Flowering and Bearing Fruit: The Path of the Pure Land

Teachings from Teacher Practitioner Xia Lianju, recorded by Venerable HaiZe.

Flowering and bearing fruit brings a profound sense of satisfaction and joy. If you can successfully scatter the seeds of the Pure Land across the earth, you will see them sprout and grow. The six-character name, Namo Amituofo, should be chanted everywhere, resonating in every corner of the world. When the land and the heart are filled with Namo Amituofo, this is the true Western Pure Land, and the lineage of the Buddha's teachings is carried forward through your efforts.

The Labour of Spiritual Cultivation

Before the flowers bloom and the fruits ripen, one must first engage in earnest labour. This process of cultivation includes several essential tasks:

• Sowing the seeds of the Dharma
• Watering the soil with devotion
• Ensuring the light of wisdom shines upon the heart
• Removing the pests of negative habits
• Pulling the weeds of delusion
• Turning the soil of the mind

For the students of Hsiang Kuang Pure Land Buddhist Centre, your practice is this very cultivation. You must be fiercely diligent in your work. Plant the Vajra Seed of Namo Amituofo within your heart, water it with the Eight Virtues, and let the Buddha-light of Namo Amituofo shine upon everything you do.

Tending the Inner Garden

To ensure your practice flourishes, you must actively remove the pests that threaten your spiritual growth. These include:

• The Five Poisons: greed, anger, ignorance, arrogance, and doubt.
• The Five Desires: wealth, sex, fame, food, and sleep.
• The pests of selfishness and emotional attachments.

Furthermore, you must pull out the weeds of the Five Aggregates—form, feeling, perception, impulse, and consciousness—which clutter the mind and obscure your true nature.

The Path to Awakening

Practising The Infinite Sutra (The Buddha Speaks the Mahayana, Infinite Life, Adornment, Purity, Impartiality, and Enlightenment Sutra) is like turning the soil. It helps retain the water of wisdom, removes the pests of defilement, pulls the weeds of attachment, and allows the roots of your faith to absorb the nourishment needed for growth. This is a vital and necessary process in your spiritual journey.

When your mind is focused and undisturbed, you will attain the Buddha-Recitation Samadhi. Only then will the flower of Awakening bloom, and you will bear the fruit of rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. When this happens, this land will become a Western Pure Land in the human world. You will be able to save all beings from infinite suffering and help them enter the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss through the power of chanting Namo Amituofo.

Namo Amituofo