5 Elements Practices

About Recitation

The recitation of the name of Amitabha Buddha is practiced by at least as many people as practice seated meditation worldwide. Recitation practice is easy to do, extremely portable, and produces deep levels of meditative concentration. The aim of Buddha-Recitation practice is Buddhanusmrti, or “Buddha-Remembrance Samadhi,” a state in which both the name and qualities of the Buddha of Boundless Compassion and Wisdom are kept in mind at all times.

Many people, unfortunately, think that the mere repetition of “Namo Amitabha Buddha,” “Amitabha Buddha” or “Amitabha” is sufficient for Buddhanusmrti. Merely repeating the name is not enough; it is important to keep the qualities of Amitabha, particularly Compassion and Wisdom, in the mind while reciting. Simple repetition of the Buddha’s name, “cruise-control recitation” if you like, eventually produces a state of dullness and boredom. Reciting the Buddha’s name while concentrating on Compassion and Wisdom for instance, produces great energy, concentration and joy. As we will see, there are a number of variations on reciting the Buddha’s name.

Ten Methods of Buddha-Recitation

1. Breath-By-Breath Recitation: One recitation per in-breath, one per out-breath. This is a basic recitation practice used to calm the mind.

2. Recitation With Beads: Using a mala (Buddhist beads) is very helpful when one is reciting the Buddha’s name. The standard mala has 108 beads. One can record how many recitations one does each day until the need for recording is no longer present.

3. 10-Phrase Recitation: This is simply 10 recitation of the Buddha’s name per bead, and is a good practice for people who have trouble with wandering thoughts.

4. Bowing to the Buddha Recitation: Reciting the Buddha’s name before or during a bow. The bow may be at the waist with palms together, or may be a full prostration in which one places one’s forehead to the floor and raises the hands above the ears. This is a good practice for combating drowsiness because it utilizes the body, mouth and mind simultaneously.

5. Linked Recitation: Each word and phrase “rests its head” on the previous one, producing a strong recitative flow and deep concentration.

6. Reflecting Recitation: The practice of examining each word and phrase which is recited to make sure they are clear and distinct, until only the name remains. Essentially, this is turning the mind inward on its sense of hearing.

7. Calming Light Recitation: One visualizes sitting in the midst of an immense transparent zone of light while reciting the Buddha’s name. This is a very calming practice for those who experience disturbing images such as fears or bad memories.

8. Lotus Blossom Recitation: This recitative practice utilizes the traditional four colors of the Lotus blossom (blue, yellow, red and white). One visualizes a large blue lotus emitting blue light before one’s eyes with each recitation. The process is then repeated for each color in sequence. As the lotus flowers appear, one may imagine a soft lotus fragrance.

9. Visualization Recitation: This recitative practice involves reciting the Buddha’s name while practicing the 13th visualization from the Visualization Sutra, that of a 60-foot tall Amitabha Buddha standing at the edge of a seven-jeweled pond.

10. Enlightened, Illuminating Recitation: This dual practice consists of reciting the Buddha’s name while at the same time turning one’s attention on one’s True Nature until the only thing that remains is the consciousness of having united the “mind of the body” and the True Mind of the Buddha. This form of recitation is considered to be a very high-level practice and is most meaningful for those who have gained experience and insight through experiencing most of the preceding recitation practices.

The Act of Atonement

What we refer to as Atonement has two aspects. The first aspect is that of recognition, seeing clearly that we often engage in behavior that creates suffering for others as well as ourselves. Our habituated actions, words and thoughts often go unrecognized, which only causes us to become more firmly entrenched in our deluded behavior. By admitting to ourselves and others that we are subject to this kind of behavior and by recognizing the harm that it causes, we create a means through which this behavior may be avoided and through which our previous karma may be purified. This is called Wisdom.

The second aspect of Atonement is that of resolution. Having recognized that we engage in deluded actions, words and thoughts, we wholeheartedly resolve to modify our behavior. We make vows to govern our behavior so that it causes no harm, and we dedicate those vows to all sentient beings so that they will all become liberated from the round of birth-and-death and its attendant suffering. This is called Compassion.

