This realm is 'pure' in the sense that evil, disease, and suffering have been eliminated by the bodhisattva's vows and actions but it is also said that the field is 'adorned' because it is made rich and beautiful with extraordinary marvels and treasures (jewel trees, charming ponds, spiritually uplifting music, etc.). Other worlds have been completely 'purified' by various buddhas and bodhisattvas, and are held as models of what a fully purified world, a pure land, would be.Īs long as a bodhisattva is still seeking full awakening, his 'field' is not a 'pure land' thus, pure or purified denote the result of a long process by which the bodhisattva transforms a common world into a paradise or an ideal and marvel-filled world. The world we inhabit, known as the Sahā World, is considered one such imperfect world, despite the effects of Śākyamuni's awakening and ministry. Worlds where the saving action of a buddha has not yet had its effect, or those that lack a buddha and are therefore technically not yet buddha-fields, are sometimes known as impure worlds. However, buddha-fields may have varying spiritual climates or degrees of perfection, and they are accordingly classified as pure or mixed.

Some of these worlds have never had a buddha, but others are the special fields of practice ( kṣetra) of individual bodhisattvas, who, upon attaining awakening, will make this territory the field within which they exert their saving power and share their immeasurable merit in their role as perfect buddhas.Ĭalled buddha-fields ( buddhakṣetra), these worlds are made beautiful and perfect by the meritorious power of the buddhas that inhabit them and by the power of that buddha's solemn bodhisattva vows. Buddha-fields, pure and impureīuddhist cosmology depicts a universe formed of multiple worlds ( lokadhātu) of varying sizes and characteristics.

The English term has no Indian antecedent and is a direct translation of Chinese jingtu (pure field, pure land), or its Japanese equivalent jōdo. In its specific usage the phrase 'the Pure Land' is one such purified world, the buddha-field of the Buddha AmitĀbha. The English term Pure Land is used as a handy equivalent for the East Asian notion of a purified buddha-field, a large extent of space made pure and beautiful by the presence of a buddha or bodhisattva.

Buddhist map of flat earth