[Untersberg56]

The question paramount to us all is: "What path should I follow for my salvation?"

The real question therefore is not "Is there God?" but "Do I believe that there is existence after death for me"?

Pure Land Buddhism like all Mahayana schools requires first and foremost that one develops the Bodhi Mind: the aspiration to attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings until the end of time.

This statement shows that the Christian concept of Heaven is not logical. If you developed the Bodhi Mind, and arrived at the gates of Heaven, you would naturally decline to enter until such time as every member of suffering humanity had entered before you.

According to Pure Land teaching, you will be reborn there if every morning and evening you make your vow for rebirth in the Pure Land by reciting the name of the goddess figure Kuan Shih Yin with utmost sincerity. When Faith arises we are definitely assured of Enlightenment. The grade of rebirth depends upon whether one's practice is deep or shallow."

Kuan Shih Yin also appears "in all lands and realms" and is therefore another aspect of Compassion so close to the concept of the Virgin Mary as Redemptrix that one may be interchangeable with the other.

(Source: Letters from Pure Land Patriarch Yin Kuang, 1992)