What Kind of Life Is the Pure Land?

In a Pure Land similar to the Land of Ultimate Bliss, if there were still daily life and work, it would resemble the mundane realm of laypeople in the Saha World, and thus it would not be a Pure Land. Sentient beings would inevitably possess afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, inevitably necessitating a division into monastic and lay communities, making it no different from the Saha Realm.

In a pure Buddha-land, everything arises through transformation; there is no need for labor, daily life, or work. Only then can the minds of beings be pure, unstained, free from selfish desires, without distinctions of male and female, without households, and supremely tranquil. Consequently, there is no distinction between leaving home (monastic life) and staying at home (lay life); all are practitioners. It is only in realms similar to the Saha World, where there are distinctions of male and female, the burdens of family life, and the need for work and livelihood, that the distinction between leaving home and staying at home arises. Therefore, the Buddha established that in the Saha World, the monastic sangha should be primary, leading the masses in the practice of the Buddha Dharma. Buddhism is upheld by the monastic sangha, and the Buddha Dharma is propagated by the monastic sangha. When the Buddha was approaching parinirvana, the great lay bodhisattvas requested to inherit the treasury of the Dharma and propagate the Dharma on the Buddha's behalf. The Buddha did not permit this, instead instructing the monastic sangha to propagate the Dharma on his behalf and protect the Three Baskets and Twelve Divisions of the Buddhist Canon.

In pure Buddha-lands and in the heavenly realms, sentient beings are without distinctions of male and female and without families. Therefore, all are home-leavers (monastics) practicing the path; there is no need to "leave home" again. Without a home, how can one speak of "leaving home"? The beings in the Pure Lands, including all the great bodhisattvas up to the Nearly Enlightened Bodhisattvas (Ekajātipratibaddha), have no homes. The forms they manifest are without distinctions of male and female. Therefore, they do not need to leave home, nor do they need to manifest the appearance of home-leavers; all are home-leaving monastics, and moreover, they are bodhisattva monastics. Therefore, they do not need to shave their heads, do not need to wear monastic robes, and do not need to receive and uphold the precepts for leaving home.