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TEACHINGS | EASTERN HORIZON 31

• Unlike God (the Creator),
Amitābha Buddha was a
human being who achieved
Enlightenment through diligent
cultivation trillions of years ago.
• The Pure Land was the
culmination of trillions of years
of diligent cultivation. It was
certainly not an almost effortless
creation by God.
Buddha Amitābha, Kamakura, Japan
Pure Land practitioners believe
that the Pure Land is not just in our
consciousness or imagination. The
Pure Land does exist in a very far
away place. The distance is so great
Shan Tao (613-681 CE)
that it is beyond our imagination.
However, we ordinary folks with
a limited faculty and knowledge
must not think that just because it
is beyond our imagination, it is a
purely an imagination. This is like a
village headman living 2000 years
ago where it would be beyond his
imagination to think of many other
Buddha Amitābha, Haeinsa Temple,
communities at the other end of this
Korea
planet!

Concluding Remarks: Land. Such a situation arises due

It is unfortunate that many to a misplaced focus on external
Buddha Amitābha, Mongolia, (18th
followers of the Pure Land School rituals and insufficient emphasis
century)
today merely claim to be followers on understanding of the inner
but do not really understand its meanings of the Pure Land School.
practices. Many of them mistake
the Pure Land to be a place of In recent years, Dharma
enjoyment rather than cultivation. propagation work by Mahāyana
They use the excuse of “learning is a Buddhists in Malaysia has not been
process” and just muddle along. well-executed. There is much room
for improvement to make people
It is not unusual to find followers understand and appreciate the
of the Pure Land School reciting Pure Land School. These are big
the name of Amitābha Buddha challenges for Mahāyāna Buddhist
casually without having a strong organizations and leaders in
and deep faith and without making Malaysia. EH L-R Mahāsthāmaprāpta, Amitābha,
Avalokiteśvara
the vow to be reborn and to
continue cultivating in the Pure