What are Buddhist beliefs of the moment a person dies? They pass from their earthly life to what?
One passes into the Pure Land. This is difficult to explain. Each Buddha lives in a home, as all people do, but his home is a “land” or more like a “realm” which is not a physical place. And, the largest Pure Land is the Home of Amida Buddha.
It was Shinran Shonin, our founder, who saw that everyone, with no exceptions, can enter Amida’s Pure Land and receive all the benefits of Awakening/Enlightenment. The idea of “no exceptions” is the meaning of Infinite Compassion (which is really difficult for humans to accept).Think of life as an ocean….this is the Oneness of life. In the ocean, there are waves that have a shape and form for a limited duration.
Our lives are like a wave, we have a shape and a form for a limited time; we think we are unique and separate (which would be our ego or image of ourself). When the wave hits the shore, it disappears….yet, we all know that the wave was always part of the ocean. Each wave comes from the ocean and returns to the ocean…this is Oneness.
So, where do we go ? We return to the Oneness of all life….the Pure Land is that Oneness of the ocean.