Reciting the Buddha's Name as the Cause, Rebirth as the Fruit

Belief in the cause means having deep faith that even reciting the Buddha's name with a scattered mind still plants a seed of Buddhahood — so how much more so when one recites single-mindedly, without distraction? How could such a person fail to be reborn in the Pure Land? This is called belief in the cause. Belief in the fruit means having deep faith that every gathering of the worthy in the Pure Land is born from the samādhi of Buddha-recitation. It is like planting melons to harvest melons, planting beans to harvest beans; it is like a shadow that must follow its form, an echo that must answer a sound — never in vain. This is called belief in the fruit.

Belief in the matter means having deep faith that, since this very present thought is inexhaustible, the ten-direction worlds that arise from the mind are likewise inexhaustible. There truly exists a Land of Ultimate Bliss, over a hundred thousand billion buddha-lands away, supremely pure and adorned — this is no Zhuangzi fable. This is called belief in the matter.

Belief in the principle means having deep faith that those hundred thousand billion lands do not actually lie outside this single, infinitesimal present thought of mine, because the nature of this present thought has no "outside." It also means deeply believing that the land, the inhabitants, the principal teacher, and the retinue of the Western Pure Land are all reflections manifested within this single thought of mine. The whole affair is the principle; the whole of delusion is truth; the whole of practice is the nature; the whole of other is self. Because my mind pervades all, the Buddha's mind pervades all, and the minds of all sentient beings pervade all as well.

It is like a single room filled with a thousand lamps — their lights pervade one another, layer upon layer interpenetrating, without the slightest obstruction. This is called belief in the principle.

Now let's look at this passage. Belief in the cause and belief in the fruit come as a pair. "Belief in the cause" means having deep faith that even reciting with a scattered mind still plants a seed of Buddhahood — so how much more so when one recites single-mindedly, without distraction? How could one fail to be reborn in the Pure Land? This is called belief in the cause. Here we see what it means to take Buddha-recitation as the cause.

What, then, is belief in the cause? It means having profound faith — faith in what? Faith that even if you recite "Namo Amitābha" with a scattered mind, the recitation can still become a seed for future Buddhahood. This very sentence holds within it the deepest marrow of the Lotus Sūtra's teaching.

The Lotus Sūtra says: "If a person with a scattered mind enters a stūpa or temple and utters but once 'Namo Buddha,' that person has already entered the path to Buddhahood." We often tell a story like this — and Master Ouyi will tell it again later. When the Buddha was in the world, an old man wished to go forth from the household life, but five hundred arhats refused him and would not ordain him. They had observed that for eighty thousand great kalpas he had accumulated not a single root of goodness. Without roots of goodness, ordination would be useless — even if ordained, he would not cultivate the path and would gain no benefit. The old man wept bitterly. He happened to meet the Buddha returning from his alms round, who asked him why he was crying. The old man told him that five hundred arhats had all rejected him, saying he had no roots of goodness.

The Buddha ordained him, and before long the old man became an arhat himself. Puzzled, many disciples asked the Buddha about this. Hadn't he himself said that without roots of goodness, it would be very hard to attain the fruit of practice? The Buddha explained that eighty thousand great kalpas ago, through certain conditions, this man had been a woodcutter. Pursued by a tiger, he climbed a tree, with the beast waiting below to devour him. In his terror, he cried out a single "Namo Buddha." That one cry, after eighty thousand great kalpas, ripened into roots of goodness. He met Śākyamuni Buddha, went forth from the household life, and attained the fruit. Such is the inconceivable nature of the Mahāyāna. With a scattered mind, a single utterance of "Namo Buddha" can become a seed for future Buddhahood and awakening.

Now consider this: the word kuàng, "how much more," uses just such an analogy to drive the point home. If even a scattered recitation can be like a vajra seed that eventually breaks through the soil, sprouts, and bears fruit, then how much more so when we gather our minds in single-pointed, undistracted recitation — how could we possibly fail to be reborn in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss? It's just like many of our fellow practitioners who are so diligent, currently in the midst of a million-recitation practice, reciting a hundred thousand Buddha-names a day.

