Several years ago, I asked Thrangu Rinpoche, who has taught extensively on the bardos, this question: “If a Buddhist realized they only had a year left to live, what practice should they emphasize?”

He replied, “Pure Land practice.” His answer may surprise students of Tibetan Buddhism, where pure lands are rarely mentioned.

Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche says that as death approaches, the main deity we should relate to is Amitabha, the principal Pure Land buddha.

Pure Land practice is important because if you don’t attain enlightenment in the bardos, the next best thing is to gain rebirth into a pure land.

There are a number of reasons for doing this:

First, pure land rebirths, while not yet nirvana, are outside of samsara.

[Note: There are twenty-seven states of samsaric existence, divided into three realms: desire, form, and formless. (Sometimes the three realms are divided into more than twenty-seven states, and sometimes less.) Entry into each realm – the form we will take in our next life unless we are born into a pure land – is gained by cultivating twenty-seven respective states of mind. Pure Land practice cultivates elevated states of mind as a more enlightened alternative to these twenty-seven samsaric states.]

They’re free from the aging, sickness, and death of samsaric existence. There is no overt suffering.

Second, they are non-retrogressive. Once you’re born into a pure land you’ll never fall back to samsara, unless you do so voluntarily.

Third, spiritual progress is rapid in a pure land. It’s like being born into a country where everyone is a lama and everybody practices the dharma. The developmental center of gravity is so high that you have no choice but to evolve.

Fourth, this spiritual progress allows you to develop powers of super-cognition. With these abilities, you’re more effective in helping others. Going to a pure land is not getting out of your bodhisattva vow to benefit all beings – it is fulfilling it more rapidly. It’s like going to graduate school instead of staying back in kindergarten.

Fifth, birth into a pure land is your last rebirth before attaining enlightenment. [These are just a few of the benefits; see Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth by Tulku Thondup for one of the rare Tibetan treatments of this subject.]

The most famous pure land, and the one at the heart of the Pure Land tradition, is Sukhavati, the “land of bliss.”

Sukhavati is generally regarded as the only pure land where ordinary beings like ourselves can be reborn. Almost all the other pure lands require the attainment of the first bhumi, which is a lofty level of realization. [The first bhumi, or “ground,” is when one has a direct realization of emptiness. This is also the third path, the path of seeing, where you first see emptiness. Some teachers state that with the attainment of the first bhumi, one attains immortality. The remaining nine bhumis are developing an increasing familiarity with emptiness, and this constitutes the fourth path, the path of meditation, or literally, the path of familiarity (gom).]

The Tibetan tradition, whose approach to the pure lands differs from traditional Korean, Chinese, or Japanese Pure Land practice, is centered on a tenet that we will return to frequently: the mind leads all things. By cultivating pure states of mind in this life, that will lead us to a pure land after death.

Kalu Rinpoche says:

“By the orientation given to our mind [in this life], once in the bardo, we become conscious that we are dead and we see Amitabha coming to welcome us. We will recognize him, and wish for rebirth in his pure land. This thought is enough to make us go there immediately.”

Four principal meditations cultivate the conditions necessary for rebirth in Sukhavati.

The first is to contemplate the details of Buddha Amitabha, the Buddha who created this pure land for us, and of Sukhavati itself. This is done by studying the descriptions found in the Longer Sukhavati Sutra, or the progressive visualizations of the Meditation Sutra. At the moment of death, mindscape becomes landscape.

Second, accumulate merit. [Merit is virtually synonymous with good karma and is a cornerstone in Pure Land doctrine. Merit is what created Sukhavati and what is transferred to us by Amitabha that enables us to be reborn there. Good deeds are the best way to accumulate merit. See the many references to merit in Luis O. Gómez, The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1996).] Even though the transfer of merit from Amitabha is a principal force in our rebirth in Sukhavati, we need our own merit.

Third, develop the mind of enlightenment, or bodhichitta. Tulku Thondup says, “[Y]ou must vow or be determined to lead all mother-beings, without exception, to the Blissful Pure Land without any selfishness, and you must put that aspiration into practice through meditation and beneficial deeds.”

Fourth, dedicate the merit you have gathered for rebirth in Sukhavati, and make heartfelt aspirations to be reborn there. Ascertain that you are dedicating merit exactly as your forefathers did on their path to enlightenment. These dedications and aspirations are like a steering wheel that guides our merit toward the goal of rebirth in Sukhavati.

