, although it is not given that name and they may not even know that they are doing so. The Pure Land practice at Plum Village consists of dwelling in the present moment and appreciating all the wonderful and delightful things which life has to offer right now. Young people can accept such a Pure Land. They do not have to fear for the future because they have recognized the Pure Land here and they can be sure that they will be able to recognize the Pure Land later on in their life. If we do not find the Pure Land in this present life and present moment, it is unlikely we will find it in the future.

When in China, I chanted the name of Amita and walked in unison with other practitioners in the recitation hall. I felt that I was doing the thing that I most want to do on this earth: going with many others in the direction of beauty, goodness, and truth. The Amithaba Sutra makes us more keenly aware of all the beautiful facets of our earth. I go outside and I hear the teachings of the Buddha in the song of ordinary mortal birds and in the rustling of perishable leaves which will fall in autumn. The sutra teaches us to stop and look at the trees and flowers and see that they are the most valuable and precious things in our lives.