Pure Land Buddhism - Pháp Môn Tịnh Độ

[Rancon]

** Rough translation from this link https://www.hoasentrenda.com/fp/phuong-phap/tinh-do/tinh-do-la-gi-2065 **
This translation was proofed-read by Tibu before posting

What is Pure Land?

There are three types of belief, understanding, or assumption about Pure Land:
_People with knowledge and fundamentals of Meditation: they believe that Pure Land is inside one's Heart.
_People who are into Mysteries: they believe there is a Buddha and his Dharani (mantra) is Om, Amitabha Hrih Svaha.
_The layman: believes that there is a Buddha who pledged 48 Great Vows. If one has the opportunity to recite his name, one will be brought to the Buddha's Land, where there are Nine Vargas (levels or stories), and study with him 'til achieving Nhất Sanh Bổ Sứ - Ekajati Pratibaddha (after the Ninth Vargas) to later become a Bồ Tát Bất Thối Chuyển – Avaivartika Bodhisattva (A never-receding Bodhisattva). Then, one will finally be able to help other sentient beings.

Pure LandDharmaparyàya – Pure Land's method:

Pure Land's method is a practice that recites the phrase Amitabha to achieve Samma-sati (right mindfulness), and then, by rely on very strong belief, the monk can attain from the First Vargas to Ninth Vargas. Afterwards, he will pledge a Great Vow to enter Nhất Sanh Bổ Xứ and then go out to rescue all beings. All done by only using that immortal phrase!

Preparation

Step I: psychologically prepared

Life is so full of bull.
Spiritually, I'm also going nowhere, since cultivating the way of Buddhism is so very extremely difficult.
That's exactly why we should prepare to... run away to a better world, where it is much easier to practice ascetic.
Thanks to the mentality of always ready to flee, we tend to live a much simpler life, in which we only need very little to be full and warm. The lighter our luggage is, the easier it is for us to take off.
Because we are always in the mode of wishful to migrate to Buddha's Land to continue our practice, whenever it's twilight, we would say to ourselves:
"A day has passed and I have yet to come Home (sigh, the go on), I don't know what I can do here."
That is psychologically prepared.
Step II: Feeling of admiration when reading His Great Vows
His Great Vows are beyond imagination. They inspire us to protect and help out our loved ones: The less they have to suffer, the happier we are.
Amongst Lubu, there are many who juggle between practicing Pure Land's method and doing good deeds selflessly. Their mode is trying to stretch their spirits through actions of kindness and selflessness, so that it (the Heart) becomes identical with His (Amitabha Buddha's). The closer, the better.

Strength Derived From Another (namely Buddha's) in Pure Land
Origin of Buddha's strength:
Amitabha projects an extremely powerful aura from his crown (the red area on his head).
Analysis of this power:
Several Mahàyana sutras have discussed the Buddhas' practice of emitting bright lights.
Below is a quote from "KINH ÐẠI ÐÀ RA NI MẠT PHÁP TRUNG NHẤT TỰ TÂM CHÚ" (Usnisha Vijaya Dharani)
"He entered the Samaya Usnisa of all Tathagatas, their highness The Great Wheel-turning Monarchs (Śākyavartin). Immediately from his Ajna emitted a huge aura, such aura brightened up the entire ten directions of the universe and Buddha-lands. Any being touched by the aura would be extremely happy. Such aura, after it has lightened up the world, would return to circle around the Buddha three times before entering the Buddha's Usnisa (crown)."
In layman's term, it means that there is a stream of aura emitting from power center Ajna (about one inch above the point where your eyebrows cross the nose bridge), which sails out and then circles back by entering the crown (like a boomerang).

