What Is the Pure Land of Bliss — Amida's Western Pure Land, Paired with Hell

"The departed are now in the Pure Land of Bliss." When it is spoken of this way, what kind of world is that Pure Land, really? This article traces the meaning of the phrase "gokuraku jodo" from the making of its scriptures.

What is the Pure Land of Bliss

The Pure Land of Bliss is a pure world, filled with peace and free of suffering, where Amida Buddha is said to dwell. With neither hunger nor thirst, neither strife nor pain, it has been taught as an ideal world where the heart may rest at ease. The word "gokuraku" itself means a place filled with the utmost joy.

Because this Pure Land is taught to lie far to the west, it is also called the "Western Pure Land." To picture a world of quiet peace in the direction of the setting sun — in this lies the long-held longing of the people of old. What was once called "Sukhavati" (the place where there is bliss) in the Sanskrit of ancient India came, by way of China, to be rendered as "gokuraku" — utmost bliss.

As the scriptures describe it

The Pure Land is described in detail in the three scriptures held to be the foundation of Pure Land Buddhism — the Larger Sutra, the Contemplation Sutra, and the Amida Sutra, together the "Three Pure Land Sutras."

The Amida Sutra in particular teaches that the Pure Land lies "to the west, beyond ten trillion Buddha-lands," and tells of its splendor: ponds of the seven treasures brimming with clear water, avenues of gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, and the ceaseless song of beautiful birds sounding forth the Buddha's teaching. The Larger Sutra sets out the forty-eight vows Amida Buddha made before becoming a Buddha, among them the vow to "welcome into my land all who call my name." The Pure Land of Bliss has been told as the world born from the fulfillment of that vow.

As a world paired with hell

The Pure Land of Bliss has often been spoken of as the counterpart to hell. Where hell is said to be a world of suffering received as the reward of evil deeds in life, the Pure Land is a world filled with peace.

By setting a world of suffering and a world of peace side by side, people have reflected on their own deeds and the state of their hearts. The contrast of paradise and hell was less a way to stoke fear than a way of seeing — one that quietly asks, "how shall you live?"

For more on the difference between hell and paradise, see also The difference between hell and paradise.

The nembutsu and rebirth in the Pure Land

Essential to any account of the Pure Land is the recitation "Namu Amida Butsu," the nembutsu. In the Pure Land teaching, by trusting Amida Buddha and reciting these words, one is said to be reborn, after death, into the Pure Land of Bliss — to "attain birth" there.

Regardless of rank or deeds, a path of salvation is open to all. That absence of distinction is said to be one reason this teaching has been cherished so long and so widely. From the late Heian into the Kamakura period, monks such as Honen and Shinran spread this teaching, and the Pure Land became a refuge for the hearts of many.

"Gokuraku" as a living word

Even now we murmur "ah, this is gokuraku" as we sink into a warm bath, or speak of the departed as "at peace now in gokuraku." More than a doctrine of religion, the word has taken root in daily life as a way of naming the very ease of being released from suffering.

That, turned around, means people of every age have somewhere in their hearts sought a place of peace without pain or strife. The Pure Land of Bliss is at once a distant ideal and a gentle vision of the world, near to every heart.

Yurusen's world, and peace

Yurusen is an app for filing the person you could not forgive into a quiet ledger that is yours alone. A peace like the Pure Land's may be reached not by forcing yourself to "forgive," but little by little, beginning with putting the knots in your heart into words and settling them.

To write down, for now, the feelings that waver between suffering and peace, and to look at them. That small act quietly clears a path toward your own quiet west — a resting place for the heart.