The Ladder That Leads to Pure Land

Yangthang Rinpoches teachings on pure land practices

Compared with other pure lands, it is relatively easier to take rebirth
in the Great Bliss pure land in the west. Because it is not as
complicated as generation stage or completion stage practice. If you
have bodhichitta, a pure faith in Buddha Amitabha, and have
dedicated your merits to be reborn in the western pure land after
making effort on practicing, you will be reborn there, the Great Bliss
pure land in the west. Therefore, in general, it is easier to accomplish
the pure land practice.

If you want to take rebirth in the western pure land, you have to
continue to accumulate virtues. No matter how many virtues you
might have accumulated, please remember to make dedication. For
example, if you have recited Guru Rinpoche's mantra or
Avalokitesvara's mani mantra, you can dedicate as such, "May all
sentient beings and I be born in the Great Bliss pure land in the
west."

Someone asked me, "Would Buddha Amitabha be upset if I recite
Guru Rinpoche's mantra? Will he be angry if I recite Avalokitesvara's
mantra?" These people who have this doubt really don't understand,
so there is nothing to blame. Actually no need to worry about this.
Whichever mantra you recite, Guru Rinpoche's, Avalokitesvara's, or
any deity's, you can dedicate your merit to rebirth in Buddha
Amitabha's western pure land, the Great Bliss.

You have to dedicate, if you want to be born there. Due to the power
of Buddha Amitabha's aspirations, Great Bliss, the western pure land
becomes the easiest pure land to take rebirth.

One can also take rebirth in the Great Bliss pure land of Buddha
Amitabha by practicing "Nyun-ney" retreat. It is a method taught for
lay practitioners by the compassionate Buddha. Since it is easy to
guard those vows, so it is suitable for lay practitioners to practice.

In the sutras, it is taught that if you practice "Nyun-ney" for eight
times in your life, and dedicate the merit to rebirth in the pure land of
Buddha Amitabha, you will be able to be born there. The Buddha
taught this himself. So we can try our best to accomplish this.

As for reciting of sutras, "Sutra of Great Liberation" (Thar-do),
"Diamond Cutter Sutra", "The King of Aspirations", and "The Prayer
of Kuntu Zangpo" and so forth, are the supreme texts that are easy
for us to recite. "Sutra of Great Liberation" was taught by the Buddha
when he was about to enter parinirvana. It is available in Taiwan, so
you can try to recite it. It will be enough if you recite the sutras and
mantras mentioned above. It is not necessary to recite so many kinds
of sutras and mantras.

After you have practiced as such for 20, 30, or even 40 years, you
must have accumulated some virtues. And in the process, you must
dedicate these virtues like this: "May all sentient beings and I be
reborn in the Great Bliss pure land of Buddha Amitabha!" If you can
make aspirations like this through your entire life, and if you can
even pray like this when you are about to die, you will definitely take
rebirth in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha. This I can guarantee. I
don't have clairvoyance, but this is taught by the Buddha himself. If
you can pray like this in the process of dying, then for sure you can be
reborn in the pure land.

Today if you are motivated by a pure heart, face the western
direction, joint your palms, offer a flower to Buddha Amitabha, toss
the flower to sky, and make an aspiration like "May I be reborn in
Buddha Amitabha's pure land after death." Then definitely you will

be born there after death. This is also taught by the Buddha himself.

When the Buddha was alive, he once told his attendant, Ananda,
"Ananda, turn your body towards the west, offer a flower to Buddha
Amitabha, and make aspirational prayer, then you will be born in the
pure land of Buddha Amitabha." Ananda did as Buddha taught. Then
the Buddha taught Sutra of Amitabha. Therefore, if we can face
towards the west with a pure intention, offer a flower to buddha
Amitabha, and joint our palm and make a prayer: "May I be born in
the western pure land of Buddha Amitabha after death." If we can
practice as such, we will definitely take rebirth in the western pure
land of Buddha Amitabha.

When you are on a street, or in a market, or in a shop, and etc, when
you see a beautiful flower or anything beautiful, or hear any pleasant
sounds, or smell any fragrant scent, whatever pleasant things that
you perceive, you can offer it to Buddha Amitabha by visualizing. This
is the best way to complete the accumulations for rebirth in Buddha
Amitabha's pure land. Moreover, this method does not cost your time
or money, and it help you complete the accumulation for being born
in pure land. So why not try it?

