The first cause is to think about and remember the amazingly beautiful structures, peaceful atmosphere, and joyful feelings of the Blissful Pure Land, again and again.

The Blissful Pure Land is an atmosphere that is supremely peaceful and joyful, radiant and beautiful, a prosperous and benevolent paradise where suffering is unknown. 

There is no concept or expression of afflicting emotions, such as greed, confusion, and hatred. 

All is made of wisdom-light and wisdom-energies of utmost peace and joy. 

It is a boundless paradise of mountains and fields of lights, rivers and lakes of light, gardens and flowers of light, trees and fruits of light, roads and mansions of light. 

It is filled with an infinite number of divine beings of radiant light in various forms, costumes, and activities. They fly and move through space in absolute peace and joy. They visit different manifested pure lands and receive teachings and blessings. Anything you wish will appear. The sounds of teaching and the music of Dharma fill the whole atmosphere. All who exist there are in the state of utmost peace and joy. 

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In the center, beneath a giant Tree of Enlightenment, is the Buddha of Infinite Light. His majestic and youthful body of reddish light is adorned with the signs of a supreme being. He is in the midst of an ocean of enlightened beings such as the eight bodhisattvas, who include Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta. 

The whole atmosphere is filled with the light radiating from his body. His unconditional love, omniscient wisdom, and omnipresent power serve all without ceasing. 

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You must apply the four healing powers—positive images, words, feelings, and beliefs—over and over again to strengthen your remembrance of the pure land: 

(1) Visualize the details of the Blissful Pure Land. 

(2) Think about the details of the pure land and their qualities with words and prayers. 

(3) Enjoy the feeling of their presence and blessings from the depth of your heart. 

(4) Believe that the Blissful Pure Land the Buddha of Infinite Light are in front of you, and believe in the power of the buddha’s vow to lead you to rebirth in his pure land.

At the time of death, your mind will become free from the limitations imposed by your physical body and the culture of your environment. 

So, while you are alive, if you cultivate the habits of seeing and feeling the pure land in your mind, at the time of death your perceptions will spontaneously arise as the real pure land, and you will find yourself in it. Thus your rebirth in the Blissful Pure Land will be natural. 

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Not everyone will see the Buddha of Infinite Light and his Blissful Pure Land the same way. Our perceptions depend on our spiritual attainments. Some will see the pure land as it actually is; others will see it as a manifested pure land—though in reality the Blissful Pure Land is one. 

If you are enlightened, you will see the Buddha of Infinite Light as the ever-present Buddha, the primordial wisdom. You will see his pure land as the ever-joyful pure land, the power and light of primordial wisdom itself. All forms and experiences are present naturally as nondual awareness. All appear as the true nature and pure quality, just as they are. 

Buddhist teachings call this pure land “the pure land of the enjoyment body” (sambhogakaya) of buddhahood. Taking rebirth in this pure land does not mean being reborn in a better world somewhere else. It is realizing the universal, omnipresent buddhahood with its inseparable pure land. 

If you are an ordinary devotee, on the other hand, you will see the buddha and his pure land as a peaceful and joyful world filled with enlightened beings of unconditional love, omniscient wisdom, and boundless power—but you will perceive this world to be somewhere else, as if in another realm. 

You will also enjoy ineffable peace and joy—but you will still experience these things with a dualistic mind, using senses and emotions. Everything will be subject to change. The teachings call this state of pure land “the pure land of the manifestation body” (nirmanakaya). 

The extraordinary thing is that people like you and me—in fact, all mother-beings—can be reborn there. And once there, we will never regress but always progress in spiritual growth, so that one day we will realize the pure land of the enjoyment body of buddhahood. To take birth in this manifested pure land, we must train in the four causes.

Source: Tulku Thondup. Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth: A Tibetan Buddhist Guidebook. Edited by Harold Talbott. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, 2005.

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