Pilgrimage to Pure Land

Venerable Faxian is one of the great pilgrim translators who travelled from China to India to retrieve many precious sutras.

King of Bi: Have the Venerables come to be in Bi or are you just passing through?
Ven. Faxian: Faxian and these few Venerables are neither staying in your esteemed country or going to any other country to spread the Dharma.
King: Not spreading the Dharma?
Ven Faxian: We are on our way to India to seek the Dharma.
King: India? The journey from here to India is long and full of danger. I’m afraid it cannot be reached unless you travel for a year and more.
Ven Faxian: Faxian believes that as long as my faith and aspiration is strong, even if I am to to travel to the ‘ends’ of the world, it will till not be hard to accomplish. Short-term obstacles will not shaken strong determination to seek the Dharma.

Imagine if we are to travel by 10 trillion Buddhalands by foot to reach Amitabha Buddha’s Pureland. It would probably take 10 trillion lifetimes or more to do so. But in truth, we do not even need to move a single millimetre to reach it – because Amitabha Buddha will be here to take us there in a split of an instant.

If we are to compare Ven. Faxian’s journey to India and our supposed journey to the Western Paradise in terms of hardship, it would be likened to comparing surmounting a mountain versus a molehill. The journey to the Western Paradise is a blissful joyride! But even with the ‘obstacle’ of the vast distance between settled by the vows of Amitabha Buddha, we are still pretty much wishy washy about embarking upon the journey of practising mindfulness to reach there. Our love-hate relationship with Samsara with its thrills and spills blind us from the ultimately magnificent gem that is Pureland. What we lack is the real faith and real aspiration of true practitioners. This is unlike Ven. Faxian who saw the Dharma as a great treasure, whose faith in it was unshakable, with his aspiration and will strong as diamond. Even if he knew the distance was great, with threats of extreme weather, bandits, wild animals and illnesses, despite knowing he might die along the journey, none of these could deter his faith. This is what I call True Faith.

In contrast with all the obstacles that Ven. Faxian faced, the only obstacle we face now is ourselves. Many of us do not have enough faith, aspiration. If there is enough faith and aspiration, Pureland is not far away. Great masters like Ven. Faxian and Ven. Xuanzhuang already took great risks to go to great lengths to bring us great volumes of the Buddha’s teachings, and painstakingly made them understandable for our benefit. If this is not great compassion, what is? We should, on the other hand, be diligent in our practice, so as to not let the great masters’ deeply compassionate efforts go to waste.

Probably it’s high time we stop beating around the bush and start practice. With enough faith, aspiration and practice, we can and will reach Pureland!

Above story is an excerpt from : 佛家高僧漫画全集 36 ：难行能行 － 法显法师
The historical record can also be found in 佛国记-法显法师著