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The very explicit signs and relics left behind in different forms of Buddhism were very eye opening to me. At first I thought it might just be faith-promoting myths or stories or something, but just how explicit they are, and the high standards of evidence Buddhists use in authenticating these things convinced me otherwise. Pure Landers knowing ahead of time the exact moment of death was a big one. Other things like lights/colors in the sky (purple is a big one in PL) or flowers spontaneously falling were very interesting.

The most interesting and perhaps convincing cases I've read were in Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth (which has some overlap between Pure Land and Tibetan Buddhism) which contains a lot of cases of people dying, heading to the Pure Lands, and then coming back. Very much like NDEs (near death experiences) except that these people are dead for much longer (for 7 days for example) and the standards for determining that someone has died are very high. There can't be breathing, and the body has to be cold (except for usually at the heart, which is a sign of good rebirth). Really, the standards are as good as in the Western medical tradition from what I can tell, and that was very eye opening for me. And yet, these people don't experience rigamortis and they come back after 5, 7 or more days and tell about their experiences, which are very vivid and extremely consistent.

Then there are the cases in Tibetan Buddhism of masters disolving into light, bodies shrinking, leaving relics behind in cremation etc. I have a small amount of crystals from the Buddha's tooth relic from Sri Lanka (if my memory serves me well), which my teachers gave me. It is very precious, and it is a great addition to my shrine. I definitely feel like it adds depth to my prostrations. It may actually be from another site than Sri Lanka, I'm not sure. But the tooth constantly produces crystals which are then given to people to take home as relics.

Edit: It took me a minute to find this, but here is an inspiring documentary of a Pure Land monk who knew the time of his death beforehand and was also quite remarkable for several other reasons.

Edit 2: Here is an example of a master in my own lineage who had experiences of the kind mentioned in Peaceful Death, Joyful Rebirth, as well as visiting the Pure Lands while meditating. I feel like I've found a more detailed version online before, but I'm not finding it right now. She was dead for three weeks before she came back.

Try Pure Land, Pure Mind.

Don't worry about finding Guru's, temples, or a Sangha. Those things are sometimes helpful but not at all necessary in this tradition. The practice is simple enough and easy to understand. Even in your own rural corner of US you can become an accomplished Dharma Master if you really commit yourself.

Master Kuang Ch'in was totally illiterate when he joined a monastery and became a monk around age 40. Despite being unable to study the Sutras and being given all the worst work to do at the monastery, he was very diligent about chanting. Strictly through chanting alone, he became an incredibly well regarded Dharma Master to the extent that other great Dharma Masters who were very well read came to seek his wisdom. Point being that chanting alone is all you need to make great progress.

Go for it!

Haha, oh yeah, it's huge so I completely understand where you're coming from. Thankfully some people in Tibet realized that early on and came up with something called the Lamrim teachings (meaning the "Gradual Path to Liberation") which are a structured series of teachings that take you through everything you need to know or practice.

If you ever become interested enough to want to learn more about it, I'd recommend you try reading Approaching the Buddhist Path by the Dalai Lama and Thubten Chodron. It's the first book in a series that is very accessible and takes it time to explain things without being too simplistic or too complicated (although the first book starts off with a teaching on emptiness which might be pretty confusing but that's okay because it's just to make the mind somewhat familiar with the idea so it can "chew" on it while the reading continues).

But, to go back a comment, Zen and PL work together really well. In Soto Zen, the emphasis is placed on zazen or shikantaza ("just sitting" meditation) and when you're practicing the nembutsu you're "just chanting" as a form of meditation so, in reality, the two practices aren't all that different.

There's also some interesting philosophical notions surrounding each practice. Such as: When you're sitting zazen, you're fulfilling all vows. You can't possibly create karma when you're sitting zazen, so you're basically being Buddha at that time. Similarly, when you're changing nembutsu, you're likewise fulfilling all vows and can't create karma. And because your mind is focused on Amida, your mind becomes indistinguishable from Amida and you spend your practice being Amida at that time.

Since the two practices are more or less the same (just with different details), they are practiced side-by-side outside of Japan. On that note: I often wonder why there's been little-to-no effort to reunited PL and Zen in Japan. That might be something for me to look into! Maybe I'll make a post in this sub :)

From Bhikkhu Bodhi (I think it's in the preface to the Anguttara Nikaya book):

> An intriguing divergence between two traditions [i.e., the Pali and Chinese canons] occurs in a discourse widely known as the Kālāma Sutta, which records the Buddha's advice to the people of Kesaputta. In contemporary Buddhist circles it has become almost de rigueur to regard the Kālāma Sutta as the essential Buddhist text, almost equal in importance to the discourse on the four noble truths. The sutta is held up as proof that the Buddha anticipated Western empiricism, free inquiry, and the scientific method, that he endorsed he personal determination of truth. Though until the late nineteenth century this sutta was just one small hill in mountain range of the Nikāyas, since the start of the twentieth century it has become one of the most commonly quoted Buddhist texts, offered as the key to convince those with modernist leanings that the Buddha was their forerunner. However, the Chinese parallel to the Kālāma Sutta, MĀ 16 (at T I 438b13-439c22), is quite different. Here the Buddha does not ask the Kālāmas to resolve their doubts by judging matters for themselves. Instead, he advises them to not give rise to doubt and perplexity and he tells them point blank: "You yourselves do not have pure wisdom with which to know whether there is an afterlife or not. You yourselves do not have pure wisdom to know which deeds are transgressions and which are not transgressions." He then explains to them the three unwholesome roots of kamma, how they lead to moral transgression, and the ten courses of wholesome kamma.

This is about Shin Buddhism specifically, but is pretty exceptional:

https://www.amazon.com/Shin-Buddhism-Bits-Rubble-Turn/dp/0385504691

This is a novel, and also about Shin Buddhism, but:
https://www.amazon.com/Tariki-Embracing-Despair-Discovering-Peace/dp/4062099810/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1520609290&sr=1-1&keywords=tariki

I could be wrong but I want to say this is the standard pretty much. The Three Pure Land Sutras: Revised Edition (Bdk English Tripitaka Translation Series) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1886439184/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_3beMBbXA0TV9S