The Pure Land practitioner who sincerely practises the Buddha Recitation, repents from the Five Grave Offences, and practises the Ten Virtues will be reborn as a bodhisattva in the Pure Land of Bliss.
A bodhisattva represents the selfless desire to be reborn in the Pure Land of Bliss due to the presence of Buddha-nature.
Since each of us has Buddha-nature, each of us is originally a bodhisattva in the Pure Land.
Yet it serves no purpose to tell a person ignorant of Buddhism this truth, since they do not have the spiritual depth to respond with the desire to return to the Pure Land.
For the Nembutsu - the Name-that-calls - calls to each Pure Land practitioner from the Pure Land, and patiently awaits their return.
When I utter the Nembutsu, Amida is calling to me from the Pure Land.
He is urging me to live a full life, so that when I die, I return to the Pure Land.
However, I reiterate that it is the True Self, represented by the bodhisattva, which returns to the Absolute.
So it is not Steve who returns to the Pure Land, it is the bodhisattva - who returned to the human realm from the Pure Land of Bliss to be reborn as Steve.
Thus when I die, I return to the Pure Land as that bodhisattva. While I live, my desire to return to the Pure Land as that bodhisattva is represented by the pure state of mind achieved briefly during my lifetime, devoted to the Pure Land path.
At this point in my journey through life, a Zen koan is apt here: What is my original name?
Well, due to my human condition, I do not know it. To know what my original name is would distract me from the Pure Land path.
Deep in my heart-mind, I have faith that Amida knows, and He will address that bodhisattva by name upon return to the Pure Land.
Namu Amida Butsu
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