So, we can see there are two important sections to this aura:

First Section:
Began from the Ajna and then launch straight out.
A person who has the third eye (able to see aura with his naked eyes), can vividly see this when he comes across a Caturtha dhyāna monk (a monk who is practicing Four form-realm-meditations) using his deva eyes (what us Lubu called as our TV) to contemplate or investigate something. This person sees a tremendously powerful yellow light emitting from this monk's power center Ajna. Simultaneously, this person understands that the monk is using his vitality to do such thing, which is why his vitality is somewhat reduced after contemplating. Thus, people who overuse their TV often look pale and green like the substance abusers.
Advantage:
Any identical things will automatically be resonant with each other; that is the natural law of the Universe. Hence, the power of meditating can also be resonant. For example, if there are 40 monks who are meditating right now and I start to mediate, then those 40 monks' power will be resonant with mine, so that we can support each other with our strength. Though we will be a little tired, the effect coming out from this is significant. As time goes by, my heart becomes more and more sensitive, thus I can feel this resonance – or "aided power" -  from the Buddhas in the ten directions. Once it has "logged in", I will always be in the meditating stage; one can say that anything I see, I see through my deva eyes. Deva eyes is the naked eyes, naked eyes is the deva eyes.
Important note:
A person who practices meditation should only pay attention to the aided power once he has entered Caturtha dhyāna (Fourth dhyana) to ensure his safety. If one has only started meditation and look forward to this added power, they can easily be affected by Paramimmita-vaśavarti.
Pure Land's Specialty:
When attempt to rescue the dead (bringing the soul to Pure Land), the easiest method is to contemplate on the Three Honored Ones. From left to right, they are: Avalokitesvara bodhisattva, Amitabha Buddha, and Mahasthamaprapta. When these spiritual images show up, They will automatically bring that soul across. All we have to do is to observe which Vargas the soul stays at.
Comment:
When a monk focuses his mind and contemplates on the Three Honored Ones, it is said that the monk himself is the converging lens that converges the aided power that Amitabha Buddha has emitted from his crown to the predestined person. Once successfully converged, this aided power will automatically work.
And of course that is utilizing Amitabha Buddha's aura from the "launch out" part
Now we talk about the returning part of this power.
Second Section:
After the aura power was launched and reached the end of its momentum, it returns to Amitabha Buddha's crown by itself. This returning force is taken full advantaged of for monks who have not seen the Buddha before. In fact, when a monk can, in some way, turn himself into a thought, this monk can rely on the returning momentum of such aura to return to His crown, thus, can see him in the quickest way.  
Reciting Technique
Turning the page of Hinayana sutras, they mention a method to enter the Arupa (Formless) World. The technique is to contemplate a little start, just like a period inside this parentheses ( . ). As we know, Arupa is the world of thoughts. Of course, when a monk enters this dhyana, he also turns into a thought. With this technique well understood, Pure Land is in the palm of your hand.
Now we talk about "sound" in the returning momentum of Amitabha Buddha's aura.
Because this power is a form of thought, it also has a noise, which is "A Di Đà Phật" ("Amitabha").
But, because he is talking to all the Worlds of Impure World, so it cannot be just "A Di Da Phat! A Di Da Phat!", it has to be:

AAAAaaaaaaaa....
DIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii....
ĐÀÀÀÀÀààààààa.....
PHẬẬẬậậậật.....
or
AAAAaaaaa......
MIIIIIiiiiiiiii.........
TAAAAaaa........
BHAAAaaa........
(with echo )
As a result, when a monk recite His name in such fashion (stretching out each word) and contemplate a red dot (imagine and then make it as visual as possible), he will unintentionally be resonant with His calling sound and meet the condition (turning into a thought) to sail effortlessly back to Him and meet him in ease.
Special: This method is very difficult so the monk has to stop the "psychological warfare" with Greed, Hatred, and Ignorance in order to focus for the battle to turn himself into a thought and return to Amitabha Buddha.
That is why Lubu this not said this in vain:
"Practicing Pure Land is like a baby holding Daddy's shirt corner to the cinema. This baby needs not to know road rules, map reading skills, money, nada. Nothing! His feet are skipping along, his hand is holding an ice cream, but he still arrives and enjoys the cinema while munching on the ice cream!"
Also, because we are returning to visit a Buddha, no one dares to fight the way, criticize, or push us aside. As a result, it is not necessary to defend ourselves during practice.

For Christians
No one forbid Christians to use the same technique to meet Virgin Maria through reciting
AAAaaaaaa....
Vêêêêêê ....
Maaaaaa....
Riiiiiiiiii....
AAaaaaa....
While reciting the above phrase, one also simultaneously contemplates a small white dot like inside the parentheses (.) or contemplates each bead in a rosary chain. Once the whole chain is visible, then contemplate the small white dot.
The End.
By Tibu 20-2-2009
Translation by Rancon 01/2012
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