If he believe in the Buddha and Buddha's teaching, and want to
achieve Nirvana, why not take refuge? Taking refuge is the triple
gems is basically taking refuge in what is proper and not taking
refuge in what is improper.
Whether your friend can go to the Pureland or not depends on his
faith and vows. If someone chant the Buddha's name to lets say to
recover from a sickness or have a good life and did not have faith
or make a vow to be born in the Pureland, he won't go to
Pureland.
Pre-requisites of PL birth is faith, vows, and practice.
(Below is an explanation of what is faith, vows and practice)
One with Proper Faith, Proper Vows, and
Proper Practice
Faith, vows, and practice are the three
prerequisites of the Pure Land Dharma-door. One who goes on a journey takes along
some food and a little money. One who wishes to go to
the Land of Ultimate
Bliss needs faith, vows,
and the practice of holding the Buddha's name.
Faith is the first prerequisite, for
without it one will not have an affinity with Amitabha Buddha in
the Land of Ultimate
Bliss. You must have faith in
yourself, faith in the Land ofUltimate
Bliss, as well as in cause and
effect, noumenon and phenomenon.
What does it mean to believe in
oneself? It is to believe that you certainly have the
qualifications necessary to be born in the Land of Ultimate
Bliss. You should not take
yourself lightly and say, "I have committed so many offenses, I
can't be born there." Suppose you have created karma involving
heavy offenses, well, now you have a good opportunity: you can
"take your karma with you into rebirth." That means that regardless
of the offenses you have committed in the past, you can still be
reborn in the Land ofUltimate
Bliss, and that karma goes along
with you. However, you need to know that the karma you can take is
karma you have already created, not karma that you continue to
create. Karma you have already created is the karma from previous
lives. Karma you continue to create will ripen in the future. What
you can carry is offenses that come from karma created in the past;
what you cannot carry is offenses from karma you create now that
will ripen in the future. No matter what you have ever done, not
withstanding any kind of offenses, you can now change your faults
and reform your conduct, stopping evil and becoming wholesome. Then
you can take those previously-created offenses with you to
the Land of Ultimate
Bliss. But continuing to create
karma will keep you from being able to go.
Secondly, you must have faith in the
Western Land of Ultimate Bliss which is hundreds of thousands of
millions of Buddhalands from here. Before he realized Buddhahood,
Amitabha Buddha, as the Bhikshu Dharma Treasury, vowed to create
the Land ofUltimate
Bliss where living beings
of the ten directions who vowed to be born there could gain rebirth
by reciting his name. There is no need to do anything else; it is
easy, simple, convenient, and interpenetrating--yet it doesn't cost
a thing and doesn't waste energy. This Dharma-door can be
considered the highest and most supreme, for if you just recite,
"Namo Amitabha Buddha," you will be born in
the Land of Ultimate
Bliss.
It is also necessary to believe in
cause and effect. Believing in cause is to believe that in the past
you have planted good roots that now enable you to believe in this
Dharma-door. Without good roots, no one can encounter this
Dharma-door of reciting the Buddha's name, or any other
Dharma-door, for that matter. Because of the good roots you planted
in the past, you can now encounter the Pure Land Dharma-door of faith, vows, and holding the name.
But if you don't continue to nourish the good roots you planted,
then you won't be able to reap the fruition of Bodhi in the future.
That is why you must believe in cause and effect; believe that in
the past you already planted causes for Bodhi and so in the future
you will certainly reap the fruition of Bodhi. The principle is the
same as planting a field: the seeds must be watered and nourished
before they can grow.
Finally, one must have faith in
phenomenon and noumenon. The specific phenomenon is this: Amitabha
Buddha has a great affinity with us and will certainly guide us to
Buddhahood. The noumenal principle is this: We know the great
affinity exists because without it we would not have met
the Pure Land Dharma-door. Amitabha Buddha is all living beings
and all living beings are Amitabha Buddha. Amitabha Buddha became
Amitabha Buddha by reciting the Buddha's name, and if we recite the
Buddha's name, we, too, can become Amitabha Buddha.
We should cultivate according to the
phenomena and the noumenal principle.
The Avatamsaka
Sutra speaks of four Dharma
Realms:
1. The Dharma Realm of Unobstructed
Phenomena
2. The Dharma Realm of Unobstructed Noumena
3. The Dharma Realm of Noumena and Phenomena
Unobstructed
4. The Dharma Realm of All Phenomena Unobstructed
Considering the four Dharma Realms, and
speaking from the standpoint of our self-nature, we and Amitabha
Buddha are united in one, and therefore we have the qualifications
to realize Buddhahood.
< Amitabha Buddha is the Amitabha
Buddha within the minds of all living beings, and living beings are
the living beings within the mind of Amitabha Buddha. Due to this
interconnection, there are phenomena and the noumenon. However, you
must believe in this principle and energetically practice it by
reciting the Buddha's name; you cannot get lazy. Your recitation of
the Buddha's name should increase day by day, not
decrease.
Having discussed faith, we will now
discuss vows. What is a vow? When you want something, when your
thoughts tend toward a certain thing, your mind has a wish, then
you make a vow. In Buddhism there are four vast vows:
I vow to save the limitless living beings.
I vow to cut off the inexhaustible afflictions.
I vow to study the immeasurable Dharma-doors.
I vow to realize the supreme Buddha Way.
All Buddhas and Bodhisattvas of the
past, present, and future practiced the Bodhisattva conduct and
attained Buddhahood by relying on these four great vows.
But in order to make vows you must have
faith. First, believe there is a Land of Ultimate
Bliss; secondly, have faith in
Amitabha Buddha; thirdly, believe that you and Amitabha Buddha have
a great affinity, and that you can certainly be born in
the Land of Ultimate
Bliss. With faith in these three
things, you may then make the vow, "I desire to be born in
Amitabha's country." There is a saying,
"I want to be born in
the Western Pure Land."
I want to be born there. Nobody's
forcing me to go; nobody's dragging me there. Although Amitabha
Buddha has come to guide me, I'm going as a volunteer because I
want to be close to him. I want to be born in
the Land of Ultimate
Bliss and to see Amitabha
Buddha when my lotus flower opens. I want to meet the Buddha and
hear the Dharma." These are the vows you need.
Then you must practice. How? Recite the
Buddha's name, saying "Namo Amitabha Buddha, Namo Amitabha
Buddha..." as if you were trying to save your head from the
executioner, running ahead to keep your head.
Faith, vows, and practice are the
travel expenses for rebirth in the Land of Ultimate
Bliss. They are your
ticket.