When you are practicing on the path of dharma, as I said before, you
don't need to recite a lot of sutras or mantras. If you recite too many
sutras or mantras, you might end up being unfamiliar with any of
them. Therefore you should recite one sutra or one mantra and be
familiar with it instead. For example, we can choose one or two
sutras, such as Sutra of Great Liberation, King of Aspirations, and so
forth, and be familiar with them in your entire life. As for mantras,
you can choose one mantra among mani mantra, Guru Rinpoche's
mantra, and so on, and recite it through your entire life. Practicing as
such is easier to attain some spiritual accomplishment than reciting
so many of them.

If you recite a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, you recite so
many kinds of mantras, yet you are still unfamiliar with any of them,
then you are still far away from attainment of spiritual
accomplishment. Therefore, I suggest you not to recite too many
kinds of sutras or mantras from now on till death. You should focus
on one of them. Simplicity is good.

Moreover, you don't need to pray to be born in many different pure
lands, taking rebirth in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha alone
would be enough. Why do I suggest you to take rebirth in that pure
land? This is because it is easier to be born there. I hope you can
remember this. This is why I kept advising as such. In brief, it will be
enough to recite one or two mantras and sutras, and pray to be born
in only one pure land. This is very important.

You should know the fact that all of the 84 Indian mahasiddhas also
took rebirth in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha. Many Tibetan
masters took rebirth in that pure land too. Therefore, it is a very
sublime pure land. Once you have been born there, you would have
reached another perfect level in which you won't need to change
your body anymore all the way until attainment of enlightenment.
Besides, you can travel to any pure land that you like. There won't be
any dharma teachings that you still need to learn. This is because
after you have been born from a lotus flower in the pure land of
Buddha Amitabha, you will naturally understand whatever Dharma
you want to know, or whatever practice you want to engage in. You
won't need to ask anyone but realize naturally. After having been
born into the pure land of Buddha Amitabha, you will naturally be
endowed with three-fold dharma robes. And Buddha Amitabha will
give you dharma teachings in person, until you attain the perfect
state. Therefore, this is the most
sublime and important practice. I hope you can keep this in your
mind.


You and I, all of us, need to realize and reflect on the four facts: a
human life with freedom and endowment is difficult to obtain,
impermanent life and death, defects of samsara, and the unfailing
truth of principle of cause and effect. These are what we called "four
thoughts".

Probably all of us here are endowed with a human body of eight
freedoms and ten endowments. We should cherish this precious
human body. How should we cherish it? First, we should reflect on
the "four thoughts" everyday. This is the source of power for our
dharma practice. If you have reflected on the "four thoughts" in the
morning, your mind set will be different in the entire day. You would
not be indulgent in meaningless things. And you would know there is
no way not to be diligent. Therefore, your practice will become
powerful. So you should make effort on meditating on the "four
thoughts". This is very important.

We should realize that, there is birth, so there must be death too. Our
life is impermanent. In the past, probably it was not so challenging,
because there weren't as many disasters and diseases. But now,
things are different. We have a lot of diseases which haven't been
heard before. A variety of natural and human-cuased disasters
happen one after another. Our life is so fragile, as candle fire
struggling in the fierce wind, could reach an end at any time. We
remain alive today, but it doesn't mean that we won't die tomorrow.
We remain alive this year, but it doesn't mean that we would not die
in the next year. Our life is fragile and helpless. Death could occur
anytime. Therefore, we should reflect on this, and cherish our limited
human life.

Life is so short. Even if you don't encounter any obstacle, you would
probably die at age of 80 or 90. You look like you are in your 40s, that
means only half of your life remains. After death, we might probably

be reborn in lower realm, as a being in hell, or a hungry ghost, or an

animal. Therefore, we must make good use of this limited life.
Particularly, I am already 84 years old. There isn't much time left
before I die. Therefore, I have a wish for myself, and I also have one
expectation on you, which is: we must engage in meaningful dharma
practices before death!