The Act of Veneration

What we refer to as Veneration is not what is known as “worship” in the West, although some of its forms may be similar to worshipful behavior. Veneration is a form of deep and heartfult thankfulness, a practice which allows us to extend the gratitude of our hearts to those beings who have provided us with the means of liberating ourselves from suffering. By showing our deep respect and gratitude to the Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas, great teachers and others, we simultaneously cultivate humility, respect, gratitude and egolessness. We also gain wisdom by recognizing that the qualities we venerate in Buddhas and other beings are the same qualities we all possess, and so we come to deeply respect our own Essential Nature as well as the Essential Nature of all sentient beings.
The Personal Atonement Ritual

The formal Atonement Service originated in China and has been modified to conform to the needs of Buddhist practitioners in the West. The Personal Atonement Ritual is an abbreviated version of this service. The central focus of both services is Kuanyin, the Chinese version of Avalokitesvara, the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Kuanyin embodies the essence of Compassion and represents our own essential compassionate nature. In both services the Dharani of Great Compassion is chanted as a means of awakening the compassionate heart.

The Personal Atonement Ritual can be practiced individually in the privacy of one’s own home, at one’s shrine or at any convenient, peaceful location. The Personal Atonement Ritual is a convenient yet meaningful way for us to practice Atonement and Veneration so that we may become more aware of our behavior, enabling us to grow in Compassion and Wisdom for the benefit of all living beings.

To read or download the Personal Atonement Ritual, please click here.

About Visualization

The practice of Visualization is considered to be one of the most powerful meditative practices in the Buddhist tradition.  Whatever the mind can conceive can be visualized, including the vision of the Buddha Amitabha and the Pure Land. Visualization practice produces a great deal of meditative concentration and it also serves to purify unimaginable amounts of harmful karma.  When one attains a clear vision of Amitabha Buddha and the Pure Land, one is said to have attained Nienfo Samadhi (Skt. Buddhanusmrti Samadhi).

In the Visualization Sutra, the Buddha instructs Queen Vaidehi to first call up the image of a setting sun, then to inspect it closely, and finally to perceive or “see” the setting sun in the mind. This is the basis of Pure Land Visualization Meditation.

The Practice

It is common  to use  the 16 visualizations outlined in the Visualization Sutra as the objects of one’s Pure Land Visualization practice.  However, a word of caution is prudent at this juncture. One should not try to do all 16 visualizations in one sitting unless one has been doing this practice for many months, or even years. The First Visualization, the Visualization of the Setting Sun, is designed as sort of a “warm-up” exercise to get one accustomed to the process of visualization which will be described below. A much less strenuous visualization is the Purification Visualization, which may be accessed here.

It is also possible to use a single image such as the Buddha Amitabha or the Bodhisattva Guanyin as the object of Visualization Meditation if one desires. The visualizations of the Visualization Sutra do become very complex, but one should not be intimidated by them if one has done single-minded visualization practice.

The following steps are recommended when doing Visualization Meditation:

Purifying One’s Karma. Recite the following three times:

I acknowledge all deluded karmic actions I have performed through countless cycles of birth and death;
Fueled by my endless greed, anger and ignorance,
And manifested through my bodily actions, speech and thought.
I acknowledge and confess this karma, thereby purifying it.

Dissolving of the Elements and Senses. After assuming a comfortable posture and spending a few minutes regulating the breath, do the following:

Dissolve the earth (solid) elements of the body (skin, muscles, tendons, bones, etc.) followed by the sense of smell.
Dissolve the water (liquid) elements of the body followed by the sense of taste.
Dissolve the air (gaseous) elements of the body followed by the sense of touch.
Dissolve the fire (heat, electrical impulses, chi) elements of the body followed by the sense of sight.
Dissolve the space or emptiness element of the body followed by the sense of hearing.
Now all that remains is pure awareness. Sit as this awareness for a few moments.

The Process of Visualization

Step 1: Imagine/Call Up/Remember/Look At an image. This means to go into your mind and either recall or construct an image.

Step 2: Inspect/Study/Analyze/Examine Closely the image in your mind. Using your mind, look at the details of the image you have called up in very, very fine detail. Omit nothing. Be thorough.

Step 3: See/Hold/Perceive/View this image. Using the power of your mind, try as hard as you can to sustain this image clearly.

Another way to look at this process is:

• Construct an image mentally (even if it comes from a visual source).
• Impress this image on your consciousness by looking at it closely.
• Maintain this image as long as you can so that it stays present.

Mutual Support in the Visualization Process

Remember: Each step in visualization is supported by the step that precedes it.

So whenever it becomes difficult to hold the image in your mind (Step 3), return to examining it closely (Step 2). Whenever it becomes difficult to examine the mental image closely (Step 2), just restart the entire process (Step 1). By relying on the principle of Mutual Support, the practice of Visualization Meditation retains its dynamic nature. With plenty of time, practice and patience, the practice will become stronger and stronger until you can visualize the objects of your meditation clearly at any time. At that point there is no difference between the mind and the relative world.

