Why Buddha Recitation?

We should know, furthermore, that to escape birth and death, we must sever delusions of views and thought. However, according to the ancients, "blocking delusions of views is as difficult as blocking a raging stream coming from forty miles away." Why, then, even mention eliminating all delusions of thought? Thus, if we want to achieve liberation in this Dharma-Ending Age, the most appropriate method is Buddha Recitation. This is because, through this method, the cultivator, after utilizing his self-power to the utmost, receives additonal assistance from other-power. Even though his karma and delusions are not yet extinguished, he can, through Amitabha Buddha's power of welcoming and escorting, "take his residual karma along" to the Pure Land. Once reborn, he will no longer retrogress and will have transcended birth and death forever! ... (Master Thich Thien Tam, Buddhism of Wisdom and Faith, sect.54, p. 226.)

... In the Great Heap Sutra and the Longer Amitabha Sutra, Sakyamuni Buddha, with his profound wisdom and compassion, predicted the low capacities and evil conditions of people in the Dharma-Ending Age as well as the efficacy and appropriateness of the Pure Land method. Therefore, in this Degenerate Age, when the capacity of Dharma methods to bring people to Enlightenment "in this very life" has declined, only the Pure Land method can prolong the turning of the Dharma wheel and save sentient beings. Other Dharma methods, such as Zen, Sutra Studies, Precept Keeping and Esotericism, while still taught and followed by many, can play only a supporting role. They cannot, by themselves, produce results along the path of liberation. In a letter to a fellow monk, Elder Master Yin Kuang expressed it this way: "Deep into the Dharma-Ending Age, when practising other methods, we may speak of sowing good seeds and creating favourable conditions for Enlightenment in the future, but we cannot speak of attaining Buddhahood and achieving liveration in this very lifetime."
(Master Thich Thien Tam, Buddhism of Wisdom and Faith, sect.54.)