Finally, while the key to rebirth in the Pure Land is wholeheartedness [singlemindedness], you, as a layman, still have your parents and your family. Although you should not unduly seek wealth and honor, you should still fulfill your family obligations – for to cultivate the Dharma is not to abandon everything.
If you could let go of everything and still manage to provide for your parents and family, that would be all to the good. Otherwise, it would be contrary not only to human morality but also to the Dharma. This is something you should also realize.
As a filial son, you should counsel your parents concerning cultivation, so that they may practice Buddha Recitation and seek rebirth in the Pure Land. If they can practice with faith, they will surely achieve rebirth. Once reborn, they will transcend the mundane and enter sagehood, escape Birth and Death, join the Ocean-wide Assembly, be close to Amitabha Buddha and eventually achieve Buddhahood. Mundane filiality cannot be compared with such an achievement!
If anyone were to advise others to cultivate the Pure Land method, the merits and virtues from such teaching would be entirely his. In the future, he would surely be reborn in the upper lotus grades.
Record Of Great Master Yinguang’s Excellent Words
[Pure Land Tradition’s 13th Patriarch]: Letter 2.5
Translated by Master Thich Thien Tam, et al
[Questions by the named, with answers by other commenters]
Q: Some people claimed someone has spread deviant views. Is he good or bad?
A: Do decide for yourself: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2012/01/beware-of-%E2%80%98buddhist%E2%80%99-2012-hearsay
Comment: Is his Pureland teachings correct or also deviant?
Reply: Unfortunately, they are in part deviant, such as his insistence on using edited sutras: http://thedailyenlightenment.com/2014/09/can-we-use-edited-or-compiled-sutras This causes needless division in the Pure Land world. No Pure Land Patriarch has ever used or endorsed any edited sutra as being as good as an actual sutra.
Comment: Without him, many people in this world would not learn so much about Pureland. So is he considered a Buddhist master or a Pureland master?
Reply: Though he has some credit, his deviant teachings are too problematic to gloss over too. Some don’t even consider him a Buddhist now. It is best to learn from other authentic Pure Land masters, such as the abbot of the founding Pure Land monastery: http://www.donglin.org/shitingzhongxin Amituofo
Comments: Ok I will not follow his teachings in future. Just curious, the article says ‘If anyone were to advise others to cultivate the Pure Land method, the merits and virtues from such teaching would be entirely his. In the future, he would surely be reborn in the upper lotus grades.’ As he has credit in spreading Pureland teachings but he also spread deviant views, will he be able to be born in the upper lotus grades in Pureland?
Reply: Since his karma, if without genuine repentance in time, is mixed in nature, with both the positive and negative, it is uncertain that he can reach Pure Land. If with genuine repentance in time, to openly apologise and make up for his mistakes best he can, and coupled with genuine practice, there is some hope.