The Modified Hippy

Pure Land Buddhism is the largest Buddhist tradition in East Asia, though it’s often ignored or misunderstood in the West. Zen (Cha’an) and Tibetan Buddhism are more fashionable in the United States, yet both these traditions incorporate Pure Land practices in their native countries. 

We can know that Pure Land Buddhism is true based on its endorsement by the early masters and patriarchs of the Mahayana, enlightened teachers who were close in geographic and temporal proximity to the historical Buddha: http://www.jsri.jp/English/Pureland/LINEAGE/india.html

Perhaps the most influential of these teachers is Nagarjuna, so much so that he’s often referred to as the Second Buddha. Out of compassion for ordinary people who can’t take up the monastic life, Nagarjuna endorsed Pure Land practice as the easy path to Buddhahood: 

The bodhisattva Nagarjuna emphasizes this core teaching of Pure Land Buddhism, saying in Chapter on the Easy Path, “Amitabha’s Fundamental Vow is as follows: If anyone invokes me, recites my name, and takes Refuge in me, he will instantly enter the state of assurance (of rebirth into the Pure Land), and subsequently attain the highest perfect enlightenment. For that reason, you should always be mindful (recite the name) of him.” https://www.buddhistdoor.net/features/the-lifeline-of-pure-land-buddhism

Nagarjuna is well-known for expounding on the two-truths doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism:

In Mahayana Buddhism, reality is explained in the doctrine of the Two Truths. This doctrine tells us that existence can be understood as both ultimate and conventional (or, absolute and relative). Conventional truth is how we usually see the world, a place full of diverse and distinctive things and beings. The ultimate truth is that there are no distinctive things or beings. To say there are no distinctive things or beings is not to say that nothing exists; it is saying that there are no distinctions. The absolute is the dharmakaya, the unity of all things and beings, unmanifested. https://www.thoughtco.com/doctrine-of-the-two-truths-450002

From the perspective of two-truths doctrine, we can see Amida as a finger pointing to the moon, as the symbolic expression of Dharma-body itself, the ultimate Buddha, beyond time and form, and the Pure Land as the realm of Nirvana:   https://matthewsatori.tumblr.com/post/158942896901/is-amida-buddha-a-space-alien