FAQ: If all is an illusion, a dream and a game, then why Nianfo?

Short answer: Because Nianfo can help us jump out of the illusion and realize the Truth :) 

Long answer: 

Although all is an illusion, 

(Which means all things are changing all the time without a permanent fixed nature)

There’s still something that’s real, 

Unchanged and permanent 

That is our Buddha-nature

Tathagata, Tathāgatagarbha

True nature of the Mind

True nature of the Heart 

True nature of the Self (which is non-self, dissolution of the ego)

You can call it whatever you want

(The Tao or God, Allah if you wish) 

This thing is formless 

We cannot see or find it 

Yet it is everywhere 

Permeates in all things

And can give rise to all forms 

(Like the empty space, but much more vast than what we currently understand as the empty space, the empty space is like a tiny piece of cloud compared to it)

It can be vaguely understood as 

The permanent awareness

Which knows everything

Without identifying with anything 

No birth no death

Original here and will not be destroyed 

even if our bodies are gone

Even if all the forms and phenomena

In the world are changing, 

Arising and disappearing,

This thing will not change 

Unchanged, permanent 

It perceives (without perceiving)

Without judgment 

Without attachment

Without separation

This thing is real 

How do we know this thing (our Buddha-nature, or let’s vaguely call it the permanent awareness) is permanent and unchanged?

Say when we are young

We know that we are young

Our bodies are young

Then we grow old so are our bodies

But this awareness - this knowing

Hasn’t changed (the subject of the observations/forms change but not the awareness itself)

Another example is say

When a person is young

He sees the Ganges River

When he grows old

He still sees the Ganges river 

Although he has grown old 

But the ability to see hasn’t changed

Maybe when he grows old

He may not see things so clearly 

But the ability to see/know 

hasn’t changed!

The Ganges river may have changed

(Become dirty etc.,) but

the Essence of water is unchanged 

(Whether it’s clean or dirty, it’s still water)

The simply knowing of what we see/smell/feel etc. this knowing is unchanged 

This permanent awareness

Is always here 

Although all are changing

This never changes

When we see things, we may say we use our eyes to see. If eyes alone can see, then why a dead person’s eyes cannot see? So it’s not that the eyes can see, but something behind the eyes that works through the eyes for the eyes to see. Even without the eyes one can see. If you ask a blind person if he can see anything, the blind person will say “no, he only sees darkness.” But actually seeing darkness is a kind of seeing - the darkness is no different if you put an ordinary person in a dark room, and this person also sees darkness. 

When the blind person suddenly got his eyes back, then he says he sees these forms and colours etc., it’s no different if you turn on the light in the room and the ordinary person suddenly seeing all the forms and colours again. It’s not that the light can see, but the light works as a medium/tool to help show the forms. Similarly, for a blind person, it’s not that he can’t see when he’s blind, the ability to see is still here (the awareness/the knowing - that I see darkness), but it’s just he sees darkness, when he got his eyes he sees the forms and colours (the eyes works like the light in the room). 

However the essence of seeing is unchanged, the objects of what are being seen can be changing all the time, but the essence of knowing is unchanged. 

Because this awareness is unchanged

It’s always here 

It has no birth and hence no death 

Non-arising nor disappearance 

This is not easily understood 

[One can study the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra and the Surangama Sutra to understand more deeply] 

Even an arhat may not necessarily 

Know the existence of the Buddha-nature,

A bodhisattva knows somewhat,

At the level of the Buddha 

One completely knows.

To Nianfo is to activate

Our Buddha-nature

To realise the Truth within

The truth of life and the Universe 

That all comes from

The Same Source

The Buddha-nature that’s 

Within all beings 

The Infinite Light and Life 

Because it’s very difficult to 

Realise the Truth 

So we first Nianfo to 

“Migrate” to Amitabha Buddha’s 

Pure Land

(We migrate with our alaya-consciousness,

As unenlightened beings we are still identify

With our alaya-consciousness, which is a storehouse of memories - still an illusion (as how can memories be real and unchanged?). When one becomes enlightened, the alaya consciousness transforms into perfect mirror like wisdom - the permanent awareness that clearly knows everything, which is always here, to say “transform” is a way of convenience!) 

Although the Pure Land, from a phenomenal level, one may say it’s an illusion as the sceneries can change in the Pure Land as well, but from a substantial level, the Pure Land is created by Amitabha Buddha’s perfect enlightened mind, the true nature of the Mind and his great vows, hence the Pure land is also real, and it will not disappear as it resonates with the true nature of the Mind/Heart, the Buddha nature, much more real than what we are experiencing here) 

When we are in the Pure Land

Being guided by Amitabha Buddha and highly enlightened Bodhisattvas 

One can realise Buddhahood quickly 

Namo Amituofo