How Can One Be Reborn in the Land of Bliss?

Because each person's karmic power differs, the state of the physical body at the time of death also differs. For those with heavier karmic obstructions, at the time of death the four great elements are in disharmony and the body becomes stiff; after death they must undergo retribution in the three evil paths. For those whose karmic obstructions are not too heavy and who have done considerable wholesome karma in their lives, the mind accords with wholesome dharmas, the four great elements are in harmony, the body remains soft, and after death they will be reborn in the three wholesome paths, without painful feeling at the time of death. In the Dharma-ending age, the vast majority of people have heavy afflictions, with little wholesome karma and much unwholesome karma in their lives, and they feel great suffering at the time of death. In order to be reborn in a wholesome path, family members will invite people to perform recitation assistance (zhunian), hoping to eliminate some karmic obstructions and increase some merit. During the recitation assistance, when the four great elements become harmonized, the body becomes soft. Some people then believe that the deceased has certainly been reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī), or at the very least has gone to the heavenly realm. But this is not necessarily so; a soft body only means that karmic obstructions have lessened and the roots of goodness and merit have increased, that is all.

I once encountered a true case: there was a female lay practitioner whose husband, though he believed in Buddhism, did not cultivate. After he died following a long illness, monks from a monastery were invited to perform recitation assistance. For seven days, four groups took turns reciting without a single minute's interruption. The more they recited, the softer the deceased's body became; eventually the whole body could be folded up, soft all over. Everyone thought he had gone to the land of bliss, or if not the land of bliss, then at least to the heavenly realm. But after seven days he was cremated, and the deceased appeared in the female lay practitioner's dream, with an expression showing that he was very unhappy. This lay practitioner came to ask me what was going on. I said that he was dissatisfied with his situation and still had painful feeling; he may not have been reborn in the Pure Land, nor gone to the heavenly realm, nor taken rebirth as a human. If he had already taken rebirth, he would have had no way to appear in a dream; even if he did appear in a dream, it would have been with a joyful expression, not a sorrowful, frowning one.

Not long afterward, crackling and popping sounds appeared on her balcony, and later the lay practitioner dreamed again that her husband had come back home. This shows that, first, the deceased had not been reborn (generally referring to rebirth in the land of bliss or in one of the three paths of devas, asuras, or humans); second, he had not taken rebirth (generally referring to taking birth, the beginning of a new life in the cycle of the six paths); and third, the state he was in was that of the neutrino-body (antarā-bhava). This incident shows that no matter how much others perform recitation assistance, if the deceased's roots of goodness and merit are not deep and his mind does not accord with the land of bliss, he cannot be reborn there. If his mind does not accord with the heavenly realm, he also cannot ascend to heaven. Unless the person performing the recitation assistance has extraordinarily immense merit that changes his karmic seeds, only then could he ascend to heaven, be reborn in the Pure Land, or take rebirth in the human path.

Why, even with a soft body, did he not get reborn in a wholesome path? Because recitation assistance only added some merit to him and changed some karmic seeds, which falls far short of the level needed for rebirth in the Pure Land. To be reborn there, one must cultivate one's own mind, transforming it to accord with the land of bliss; a few days of recitation assistance cannot change the deceased's mind. Cultivation is not that easy—even people who are alive and cultivate their whole lives may not necessarily be able to transform their minds to a state of purity. Without cultivating oneself, relying on others' recitation assistance cannot transform one's mind to the point of extremely firm faith and acceptance of the land of bliss and Amitābha Buddha, and of relinquishing all karmic ties in the Sahā world. To accurately judge whether the deceased has been reborn, one must have the divine eye, being able to see a person's consciousness seated on a lotus platform, to see the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to receive him, and to see him arrive in the land of bliss. Without this, any judgment is inaccurate—it is all speculation and cannot be trusted.

The matter of cultivation involves merit: whoever cultivates obtains it; whoever does not cultivate does not obtain it. Even parents and children cannot substitute for one another, including between the Buddha and his family. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra relates that Ānanda, relying on being the Buddha's cousin, thought he did not need to cultivate much, that by relying on the Buddha's majestic power and blessing power he would naturally attain realization. But it turned out otherwise—the hardships he was due to undergo, he still had to undergo; even the Buddha's family members were like this. The merit of cultivation does not come from outside; it arises from one's own mind and cannot be given by others. Whether the deceased can be reborn in the Pure Land depends on whether he himself has the merit of recollecting the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti). This merit cannot be given to him by those performing recitation assistance; he needs to recite the Buddha's name and cultivate himself. Without the merit of cultivation, there is no corresponding karmic retribution.

Nowadays many people who study the Pure Land method place all their hopes on that final thought at the time of death. If one has not cultivated well in ordinary times, if the mind has not been transformed and the karmic seeds not purified, then relying on that final thought is like placing a bet—it is unreliable. One must achieve one's own cultivation in ordinary times in order to have assurance of rebirth at the time of death. If in ordinary times one cannot even control or master the thoughts that arise in dreams, then at the time of death, when illness and suffering converge, karmic obstructions all manifest, and creditors from past enmities come to collect debts, that final thought will be even harder to master. Therefore one cannot only count on the time of death; one must attain some accomplishment in ordinary times—transforming the mind, eliminating karmic obstructions, increasing merit, and gaining control over one's thoughts.

To be reborn in the land of bliss, one's merit must accord with the land of bliss; if it does not accord, one cannot dwell there together. Wherever you wish to go, your merit must accord with the environment of that place—you must have that karmic seed. If you have not planted that karmic seed and your merit does not accord, how could you go to that place? If the mind does not accord with the land of bliss, it cannot manifest the land of bliss—how then could one be reborn there? Every method of cultivation is a cultivation of the mind. Only to the degree the mind is cultivated and transformed, and accords with a certain realm, can one go to the corresponding environment to dwell together and live there.