Almost everyone is afraid of dying. I have met with some people who
said, "I am not afraid of dying! What's a big deal about dying?" They
looked like if they were braves when they said this. But when death
actually took place, they were more scared than others. Some
westerners said, "There is no samsara. There is no karma, cause, and
effect. So death is not a big deal!" But once when they face death, they
are panicking. Therefore, no one is not afraid of death. Death is very
cruel. When it comes, we would have to leave behind our body,
relatives, friends, and all kinds of property and enjoyment.

If you were a master, (when you are dying) you are not able to take
any attendant with you but walk towards death all by yourself. If you
were a government minister who owned high position and power,
you will not be able to take any staff with you either. If you were the
world's richest merchant, you are not able to take any servant with
you. When you are dying, there is nothing you can take away with
you, except for virtuous karma and non-virtuous karma. This is the
truth about death! Therefore, we need to be prepared for the coming
of death. When we are dying, we need some "food" to eat when we
walk on the path towards death. And the best "food" we can have on
this path is virtuous karma.

On the path towards death, virtuous karmas will do us a big favor.
Therefore, we have to practice properly and accumulate virtues. For
example, if you have recited mantra of Guru Rinpoche, mantra of
Avalokitesvara (the mani mantra), or have practiced "nyun-ney"
retreat, and so on, you would be able to take these virtuous karma's

with you. These virtues will help you a lot. Virtuous karmas will
never ripen on rock, water, or fire. Buddha Shakyamuni taught us,
"virtuous karma will only ripen on the one who accumulated that
karma." On the contrary, if you have done a lot of grave non-virtuous
actions in this life, these karmas can't even be purified by Buddha's
own hands. You will have to carry these karmas with you when you
are dying.

At least we should practice as such: we should remember the three
jewels when we get up every morning and before we go to sleep
every night. Of course, it would be the best if we can remember the
three jewels all the time. If we can't do so, at least we should
remember the three jewels in the morning and in the evening, to
supplicate to the three jewels for blessings.

If you can practice this continuously, when you encounter some
disasters or accidents such as earthquakes and so forth, you would
immediately give rise to supplication for refuge in the three jewels.
You will naturally pray to your master, the three jewels, Guru
Rinpoche, or Buddha Amitabha for blessings and refuge, to remove
obstacles and dangers.

if you have habituated with supplication as such, when you are
encountering very scary scenes in your dream, you would be able to
supplicate to your master, the three jewels, Guru Rinpoche, or
Buddha Amitabha. And therefore you won't have fear at all.

Most of all, if you have practiced as such, when you are dying,
particularly when you see frightening scenes in the bardo stage, you
will be able to remember your master, three jewels, Guru Rinpoche,
or Buddha Amitabha easily. It is easier to remember them at this
moment because you would have no body but consciousness only. If
you can remember Buddha Amitabha at this moment, you will be
liberated immediately. This is clearly taught in the sutras. Therefore,

we should try to be familiar with practices mentioned above from

now on. This is very important.

Every night before you are falling asleep, you should imagine that
you are dying, and make a commitment like "I am going to be born in
Buddha Amitabha's pure land after I died." You should visualize
Buddha Amitabha's pure land too, and keep supplicating and praying
to him. If you can keep practicing this, when you are actually dying,
by the power of your constant practice, you would naturally
remember: "I have to supplicate to Buddha Amitabha immediately. I
want to take refuge in him, so that i can be born in his pure land." If
you can pray like this, you will be born in his pure land easily.
Therefore, let's keep practicing this from now on. This practice is not
very difficult. It is not as complicated as generation, completion
practices, or Great perfection practices. If you can practice, you will
accomplish it!

After having accumulated some physical, verbal, or mental virtuous
karmas, please make sure that you would dedicate them properly. It
is difficult for most of us not to include ourselves when we make
dedication and aspirations. Therefore, we can include ourselves in
our dedication and aspiration, and dedicate all of our physical, verbal,
and mental virtuous karmas as follows:"May all sentient beings and I
be born in Buddha Amitabha's pure land!" It is very important to
keep making such dedication and aspiration.

