Rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss Is Harder Than Eradicating the View of Self

If one's mind is not subdued in ordinary times, with greedy thoughts unceasing and hateful thoughts unending, is it possible that at the moment of death one can let go of everything, untainted by even a speck, taking nothing along, departing cleanly and without attachments to be reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī)?

To tell everyone the truth: being reborn in the land of bliss is even harder than eradicating the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa). At the moment of death, one thought of this Sahā world, one thought of attachment, one thought of unwillingness to part, one thought of inability to bear it, one thought of anger—all the cultivation of this entire lifetime amounts merely to planting a good root. Don't even think about the land of bliss; one continues the cycle of birth and death in the Sahā world, and even continuing to transmigrate within the human realm is difficult. Is the mind of a deva in the sphere of neither perception nor non-perception pure? When evil karma ripens at the moment of death, they still fall into hell, let alone humans in the desire realm, where evil conditions are so numerous—at the moment of death, it is rarely up to karmic conditions and karmic power to decide, not up to one's usual subjective wishes. Even those who foreknow the time of their death still remain in the Sahā world, and that is because of a single thought for sentient beings, for demonstrating the Dharma, not for themselves. How much more so in other situations: karmic creditors entangle one after another in all sorts of ways, tangled beyond unraveling—both wholesome and unwholesome conditions all appear—who can escape?

Some people are unconvinced when told that rebirth in the land of bliss is not easy. Just look at how people today recollect the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti), with what mind they recollect the Buddha, what power of vows they hold in their hearts, and with what purpose they seek to reach the land of bliss, and you will understand whether today's practitioners of Buddha-recollection can reach the land of bliss at the end of their lives. Open the Records of the Sages and Worthies of the Pure Land and see how the ancients recollected the Buddha; make a comparison, and you will know whether today's practitioners of Buddha-recollection can be reborn in the land of bliss. Not to mention that those seeking rebirth in the land of bliss have poor spiritual faculties (indriya)—what kind of faculties do those who practice Chan hoping to see the mind and attain enlightenment have? Even keeping the five precepts is that difficult, and they lack even the conditions to eat vegetarian food—let alone discuss anything else.

If everything relied on Āmitābha Buddha's guidance, wouldn't things be much simpler? One Buddha alone could deliver all sentient beings in the world, without needing the Buddhas of the ten directions. Is there such a bargain? Chanting a single phrase of the Buddha's name to reach the land of bliss, then waiting to become a Buddha—at the moment of death, one hand pulling along Āmitābha Buddha of the land of bliss, the other hand dragging along the karmic creditors of the Sahā world—and that's how one becomes a Buddha?