This is saying that in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss there is celestial music.
Last time, I talked about this celestial music. Listening to it brings great happiness, an extremely subtle and wondrous feeling and a carefree and happy feeling. Even a thief forgets what he intended to steal upon hearing it. A robber’s murderous intent and fierce anger would be immediately extinguished by the music.
Therefore, murderers and criminals should all be sent to the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss to hear this music, because its cleansing power will transform them into good people.
Next time, I suggest that once you arrive in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, first record this music to let everyone hear it, go to all prisons and play it there – everyone’s hearts will become good.
“The ground is made of gold” in this Land, a ground made of gold.
I keep on thinking, why don’t the people of this Land fight for profit, endlessly seeking wealth, gold, or diamonds?
Why do they live together in such peace and harmony?
I think there is a reason, it is because the entire ground is all made of gold!
If even the stones in the human world were gold, then there would be no reason to pursue gold any further. Only when it is rare is it precious. Since the ground is full of gold, why would you want to snatch those stones?
That’s why the people of the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss live together peacefully and don’t fight over the gold.
There, at this time, in the six periods of the day and night, many beautiful flowers will descend from the sky. This is a kind of “happiness of color.”
The sentient beings in the Buddha Land often use the cleanest containers to fill with some exquisite offerings and travel to other Buddha Lands to make offerings to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of other Buddha Lands. The sentient beings in the Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss can manifest many things, then offer them to all the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas.
You all might wonder, where do all those foods and exquisite and beautiful things come from?
In the past I watched Sleeping Beauty. There are three fairies who use magic wands to point and conjure things. It is the same in the Western Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss, but they don’t hold magic wands, it’s not like that. When you are in the Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss, and you want to eat something it will appear in front of you. When it appears, you don’t need to use your hand to take it, as it will slowly fly to your mouth. Then you can eat it.
You can take the remains of these things, the best food you can eat or the things you feel are the best and offer them to other Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. You can offer them to trillions of Buddhas, trillions of Buddhas from other Buddha Lands. I think this is inconceivable.
There are many benefits in the Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss. When you think of what clothes to wear, you are already wearing them. When you want to eat something, that food has already appeared before you. It can completely satisfy your heart’s desires, that is why it is called “Ultimate Bliss.”
Just now I talked about “a heavenly rain of mandarava flowers,” this is a kind of flower.
When we want to admire a flower, we have to buy some flower pots, flower seedlings to plant, cultivate the soil, remove the pests, provide nutrients, ensure it is the right season, have water, then the flower will bloom!
Because it is so troublesome, my home doesn’t have real flowers. My home does have flowers but they are plastic flowers, all fake, artificial flowers. The colors are nice but there is no smell.
In the Western Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss, there is no need to cultivate soil oneself, provide nutrients, remove pests, no need to plant. The flowers won’t wither a few days after blooming.
In this Buddha Land the flowers fall from the sky, from the space in the sky. There are flowers of many colors, slowly floating down from the sky, very beautiful and fragrant and with many different colors.
They have to drop down several times a day, “in the six periods of the day and night.” These flowers fall from the sky, those living in the Buddha Land the moment they see the flowers, and wow! Their mood becomes extremely happy, such beautiful flowers dropping everyday to let you see.
What is dropping down is not plastic flowers, it is real flowers. It is very beautiful and it is when it has just bloomed. That is why it is called “a heavenly rain of mandarava flowers.”
Don’t think that what falls down is like the rose in our human world with thorns, the scriptures say, the flowers that fall down are extremely soft and perfectly pleasant. When you touch them you will feel that, “Ah, this is simply wonderful!” They are nothing like roses with thorns where touching them one would immediately get hurt! So according to what is said, it is truly inconceivable, an extraordinary realm beyond one’s imagination.
Furthermore in the Buddha Land of Ultimate Bliss, everyone thinks that making offerings to other Buddha Lands will require driving a car, right?
Driving a car?
Taking a train?
Taking a plane?
Otherwise one land to another land is so far, isn’t it?
What to do?
It says in the scriptures, the people in Buddha Land all have teleportation abilities.
What is it like?
Ok! You happen to be here eating and thinking of making offerings to the Buddha. You pack up the remains and in the blink of an eye you go to the Buddha Land elsewhere and return again. What you were eating is still there, no one stole it away.
