The Land of Ultimate Bliss is complete
with all these adornments and virtues.
This sentence concludes the description of the gems, ponds, buildings, flowers, and music that perfectly adorn the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss. How did Amitabha Buddha know what he wanted to include in his land? While still the monk Dharmakara, he practiced and visited twenty-one billion buddha-lands, and adopted the good points and corrected the shortcomings he had seen in each for his own future land.
He then made forty-eight vows, engaged in pure practice, and accrued merits and virtues. With these accomplished, he created and adorned the Land of Ultimate Bliss.
In all of this, Dharmakara’s every thought was to help all who wanted to learn the Dharma. He felt great compassion for those who often encountered obstacles in their quest to learn, obstacles from not having suitable environments. Understanding this, Dharmakara sought to provide the best possible environment in which these beings could learn and practice.
And he succeeded.
Magnificently.
— Chapter 15, "Pure Mind, Compassionate Heart: Lessons from the Amitabha Sutra", Venerable Wuling
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