Where do we go when we die?

I always thought I knew the answer to this until today in Religious Studies, my professor asked me in front of the entire class where I believed I would go when I died. I was shocked but I answered, "I believe that when I die and if I cultivate enough that Amitabha or my Guru will manifest and take me to the Western Paradise. The professor then nodded to my answer and said that is a Pure Land Buddhist belief.

After she said this, I was dumbfounded. In Tantric Buddhism, there is the belief in bardo (49 days). However, in many of Grandmaster's stories, he talks about the "Pure Land" transcendence after death.

Please enlighten me. If I pray and cultivate without fail, when I die what will happen? Will Grandmaster manifest and take me to the Western Paradise to the Maha Twin Lotus Ponds? Or do I have to go through Bardo, and encounter visions of light and other tests?

Celestialmaiden

Hi celestial maiden!

Here is what I think, I mean,..this is what I understand from what I have read or learned during my cultivation. I might be wrong. In tantrayana buddhism we believe beings are being transferred in the six realms for ages...but when one cultivates one can escape this cycle of birth and death. When we haven't reached enlightment yet, I believe we are going to the pure land where we can carry on our cultivation. (is this true?) well I hope this is correct information,..If I am wrong, I hope someone can share what he/she has learnt.

thank you so much
may you all be as happy as a buddha

kiss vicky

The True Buddha Dharma has something for everyone, regardless of their background or karmic hindrances. There is the Pure Land path, for those who are diligent in cultivation. There is the Zen path, for meditators. there is the Tantric path, there is the wisdom path. There is the instantaneous enlightenment. It all depends on your background and affinities. It is all included in the TBS practice.
Pure lands, like Maha Twin Lotus Pond, are not a final goal; it is just a place where conditions are more conducive to cultivation...none of the hindrances to it we experience here in this samsara world.
I recall examples in Grand Master's writing in which he rescued people after their death. Including one who had never even performed one cultivation session and could not even remember the Guru Mantra!
But in a very real way, THIS is Pure Land, THIS is Bardo.  If you want to know the past, look to the present. If you want to know the future, look to the present. If you want to know the present, look to your heart. If our heart is Pure Land, we will go to Pure Land. If our heart is Hell, we will go to one of the Hells. In fact, we are already there, either way.
Of course, if there is nobody to go here or there...."nobody in the boat"....then the question of where one goes is irrelevant.
It IS good, though, knowing you have a 'free pass'...someone to "go your bail". Like trying to get into an exclusive club...."I'm with him." Of course, if he isn't going to Pure Land just yet, and spends quite a bit of time suffering the pains of Hell in order to rescue the others, well...you're either with him or not. It is often said of a great leader, "I would follow him to Hell and back." Grand Master Lu is a great leader. Be careful what you wish for, you might get it.

Okay, I think I found the answer to my own question in my textbook [Patterns of Transcendence - David Chidester] :

"Consciousness may have been understood something like a movie projector running film that had been shot during life. In other words, the illusions that a person met after death were the images, sights, sounds, hopes, and fears that had preoccupied consciousness during life. The pattern of afterlife experience -- from the moment of dyijng through the interim period of illusions to preparation for rebirth -- might have been understood to be the same for everyone. But the precise content of the sights and sounds was determined by the consciousness that projected the illusions it encountered.

Tibetan Buddhists dwelled on the images of the five merciful Buddhas, meditating on their forms, their symbols, and everything associated with them, during a lifetime of spiritual discipline. [...] By recognizing projection as projection, the consciousness was freed from the web of illusions it encountered.

Taking this consideration of afterlife projections a step further, perhaps the content of the projected illusions was determined by the kind of training a consciousness had received during life. If the consciousness were trained in disciplined meditation , perhaps its afterlife illusions would appear in greater focus. But this also suggests the possibility that different trainings could produce different projections from consciousness after death. A Tibetan Buddhist might have been expected to see Buddhist imagery, but a Christian could be expected to encounter Christian imagery, a Hindu, Hindu imagery, a Muslim, Muslim imagery, and so on. In other words, each religious tradition would prepare a conscioiusness to project different content after death.

The Bardo Thodol seemed to imply that afterlife experiences would be specific to the religion and culture in which a consciousness had been trained. As a twentieth-century Tibetan Buddhist noted, "The illusory Bardo visions vary, in keeping with the religious or cultural tradition in which the percipient has grown up, but their underlying motive-power is the same in all human beings". The pattern might be the same, but the precise content would vary from religious tradition to tradition.

Obviously, some religious traditions would find it difficult to recognize that their God, or gods, or saviors, or saints were simply illusions projected by the human consciouness. Insisting on the ultimate reality of their divine beings, many religious traditions would find it hard to accept the Tibetan Buddhist claim that those divine beings were only projections. Nevertheless, that claim was central to the Tibetan Buddhist mythic transcendence outlined in the Bardo Thodol. By recognizing the divine forms as projections, the consciouenss gained freedom from the imprisoning illusion that it was a sseparate, personal ego identity.l In that change of consciousness, the person after death gained a deathless liberation, penetrating the illusions of self and gods to achieve the reality of a transcendent freedom from rebirth."

In other words, everyone is subject to go through Bardo. Those who recognize the illusions as illusions become Enlightened. Those who do not are subject to rebirth. But the imagery a person sees varies from person to person.