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26 EASTERN HORIZON | TEACHINGS

Householder Jingtu (Thomas Hon Wing Polin) with Ven. Amitābha (center) and Bodhisattvas Avalokiteśvara (right)
Jingzong in Shenzhen, March 2014. and Mahāsthāmaprāpta (left)

schools, for a long time he had in my opinion suffers from internal original, pristine Pure Land teaching
noticed that his wife seemed to be contradictions.” For example, the from the lineage of Master Shandao,
growing in happiness and peace demands of ethics, meditation, and founder of the Pure Land School
through Pure Land practice. visualization are given so much in the early Tang dynasty of China.
importance in mixed practice that While open to other practices, this
“I will never forget the time when Householder Jingtu discovered “pure” tradition affirms the primacy
I asked a prominent master many masters could not give him a of invoking Amitabha’s name
which school I should follow. He clear answer about the basic criteria through sincere faith in his 18th
told me that as a member of the for rebirth in Amitabha’s Land of vow, central among the 48 vows
intelligentsia, I should go for Chan. Bliss, the ultimate goal of Pure Land listed in the “Infinite Life Sutra”, the
When I asked him about Pure Land, practice. core text of Pure Land Buddhism.
he said it was mainly for emotive, The 18th vow guarantees rebirth
touchy-feely types. The incident He undertook this mixed practice in the Pure Land for any being who
has stuck in my mind ever since,” for several years, but was becoming recites Amitabha’s name even ten
Householder Jingtu recalls. trapped in such a vicious cycle times sincerely, joyfully, and with
of doubt that he could no longer faith, if the person has only that
“My first encounter with Pure even recite the name of Amitabha. much time left. If people have more
Land was through the ‘mixed’ form The philosophical contradictions time, they should recite until the
of practice, which is considered in mixed practice, on top of the end of their lives. “Unlike mixed
‘mainstream’ in Chinese Buddhism,” difficulties he had experienced practice, pristine Pure Land is
he explains. “Mixed Pure Land is still in his earlier spiritual forays, unambiguous about the criteria for
Pure Land, and there’s much value flung him into a pit of spiritual rebirth and explains them clearly
in its teachings. It may be more despair and confusion. “It got to and coherently,” he says.
open in a sense since it includes the point where I had almost given
elements from other traditions up hope, both intellectually and “While we respect and revere
like Chan, Huayan, and Yogachara. emotionally,” he recalls. the Indian master Nagarjuna and
But perhaps as a result of this the first patriarch of Pure Land,
complexity, it fails to cohere as a But the chance viewing of a video Huiyuan, Shandao was the lineage
school of thought and practice, and changed everything. It featured the master who really systematized