All four causes are based on faith in Amitabha and his pure land. This is the most important factor for entry into Sukhavati. We have to really believe in this pure land and in the power of Amitabha to help us at the moment of death.

These four factors are encapsulated in the famous Sukhavati Aspiration Prayer by Karma Chagme Rinpoche. There are Amitabha meditations, and many other aspiration prayers, but this is the most widely practiced liturgy for Tibetan Buddhists.

Tulku Nyima Rinpoche describes an Amitabha practice to do every night. As you lie down to sleep, visualize Amitabha on top of your head; recite his mantra OM AMIDEWA HRIH three times; dissolve the visualization of Amitabha into your heart; feel his bliss and light; then go to sleep with Amitabha tucked into your heart and mind.

Vajrayana students practice an esoteric form of Pure Land Buddhism with meditations on sacred outlook, or pure perception. [“Vajrayana,” or “indestructible vehicle,” is the third of the three yanas, or vehicles, of Buddhism. It has the same view as the second vehicle of the Mahayana, or “great vehicle,” but more methods for realizing that view. It is virtually synonymous with Tibetan Buddhism, and is the guiding yana of this book. The first vehicle is the Hinayana, the “lesser, or narrow,” vehicle. See Part Four of The Buddhist Handbook: A Complete Guide to Buddhist Schools, Teaching, Practice, and History by John Snelling (Rochester, VT: Inner Traditions International, 1991) for a brief summary, or Reginald Ray’s Indestructible Truth: The Living Spirituality of Tibetan Buddhism (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2000) and Secrets of the Vajra World: The Tantric Buddhism of Tibet (Boston: Shambhala Publications, 2001) for a comprehensive exploration of the three yanas.]

This is the “Pure Land of the Present Moment,” as Thich Nhat Hanh refers to it, particularly the fourth moment we discussed earlier.

Sacred outlook is an important preparation for the bardos because a key instruction, while in the bardo, is to see everything as perfectly pure. This shifts our relationship to whatever arises. It erases our tendency to poison experience with passion, aggression, or ignorance. These three root poisons are the spark plugs that drive the engine of samsara: I want it (passion); I don’t want it (aggression); I couldn’t care less (ignorance). They define our existence. The three poisons transform an inherently pure world into the impure land of daily life. [They lie at the center of the Wheel of Life, and are represented by a pig (ignorance), rooster (passion), and snake (aggression), each feeding on each other and emerging from each other. Fundamentally, aggression emerges from passion, which emerges from ignorance – the root of the other two roots.] In the bardo, this impure perception hurls us into an impure birth.

Because Vajrayana (esoteric) Buddhism emphasizes pure mind, it’s easy to dismiss the exoteric schools and their emphasis on Pure Land. Many people dismiss the Pure Land tradition as easy or lazy Buddhism. They denigrate it as being for those who can’t handle the rigors of “real” Buddhism. Some writers say the pure lands are for beginners. For others it sounds theistic: Amitabha sounds like God and Sukhavati sounds like heaven.

But the Buddha taught on Sukhavati, and some of the greatest masters in Tibetan Buddhism wrote extensively about it. They spurred their disciples to engage in the practices to get there. [Scholars estimate that Pure Land teachings comprise over 13 percent of all the scriptures in the Chinese canon. Over 290 sutras and shastras deal with Pure Land doctrine. This does not include all the teachings on Sukhavati found in the tantras.]

Even though there is no Pure Land sect in Tibetan Buddhism, there is a strong Pure Land orientation.

It’s also tempting to regard Sukhavati as merely symbolic. But Sukhavati is just as real, or unreal, as this earth. [When Thrangu Rinpoche was asked about the symbolic interpretation of Sukhavati, he was adamant that it’s not just a symbol. He asserted that Sukhavati exists and dismissed the cleverness of viewing Sukhavati as merely a heuristic. From a tantric Pure Land point of view, any environmental manifestation, good or bad, comes from the mind. It does not truly exist externally, from its own side, out there, and independent of us.]

It’s a place, created by the merit of Amitabha, for people like us. We should take it seriously. For most of us, going to Sukhavati is the best thing we can do after we die.

Source: Based on Holecek, Andrew. Preparing to Die (pp. 33-34). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.

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