A Pure Land, in Mahayana Buddhism, is the celestial realm or pure abode of a Buddha or Bodhisattva. The term "pure land" is particular to the Chinese (Ch. 净土, jìngtǔ) and related East Asian traditions; in Sanskrit the equivalent concept is called the "Buddha field" (Skt. buddha-kṣetra). The various traditions that focus on Pure Lands have been given the nomenclature Pure Land Buddhism. Pure lands are also evident in the literature and traditions of Taoism and Bön.
The notion of 'pure lands' was inherited from other Dharmic Traditions already evident in the Dharma. The notion of a pure land may have evolved from the Uttarakuru, a divine continent in ancient Dharmic cosmology. The pure realms are all accessible through experiential meditation and trance sadhana.
Read more about Pure Land: Discussion, Five Pure Abodes, The Source, Śuddhāvāsa Worlds, Sukhavati, Other Well-known Pure Lands, Field of Merit, Mandala
Famous quotes containing the words pure and/or land:
“The spirit of the world, the great calm presence of the creator, comes not forth to the sorceries of opium or of wine. The sublime vision comes to the pure and simple soul in a clean and chaste body.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The land is the appointed remedy for whatever is false and fantastic in our culture. The continent we inhabit is to be physic and food for our mind, as well as our body. The land, with its tranquilizing, sanative influences, is to repair the errors of a scholastic and traditional education, and bring us to just relations with men and things.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)