The so called virtuous karmas are like the karmas of reciting
Avalokitesvara's mani mantra, Guru Rinpoche's mantra, or practicing
Nyun-Ney retreat and so forth. We should dedicate these virtuous
karmas to nowhere but as such: "May all sentient beings and I be
born in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha." It is truly sublime if you
an dedicate and pray like this, because Buddha Amitabha made
special aspiration so that it is easier to be born into his pure land.
Therefore, no matter what virtuous karmas you have accumulated,

please dedicate and make aspirations as follows: "May I be born in

Buddha Amitabha's pure land." This is truly important.

Moreover, it will be beneficial if we practice pure view of sutra
vehicle. For example, when I am going towards the eastern direction,
I visualize that I am traveling to the Manifest Joy pure land on the
east. When I am going towards the south, I visualize that I am
traveling to the pure land of Buddha Ratnasambhava. When I am
going towards the western direction, I visualize that I am traveling to
the pure land of Buddha Amitabha in the west. And when I am going
towards the north, I visualize that I am traveling to the pure land of
Buddha Amoghasiddhi. Doing such practices can remove obstacles of
taking birth in pure land too. This practice will help you take birth in
the pure land of Buddha Amitabha at the crucial moment. This is a
pure view practice taught according to the sutra vehicle.

The pure view practice of tantra vehicle is even more important. No
matter where you are, Taiwan, Nepal, U.S.A., or anywhere else, you
should visualize that place as pure land. Whatever is there, house,
mountain, river, or land, should be visualized as array of pure land.
All beings there, humans, animals, or any kind of living beings, should
be visualized as Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. We have to be certain
about this point, and meditate upon that certainty. We ordinary
beings are obscured by ignorance, and due to this, we are unable to
witness the real pure land. But you have to be certain about here
being the real pure land, and medicate upon that certainty. if you do
not practice this, the real pure land will not be made evident.

Let's take a mirror that is covered by dust as an example. If we do not
wipe off the dust on the mirror, the reflected image in the mirror will
never reveal. Likewise, if we do not practice pure view, the primordial
pure land will never reveal. Therefore, from now on, we should meditate
by recognizing that "The world we live is the pure land". This is very

important.

Moreover, when practicing pure view, supplicating to gurus and the
three jewels for blessings, or praying to be born in Buddha
Amitabhas pure land, you should never feel unsure or have any
doubt. If you have doubt, as a consequence, you would not fulfill what
you wish for. Your pure view practice will fail, and you would not
make it to be born in the pure land, either.

If you have such a doubt: Is this world really pure? Or it is actually
impure? If you have such a doubt, it would be difficult to accomplish
the practice. You have to have a solid certainty, believing that this is
the pure land, and the living beings here are all Buddhas and
bodhisattvas.

When you supplicate to your guru or the three jewels for blessings,
you need to have a pure faith in your guru and the three jewels
without having any doubt. Guru Rinpoche also taught in a
supplication prayer: Supplicate without any doubt! Likewise, we
should not have even a slight bit of doubt when practicing pure view.

Most of you need to work. Maybe you have a government job, maybe
you work in a private organization, or maybe you are a boss yourself.
Regardless of the place where you work, you are working very hard.
Since you are so busy, you have only limited spare time to use in the
early morning, evening, or weekends . I hope you dont waste time in
some meaningless pleasurable things. You should spend the limited
time you have before and after your working hours, as well in the
weekends, on practicing on the instructions taught above.

Make use of your life in the most meaningful way! By this, you will
not fail the precious human life. This is my sincere hope for you.


I have shared with you some practices related to Buddha Amitabhas
pure land, now I am still going to share with you this practice. If you
are practicing something from which you couldnt achieve anything,
then it is not a meaningful practice to you. If you can focus on the
pure land practice, bring Buddha Amitabha and his pure land in your
mind in a proper way, then you will certainly attain accomplishment
in 3 to 5 years. Now I am sharing this mainly with beginners. I
suggest you to practice on Buddha Amitabha. This is a very important
practice for beginners.


