Clarifying Doubts About the Pure Land (I)
淨土釋疑(一)
40. Question: In the story you mentioned, beings in hell heard the six-character Name of Amitabha Buddha and were immediately reborn in the Land of Bliss. Are there also cases in our human world of people attaining rebirth simply through hearing the Name? Please explain.
Answer to Question 40 (1 /6):
The rebirth of those hell-beings into the Land of Bliss was personally witnessed by a Brahman woman. She saw them leave hell, seated upon lotus flowers, and depart for the Pure Land.
Then, are there people in our world who attain rebirth through hearing the Name? There certainly should be.
If such cases occur, they would most likely take place at the end of a person's life. Whether that person had practiced Buddhism throughout life is a separate matter. What is crucial is that, at the moment of death, he or she hears the Name of Amitabha Buddha and thereby attains rebirth.
This is because the Name possesses the inherent power and function, to bring all who hear it and entrust themselves to it, to rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. The six-character Name, “Namo Amitabha Buddha”, is not merely a sound or a symbol; it embodies Amitabha Buddha’s fulfilled vow-power and saving virtue. Therefore, hearing the Name, awakening faith in it, and receiving its compassionate calling, become the direct cause for rebirth in the Pure Land.
(to be continued tomorrow)
40問：師父講的公案，就是地獄眾生聽到阿彌陀佛六字名號，即得往生。我們 人間是不是也有聽聞而往生的，請師父開示。
答(1 /6)：
地獄眾生往生極樂世界，是那位婆羅門親眼看到的，看到他們離開地獄乘坐 蓮花而去。那麼，我們這個世間是不是有聽聞而往生的呢？應該是有的。如 果有的話，應該是臨終的時候。他這一輩子有沒有學佛是另一回事，但臨終 的時候，是聽這句名號而往生的，因為名號本身的功能就是使聞信者都往生極樂世界。
Namo Amituofo!
