How Can One Attain Rebirth in the Pure Land?

Due to the varying karma of each individual, the state of the physical body at the moment of death differs. Those with heavy karmic obstacles experience disharmony among the four elements as they approach death, resulting in a stiff body; after death, they will undergo retribution in the three lower realms. Those whose karmic obstacles are not too heavy and who have performed many good deeds in their lifetime have minds aligned with wholesome dharmas; their four elements are harmonious, their bodies remain soft, they experience no suffering at death, and they will be reborn in the three higher realms. In the Dharma-Ending Age, the vast majority of people have heavy afflictions; they accumulate few wholesome deeds and many unwholesome deeds throughout life, feeling great suffering at the time of death. To enable rebirth in a favorable realm, families may invite others to provide recitation assistance, hoping to eliminate some karmic obstacles and increase some merit. During this recitation assistance, if the four elements become harmonized, the body softens. Some then assume the deceased must have been reborn in the Pure Land, or at the very least, ascended to the heavenly realm. However, this is not necessarily so; a softened body merely indicates reduced karmic obstacles and increased wholesome roots and merit.

I encountered a true incident involving a female lay devotee. Her husband believed in Buddhism but did not practice. After a long illness and death, she invited monastics from a temple to provide recitation assistance. For seven days, four groups took shifts chanting without interruption for a single minute. The more they chanted, the softer the deceased's body became; eventually, the entire body could be curled up, completely pliant. Everyone thought he had gone to the Pure Land, or at least ascended to the heavenly realm. However, after cremation seven days later, the deceased appeared to his wife in a dream, his expression clearly unhappy. The laywoman came to ask me what this meant. I explained that he was dissatisfied with his current situation, still experiencing suffering. He likely had not been reborn in the Pure Land, nor ascended to the heavens, nor taken rebirth in the human realm. If he had already taken rebirth, he would not have been able to appear in a dream; even if he did, it would have been with joy, not a troubled expression.

Not long after, noises like crackling sounds appeared on their balcony. Later, the laywoman dreamed again of her husband returning home. This indicates the deceased: firstly, did not achieve rebirth (generally referring to rebirth in the Pure Land or the realms of gods, asuras, or humans); secondly, did not take rebirth (referring broadly to taking birth, beginning a new lifespan within the six realms of rebirth); thirdly, his current state is within the environment of the bardo body. This incident illustrates that no matter how much others chant for assistance, if the deceased lacks deep wholesome roots and merit, and if his mind is not aligned with the Pure Land, he cannot be reborn there. If his mind is not aligned with the heavenly realm, he cannot ascend to the heavens. Unless those providing the recitation assistance possess immense, immense merit, sufficient to transform his karmic seeds, only then could he ascend to the heavens, achieve rebirth, or take birth in the human realm.

Why, even with a softened body, did he not reach a favorable rebirth? Because recitation assistance merely increases some merit for him and alters some karmic seeds, far from being sufficient for rebirth. To achieve rebirth, one must cultivate the mind oneself, transforming the mind to align with the Pure Land. A few days of recitation assistance cannot change the deceased's mind. Cultivation is not that easy; living people practicing for a lifetime may still fail to purify their minds to the required degree. Without personal cultivation, relying on others' recitation cannot transform the mind to attain unshakeable faith in the Pure Land and Amitabha Buddha, relinquishing all karmic connections to the Saha world. To accurately determine whether the deceased achieved rebirth requires the divine eye, enabling one to see the deceased's consciousness seated on a lotus throne, witness the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas coming to welcome him, and see him arrive in the Pure Land. Without such direct perception, any judgment is inaccurate, mere speculation, and unreliable.

The issue of cultivation involves merit. Merit is obtained by whoever cultivates it; it cannot be obtained without cultivation. Parents and children cannot substitute for each other, including between the Buddha and his own family. The Śūraṅgama Sūtra states that Ānanda, relying on being the Buddha's cousin, thought he didn't need to cultivate much, believing he could attain realization naturally through the Buddha's majestic power and blessings. Yet, this was not the case; he still had to endure his destined tribulations, as did the Buddha's family members. The merit of cultivation does not come from outside; it arises from one's own mind; others cannot give it. Whether the deceased achieves rebirth depends on whether he himself possesses the merit of Buddha-recitation. This merit cannot be given to him by those providing recitation assistance; it requires his own practice of Buddha-recitation. Without the merit of cultivation, there is no corresponding karmic fruition.

Nowadays, many who study the Pure Land method place all their hopes on that final thought at the moment of death. If one has not cultivated well in daily life, if the mind remains unchanged and karmic seeds unpurified, relying solely on that final thought is like placing a bet—unreliable. One must attain realization through daily cultivation to have assurance of rebirth at the time of death. If one cannot even control thoughts in dreams during ordinary times, how much harder will it be at death, amidst the suffering of illness, with karmic obstacles manifesting, and karmic creditors coming to collect debts? That final thought becomes even harder to grasp. Therefore, one cannot rely solely on the deathbed moment; one must achieve some realization in daily life, transforming the mind, eliminating karmic obstacles, increasing merit, and gaining control over mental states.

To be reborn in the Pure Land, one's merit must correspond to the Pure Land; without correspondence, one cannot dwell there together. Wherever you wish to go, your merit must correspond to that environment; you must possess the karmic seeds for it. If you haven't planted those karmic seeds and your merit doesn't correspond, how can you reach that place? If the mind does not correspond to the Pure Land, it cannot manifest the Pure Land; how then can one be reborn there? Any cultivation method is about cultivating the mind. The degree to which the mind is cultivated and transformed, the realm with which it corresponds, determines the environment in which one can dwell and live accordingly.