There are 4 causes of taking birth in the pure land:
1) Clear visualization of field of accumulation
2) Collecting accumulations and purifying negative actions
3) Making pure aspiration
4) Cultivating Bodhichitta

Among the four causes, the first is clear visualization of field of
accumulation, which means to clearly visualize the pure land of
Buddha Amitabha. Buddha Amitabhas pure land is an inconceivable
realm. It is beyond imagination and calculation of we ordinary people.
This pure land is vast and limitless. Its ground is even and smooth as
palm. The great ground is composed of variety of precious jewels. It
is also flexible if you touch it. It feels so soft as silk when you step on
it, and it bounces back after you lift your feet. It feels so light and so
comfortable. There is no high mountains or deep abyss. But there are
hills established by precious jewels. The hills are filled with trees
made of various kinds of jewels. The birds that rest on the trees can
sing pleasant and beautiful melody. In addition, there is water that is
endowed with eight qualities. It is clean and sweet. And it can
nurture ones sense faculties. In the center of the vast ground, there is
a tall bodhi tree. Under which there is a high throne. Buddha
Amitabha is sitting on the throne. Avalokitesvara (Chenrezik) and

Vajrapani, the two main retinues of Buddha Amitabha, are abiding at

the right and left side to Buddha Amitabha respectively.

Although there are clean water, small hills, and birds that can make
melodious sound in the thirty-three heavens too, those in the
heavens cant compare to those in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha.
After you drink the water that is endowed with eight qualities in the
pure land, bodhicitta, loving kindness and compassion, and various
kinds of meditative concentration will naturally arise in your mind
stream. From the melodious sound made by various types of birds,
you would hear different dharma teachings. When you take birth into
Buddha Amitabhas pure land, you will be born into a lotus flower.
Right after you are born, you would be wearing three dharma robes.
And you yourself would know how to practice. You would fully
comprehend the practices of bodhisattvas of the first spiritual ground
all the way to the tenth spiritual ground. The children in our world
are born due to parents impure conduct. They dont know anything
when they are born, unlike those who are born in the pure land.

After you were born into the lotus in the pure land, you will be
adorned with some excellent marks that are similar the 32 major
marks and 89 minor signs. They are like those of a bodhisattva.
Moreover, once you are born in the pure land, you would
immediately see Buddha Amitabha, Avalokitesvara, and Vajrapani,
and receive dharma teachings from them in person. Furthermore,
since you would attain the dharani of never-forgetting, you will
never forget whatever teachings you have heard in the pure land in
entire life. Unlike this, in our world, we learn today and forget
tomorrow. We learn this year and forget in the next year. The
sublime quality that Buddha Amitabha has is beyond comprehension
of we ordinary beings. It is beyond any verbal expression too.

Clear visualization of the field of accumulation means that we
should clearly visualize Buddha Amitabhas pure land. Some of

Tibetan thankas about pure land have very clear picture of the pure
land. Your visualization can base on those paintings. You should have
a clear and vivid visualization. For example, you are citizens of Taipei
City, so when you close your eyes, you can still clearly visualize the
whole Taipei City. If you can clearly visualize the pure land as
Taipeis citizens can clearly visualize Taipei, then that is what we
refer to as clear visualization of the field of accumulation. This is
the first cause of taking birth in Buddha Amitabhas pure land.

The second cause (of taking birth in the pure land): Collecting
accumulations and purifying obscurations.

Collecting accumulations, generally speaking, includes physical
virtuous actions like prostration, going around statues or stupas, and
so forth; verbal virtuous actions like reciting mantras of
Avalokitesvara or Guru Rinpoche, or chanting The King of
Aspirations and so forth; and mental virtuous actions like cultivating
loving-kindness and compassion, developing faith in gurus or the
three jewels, and so forth.

You should dedicate all the virtues that you have accumulated, no
matter big ones and small ones, in this way: May all sentient beings
and I be born to the place where Buddha Amitabha is present.

Making offerings is an important approach of collecting
accumulations. But you should do it within your ability and capacity.
Lets take butter lamp offering as an example, if your conditions
allow, it is alright to offer many of them. But if your conditions only
allow limited offering, it is fine to just offer one butter lamp. It will be
as great to offer one stick of incense, a flower, a cup of water, and so
forth. If water of a river is clean, you can take it and make it an
offering. You could accumulate great merit by this too. You need to
make offerings within your ability. This is very important.

