“On the
assertion that a person born in the borderland
will in the end fall into hell.
In what
authoritative passage do we find such a statement? It is deplorable that this
is being maintained by people who pretend to be scholars. How are they reading
the sutras, treaties, and other sacred writings? I was taught that
practitioners who lack shinjin are born in the borderland because of their
doubt concerning the Primal Vow, and that, after
the evil of doubt has been expiated, they realize Enlightenment in the
fulfilled land.
Since
practitioners of shinjin are few, many are guided to the transformed land. To
declare, despite this that birth there will ultimately end in vain would be to
accuse Shakyamuni of lying.”
Everything
related with the Pure Land is the creation of Amida Buddha. It comes from his
enlightened activity and is the manifestation of it. All the manifestations of
Amida Buddha, especially his true Pure Land and the borderland of his Pure
Land, are real and effective in helping sentient beings
to achieve supreme Buddhahood.
Amida Buddha
realized that it is easier for unenlightened sentient beings to attain
Enlightenment or Buddhahood in the favorable environment of his Pure Land. This
is why he created it and made it in such a way so that both people who
completely entrust in him and also those who cannot completely entrust, be born
there and escape once and for all from samsara.
But there is a
difference between these two categories of people. Those who completely entrust
in Amida Buddha and let go of all clinging to any form of reliance on their
personal power become themselves Buddhas in the very moment when they are born
in the Pure Land, while those who entrust in Amida but still cling to some kind
of personal power do not become immediately Buddhas when they are born in the
Pure Land.
People in this
second category are in fact born in the so called borderland of the Pure Land.
They do not attain the state of Buddhahood, but are free once and for all from
the suffering of birth and death in samsara. They are safe, but still they are
not liberated. At the same time, being in the special environment of this
borderland of the Pure Land they have the opportunity to overcome their doubts
and entrust completely in Amida Buddha.
Master
Shan-tao said: “those born in the fulfilled Pure Land are extremely few;
those born in the transformed Pure Land are many.”
This is
because there are very few who completely renounce the reliance on their
personal power and calculations and entrust 100% to Amida’s Power. It is also
taught in this chapter: “Since practicers of shinjin are few, many are
guided to the transformed land.”
Transformed
land and borderland are the same. Also there are many other names for the
borderland, like “the realm of indolence and pride”, a term used by Shinran in
his wasans: “…People devote themselves to saying the nembutsu in self-power;
Hence they
remain in the borderland or the realm of indolence and pride…” or
“the city of doubt”, “the womb-palace”, etc.
This
borderland of the Pure Land is also described as a luxurious prison “made of
seven precious materials” where people who doubt the Power of Amida Buddha and
recite nembutsu while relying on self power or are aspiring to be born in
Amida’s Pure Land by depending on their personal merits and virtues are like
princes who, because they committed offenses against the king, are imprisoned
in a golden palace where they enjoy all pleasures but they are not able to see
the king.
This
comparison appears in the Larger Sutra:
“The Buddha
said to Maitreya, “Consider the case of the noble cakravartin-king who
possesses a prison embellished with the seven precious substances. It is
adorned in manifold ways, furnished with a canopied bed, and hung with many
silken banners. If young princes commit offenses against the king, they are
imprisoned there…..”
The Buddha
said to Maitreya, “These sentient beings are precisely like that. Because they
doubt the Buddha’s wisdom, they are born in a womb-palace... If these sentient beings become aware of their past offenses and
deeply repent, they desire to leave that place...”
To doubt the
Buddha’s wisdom means to doubt that Amida created the perfect method for saving
you and to believe that there is still something you need to do or add to his
enlightened activity in order to be born in his Pure Land. To doubt also means
to doubt the Primal Vow of Amida in which is described the method and cause of
direct birth into the fulfilled Pure Land – the total entrusting in Amida.
Amida Buddha
has 48 Vows, among which the Eighteenth is called the Primal Vow. This Vow
contains the direct cause of attaining complete Buddhahood in the moment of our
birth in the Pure Land. Becoming a true Buddha, capable of benefiting sentient
beings in the exact moment of attaining birth in the Pure Land is the
consequence of receiving shinjin or complete faith in Amida Buddha during this
present life, while to rely on Amida while entertaining doubts means to be born
in the borderland of the Pure Land.
To deeply
repent, means to realize how foolish the idea of adding something to the
working of Amida is. Unfortunately, people who doubt Amida Buddha’s Power in
the present life will have to expiate their doubts by realizing their stupidity
in the borderland or this womb like palace. So they will have the change of
heart we talked about when commenting the last chapter, and receive shinjin, in
the place called “borderland of the Pure Land”.
Then, in this
chapter of Tannisho it is said, “after the evil of doubt has been
expiated, they realize Enlightenment in the fulfilled land.”
As we clearly
saw in this chapter and in the quote I chose from the many passages one can
find in the sutras about birth in the borderland, this place is not one from
which one can fall back into the lower realms or the hells, but a place within
the Pure Land where people who relied on Amida Buddha during their present life
but were still clinging to their self power will stay until they overcome their
doubts and completely entrust themselves to Amida Buddha.
It is like an
emigrant who was received in the country of Amida but he is still kept at the
border region, not being allowed to enter the main continent and meet the king.
In fact, his own doubts obstruct him from entering the main continent: the
Power of Amida is that which caused him to be born in the border region.
Only the
Enlightened Power of Amida Buddha is that which makes possible even birth in
the borderland of the Pure Land, not to mention birth in the true Pure Land
itself. Amida Buddha has such an Infinite Compassion and good methods of saving
sentient beings that he succeeds in offering salvation from samsara even to
people who doubt and don’t rely completely on his Power.
Amida brings
sentient beings safely out of samsara, both those who entrust completely and
those who still have an incomplete trust, while the latter will stay for a
while in the borderland until they overcome their doubts. It is not the fault
of Amida or a punishment that some are born in the borderland, just they are
kept in that region by their own doubts. They are the ones who are keeping
themselves out of the main continent of the Pure Land, while Amida carried them
out of samsara once and for all.
It is very
important to understand that the Pure Land in both its aspects, the borderland
and the true Pure Land, is not a realm within samsara, but a manifestation of
the enlightened activity of Amida which is situated beyond the reach of birth
and death. There is no retrogression or falling back from the borderland of the
Pure Land into hell or any other samsaric realms because this place has nothing
to do with samsara.
One who
entered the borderland of the Pure Land is already in the safe embrace of Amida
Buddha, except he doesn’t completely entrust himself in Amida. His journey in
samsara is definitely over, and there is not a single word in the sutras and
the sacred texts saying otherwise.
- read my book THE PATH OF ACCEPTANCE - COMMENTARY ON TANNISHO-
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