This shows that coming and going, in between eating and practicing walking meditation, teleportation is used to come and go. In an instant one can come and go, it is inconceivable.
Like when we eat, we need bowls to hold the food. By using bowls to contain the food, we can eat.
A lot of people don’t like to eat crabs and prawns. They say it’s not that they don’t taste good, but peeling them is troublesome and annoying. Just eating its meat alone is delicious, but peeling its shell is very troublesome.
Dig deeper as to why they don’t like to eat it?
Because they have to wash the dishes!
Yet in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, it’s different. After the bowl is used to hold your food for you to eat, it will automatically disappear without you having to wash it. When the prawns and crabs appear, they automatically shed their shells. So, there are many benefits!
Everyone can go there and experience it!
Such a wonderful place is truly unavailable in the human world. I imagine even the fish there don’t have bones. If there were fish bones, or shells, or if you had to wash dishes, we wouldn’t go. What I mean by this is that in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, there is no suffering, not even the slightest bit of hardship, it is a completely blissful Buddha Land.
The scripture says:
There is the joy of what is seen, the joy of what is heard, the joy of fragrance perceived by the nose, the joy of taste experienced by the mouth, and the joy of touch.
Most important of all, there is the joy of Dharma – the joy that arises from spiritual cultivation itself.
So if you know how to cultivate, you can become a Buddha-to-be. You are a future Buddha, after cultivation you will become a Buddha.
There is a line here that says:
Actually this heavenly kingdom is frequently mentioned in Christianity and Taoism, there is such happiness in heaven!
I’ve been to Sakra’s Heaven, which is the Trayastrimsa Heaven. It’s also very beautiful there. When we went out, we sat in a very soft wheeled flying chariot.
Because that heaven is only at the top of Mount Sumeru, very close to the human world, therefore it even has a food market.
That heaven is different from the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.
In the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, we can have what we want by thinking, but in that heaven, there is still buying and selling. It is just that the beings of that heaven are all very wealthy, with a lot of money.
You all might be thinking the money I am talking about must be transferring money from an American bank to the bank in Trayastrimsa Heaven to exchange for cash. You assume that there’s a money exchange between Trayastrimsa Heaven and an American bank. But that’s not the case!
After accumulating merit in the human world, one ascends to Trayastrimsa Heaven and engages in buying and selling there. It’s very simple. If you like any jewelry, food, or anything beautiful and precious, it can be sold to you.
The seller will stretch out his hand to ask for money, but where does the money come from?
It comes from the pores of your skin. The pores open and release a gold piece, like money. This is the gold you use to buy things.
Where does that money come from?
That money is the amount of merit you accumulate in the human realm, stored in your pores. You use merit to buy these things. So, if you like something, your merit naturally flows out in exchange for it, and you take the item back with you.
When you’ve bought many things, enjoyed everything, and your merit is gone, alas! You become poor!
In the heavenly realm, when celestial beings run out of merit, the flowers in their hair wither.
Their beautiful clothes become dirty.
What used to be the fragrance of merit now flows out as foul sweat.
Their bodies, once light, suddenly feel heavy and unable to fly.
Their minds, once happy, suddenly feel agitated and troubled.
This is because their heavenly merit has been exhausted, and they must begin the cycle of reincarnation in the human realm or go to hell.
These heavenly beings in heaven think they’ve enjoyed heavenly blessings well, but once those blessings are exhausted, they must reincarnate again.
Therefore, Heaven and the Pure Land are different.
The Pure Land enjoys endless bliss and dharma joy, and also allows cultivation. So one can continue cultivating and progress.
In Heaven, one only enjoys their blessings, once the blessings are finished they cease. There is a line in the Bible that says that at that time all people will be King with Jesus for a thousand years – there is a time limit.
After a thousand years of being King what will happen next?
Thus, the Kingdom of Heaven taught by Jesus and the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss taught by Buddha are two different places.
The merits of the Pure Land are inexhaustible and it is impossible to finish talking about them.
In the past, when we heard this we would have thought this was very miraculous and impossible, but as science has gradually advanced, doors are now automatic. We don’t need to push them with our hands, the doors open by themselves.
Sometimes we even process food, like the milkfish from the Philippines, it truly has no bones.
So, in the future, if you could invent a way to eat crabs and shrimp without peeling them, I think many people would eat them. That’s all for today’s discourse.
Om Mani Padme Hum