You can also make imagined offerings. When we walk outside, do

shopping on street, or browse in shops, if you see any clean water,
beautiful flower, pleasant forest, pretty and elegant lady, handsome
man, any kind of beautiful jewelry, or any pretty, shinny, and
valuable jewels, gold, silver, and so forth, whatever wonderful things
you see, melodious sound you hear, delicious food you taste, fragrant
scent you smell, gentle and pleasant things you touch, and so forth,
you can make them as offerings to Buddha Amitabha. You dont
necessarily need to spend money for getting offering substances. You
can make offerings to Buddha Amitabha by imagining or visualizing
whatever you feel pleasant. If you do not own a lot of offering
materials, you can collect accumulation by this approach.

The merit of making offering through imagination is completely
equal to that of making offerings of actual materials. This is also a
supreme method of collecting accumulations. Moreover, when you
see or hear someone accumulating any virtuous actions, if you can
feel delighted and rejoice that persons merit from the bottom of your
heart, thinking that he must have accumulated a lot of merit in the
past so that he has so much merit now, and he is still accumulating
merit continuously in this lifeif you can rejoice for him
wholeheartedly as such, the merit of rejoicing is also quite
inconceivable.

You can also supplicate to Buddha Amitabha to clear away the
sufferings of the six types of beings, including causes of sufferings
and all sufferings, such as human beings sufferings of birth, aging,
illness, and death, animals sufferings of being eat by others, hungry
ghosts sufferings of hunger and thirst, and hell beings sufferings of
heat and cold. By doing so, you would collect great accumulations
too.

Speaking of the method of collecting accumulations, you can also face
towards the west, toss flowers or rice to the sky to Buddha Amitabha,

or offer incense, and say a prayer as such: When I am at the phase of

dying, I wish I would definitely take birth in the pure land of Buddha
Amitabha. And May all sentient beings can be reborn in the pure land
too. The scriptures taught that this is a cause of being born in
Buddha Amitabhas pure land too.

When you have accumulated these virtues and merit, make sure that
you remember to dedicate as follows: By these virtues and merit,
may all sentient beings and I can be reborn in the pure land of
Buddha Amitabha! You should also supplicate to Buddha Amitabha
to look upon you and fulfill your wishes. It is very important to make
use of your virtuous karmas to make aspiration and dedication too.

Purifying negativity and obscurations means that we should
completely acknowledge and confess before Buddha Amitabha for
countless negative actions that we have done from beginningless
time till now, and promise that we will never commit those actions
again in the future, no matter they are grave or slight ones. We
should have Buddha Amitabha as the witness, and pray to him to
completely remove these negativity and obscurations. If we can
meditate as such, our negativity and obscuration could be cleared
away.

In the end, we can also supplicate to Buddha Amitabha: In order to
benefit countless sentient beings, please bless me to be able to have
long life in this world so that I would have more time to help all living
beings! By supplicating in this way, we also gain great merit.

The third cause (of being borning in the pure land): making pure
aspirations

We can make aspirations by reciting the prayer of the pure land of
Great Bliss. There are two versions of prayers of the pure land of
Great Bliss, one is longer as the other is short. You can recite either

one of them. If you have time, you can try the long one. And if you do
not have much time, it is also fine to recite the short one. ( Note: the
long one here refers to the one written by Karma Chagme Rinpoche.
And the short one was directly taught by Buddha Amitabha, in a pure
vision of Mingyur Dorje.)

We should often recite aspiration prayers. This is very important.
Particularly when you go for pilgrimage to the eight greatest holy
places, like Lumbini, where the Buddha was born, or Bodhgaya,
where he attained enlightenment, or other sacred sites of Indian
siddhas, it will be so precious for you to make aspirations there. And
your prayers would be accomplished more easily there.

Moreover, if you have got a disease that cant be cured, and you know
you dont have much time left, it is very important to make pure
aspirations at this moment too. When your life has reached the end
and you are in the phase of dying, it is also supreme to pray for
yourself and all sentient beings to be born in the pure land of Buddha
Amitabha.

