Pure Land Buddhism

JamDonkey

I have recently become very interested in the Pure Land Tradition. But I just have a few questions.

Are there Pure Land Monks?
Is enlightenment only achieved in the next life, after being born in the Pure Land?
And any other information about it would be extremely helpful.


Thanks
Jason

SherabDorje

Venerable Master Hsing Yun

Fo Kuang Shan Buddha's Light International Association


http://www.buddhanet.net/masters/hsing_yun.htm

PDF E-book, free: Cloud and Water

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/cloudwater6.pdf

JamDonkey

Another question.

Are Zen and Pure Land connected?

Disney

Supreme enlightenment is achieved upon born in Pure Land.

Highlights of the 13 Pure Land Patriarchs
http://thomehfang.com/kumarajiva/13Patriarchs/13Patriarchs_20Nov2003.htm

http://www.buddhanet.net/pdf_file/yin_kuang.pdf
PURE-LAND ZEN
ZEN PURE-LAND
Letters from Patriarch Yin Kuang

This high-level form of Pure Land is practiced by those of deep spiritual
capacities: “when the mind is pure, the Buddha land is pure ... to recite the
Buddha’s name is to recite the Mind.” Thus, at the advanced level, Pure Land is
Zen, Zen is Pure Land.
In its totality, Pure Land reflects the highest teaching of Buddhism as expressed
in the Avatamsaka Sutra: mutual identity and interpenetration, the simplest
method contains the ultimate and the ultimate is found in the simplest.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:xlH5lMozK4EJ:www.amitabhalibrary.org/Classes/Notes/2006/pureland.pdf+Perfect+and+Complete+Realization+of+Bodhisattva+Mahasthamaprapta&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=6&gl=sg
Introduction To Buddhism SeriesLecture 11 – The Pure Land School - Presenter: Bert T. Tan / Consultant: Venerable Wu Ling

Buddhism of Wisdom & Faith: Pure Land Principles and Practice
http://www.ymba.org/BWF/bwf32.htm#doctrinal
The book, Biographies of Pure Land Sages and Saints, records the life histories of individuals who committed extremely heavy transgressions, yet achieved rebirth in the Pure Land through singleminded recitation of the Buddha's name at the time of death. Your good roots, merits and virtues far surpass those of the evil beings cited in these biographies.

Ten Doubts about Pure Land by Tien Tai Patriarch Chih I
http://www.purelandbuddhism.com/10Doubts.pdf

In Pure Land Buddhism, it is an extremely important notion in that it describes the situation of the sincere practitioner who nevertheless finds him or herself totally incapable of avoiding the acts prohibited by the Buddha. This unique sense of "ordinary person" in the Pure Land tradition developed out of the belief in the Age of the Final Dharma (mappo) and Shan-tao's view of humanity based of the two profound minds of self-introspection and trust in Amida Buddha (shinki-shinpo). Caught as he or she is in this Age of the Final Dharma (mappo), the practitioner turns to the nembutsu (Name of Amida Buddha) in hope of Birth in the Pure Land, and so, of eventual enlightenment. Honen [founder of the first independent branch of Japanese Pure Land Buddhism called Jōdo shū] beautifully expresses this sincere admission of weakness as follows: "I am an ordinary human being attached to the material world and hesitating in confusion. It is difficult for me to achieve enlightenment. I am chained to the cycle of birth and death within the three worlds."(SHZ. 460).
Tan-luan's explanation is that there is a direct connection between "the name" and "the body" of the Buddha. Later, Shan-tao focused on the eighteenth vow of the Sutra of Immeasurable Life and referred to the practice of nembutsu recitation as "the name." Honen, under Shan-tao's influence, focused on the recitation of the nembutsu recommended in the Meditation Sutra.

Just highlights a few
Om Mani Padme Hum