Western Heaven; Utopia; Saha-world; Pas, Julian; 包如廉; 西方的天堂; 烏托邦; 娑婆世界
摘要
1. What is the meaning of Pure Land? (Summarize the essential concepts of the three Pure Land scriptures).
In the popular mind，it is a "western heaven"，a Buddhist "paradise"，a land of extreme happiness, a utopia.
The creation of Pure Land ideology happened several centuries after the Buddha's' nirvana. It is a new school within Mahayana. The Buddha's ultimate goal of reaching nirvana is not abolished，only skillfully delayed. One could also say that the ideal of Pure Land is an escape：hoping to reach paradise，one may forget the sad condition of the world，without moving a finger to change it. Buddhism has indeed been accused of being too otherworldly.
2. Is it a wild dream，a utopia, to try building a Pure Land on earth? In Buddhist cosmology，our earth is a saha-world; purity is mixed with impurity. But while our planet itself is pure，impurity arises from human beings who contaminate the world. Because of greed and lust for power and wealth of a minority，the majority of humans live din a state of poverty，insecurity，and hopelessness.
Whereas individual Buddhist believers, following the Buddhist Path, work at overcoming their personal fetters, as an institution Buddhism must work at overcoming the world's abject poverty. To be a bodhisattva is not only to gain wisdom，but also to be compassionate. This does not mean to distribute charities but to find solutions to change the structure of society，so that the state of abject poverty can be overcome.
3. In practical terms, a Pure Land in earth is still far from being a reality. Buddhism，however，has the potential to work toward a transformation. Whereas monastic institutions can only be indirectly involved，the responsibility to change the world lies in the hands of lay Buddhists. One example：Buddhist laypeople as industrialists could start on a small scale to "purify" their own world. By organizing factories where greed is not the objective but human dignity is the primary goal (Details will follow).
Trying to build a Pure Land on earth without concern for the material well-being of the poor is like building sand-castles. To cultivate inner purity，there must be a solid foundation of material happiness.
