Important Knowledge in the Pure Land Teaching
淨土小常識
179. What Kind of Pure Land is the Land of Bliss? (1/3)
The great master of the Tiantai school, Master Zhizhe, established a doctrinal classification regarding the Buddha-lands. He taught the system of the Three Bodies : the Dharma Body (Dharmakaya), Reward Body (Sambhogakaya), and Transformation Body (Nirmaṇakaya). In addition, he classified the Four Lands: the
Land Where Ordinary Beings and Saints Dwell Together, the Land of Expedient Liberation, the Land of Real Reward and Adorned Virtue, and the Land of Eternal Quiescent Light.
Since ancient times, people have often used this framework to classify the Western Pure Land and to determine in which land the beings reborn in the Nine Grades of Rebirth reside. According to this view:
● Those who have not yet attained Arhatship dwell in the Land Where Ordinary Beings and Saints Dwell Together.
● Those who have attained Arhatship or are bodhisattvas prior to the first Bhumi (ground) , dwell in the Land of Expedient Liberation.
● Those who have transcended the Bhumis (Bodhisattva Grounds) and realized the Dharma-body, dwell in the Land of Real Reward and Adorned Virtue.
● Those who have perfectly realized the Buddha-body dwell in the Land of Eternal Quiescent Light.
Master Zhizhe’s lifelong practice and his doctrinal wisdom are worthy of admiration and reverence. However, the Pure Land School was established based on the Three Pure Land Sutras and the One Treatise. These teachings reveal that beings who are reborn in the Western Pure Land through the exclusive recitation of Namo Amitabha Buddha, in fact fall into only two categories: transformation birth and womb birth.
This is what Shakyamuni Buddha taught in the Infinite Life Sutra, and it should not be regarded as inferior to the doctrinal classifications of any patriarch.
(to be continued tomorrow)
179 極樂世界是什麼樣的淨土？(1/3)
一代大師天臺智者，對於佛土觀點，有三身四土之教判，即法、報、化三 身，以及凡聖同居土、方便有餘土、實報莊嚴土、常寂光土四土。自古以來， 習慣上也多以這個觀點來判西方淨土，以及九品往生者所居何土──未證阿 羅漢者，住凡聖同居；證阿羅漢及地前菩薩，住方便有餘；登地證法身者，住 實報莊嚴；圓證佛身者，住常寂光土。
智者大師一生的行持及教判智慧雖然值得推崇、景仰，但對於依「淨土三 經一論」而創立的淨土宗而言，往生西方之念佛人，事實上只有化生和胎生二 種。此乃釋尊於《無量壽經》所說，不應低於任何祖師之教判。
Namo Amituofo!
