Pure Land Buddhism: The Mahayana Multiverse

[nickscurvy]

The pure land buddhism is the first recorded instance of "1 WEIRD TRICK FOR AWAKENING YOUR MONK DOESNT WANT YOU TO KNOW ABOUT"

[LetsTalkReligion]

Killing it with these Buddhism videos, as always!

[erinpilla]

I am a Mahayana Buddhist and OMG I am really impressed at how you discussed our multiverse, even better than I would have explained. I do have to clarify the ten recitations apply to death. If you are in your deathbed and you recite the Amitabha sutra with all faith just even ten times you will go there to the Western pure land.

For me though, based on my introspection, I would work on cultivating as much as I can while living this life. Even an "over" attachment to breaking the samsara can be a dukkha! Whenever I pray to Amitabha in the temple I always say that may I always aspire for buddhahood not just for me but for all lives I will encounter in my lives, if I ever get reborn in a higher form next life

[c.a.t.]

I think it was the late Buddhist writer Rick Fields who somewhat bemusedly noted that Westerners who encounter Buddhism are attracted to the more "heroic" forms, like Zen practitioners powering through the pain in their legs as they sit for hours facing a wall, or Vajrayana students doing thousands of prostrations. The Pure Land schools, with their simple devotional and contemplative practices integrated into everyday life, are somehow seen as less compelling, despite the fact that they are actually more widespread and inclusive. So I much appreciate the props given to them here... kudos!

[douglashtang]

Limitless of merit and good karma to you for your awesome job explaining this part of Buddhism to the world, Dr. Andrew M. Henry. 🙏🏼☸️🙇🏻‍♂️

[qwertyuiopasdfghj]

My mom is Buddhist in China. She used to take to me to temples during Buddha’s birthday every year. Ive always wanted to know more about Buddhism. Thanks for your great video

[scottygordon]

Thank you for this video. As someone who is currently studying Buddhist philosophy at the graduate level, I appreciate the degree of nuance in your discussion of this oft-neglected tradition. It's all too common for Western commentators to paint Buddhism and other "Eastern" religions with the same brush, ignoring the diversity and often highly specific distinctions present in these traditions. I personally find the question of whether we are to think of these pure lands as literal or symbolic realms to be an especially interesting question. Thank you for always producing such high-quality content on an often overlooked discipline.

[curiousworld]

One of the reasons I love this channel, is it shows how every philosophy or faith can have many different paths, and diverse 'denominations'.

[rumrunner]

Very good video and pretty thorough presentation. One thing that should be emphasized to a Western audience is that Buddha Dharma isn't as rigid in its "denominations" as Christianity and there is overlap in practice and beliefs. While a Pentecostal would almost never be seen praying in Adoration of the Eucharist, it is very common for Zen Buddhist to offer Pure Land prayers to Amitabha or a Theravadan monk learning from a Mahayana priest.

[noahdanielg]

Yay! Finally Pure Land Buddhism, it is the most interesting form of Mahāyāna, especially Jodō-Shinshū. I'm currently studying the "origins" of Pure Land Buddhism in India and the adaptations of Sukhāvatī in Tibet. Namo Amida Butsu!

[Maitreya-]

I am a born Buddhist but never knew this. Very amazing. You make good videos regarding Buddhism. You study all religions. This is nice.

[storyBuddhas]

"The simplicity and depth of Buddha's teachings always leave me in awe. It's a reminder to live in the present moment and cultivate compassion. 🙏"

[mnepatrick]

Excellent video, thank you. I'm a religious studies teacher in England and the quality (both of the research and production) of your videos is superb. They've really helped me to maintain and grow my subject knowledge into new areas (as well as indulge my own interests).

[d]

I've been binge watching Linfamy's Japanese Buddhism videos which is kind of cool as he talked about a lot of the philosophers mentioned here.

[marktwain]

It is vital that the vast world of Buddhism be made accessible to people of all faiths. Your lecture here, Andrew, is a useful and accurate introduction to one of the most influential schools of Buddhist thought and practice. Another superb effort on your part.

[romanapernaa]

I grew up autistic, but Buddhist teachings were somehow always in my psyche. After years of confusion and loss, I became a Buddhist a decade ago. I'm very skeptical, so I spend a lot of time contemplating what is relevant. I'm a Tibetan Buddhist, and my inclination is toward the Vajrayana. I have taken my vows; then I realized I had done this before. When my mother died in 2013, I participated in a Sukhavati service for her. I consider myself devoted without any kind of worship involved. To me, Sunyata implies that there is no solid reality; the fact which makes all universes and parallel realities possible. The Buddhist multiverse makes perfect sense, after all.

[TySeagraves]

I remember once I was an event coordinator for a summer exchange with a Japanese university at my American university. My job was basically to take the Japanese students out into the city to baseball games, museums, and other stuff in the afternoons and evenings after a morning of intense English lessons. Some American students from the Japanese Studies department would help me out, partly to practice their Japanese as well as make friends.

One day we had a free day and I took a small group to Ikea to, you know, take hilarious selfies in the mock rooms. As we were walking, we saw a Buddhist temple. Background, the uni the Japanese kids were from was associated with this branch of Buddhism and so they were kinda religious and wanted to go in and pray since they haven't done so since arriving in America. The people running the temple were really nice and surprised to meet some people from their sister campus in Japan.

There were two Americans with me: one a general white boy like me and another who was a second generation Lao American, and her family was Buddhist. Anyways, as we watched the Japanese students do their prayer ritual, the other American kid was really surprised. He really thought Buddhism was just sitting quietly and discussing philosophy, and had no idea that it was also a lot of ritual and pomp like Christianity.

Seeing this video reminded me of this little story from ten years ago, and nice to see a video about Buddhism which doesn't reduce it to orientalism or strips away the religion to only examine the philosophy of it, but describes an aspect of Buddhism as it's popularly conceptualised. :D

[heterian]

Thank you so much for this video. Not only because I really like the topic of Pure Land Buddhism (I'm a Jodo Shu Buddhist) but because now I can show this video around to people who asks about a well explained and comprehensive, but not too long, explanation of the Pure Land tradition without it focusing on only one interpretation.
As always you manage to explain very clearly and accurately the concepts, history, and different interpretations of a religious tradition. I'm not a religious scholar by a long shot, but I do can say that I have studied religions academically for a long time and can grasp the concepts and ideas quite well. So I can say you've never dissapointed on accuracy, explaination, and non-bias. These reasons are why I love your channel so much and can always learn something new from you without having to worry about the information being faulty, biased or outdated.
Keep it up!

[mullac]

Glad you're continuing the Buddhism series!

[qrcprcg]

First :) as a fellow buddhist I apprecite your content covering our religion! keep up the great work!