Pure Land Buddhists - Going To The Pure Land

Going To The Pure Land

Practitioners claim there is evidence of dying people going to the pure land, such as:

• Knowing the time of death (預知時至): some prepare by bathing and reciting the name of the Buddha Amitabha.
• The "Three Saints of the West" (西方三聖): Amitābha Buddha and the two bodhisattvas, Avalokiteśvara on his right and Mahāsthāmaprāpta on his left, appear and welcome the dying person. Visions of other buddhas or bodhisattvas are disregarded as they may be bad spirits disguising themselves, attempting to stop the person from entering the Pure Land.
• Records of practicing Pure Land Buddhists who have died have been known to leave śarīrā, or relics, after cremation.

The last part of the body to become cold is the top of the head (posterior fontanelle). In Buddhist teaching, souls who enter the Pure Land leave the body through the fontanelle at the top of the skull. Hence, this part of the body stays warmer longer than the rest of the body. The Verses on the Structure of the Eight Consciousnesses (八識規矩補註), reads: "to birth in saints the last body temperature in top of head, to deva in eyes, to human in heart, to hungry ghosts in belly, to animals in knee cap, to the hells-realm in sole of feet." See also: phowa.

The dying person may demonstrate some, but not necessarily all, of these evidences. For example, his facial expression may be happy, but he may not demonstrate other signs, such as sharira and dreams.

Few buddhists also have practiced the harder Pratyutpanna samadhi.

The practice of Fudaraku Tokai (補陀落渡海) in ancient Japan, setting sail into the Pacific in a small boat in hopes of reaching the Fudaraku Pure Land, is now viewed as religious suicide and is not practiced today.