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Faith is an important component of Pure Land Buddhism. However
Wisdom or Mind also plays a
crucial, if less visible role. This interrelationship is clearly illustrated in the
Meditation Sutra:
The worst sinner, guilty of matricide and parricide, etc. may still
achieve rebirth in the Pure Land if, on the verge of death, he recites the Buddha's name
one to ten times with utmost faith and sincerity.
This passage can be understood at two levels. At the level of everyday life, just as the
worst criminal once genuinely reformed is no longer a threat to society and may be pardoned,
the sinner once truly repent may, through the Vow-power of Amitabha Buddha, achieve rebirth
in the Pure Land - albeit at the lowest grade.
Thus Pure Land offers hope to everyone; yet
at the same time, the law of Cause and effect remains valid.
Therefore, once the sinner repents and recites the Buddha's name with utmost sincerity
and one pointedness of mind, for that moment he becomes an awakened person silently merging
into the stream of the Sages - Can Enlightenment and Buddhahood then be that far away?
As the Meditation Sutra states: "the Land of Amitabha Buddha is not far from here!"