A Level Religious Studies - Is Pureland an easy path for Buddhism essay

Is Pureland an easy path for Buddhism? Discuss (40).

Pureland Buddhism is a school of Mahayanan Buddhism that adds mystical elements to the faith and its teachings which make them more comforting for its followers. There is a great emphasis on faith in Amitabha Buddha and a belief in the Pure Land which aids the follower in their spiritual journey towards enlightenment. Whilst it could be argued that Pureland is an easy path for Buddhists, this essay will argue that it is not and requires just as much dedication and effort as other schools of the religion.

It can be argued that Pureland is an easy path of Buddhism because Shinran taught that no self-power is needed as Amitabha Buddha grants the passage to nirvana.  Shin Buddhists say that faith is a gift from Amitabha Buddha and is not something they can take responsibility for. Because of this, it makes Pureland Buddhism seem much easier compared to other schools because the believer cannot contribute to their faith through practises like rituals, it is something directly given to them and as a consequence, they will be able to be liberated and reach enlightenment. Pureland Buddhism lacks the dedication needed to achieve the goal; followers cannot earn merit for their own acts so performing good acts and practices ultimately has no worth as it is not required.

However, Pureland is not the easy path to liberation because it requires effort to perform nembutsu. Nembutsu is concentration on Buddhist values and recitation of the Buddha’s name. Amitabha Buddha established forty-eight vows and the eighteenth of these is the vow of nembutsu which demonstrates how every man can achieve enlightenment and salvation. This shows how moral behaviour is still a key part of the religion, even if it is not necessarily the main practise. Honen, a disciple of Shinran, taught that rebirth was certain for those who recited with complete trust and sincerity – something which requires a certain level of concentration and dedication: ‘saying “Namu Amida Butsu” with a conviction that by saying it one will certainly attain birth in the Pure Land’. The stress on conviction makes it hard to see Pureland as the easy path because feigned will does not work, it requires strong faith achieved through genuine motivation and drive.

It can be argued Pureland is the easy path because if all you require is faith, then it isn’t really much effort at all. This presents great problems, of which Shinran acknowledged and said that a sinner with good faith will be welcome in the Pure Land. Yuien, a disciple of Shinran writes in the Tannisho that ‘even the good person is born in the Pure Land, so without question is the person who is evil’. This means that someone could turn to Pureland Buddhism just before death and be reborn in Sukhavati. This suggests that Pureland requires no effort at all as it only seems to take a mental declaration of one’s faith to be welcome in Sukhavati. Moral behaviour is thrown out of the question and there is a lack of responsibility needed, thus making Pureland appear as though there is no self-effort. This suggests that Pureland is the easy path in Buddhism because there is complete disregard for past actions and behaviours which would be used to determine one’s fate at death, meaning people can act however they want before they die – as long as a person has good faith which is a given gift, they can achieve the goal.

Even if this is the case, self-effort plays a vital role when the individual achieves liberation and reaches Sukhavati. At a surface level, it seems like the reliance is placed solely on Amitabha Buddha but when a follower arrives in the Pure Land, they still have work to do. A person will still have to work towards their bodhicitta aspiration, meaning they should achieve full enlightenment and then return to samsara and help other beings who are stuck on their spiritual path towards liberation. Whilst in a sense, the initial achievement of liberation may be straightforward, there is actually much more to becoming fully enlightened as the individual has to help others which means they will have to put in effort to work hard and succeed at doing this. Helping others also benefits the person, and the Dalai Lama indicates this: “when you engage in fulfilling the needs of others, your own needs are fulfilled as a by-product”.

To conclude, it is important to note that Pureland Buddhism has Amitabha Buddha at its heart; Shinran makes it clear that we cannot contribute to our liberation in any way and rely on and depend upon Amitabha Buddha for this. Even the recitation of the eighteenth vow is dedicated to the Buddha and uses the faith gifted to us by the Buddha. All elements of Pureland depend upon a great sense of faith which comes from something else, deeming our own activities relatively useless. But the key lies within what comes from the liberation itself: there is still work to do. In the case of achieving salvation to Sukhavati, Pureland is an easy path as it requires faith and faith alone, however, in the case of saving other beings from samsara, the goal once Sukhavati is reached, it is clear that this task is much harder and requires more time and dedication. The easiness depends on the perspective of the follower – if they are looking to just reach Sukhavati then the path is not difficult, but if they wish to go on and achieve more than this, self-effort and self-power play a vital role in doing so.