Ten Questions and Answers on Jodo
= Queries into the essential nature of the Pure Land =
Question 1 Does the Pure Land really exist?
Yes it does. In our world of experience, everything we feel and perceive
with our senses is ephemeral only momentariy existent and deceptive.
As the Buddha admonished,
"All conditioned things are impermanent." (sarvasamskaaraa anityaah)
Normally, we are deeply attached to things which have come into being from
causes and conditions and create all sorts of unwholesome karma,which,
in turn, bring about pain and sufferings, thus creating worlds of Samsara.
In the Mahayana, we conceive of bodhisattvas, who realize the reality of
the world with profound insight. They undertake unattached prescribed practices
and create pure karma. The pure karma thus created manifests itself in
various ways. Broadly speaking, on one hand, it appears as one's glorious
physical manifestation and, on the other, one's pure karma finds its expression
as a realm of utmost bliss and enlightenment, free of karmic bondages.
We believe that we and the world around us really exist and that the
Pure Land is a mental fabrication and does not exist anywhere in the world.
From the Buddhist viewpoint, the Pure Land really exists and the world
of ours is ephemeral and nreal.
Question 2 Where is the Pure Land?
Acording to the Pure Land