The water in a cup will eventually evaporate. However,  when poured into the ocean, the water blends in and tastes of the ocean .

      While our lives are defiled and impermanent, Amitabha Buddha’s life is eternal—no birth, no death; no beginning, no ending—transcending the three ages of the past, present, and future. If we entrust our lives to the Buddha of Infinite Life, we too will have an infinite lifespan. 

       Chan Master Daocuo says:

Flowers in the five heavens of Pure Abodes never wither in the wind or sun.

The water of the Spirit River never dries out. 

       The water in a cup will dry up sooner or later; however, if poured into the ocean, it will never dry up; it will taste like the ocean and become as magnificent as the ocean.

       A human body is composed of four elements and five aggregates; it has a limited lifespan of about 60 or 80 years. As the water in a cup eventually dries out, the body will come to an end. Thus, our lives are impure and miserable, the so-called “defiled and impermanent life.”

       Amitabha Buddha is the Buddha of Infinite-Life with immeasurable virtues and merits. If we recite his name and entrust our evanescent lives to Amitabha Buddha, like the water poured into his pure treasure ocean, our lives will be infinite, the same as Amitabha Buddha’s. We will share the unlimited virtues and merits: no birth, no death, forever in the three ages.

       The beautiful verses that we just quoted are from Master Daocuo’s Collection on the Land of Peace and Joy: “Flowers in the five heavens of Pure Abodes never wither in the wind or sun. The water of the Spirit River never dries out.”

     “No one will have good fortune for a thousand days; no flower will remain gorgeous for a hundred days.” Flowers will one day wither away by the sun and wind, but in the heavens of Pure Abode, where the sun and wind in the human world cannot reach, they stay fresh and never shrivel.

        The “Spirit River” is home to King Dragon. It will not dry up even if the world is under a severe drought.

      The five heavens of Pure Abode and the Dragon River represent the Pure Land, and the six-character name—Na-mo A-mi-tuo-fo, (fo means the Buddha). Flowers and water represent our fragile lives. If we recite Namo Amituofo within our lifespan and entrust ourselves to Amitabha Buddha, we will weather through all stormy winds and the scorching sun and gain eternal lives.

        If we recite Namo Amituofo, our finite lives will turn infinite and never perish as water in the Spirit River never dries out even if it encounters the most severe drought.

(Translated and edited by the Pure Land School Translation Team)