Book Description

After the demise of the historical Buddha, His teachings spread in two main directions, southward (Theravada tradition) and eastward into China, Vietnam, Ko- rea, Japan (Mahayana tradition). In East Asia, these teachings developed into ten different schools, several of which remained important to this day: Zen, Tantric and Pure Land. Pure Land is by far the most widespread form of Buddhism in East Asia. All these schools teach the same basic truth: “Do not what is evil, do what is good, keep the mind pure.” True to this spirit, the Pure Land approach is simple and straightforward. Through mindfulness of the Buddha (i.e. Buddha Recitation), the practitioner can calm his mind and achieve samadhi and wisdom. Thus reborn in the Pure Land (i.e., in his pure Mind), he will eventually attain Buddhahood. This is also the core teaching, the very essence, of Zen and all other Mahayana schools. As D.T. Suzuki has pointed out, “the psychological effects of the repetition of the holy name are close to the effects of Zen meditation.” This notwithstanding, the main emphasis of the Pure Land school lies elsewhere. Pure Land provides a safety net, a refuge of last resort for everyone, through the compassion of Amitabha Buddha – through His Vows. Taken together, these two concepts of the Pure Land – as Mind and as a transcendental land – “effectively brought ... within the reach of all men the deliverance taught by Sakyamuni” (Allan A. Andrews). But why do we have to purify the mind and seek deliverance? It is because in the wasteland of Birth and Death, subject to the three poisons of greed, anger and delusion, we all undergo suffering – the ultimate suffering being, of course, death. Echoing this conclusion, a well-known American professor made this observation about the motivation of Western Buddhists: Probably the majority of non-Orientals who become practicing Buddhists do so because of an overriding need for relief from suffering. Sometimes the suffering is physical, but more often it is emotional and often psychosoma- tic. The individual practicing meditation, chanting, or any kind of Buddhist “self-cultivation” is motivated by a need for symptomatic relief, mitigation of anxiety and depression, reduction of hostility ... (Emma McCloy Layman, Buddhism in America, p. 269) This is precisely why Buddha Sakyamuni, when preaching the Four Noble Truths to Kaundinya and his friends, taught them first the Truth of Suffering. The letters of Master Yin Kuang address this issue squarely. If you are suffering and if you realistically discover that you have only average motivation, fortitude and self-discipline, then Pure Land is for you. Pure Land is about suffering and the liberation from suffering. This book consists of excerpts of selected letters by the Patriarch Yin Kuang [...]. Each letter can be considered a unit in itself [...]. Please note that in this text, the expressions “Buddha Recitation” and “Buddha’s name” refer specifically to Amitabha Buddha. [...] Here, then, are the letters of the Patriarch Yin Kuang. We hope the Western reader will enjoy and benefit from them, as several generations of Eastern readers have. As a Zen Master has written in another context, “read them once, read them twice and look for the same thing that Bodhidharma brought to China: look for the print of the Mind.”