Phurpa Tashi Rinpoche:
Lama Achuk Rinpoche once said that anyone who attended the Sukhavati Group Practice started by him will take rebirth in the pureland if they can follow the practices during the puja. HH Jigme Phuntsok Rinpoche made a similar declaration. He said that if anyone attended the Sukhavati Group Practice he instituted, they will certainly take rebirth in the pureland.
However, some intellectual and theoretical people started saying that these statements were not to be taken literally, that they possessed a hidden meaning. They asserted that the rebirth in pureland referred to by Lama Rinpoche and HH Jigme Phuntsok will not take place directly after this life but many lives later in the future. Due to creating a positive cause now, after one has engaged in more extensive virtues in further future lives, one will finally then take rebirth in the pureland.
Lama Achuk Rinpoche rebutted these claims and said that these people were wrong. Lama Rinpoche explained that the prophecies both he and HH Jigme Phuntsok made meant that anyone who attends these group practices will take rebirth in the pureland right after this life.
But we also know that many people who attend these group pujas are not great practitioners without any mental afflictions. They are all normal people with heavy obscurations and afflictions. Then why should such people be able to take rebirth in the pureland just by attending this group practice?
One can understand it like this. By attending this Sukhavati group practice, through the power of the aspirations of the Guru and the group merits of so many people practicing together simultaneously, much negative afflictions and obscurations can be purified right away. One will receive the corresponding result.
In dependence on the Guru’s aspiration, when our consciousness parts from this body and reaches Amitabha’s pureland, all our negative karma will be entirely purified when we see Buddha Amitabha. It is like that. At that time, this was what Lama Achuk Rinpoche said…
Sometimes, when a teacher gives his students a mantra or practice and he tells them how the past accomplished masters have prophecized that this mantra or practice will produce such-and-such a result, one should have complete unshakable faith as a Dharma practitioner.
The past lineage masters are the manifestations of faith. It would be best if we did not mix our doubts and misgivings with the instructions that they have given us based on faith. It should be like that. But we should still continue on with our practice as usual…Have firm faith, have firm faith!
It is said that even Bodhisattvas are unable to fully comprehend the smallest part of the workings of cause-and-effect, only a Buddha can teach these things. Some things are beyond our ordinary mind and logical deduction… one must have faith in cause-and-effect. Ordinary beings should not try to patch so much of their own interpretations and logical deductions on the teachings in the scriptures. Just rely on firm faith!
