Pure Land Buddhism and the Urantia Book

[Yoder777]

Pure Land Buddhism is the most widely practiced school of Buddhism in the world. The written sources for Pure Land Buddhism date to the first and second century, but it's likely based on a much older oral tradition. We must not forget that ancient India was an oral culture, and important religious texts such as the Rigveda were passed down for hundreds of years before taking a written form.

There are some interesting similarities between Pure Land Buddhism and the Urantia Book. Buddhism teaches that the universe has always existed in some form, and that there are many worlds in which sentient beings have attained Buddhahood.

On one of these worlds was a man named Dharmakara, who vowed that after he attained Buddhahood, he would establish a Pure Land in which anyone who called out to his name in faith would be reborn and attain Buddhahood as a gift of his great compassion. In fulfilling his vow to attain Buddhahood for the sake of all beings, Dharmakara became Amitabha, the Buddha of infinite light.

Think of the similarities between what the Urantia Book teaches about the mansion worlds and what Pure Land Buddhism teaches regarding the Pure Land, a higher world more perfect than our own in which we can receive instruction from the greatest of all Buddhas and attain perfect enlightenment.

Just as the Urantia Book teaches that the mansion worlds are open to anyone with sincere faith, Pure Land Buddhism teaches that rebirth into the Pure Land is assured for anyone who calls out to Amitabha Buddha in sincere faith.

Once you attain enlightenment in the Pure Land, you immediately come back to this world as a Bodhisattva, in order to help lead all other people to enlightenment. Please compare this to the Urantia Book's concept of the finaliters. Comparisons can also be made between what Buddhism teaches about our inner Buddha-nature and the Thought Adjuster, but that is already mentioned in the Urantia Book.

[Yoder777]

While the Urantia Book is said to have come through an anonymous sleeping subject, the existence of Amitabha and the Pure Land were discovered through the historical Buddha's own enlightenment, who then taught these truths for the enlightenment of all beings.

[Yoder777]

There's also Dharmakaya, the Buddha-nature of the universe as a whole, which is similar to God the Supreme.

If we have an inner Buddha-nature, then the sleeping subject may have been speaking truths coming through his own Buddha-nature, which were then interpreted by the Sadlers using their Christian background. Perhaps Amitabha is the Universal Father who Urantia Book readers have been searching for.