[9] Yinlü Wuqing, vol. 1, ch. 15, on contact-feeding, approximately a year’s nourishment, vegetarian offerings, scripture recitation and dedication of merit.
A Better Life and the Path Beyond Rebirth
In Yinlü Wuqing, relief from punishment does not always mean release from hell. A prisoner may hear a teaching and then return to punishment. Another may leave for a human life in which earlier consequences remain: wealth may follow generosity while illness or difficult habits still have to be faced. Rebirth gives former prisoners an opportunity to keep their promises. The book also speaks of heavenly life, birth in a Pure Land and liberation from rebirth. These changes offer different kinds of benefit and depend on different conditions.
The Heavenly Emperor links the return to heaven with doing good, purifying the mind and spiritual practice. The City God likewise connects predominantly good karma with human or heavenly rebirth. Heavenly life brings greater happiness and refinement, yet the heavens still belong to the Three Realms and the cycle of birth and death. Reaching heaven improves the conditions of continuing life; it does not bring that whole cycle to an end.
The Western Pure Land is Amitabha Buddha's land, where life supports hearing and practising the Dharma. The Amitabha Sutra connects aspiration for birth there with holding the Buddha's name in mind. It describes those born there as no longer turning back from the path towards awakening. Its promise concerns sustained progress towards full Buddhahood. Birth in this Pure Land therefore has a different place in Buddhist practice from a happy but impermanent heavenly life. [3]
Liberation reaches the causes that keep beings bound to suffering. Nirvana, called nibbāna in Pali, is described in an early Buddhist discourse through the ending of passion, aversion and delusion; the Noble Eightfold Path is the practice leading to it. Its eight parts concern right understanding, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness and concentration. The City God's teaching describes the aspiration beyond the Three Realms through keeping the precepts, reciting the Buddha's name, doing good without seeking recognition and seeking awakening for the sake of suffering beings. Its aim extends beyond securing favourable circumstances for oneself. [4]
The Five Precepts give the work of goodness a practical starting point: refraining from killing, taking what has not been given, sexual misconduct, false speech and intoxicants. The Ten Good Actions develop the guidance for body, speech and mind. They include giving up divisive and harsh speech, abandoning covetousness and ill will, and understanding that conduct has consequences. These commitments affect how a person treats other lives, handles property, speaks and responds to desire or anger. [2]
People may begin this work while finding the commitments difficult to keep. The City God addresses those whose harmful karma has left them without sufficient conditions for observing the precepts. He asks them not to lose heart. They can repent, firmly aspire to keep the precepts through successive lives, remember the Buddha, eat vegetarian food and do good. In his explanation, sustained practice gradually raises the quality of life and opens a brighter future.
A good vow gives that practice a direction to return to. The City God asks people to act on their vows and remove wishes for revenge or injury. The purpose is to help, including when there is little praise, slow progress or inconvenience. A promise becomes more dependable as the person keeps it under these changing circumstances. The care offered can then remain directed towards the person or creature who needs it. [5]
Abandoning wrongdoing may also require attention to what an earlier action is still doing. If a false allegation continues to circulate, correcting it can be part of the effort to end the harm. Regret alone leaves the allegation in place. This is a practical reason to consider not only what one intends now, but also what one has already set in motion and can still repair.