Amitabha- Buddhist GodDeity"Buddha of Infinite Light"

The King Who Renounced

Amitabha's story begins countless eons ago, when a king heard the teachings of a buddha named Lokesvararaja and renounced his throne to become a monk called Dharmakara. He wanted to build the perfect buddha-land, a realm where every being who entered would reach enlightenment. So he studied. For five kalpas he contemplated the qualities of 210 billion buddha-lands, examining which conditions best guided beings toward awakening. Then he made forty-eight vows before Lokesvararaja, each promising specific benefits to those who would be born in his future realm.

The eighteenth vow became the foundation of an entire tradition: "If, when I attain Buddhahood, sentient beings in the lands of the ten directions who sincerely and joyfully entrust themselves to me, desire to be born in my land, and call my Name even ten times, should not be born there, may I not attain perfect Enlightenment." The nineteenth vow promised that Amitabha and his assembly would appear at the deathbed of the faithful. After inconceivable ages of practice, Dharmakara fulfilled every vow and became the Buddha Amitabha. His name means "Infinite Light." His buddha-land, Sukhavati, came into existence in the western direction, ten trillion buddha-lands from our world.

Sukhavati

The three foundational Pure Land sutras describe Sukhavati with the precision of architects. The ground is made of gold and lapis lazuli. Jeweled trees line the avenues, their branches producing music when the wind blows. Seven-jeweled pools filled with water that adjusts its temperature to each bather hold lotus flowers as large as chariot wheels, and it is within these lotuses that beings are born upon arriving. There is no darkness. There are no evil destinies. Every sound heard, whether from water or wind or birds, teaches the dharma without being asked.

Nine grades of rebirth exist there. The highest welcomes devout practitioners immediately into Amitabha's presence. The lowest receives those who lived sinfully but called upon his name at the moment of death. They spend time within a closed lotus before it opens. But all who arrive, regardless of grade, never fall back. All eventually become buddhas.

The Prison and the Setting Sun

The Amitayurdhyana Sutra is set in a prison cell. Queen Vaidehi has been imprisoned by her treacherous son King Ajatashatru. The Buddha appears to her in captivity and teaches her sixteen contemplations for seeing Sukhavati. The first is the simplest: fix your mind on the setting sun in the western sky, hold its image after your eyes close, and you have fixed your mind on the direction of the Pure Land.

From there the visions deepen. The water of Sukhavati becomes ice, then ground of lapis lazuli. The jeweled trees appear in seven rows. The pools take shape. Finally, Amitabha himself sits on a lotus throne between Avalokiteshvara and Mahasthamaprapta, his body the color of gold, his light filling every direction. The thirteenth contemplation offers a smaller, simpler form of Amitabha for those who cannot sustain the full vision. A queen locked in a cell by her own son, and the Buddha gave her a window that opened onto infinity.

The Welcome

Amitabha's nineteenth vow promises that he will come for the dying. In Pure Land tradition, the moment of death is when the vow is fulfilled: Amitabha descends on golden clouds with his bodhisattva retinue, Avalokiteshvara extending a lotus pedestal to receive the departing consciousness. The Japanese call this raigo, the "coming to welcome."

The great golden triptych at Byodoin's Phoenix Hall in Uji shows it. The rapid-descent paintings at Chion-in in Kyoto show it. Across China, Korea, and Japan, scroll paintings showed it to the dying so they would know who was coming for them. The practice developed rituals to match: the dying person held a cord attached to Amitabha's hand in a painting, a physical link between the living and the Buddha. Companions chanted the nembutsu. The body was turned to face west.

The nembutsu itself is the simplest practice in Buddhism. Recite his name: "Namo Amituofo" in Chinese, "Namu Amida Butsu" in Japanese. Shandao codified the practice in seventh-century China. Centuries later in Japan, Honen declared it the only path suited to an age of declining dharma. His disciple Shinran went further: even the act of recitation was not your own effort but Amitabha's gift. Faith itself came from the Buddha. The phrase "Amituofo" became so common in Chinese life that people use it as a greeting and an exclamation of surprise.

Avalokiteshvara

Amitabha and Avalokiteshvara share one of the deepest bonds in Buddhist tradition. Avalokiteshvara emanated from Amitabha's compassionate radiance; a small image of Amitabha appears in Avalokiteshvara's crown as a mark of that origin. When Avalokiteshvara's head split into pieces from the overwhelming suffering he witnessed in the six realms, Amitabha restored him with eleven heads and a thousand arms. Compassion would not be defeated by despair. The two appear together constantly in the "Three Saints of the West": Amitabha seated in meditation, Avalokiteshvara at his left, Mahasthamaprapta at his right.