Especially when our breath is about to stop, if we can bring Buddha
Amitabha and his pure land into our mind, and give rise to a strong
determination to be born in the pure land of Buddha Amitabha, we
will then definitely be born into that pure land. You have my
guarantee. If you think of Buddha Amitabha when dying, no one can
take you to anywhere else, because you will absolutely be born in
Buddha Amitanbhas pure land.

The fourth cause (of being born in the pure land): Whether or not
one can attain buddhahood solely relies on one has bodhichitta or
not. Without bodhichitta, one is not able to achieve buddhahood.

Bodhichitta can be classified into two types: ultimate bodhichitta,
and conventional bodhichitta. Ultimate bodhichitta refers to the

Rigpa or intrinsic awareness pointed out in the great perfection

cycle. Since I am giving this speech to beginners today, I would skip
ultimate bodhichitta for now. As beginners, you only need to learn
about conventional bodhichitta at this point.
And conventional bodhichitta can be furthered divided into two
types: Bodhichitta of aspiration, and bodhichitta of application.

Lets begin with bodhichitta of aspiration first. All sentient beings
have been our parents, who have bestowed great kindness to us. Now
these parents-sentient beings have fallen into the six realms of
samsara and are suffering there. In this life, I have been fortunate
enough to be born a human and have met Buddha Dharma, so I must
find some way to help all these sentient beings, who have been my
parents before, achieve Buddhahood. When you make an aspiration
like this, it is referred to as bodhichitta of aspiration. In brief, the
bodhichitta of aspiration is to have compassion and loving-kindness
to all living beings, wishing them healthy, happy, and gradually being
able to enter the entrance of Buddha Dharma, rely on spiritual
masters, practice dharma properly, and eventually be reborn in the
pure land of Buddha Amitabha. Making a wish as such is the
bodhichitta of aspiration.

Bodhichitta of application means that I want to benefit living
beings, but not only to make a wish in mind, but also to accomplish
this wish in actions through my body, speech, and mind. For example,
in a passive sense, I am going to actually refrain from those activities
that would harm sentient beings by abandoning the three physical
non-virtues~killing, stealing, and sexual misconduct; the four verbal
non-virtues~telling lies, sowing discord, harsh words, and idle
speech and the three mental non-virtues~ covetousness, wishing
harm on others, and wrong view. And in a active sense, I am going to
develop and increase every possible virtuous actions that would
bring benefits to living beings, including innumerous activities
related to the six perfections, and so forth. I am going to courageously

implement as such! This is the bodhichitta of application.

Briefly speaking, bodhichitta can also refer to empathy. For
instance, when you are injured by thorns, or get burned by fire, you
will feel pain, and you dont like these kinds of things to happen to
you. Likewise, others do not like those kinds of things to happen to
them either. So, if you have empathy, and not to allow any of those
things to happen to others through your actual actions, this is
bodhichitta.
Likewise, you like happiness. Others like to gain happiness too. So if
you have empathy, and practically do something that will bring
happiness to others, that is bodhichitta too. If you understand
empathy, then you have got more than half of the idea of
bodhichitta.

Since bodhichitta is the root of attaining Buddhahood, we should
often make a prayer like this: May I and all sentient beings can
cultivate bodhichitta in mind stream. Or like, May I give rise to
bodhichitta in my mind stream and benefit countless living beings! If
we can make a prayer like this, and often keep the intention to help
sentient beings in mind, this would be the four cause of being born in
Buddha Amitabhas pure land.

I have briefly explained the four causes of taking birth in the pure
land of Buddha Amitabha. This is the easiest and necessary practice
for beginners. And actually to all practitioners, this practice is still the
most important practice. This is also a sublime approach in the sutra
cycle. Therefore, from now on till death, I hope all of you can do this
practice extensively, and to complete the four causes of being born in
the pure land.

If you can practice this diligently, you will definitely be born into
Buddha Amitabhas pure land right after your life ended. You have
my words.

Actually it is not difficult to do this practice. If you are determined to

practice this, you will definitely accomplish it. Therefore, I hope you
can do this practice well, and thus be able to take birth in the pure
land of Buddha Amitabha. By this, you will not fail the precious
human body that you had obtained in this life. This is my hope for
you. ###