Pure Land Concepts in Tibet
Tibetan Pure Land Buddhism has a long and innovative history dating from the 8th-9th centuries CE, the times of the Tibetan Empire, with the translation and canonization of the Sanskrit Sukhāvatīvyūha sūtras in Tibetan. Tibetan compositions of pure-land prayers and artistic renditions of Sukhāvatī in Central Asia date to that time. Tibetan pure-land literature forms a distinct genre (Tib. bde-smon) and encompasses a wide range of scriptures, "aspiration prayers to be born in Sukhāvatī", commentaries on the prayers and the sūtras, and meditations and rituals belonging to the Vajrayāna tradition. The incorporation of phowa (mind transference techniques) in pure-land meditations is textually attested in the 14th century, in the The Standing Blade of Grass (Tib. 'Pho-ba 'Jag-tshug ma), a terma text allegedly dating to the time of the Tibetan Empire. A good number of Buddhist treasure texts are dedicated to Buddha Amitābha and to rituals associated with his pure-land, while the wide acceptance of phowa in Tibetan death rituals may owe its popularity to pure-land Buddhism promoted by all schools of Tibetan Buddhism.
The terton Rigdzin Longsal Nyingpo (1625–1682/92 or 1685–1752) of Katok Monastery revealed a terma on pureland. This terma entailed phowa during the bardo of dying, sending the mindstream to a pureland.
Gyatrul (b.1924), in a purport to the work of Chagmé (Wylie: Karma-chags-med, fl. 17th century), rendered into English by Wallace (Chagmé et al., 1998: p. 35), states:
It is important to apply our knowledge internally. The Buddha attained enlightenment in this way. The pure lands are internal; the mental afflictions are internal. The crucial factor is to recognize the mental afflictions. Only by recognizing their nature can we attain Buddhahood.
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“We are in fact convinced that if we are ever to have pure knowledge of anything, we must get rid of the body and contemplate things by themselves with the soul by itself. It seems, to judge from the argument, that the wisdom which we desire and upon which we profess to have set our hearts will be attainable only when we are dead and not in our lifetime.”
—Socrates (469–399 B.C.)
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—Bible: Hebrew, Exodus 3:7,8.
“When you have broken the reality into concepts you never can reconstruct it in its wholeness.”
—William James (1842–1910)
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—John Colton (1886–1946)