The Most Reliable and Secure Practice Method

Question: Which offers more assurance of escaping saṃsāra—cultivating the eradication of the view of self (satkāya-dṛṣṭi-prahāṇa) and realizing the fruits, or recollecting the Buddha (buddhānusmṛti) to be reborn in the land of bliss (sukhāvatī)? Is there a dharma gate that yields maximum returns with relative reliability?

Answer: The core idea of your question is: First, how can one be assured of escaping saṃsāra and attaining liberation? Second, is practicing Pure Land buddha-recollection faster and more reliable than eradicating the view of self? I say: the most reliable and dependable way to attain liberation and escape birth-and-death in saṃsāra is to immediately attain virtue and capability like that of the sages, so that one's body, mind, and world are all like those of the sages—not only matching the sages in views and insight, but also matching them in meditative concentration (samādhi) and supernatural powers, in moral cultivation and mental disposition, in magnanimity, aspiration, and the arising of bodhicitta, and likewise matching them in the four immeasurable minds of loving-kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. In short, one must match the sages in every respect in order to be liberated and at ease as they are, abiding in tranquil nirvāṇa, unbound by karmic power. Do you all agree with what I say?

The principle of the Four Noble Truths enables sentient beings to see through and see as empty the five-aggregate world of the Sahā world, and thereby to let go of the various conditions of the Sahā world, single-mindedly recollect the Buddha, seek rebirth in the land of bliss, and have the mind resonate with the Pure Land—then rebirth there becomes easy. If one has attained the direction of the first fruit or the first fruit itself, rebirth in the land of bliss is even more assured. Without the support of the principle of the Four Noble Truths, buddha-recollection becomes absent-minded, stuck in the various conditions of the Sahā world, merely wasting precious time. Therefore, cultivating the Four Noble Truths and recollecting the Buddha are not contradictory; they can merge with and mutually reinforce each other.

Realizing the fruits and seeing the mind both represent a state of mind that has departed from the saṃsāric birth-and-death of ordinary beings; reaching such a state signifies that one's virtue and capability are already very profound. Give this profound virtue and capability a name—define it as realizing the fruits through eradicating the view of self, define it as seeing the mind and seeing self-nature, define it as from the srotāpanna of the first fruit to the arhat of the fourth fruit, define it as the bodhisattva of the three stages of wise faith, define it as a bodhisattva from the first to the eighth bhūmi. Even if no name is given and no definition is made, as long as these virtues and capabilities are complete, one has attained liberation and departed from the realm of ordinary beings' birth-and-death in saṃsāra. Therefore, no matter how sentient beings cultivate, no matter what they cultivate, as long as they can reach this state, that is enough—elevating their body, mind, and world by eight degrees or several levels, then the state they dwell in is, right now, a liberated state. Transforming body, mind, and world is fundamental; elevating one's own virtue and capability is fundamental; everything else is merely incidental. If one cannot elevate one's own virtue and capability, cannot transform one's own body, mind, and world, none of those incidental things will appear—so what use is there in clinging only to the incidental things? By now, you should all know what the most reliable and dependable dharma gate of cultivation is, right?

All kinds of fruits manifested, fruits attained, and karmic retributions are all realized by the tathāgatagarbha. Upon what basis does the tathāgatagarbha manifest these retributions? Based on the cultivator's mind—the mental activities and the bodily, verbal, and mental actions. If the mental activities do not reach that point, if the bodily, verbal, and mental actions do not reach that point, the tathāgatagarbha cannot manifest any fruit or karmic retribution—how then could there be the first through fourth fruits, the three stages of wise faith, and bodhisattvas who have attained the bhūmis? How could there be rebirth in the land of bliss? No individual's definitions or preferences regarding these fruits count for anything; only what the tathāgatagarbha manifests is real and true. Therefore, rather than disputing and calculating over fruits, it is more substantial to cultivate in a down-to-earth manner, in accordance with the Dharma and with principle.