The Suffering of the Sahā World Can Move Us to Issue Our Vow of Rebirth

Why do we always say that embarking on the Buddha’s path is so rare and hard to believe in? Look, when someone comes to Baihua Hermitage on Putuo Mountain saying they want to take refuge in the Three Jewels and uphold the Five Precepts, I always praise them wholeheartedly: that’s so precious, you’ve finally walked through the door! Before taking refuge, you’re still lingering outside the gate; today, taking refuge means you’ve finally stepped inside the inner hall. I offer such fervent praise for the intention behind taking refuge not only because it is so rare and precious, but also to encourage all of you to rely on the Three Jewels as your refuge.

But where does the real problem lie? It’s that we’ve lingered in the Sahā world for far too long, and clinging to it has become second nature to us. A simple turn of the body that should require no effort at all now needs many people’s help, and many patient attempts to work it back into place.

Take my recent frozen shoulder, for instance. A lay practitioner comes every day to help bend my arm back to its normal range. The arm should just swing gently back into place on its own, but now because of the pain, it’s grown stuck in a rigid habit, and forcing it back is intensely painful. This is why the mind of renunciation is so difficult to arouse: a single turn of thought should be all it takes to turn things around, yet we can never seem to bring it forth. So the defilement of the Sahā world is, in truth, something our own vows have created.

Since we are the ones who created it, we can also completely shift our perspective on it, and put it to good use rather than letting it go to waste. We simply need to learn to work wisely with the Sahā world. Why?

The Pure Land’s Purifying Blessing Power

By imagining and contemplating the Pure Land’s pure adornments—both its environment and the beings who dwell there—we can arouse the vow to be reborn in the Western Pure Land.

The Sahā World’s Defiled Blessing Power

The suffering here, the stifling frustration, the hardships that feel utterly unbearable are also more than enough to push us to arouse the vow of rebirth in the Western Pure Land. Both of these carry blessing power.