MURYOKO
'Infinite Light'
Journal of Shin Buddhism
Harold Stewart
Birth in the Borderland
By reciting the Nembutsu with pure Faith, the devotee of Amida reaches the Stage beyond Retrogression and is assured of Rebirth in the True Pure Land. But one of imperfect faith who still suffers from lingering doubts or self-effort is likely to be reborn only in the Borderland of Jodo or, in an alternative symbolism, in a closed lotus-bud that will not open until after the lapse of a period of duration in proportion to his karmic residues of ignorance and defilement. Only then will the reborn devotee, seated on the pericarp of his opened lotus, be able to hear Amida expound the doctrine and so ultimately attain posthumous Nirvana.