Differences Between the Pure Land and the Saha World

Question: Venerable Master, could you please introduce what life and work are like in the Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss?

Answer: If there were still daily life and work in a Pure Land like the Land of Ultimate Bliss, it would resemble the mundane world of laypeople in the Saha World, and thus it would not be a Pure Land. Sentient beings would inevitably have afflictions of greed, hatred, and delusion, inevitably dividing into the two main groups of monastics and laypeople, making it no different from the Saha World.

This is because, in a pure Buddha Land, everything arises through transformation without the need for labor, life, or work. Only then can the minds of beings be pure and undefiled, free from selfish desires, without distinctions of male and female, without homes, and incomparably pure. Consequently, there is no distinction between monastics and laypeople; all are practitioners. It is only in worlds like the Saha World, with distinctions between male and female, the burden of family life, and the need for work and livelihood, that the distinction between monastics and laypeople arises. Therefore, the Buddha established that in the Saha World, the monastic sangha is primary, leading the masses in practicing the Buddha Dharma, and Buddhism is propagated by the monastic sangha. At the time of the Buddha's parinirvana, lay bodhisattvas requested to inherit the treasury of the Dharma and propagate the Dharma on behalf of the Buddha, but the Buddha did not permit it. He instructed the monastic community to propagate the Dharma on his behalf and to protect and uphold the Tripitaka (Three Baskets) and the twelve divisions of the Buddhist scriptures.

In pure Buddha Lands, as well as in the heavenly realms, beings are without distinctions of male and female and have no families. Therefore, they are all monastics and practitioners; there is no need to "leave home" again. Without a home, how can there be "leaving home"?

Beings in the Pure Land, including all great bodhisattvas up to the Bodhisattvas of Equal Enlightenment, have no homes. The forms they manifest are without distinctions of male and female. Therefore, they do not need to "leave home," do not need to manifest the appearance of monastics, yet they are all monastic sangha, and moreover, they are bodhisattva sangha. Consequently, they do not need to shave their heads, do not need to wear monastic robes, and do not need to receive or uphold the monastic precepts.