Let’s continue discussing “Amitabha Sutra.” I will read the scripture text we will be discussing today.
In the pools bloom lotuses as large as carriage wheels with colors of green light, red light, yellow light, and white light, subtle, rare, fragrant, and pure. Shariputra, the Land of Ultimate Bliss is crowned in splendor and virtues such as these.”
This explanation means that everything in the Land of Ultimate Bliss is exceptionally wonderful. To be born there is a great joy, and to live there is also a great joy.
The “seven jeweled pools” are pools decorated with seven beautiful precious jewels.
It is “filled with the waters of eight meritorious qualities.” What are the waters of eight meritorious qualities?
First, this water is extremely pure, without any contamination. For example, in our world there is Lake Sammamish and it has some impurities. The essence of the waters of eight meritorious qualities are that it is clear, clean and very refreshing. The water tastes sweet when you drink it.
So truly, going to the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss would not be a bad thing. The Guru always likes sweet dessert soup at the end of a meal, so perhaps that is why teeth can go bad, but I believe that the sweet water in the Western Pure Land would not harm your teeth.
This water is gentle and soft. It feels smooth and nourishing, bringing peace and harmony to both body and mind.
Even hearing the sound of the water can give rise to joy and a feeling of deep ease.
And beyond that, it benefits everyone there, helping each person receive spiritual nourishment and increasing the well-being of their Dharma body.
Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism in ancient China, was the patriarch of Taoism and also the one who most revered water.
I myself also love water. I feel happy when I see it, but Shimu gets dizzy when she sees it. This is because I love water, and I’ve been able to swim since I was a child, while she immediately sinks when she swims! Perhaps it’s because, according to Western astrology, I belong to the Cancer zodiac sign.
Why do I love water?
Because water is the most powerful element, when a great flood comes, nothing can stop it. This symbolizes that when we spread the Dharma, we are like a tsunami, sweeping everything cleanly away.
Water is also the softest of all, because it always flows downhill. Its virtue can wash away all impurities from the human body, including all impurities from the universe, it can wash them all away.
Water is also most enduring and adaptable. You should know, if you put water into a round container, it becomes round, if you put it into a square container, it becomes square.
Water also has innumerable changes and transformations.
Do you say water is shallow?
When water is shallow it is very shallow, but when deep, it is higher than the Himalayas.
Is water’s power small?
Water can penetrate stone and metal. Its power is unstoppable, the moment there is a very tiny hole, it will squeeze in. When a real great flood comes, nothing can stop it.
Water is most natural following the flow. When the terrain is low it will flow downwards. When the terrain is high, it will rise upwards. Therefore, it is not possible to talk about all the virtues of water, it is endless. If one can learn the virtues of water, it is equivalent to gaining wisdom, water is the wisest of all. I love water very much, so I speak of its benefits.
In the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss there are also many pools of water. By understanding water, one may enter the samadhi of water, and from that may gain eloquence, the ability to speak freely and skillfully, expressing ideas in many different ways. One moment speaking in circles, the next in squares, then in triangles, then in rhombuses.
The best thing is the bottom of the water in the Western Pure Land! It is all paved with gold sand. Personally, I don’t really like gold, in the material sense, I don’t like it. But I like its color. So next time I go to the Western Pure Land, I can dive from a lotus flower into the waters, and when I see the gold sand at the bottom of the pool, I can secretly grab a handful and bring it back to the human world to become rich.
It says here that “the bottom of each pool is pure, covered with golden sands.”
There is no dust and no pollution.
Honestly, when we see such pools, our eyes are filled with joy, this is the bliss of seeing form, the happiness of seeing form! This form is no ordinary form. Such a subtle and wondrous state is the happiness of the Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Next I will talk about the lotus flowers!
Last time I mentioned going to the Western Pure Land and seeing these lotus flowers, each one as large as a cartwheel, in many different colors. It says, “green light, red light, yellow light, and white light, subtle, rare, fragrant, and pure.”
Someone asked, “Where exactly is the Maha Twin Lotus Pond in the Western Pure Land mentioned by Grandmaster?”
I’ll tell you a secret, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before?
The Maha Twin Lotus Pond is the eyes of Buddhalocani.
Now everyone thinks, “How many lotus flowers can the Buddha’s two eyes, which are so small, hold?”
Everyone, don’t say the Buddha’s eyes are so small! In the scriptures it writes that the Buddha’s two eyes are extremely pure and bright, as bright as the water mentioned earlier in the Western Pure Land.
Furthermore, the scriptures say that one of the Buddha’s eyes is as large as four oceans. If one eye is as large as those oceans, then two eyes are larger than the Earth!
And how big is the Buddha’s head?
We dare not even imagine!
Therefore, in the Buddha’s eyes, we are not even worthy of being a grain of sand. So we shouldn’t think that the Maha Twin Lotus Pond is small and will be full with just a few people. Even if everyone went, it would only be “stuffing a corner” (Taiwanese dialect)! That is to say, even if we all went, it would only be a corner of a wall.
Amitabha Buddha taught that if we simply recite the Buddha’s name, then one person who recites it will be reborn in the Western Pure Land, and if ten people recite, then ten people will be reborn there.
With each recitation, a lotus flower grows in the Western Pure Land. If we recite for a while, and then stop, the lotus flower closes up and disappears. So we still need to recite until we reach that place.
When our recitation is carried through to the end, the person here disappears, and over there a new birth takes place. With perseverance, you can be reborn in the Western Pure Land, without perseverance, even a single flower will wither. This is very true.
I myself have also been there, and it was very real.
From about nine o’clock at night until seven o’clock the next morning, I spent the entire night witnessing the scenery of the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss.
When I say tonight that I have been to the Western Pure Land, some people may think I am speaking like someone describing a dream.
But let me say this to everyone:
It was absolutely real.
Even if ninety-nine percent of what I have said in the past were false, this one statement is completely true.
I simply hope that all of you will believe me in this one thing, it is something tested again and again, as genuine as pure gold refined through fire.
The reason I established this lineage is because I truly went there and then returned. Only then did I dare to establish this school.
If this sentence I am saying today is false, then everything would be empty and untrue. Because this statement is true, everything is thus true.
Today I make this verification, saying this claim, all are true words, real words. Amitabha Buddha is here, filling the entire void, and he knows that what I am saying is true.
If someone offered me millions and millions of dollars, saying “If you admit that you were lying about that sentence you just said, I’ll give you millions and millions of dollars,” I wouldn’t accept it. After all, this talk is all true. Even if you don’t give me money, I will still say, “It is true!”
Om Mani Padme Hum