Dharma Master Jingjie
Pureland practitioners are inclined to emphasize on creating virtues while neglecting to stop existing non-virtuous habits. When we recite Amitabha, we are cultivating a positive force in our minds to take rebirth in Sukhavati. However, there remains many forces in our mind that obstruct pureland rebirth —these are our strong habits.
Compared to these obstructing habits, the positive force to take rebirth in Sukhavati is far weaker. Therefore, this becomes a hurdle you fail to cross when you are dying. You cannot expect someone to be there to counsel you when you are on the verge of dying. As a practitioner, you should now constantly examine what kind of thoughts arise in your mind and see where these karmic forces lead to.
When these disturbing thoughts arise, you can’t say, “Ah! Just recite Amitabha and distract myself.” Even if you succeed in distracting yourself from the disturbing thought, its underlying attachment still functions, therefore the habit is hidden and waiting to ambush you at any time.
Instead, you need to completely release this attachment through contemplation, analysis and investigation of its nature. You need to convince yourself that this attachment arises from deluded thinking and that it is the nature of suffering, only then can the mind completely relinquish this attachment and no longer give rise to such thoughts. This obstructing force would thus be removed from the mind.
Therefore, all pureland practitioners should support and encourage each other. Pureland practice is cultivating the positive force for rebirth in pureland, at the same time, one should also try one’s best to remove all countering forces that are obstacles to pureland rebirth.