If a single recitation can eventually bear the fruit of awakening, then a hundred thousand recitations a day is all the more certain. So this is an inconceivable cause — a wondrous cause — and not an easy thing to believe. That is why we say: hearing the name "Amitābha" even once is like swallowing a tiny fragment of vajra — it never dissolves, and in the end it will surely work its effect. So we must have deep faith in this cause.

Once we understand this principle, we can offer the conditions to all sentient beings so they, too, may recite the Buddha's name even once. Many of our fellow practitioners at the monastery keep a lovely tradition: when you pick up the phone, the first thing you say is "Amituofo" — and the person on the other end, even if not a Buddhist, will usually respond "Amituofo" when they hear it. Just like that, you've planted a vajra seed in them. When that seed ripens in the future, they will be well set. I notice that when I telephone Party officials, I say "Amituofo" and they say it right back. This is belief in the cause.

"Belief in the fruit" means having deep faith that every gathering of the worthy in the Pure Land is born from the samādhi of Buddha-recitation. It is like planting melons to harvest melons, planting beans to harvest beans; like a shadow that must follow its form, an echo that must answer a sound — never in vain. This is called belief in the fruit. Belief in the fruit is about taking rebirth as the fruit.

When you take Buddha-recitation as the cause, you will surely attain the fruit of rebirth. So we must have deep faith that in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, all the most worthy beings gather together. "All the worthy gathered in one place" is something truly worth setting one's heart upon. One of the great afflictions of our world — perhaps because we have not practiced well through many lives and many kalpas — is that we keep running into our enemies and adversaries. How bitter this is, this tangle of karmic debts! But in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss, everyone is a worthy being, a bodhisattva of equal enlightenment. When they meet, joy wells up between them, and all share the same heart and the same virtue. This gathering of the worthy is a tremendous blessing.

In this world, it is very hard — extremely hard. Narrow paths are everywhere, crowded with adversaries. To be able to gather together in the Lotus Pool assembly — all of them born through the Buddha-recitation samādhi — think of our own Master Huiyuan of Mount Donglin, whose White Lotus Society of a hundred and twenty-three practitioners cultivated the Buddha-recitation samādhi and were reborn together in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss — the very same law of cause and fruit. Hence the four analogies that follow.

"Like planting melons to harvest melons, planting beans to harvest beans." These two analogies show that whatever cause you plant, that is the fruit you will reap. Plant a melon seed and of course you will harvest a watermelon; plant a bean seed and you will harvest beans. This cause-and-fruit relationship is absolutely unfailing. Then, "a shadow must follow its form, an echo must answer a sound." These illustrate that the fruit never departs from the cause.

When we walk under the sun, we immediately cast a shadow. Where does that shadow come from? It arises from our physical form. The shadow never leaves our form. And the echo in a mountain valley arises because a sound strikes the cliff face and produces a reply. So an echo must respond — the reverberation must answer — the original sound.

Thus, from the side of the fruit, it never departs from the cause. The shadow, as the fruit, must correspond to — must be inseparable from — the body that is its cause. So Buddha-recitation leading to rebirth in the Western Land of Ultimate Bliss is like the relationship between shadow and form, like planting a melon seed and harvesting a watermelon. This cause-and-fruit is natural and unfailing — it can never go wrong.

Of course, this requires the adornment of faith and aspiration. If you recite the Buddha's name but lack faith and aspiration — if your recitation only aims at gaining human or heavenly rewards, or piling up more paper money in the netherworld — it won't work. So when one takes Buddha-recitation as the cause and sincerely resolves to seek rebirth in the Pure Land, one will certainly attain the fruit of rebirth. The cause elicits the fruit, the fruit never departs from the cause — this cause and fruit is never in vain. This is called belief in the fruit.