Venerable Elder Guangqing
If there are many thoughts when chanting Amitabha, the method is to ignore these thoughts. Just recite Amitabha. If you try to get rid of distracting thoughts, that is adding one more thought or affliction on top of what you already have. Once you have recited Amitabha sufficiently, thoughts will be reduced on their own. Also, your worldly desires will decrease and it will be easier to reach single-minded focus…
When reciting Amitabha, every thought is never apart from Amitabha. You recite clearly and hear each recitation clearly. Every syllable is clearly recited. Your mind is placed on the sound of Amitabha that you hear through your ears while your mouth is reciting. In this way, the Amitabha chant engages your mind fully. You let go of everything else and suspend your attention on this sound, this is how you reach a single-pointed mind…
There are many methods of chanting Amitabha. When you have not reached a certain level, you often waver between methods. Sometimes you feel this method makes you concentrate better, later you feel another method is better. This is because our mind lacks stability. Sometimes we think “this is good, or is that better?”
This comparison of better or worse is from our discriminating mind. Before reaching a certain stage, one has such fluctuations and mind cannot settle down. Actually, every method is good. They are only an expression of our self-nature. If you let go, that is your self-nature. If you use a certain method, that is also your self-nature. Therefore, it is not necessary to generate such attachments when you practice…
When you are dying, do not hope for or try to see visions of Buddhas or Bodhisattvas. Whatever you seek is false or unreliable. Without any expectation of seeing anything, simply recite Amitabha with a pure mind; whatever arises from your mind naturally is then true.
Don’t speak of gaining anything, if there is something to gain, one has not yet reached. When reciting Amitabha, recite until there is only this one thought of Amitabha left in your mind without any other distracting thoughts. Then you will know your time of death beforehand. If there are other thoughts, they will obscure you and you will not know the time of death beforehand.
