Pure Lands are originally，the ideal of `Mahayana` Buddhism and the aim of its communal cultivation. Thus they exist in an extraordinary variety. In Chinese Buddhism，however，after mid-T'ang times "pure land" indicated almost exclusively practice connected with `Amitabha`.
Buddhism is a part of Indian culture wherefore the roots of its ideal have to be found there. The present paper pays special attention to this problem and attempts at probing into the origins of pure land and `Amitabha` thought. The notion of pure land and related practices differ in India, China, Japan, etc. As the present Writer concentrates on Indian and Chinese methods of cultivation the other had to be passed over and require supplementary desription in the future.
The relationship between pure land thought and the idea of a dharma ending age (mo-fa) to which numerous passages in the `sutras` refer，are closely related. But does the teaching of an age of dharma decline prophesy a fact or is it just a kind of ideology or view of history? Opinions differ. As to the Chinese adherents to the pure Land teaching, they regarded mo-fa as a historical fact thus putting forth every effort to spread Pure Land practice. What they propagated suited，throughout history，the fervent hopes of the suffering masses very much. They welcomed this teaching eagerly and put strong faith in it. Herein lies the reason for the general acceptance of Pure Land practice in China.
To be born into a pure land constituted originally only a station on the road to Buddhahood-just like going abroad to pursue advanced studies- and by no means the final aim. Yet this understanding was rather uncommon among followers of the Pure Land teaching. The majority thought of it as the aim and did therefore not entertain the idea of "returning to the motherland and doing one's service." i.e. saving all being. On this ground the Pure Land teaching was criticized as passiv and selfish. We should realize that Buddhas' purpose in establishing pure lands through great hardships is to save and benifit beings. Thus there exist many pure lands with their respective methods suiting the broad masses, a fact worth to be given due consideration by today's Buddhists.
The present paper introduces for this reason all kinds of pure lands and the truth of the so called easy and difficult paths in order to rectify the general believer's misunderstanding. If one does not grasp these principles the easy path will turn into the difficult one and "there will be no one who is born into the pure land though it would be easy." Besides describing the various common practices of recollecting the Buddha the author introduces specially the long forgotten method of recollecting the Buddha by way of three sentences developed by the Korean monk Kim `upadhyaya`，ch'an master Mu-Sang. This practice is based on the idea of original awakening wh
