How Can One Be Reborn in the Land of Bliss (Sukhāvatī)

Because each person's karma differs, the state of the physical body at the time of death also differs. Those with heavier karmic obstructions experience disharmony of the four great elements at death, with a stiff body, and after death they must undergo retribution in the three evil destinies. Those whose karmic obstructions are not too heavy and who have done considerable wholesome karma in their lives have minds in accord with wholesome dharmas; their four great elements are in harmony, their bodies are soft, and after death they will be reborn in the three wholesome destinies, 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 pain at the time of death. In order to be reborn in a wholesome destiny, families will invite people to perform recitation assistance (zhunian), hoping to eliminate some karmic obstructions and increase some merit. During the recitation assistance, if the four great elements become harmonized, the body becomes soft. Some people then assume that the deceased has certainly been reborn in the land of bliss, or at the very least has gone to the heavenly realm. But this is not necessarily so; a softened body only means that karmic obstructions have lessened and good roots and merit have increased.

I encountered a real case. There was a female lay Buddhist whose husband, though he believed in Buddhism, did not practice. After he died from 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 there, at least to the heavenly realm. But after seven days, when he was cremated, the deceased appeared in a dream to the female lay Buddhist, and his expression in the dream showed that he was very unhappy. She came to ask me what was going on. I said that he was dissatisfied with his situation and still had painful feeling; he probably had not been reborn in the land of bliss, 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 her dream; and even if he did appear in a dream, it would have been with a joyful expression, not a sorrowful, furrowed-brow one.

Not long after, there were crackling sounds on her family's balcony, and later the female lay Buddhist dreamed again that her husband had come back home. This shows that, first, the deceased had not achieved rebirth (generally meaning rebirth in the land of bliss or in one of the three destinies of deva, asura, or human); second, he had not taken rebirth (generally referring to being born, beginning a period of life in the six destinies of saṃsāra); and third, the state he was in was that of the antarā-bhava (the intermediate state between death and rebirth). This incident shows that no matter how much others perform recitation assistance, if the deceased's good roots and merit are not deep and abundant, and his mind is not in accord with the land of bliss, he cannot be reborn there. If his mind is not in accord with the heavenly realm, he also cannot ascend to heaven. Unless the person performing recitation assistance has extraordinarily immense merit that changes his karmic seeds, only then could he ascend to heaven, achieve rebirth in the land of bliss, or take rebirth in the human realm.

Why, even with a softened body, did he not achieve rebirth in a wholesome destiny? Because recitation assistance only adds some merit and changes some karmic seeds; it falls far short of the level required for rebirth. To achieve rebirth, one must cultivate one's own mind, transforming it to be in accord with the land of bliss. A few days of recitation assistance cannot change the deceased's mind. Cultivation is not that easy—even the living, after a lifetime of practice, may not be able to transform their minds to a state of purity. Without one's own practice, relying on others' recitation assistance cannot transform the mind into one that has extremely firm faith and acceptance of the land of bliss and Amitābha Buddha, and that has relinquished all karmic ties to the Sahā world. To accurately judge whether the deceased has achieved rebirth, one must have the divine eye, able to see a person's consciousness seated on a lotus platform, to see the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to welcome him, to see him arrive in the land of bliss. Without this, any judgment is inaccurate—mere speculation, not to be trusted.

The question of cultivation involves merit. Merit is obtained by whoever cultivates it; without cultivation, there is no attainment. Even parents and children cannot substitute for one another, including the Buddha and his family members. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra tells that Ānanda, relying on being the Buddha's cousin, thought he need not cultivate very much—that by relying on the Buddha's majestic power and blessing power, he would naturally attain accomplishment. But it turned out otherwise; the hardships he was due to undergo still had to be undergone, and this was true even of the Buddha's family members. The merit of cultivation does not come from outside; it arises from one's own mind, and others cannot give it. Whether the deceased can achieve rebirth 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 moment of death. If one has not cultivated well in ordinary times, if the mind has not been transformed and karmic seeds not purified, then relying on that final thought is like placing a bet—unreliable. One must achieve accomplishment through one's own practice in ordinary times; only then is there certainty 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 death, with illness and pain converging, karmic obstructions all manifesting, and karmic creditors coming to collect their debts, that final thought will be even harder to master. Therefore, one cannot rely only on the moment of death; one must achieve 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 be in accord with the land of bliss; without accord, one cannot dwell there together. Wherever you wish to go, your merit must be in accord with the environment of that place—you must have that karmic seed. If you have not planted that karmic seed, and your merit is not in accord, how could you go to that place? If the mind is not in 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 that the mind is cultivated and transformed, and in accord with a given state, can one enter the corresponding environment to dwell and live there.