Combined Practice

The unified practice of Chan and Pure Land is the unified practice of Compassion and Widsom. Pure Land practice allows one to open up the heart, thus developing Compassion; Chan practice shows one how to concentrate the mind, thus developing Wisdom. When Compassion and Wisdom combine in a dynamic relationship, our True Mind is realized, our True Heart comes forth, and Enlightenment is assured. This form is practiced in contemporary Chan monasteries around the world. The combination of Chan and Pure Land has existed since the eighth century CE. Awakening to one’s true nature shows us how we’re linked with Universal Compassion and Wisdom, and becoming one with Universal Compassion and Wisdom shows us our True Nature. There really is no inherent conflict.

Pure Land Huatou Practice

The Chan form which is most widely used in combination with Pure Land is huatou practice. The term “huatou” literally means “the head of a thought” and refers to the mind which exists before we turn it into so-called “thought” or “thoughts.” Huatou practice usually centers around a “who?” question such as, “Who is this?” or “Who am I?” Eventually, the question simply becomes, “Who? The huatou method produces a sustained meditative inquiry into one’s true nature. This sustained meditative inquiry leads to a feeling of “doubt,” which in turn intensifies one’s meditative inquiry until a breakthrough occurs.

Pure Land huatou practice generally centers around the question, “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” As in other huatou practices, the question eventually becomes, “Who?” However, instead of simply asking the question setting up the meditative inquiry, Pure Land huatou practice adds the practice of Buddha-Recitation. Practitioners are instructed to engage in Buddha-Recitation for several minutes before beginning to ask the question, “Who is reciting the Buddha’s name?” When the meditative inquiry sparked by the question begins to fade, the practitioners go back to Buddha-Recitation until they are ready to inquire again (It should be noted that anyone who engages in this or any Chan-based practice should do so under the guidance of a qualified teacher who can assist the practitioner along the way).

This practice is also known as Self-Nature Buddha Recitation since the realm which is revealed by the mind of meditation is the Pure Land itself. The eminent contemporary Chan master Xuanhua addressed this when he said, “As we recite ‘Namo Amitabha Buddha’ we each create and adorn our own Land of Ultimate Bliss. We each accomplish our own Land of Ultimate Bliss which is certainly not hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands from here. Although it is far away it doesn’t go beyond one thought. It’s not hundreds of thousands of millions of Buddhalands from here; it’s right in our hearts. The Land of Ultimate Bliss is the original true heart, the true mind, of every one of us. If you obtain this heart, you will be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. If you don’t understand your own original true heart, you will not. The Land of Ultimate Bliss is within our hearts, not outside. Amitabha Buddha and living beings do not discriminate between this and that, for the Land of Ultimate Bliss is not so far away. In one thought, turn the light within. Know that you are the Buddha, and your original Buddhahood is just the Land of Ultimate Bliss.”

In the book “Road to Heaven,” Bill Porter (aka Red Pine) interviewed Abbot Xudong of Xiangqi Temple, the most famous Pure Land temple in China. Venerable Xudong, when asked about the difference between Zen and Pure Land practice, said the following: “In Zen, we keep asking who’s chanting the name of the Buddha. All we think about is where the name of the Buddha is coming from. We keep asking,until we find out who we were before we were born. This is Zen. We sit with one mind. And if the mind runs off somewhere, we follow it wherever it goes, until the mind finally becomes quiet, until there’s no Zen to Zen, no question to question, until we reach the stage where we question without questioning and without questioning we keep questioning. We keep questioning, until we finally find an answer, until delusions come to an end, until we can swallow the world, all its rivers and mountains, everything, but the world can’t swallow us, until we can ride the tiger, but the tiger can’t ride us, until we find out who we really are. This is Zen.

“In Pure land practice, we just chant the name of the Buddha, nothing more. We chant with the mind. We chant without making a sound, and yet the sound is perfectly clear. And when we hear the sound, the chant begins again. It goes around and around. The chant doesn’t stop, and the mind doesn’t move. The sound arises, we hear the sound, but our mind doesn’t move. And when our mind doesn’t move, deulsions disapper. And once they’re gone, the one mind chants. The result is the same as Zen. Zen means no distinctions. Actually, Pure Land practice includes Zen, and Zen practice includes Pure Land. If you don’t practice both, you become one-sided.”