Amida Buddha is the best guide to our Buddha nature

Amida Buddha is the best guide to the Buddha nature which is the true nature of all beings. However, attaining Buddha nature does NOT mean that transcendent Buddhas like Amida stop existing.  Rather it means Amida takes you to a dimension where all Buddhas dwell. It's like escaping a prison (samsara) and joining all Buddhas in the same beautiful park where you can know each other and have fun together. Of course, discovering Buddha nature is beyond words and conceptual understanding, but I'm using this image just to help you stop falling into the wrong view of nihilistic voidness.

 

If you think that Amida and His Pure Land will stop existing when you attain perfect Enlightenment, that is the wrong view of nihilistic voidness. If you think that Amida and His Pure Land are only metaphors or symbols for the ultimate reality or Buddha nature then again, you fall into the wrong view of nihilistic voidness. Holding to such views and teaching them to others is to slander the Amida Dharma and is a karma that leads to rebirth in Avici hell. Actually Amida is living in THE SAME TIME in ultimate Dharmakaya or Buddha nature, in Sambhogakaya form in His Pure Land and in innumerable Nirmanakayas or accommodated body manifestations all over the samsaric universe for the sake of saving and guiding sentient beings. All Buddhas live and manifest in the same way. This is the Trikaya (three bodies doctrine). In Jodo Shinshu we also say that Amida (and all Buddhas) have two bodies where the Dharmakaya of Buddha nature is the first body and the Sambhogakaya and various Nirmanakayas are considered the second body which is called the Dharmakaya of Compassionate means. So, Amida Buddha in which you have faith is AT THE SAME TIME Amida as Dharmakaya of Compassionate means and Amida as Dharmakaya of Buddha nature.

 

Buddha nature will always exist, and the various Buddhas who dwell in the Buddha nature and do various enlightened activities all over samsara will also continue to exist. The Buddha nature is the common ground of all Buddhas, just like the military headquarter is the place where all generals meet. One cannot say that only the military headquarter exists and that generals are fictional characters or myths. In the same way we cannot say that only Buddha nature exists and that Buddhas don’t. In fact, Buddhas can’t exist without Buddha nature and Buddha nature is the natural base for all Buddhas. Only after discovering it and dwelling in it, we can be called Buddhas. And yes, each Buddha continues to be an Enlightened Person having the same Buddha nature with all the other Buddhas.

 

It’s like humans breathe the same air. The clean air is like the Buddha nature. Again, I’m using suggestive images to offer you hints about something that is beyond ordinary thinking and conceptual understanding. I hope you will never ever negate the existence of transcendent Buddhas on the basis of Buddha nature. Remember, both exist but in a way that is beyond our capacity to understand. They don’t exist like unenlightened beings exist, but certainly they do exist. You will see that when you reach the Pure Land.

 

Please also read the chapter “The wrong view of nihilistic emptiness” from my book Simple Teachings on Emptiness and Buddha Nature as well as the whole book to get a more detailed understanding of Amidaji teaching on this topic.

Adrian Cirlea
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