I want you to focus on the present and contemplate your fortune in this life. Think of all the people in the world. Everyone is like us; everyone has the enough to become a Buddha. Everyone has that shining crystal deep inside them; all they need to do is acknowledge its existence, its ability to shine. Ignorance is our biggest obstacle in reaching this realization. And as seconds go by, humanity is killing itself, killing itself the right to know of a way out of this one way road and against the stream of karma. <o:p></o:p>
If you would just let the skeptical mind melt away for a minute and let your heart open up, you will be able to read the rest of this message with much more enlightenment than you originally thought you had.
<o:p></o:p>
Think of all the people who have browsed past this message without a single thought of reading... all the people that will never open up their mind to this realistic and also logical concept of reincarnation and the path to escape. Reincarnation can be logically explained, and is explained by thousands of intellects as well as millions of people of all backgrounds. Buddhism is strongly one of the most realistic, down to earth and proved philosophy in the world. Some would even refer to Buddhism as a religion for Atheists, an education rather than a religion, a remembrance rather than worship. Yet...<o:p></o:p>
How few is the number of people willing to open up their hearts to logic? How many have endured a single passage of text simply describing the fortune of their current lives? How many have reached that fortunate lifetime again, where they have succeeded in hearing the invincible, diamond name of Amitabha Buddha, the enlightened one of the western pure land. The infinite life, infinite light name of an enlightened being who has vowed that at death, if anyone who with one-mind recites his name from one to seven days, shall be reborn in his land- or I shall not be Buddha.
<o:p></o:p>
I once had a friend who was Vietnamese-Catholic. He often wanted to challenge other people on their beliefs. One day upon seeing my Buddha recitation rosary beads in my hand, he asked How come Buddhism? I smiled and asked in return How come Catholicism? He then went on explaining how definite his savior would be after death, and how it was a good investment and security for a good after life meanwhile Buddhism does not offer that security. However upon hearing this, I took on the method of Shakyamuni Buddha of ancient times who answered questions accordingly to different people. Therefore I told him, not ever trying to belittle any other schools of Buddhism, that the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pure</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Land</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> method was by far one of the most secure and surefire way of achieving salvation after death. I then recited the Infinite Light Sutra just as Catholics would to the Bible to have him feel more familiar to my preaching. By the end of our conversation, he realized that not only Buddhism was not a superstitious religion, not merely a self-relying and pessimistic religious, nor was it a religion at all. Buddha was not a god, and was not a singular being; in fact Buddha is a role model and guidance on our own path to savior.
<o:p></o:p>
To put it simple, this mere guidance needed to be upgraded because as the Buddha predicted, society in the 20th and 21st century would become more secularized and less in touch with their spirituality. The inner strength and good Karma of sentient beings would not be strong enough to withstand the temptations, the modernization and industrialization of our world. He saw the difficulties of relying merely on oneself to meditate and achieve Buddhahood in such circumstances and therefore gave the discourse of Amitabha Buddha without a request to do so, unlike his other discourses. The <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pure</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Land</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> method would be the only surviving method by the end of the Dharma-Ending age when the world has nearly forgotten everything about Buddha. <o:p></o:p>
Think how blessed one is out of the entire world to have heard right now, before that time when the world would not ever hear his name again? How lucky are we to by coincidence hear it from a sibling, a friend or even somebody on the streets. Think of how more fortunate they are to have little ignorance of new ideas or simply diligent effort to repeat that name just for the sake of it. Think what a long journey you have been through to get here today, to this very seat, to read this message about how lucky you are. So many realms you have been through to be a human being today, to actually reach humanity and now believe in the path to enlightenment! You have been through forgetful sorrows just to go through and learn it again today. You have been to hell and the animal realms, for countless lives you do not have the capability to remember or understand. How tiring it is on ones old weak soul. How many lives, endless sorrowful years of years, dying and being born once again in another woman who you will call mother for another flash of lightning before you move on to the next moth. Until one day... You find out there is a way out of this cycle- there always was a way. It lies within you all the time: The Buddha nature. And by reciting the name of Amitabha Buddha, you are finding it again.
<o:p></o:p>
Congratulations, in finding and reading this message, even to this paragraph. Fortunately having enough courage, curiosity or will to seek out information of Buddhism, you have reached something that you have traveled endless roads to be luck enough to have the hands, fingers and eyes to read and the mouth to recite, if you wanted to...unlike those who wished and wished to have the limbs, the opportunity, the freedom to recite Namo Amitabha.
<o:p></o:p>
I cannot stress to you how fortunate you are to hear the Amitabha name. To chant it, to believe in it and to try to attain enlightenment in this life. As we go into deeper belief, practice and dedication, the numbers of people lessen and lessen. Why? Because of how much ignorance, arrogance, and wrong-doings we have done. To hear the Amitabha name is a privilege. To say it is worth 7 life-times of journey.
<o:p></o:p>
If you are one of the billions in the world who simple go pass this message and never read these words again, think how many more times you will come across such as message again? One that is so easy to read and understand like this one? In this life? In the next? Buddhism won't last forever; in fact it wont wait around for you to wake up from your lazy sleep. Ignorance is the atomic weapon that will wipe out this strategy to escape the prison of reincarnation, and this is soon. Only 8000 more years and it will be gone. How much longer will you have to wait if you want to read another message like this? 6 billion years later will another Shakyamuni Buddha come down to earth to help us out of this blindness of ignorance, lack of compassion, greed and sorrow.<o:p></o:p>
Life is not worth your current procrastination and wandering thoughts. Why wait till you are older, why wait till you have become rich and satisfied, because by the time you reach those goals you would have died on the way chasing it. You are given a chance to know the key to ultimate bliss, yet why would you choose the ignorant way to say "peesh, you live then you die"
<o:p></o:p>
What is the harm is saying Namo Amitabha" right now in your personal space. Go on, No one is around. Simply open you mouth and pronounce that beautiful syllable that dances in sound waves and penetrates the ends of the universe to the very lotus crown of Amitabha Buddha himself. Be sure to know the each recite waters the lotus you will be born through in the <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:PlaceName w:st="on">Pure</st1:PlaceName> <st1:PlaceType w:st="on">Land</st1:PlaceType></st1:place> a little at a time. Please do not let it whither, keep your practice constant! Like the rubbing of two matches together!
<o:p></o:p>
What harm could saying a word do to you, please contemplate what is it asking of you? Why can't one chant that beautiful word? If you go away from this message unsure, I urge to simply say Namo Amitabha and feel your heart and mind soothe, no matter what religion or background you are. If you go away without a simple thought, maybe you have not yet reach that fortunate life where your affiliation has ripened. I hope you will the next time around, where ever youll be.
<o:p></o:p>
I hope you will recite the name of Amitabha and may our greed, ignorance and sorrow be banished from our minds. <o:p></o:p>
Namo Amitabha. <o:p></o:p>
Jesse-Anne (Tam Lac) <o:p></o:p>
::Mind of the Buddha::<o:p></o:p>
