Reciting This Sacred Name Has the Broadest Reach, Is Easiest to Take Up, and Is the Most Straightforward Practice

All Mahayana Pure Land sutras present the diverse array of practices for rebirth in the Pure Land, which vary widely in their form. Holding the Buddha’s name is one such practice.

You may practice contemplative Buddha-recitation: visualizing Amitabha Buddha’s thirty-two major marks and eighty minor characteristics, and contemplating the perfect purity and adornment of the environment and inhabitants of the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss; you may also practice the Fivefold Pure Land practice, or even the Ten Great Vows of Samantabhadra Bodhisattva, and the Six Remembrances—recollection of the Buddha, the Dharma, the Sangha, the precepts, generosity, and the devas, as well as the Threefold Pure Deeds. All these Pure Land practices, once individually cultivated and accomplished, with the resulting merit dedicated to rebirth in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss, will enable rebirth in the Pure Land. Thus, the path to rebirth in the Pure Land is a universal gate, not limited to a single method: all these other practices can also lead to rebirth there.

But among all methods for rebirth in the Pure Land, only the practice of holding the name—that is, reciting and holding Amitabha Buddha’s name—has the broadest reach. It is not limited to the capacities of beings across the nine realms of samsara, nor only to the capacities of beings in this Sahā world. It is a path that can accommodate beings from all the infinite, boundless buddha-fields of the ten directions, even the tiniest flying, wriggling, and crawling beings. This is what is meant by "having the broadest reach, and being the easiest to take up." Reciting this name is the most straightforward practice of all.

This most straightforward method of Buddha-recitation was not brought about easily: the process of its establishment spanned an immense length of time, as Bodhisattva Dharmākara contemplated it deeply over five great kalpas. The simpler the method, the greater the wisdom and compassion it embodies. It is defined by this unique feature: "the broadest reach, and the easiest to take up."

Shakyamuni Buddha, out of his boundless compassion, observed the capacities of sentient beings and taught accordingly. Once sentient beings have fully matured their wholesome roots, merit, and karmic conditions—and are able to have the faith to bear and uphold this teaching—he expounds it of his own accord, without being asked. All Pure Land sutras fall into the category of teachings given without being asked. Since sentient beings are not capable of conceiving of such a sublime path on their own, they cannot pose questions about it, so the Buddha teaches it of his own accord. In particular, he pointed out this teaching to Shariputra, who possessed the foremost wisdom: only one with supreme wisdom can believe in and receive this teaching.

The three sentences that follow are thus of the utmost importance, and are rightly described as "the foremost skillful means among all skillful means, the ultimate definitive meaning among all definitive meanings, and the supreme perfect and sudden teaching among all perfect and sudden teachings."