Amitabha- Tibetan GodDeity"Buddha of Infinite Light"

The Monk's Forty-Eight Vows

Long ages ago, in another world-system, a monk named Dharmakara stood before the Buddha Lokeshvararaja and made forty-eight vows. Each was a condition for the pure land he would create when he attained Buddhahood: that all beings born there would be free from suffering and certain of enlightenment. The furthest-reaching vow promised that any being who called upon his name with sincere faith at the moment of death would be reborn in his paradise.

After eons of practice, Dharmakara fulfilled every vow and became Amitabha, red as the warmth of compassion, seated in meditation with a begging bowl on his lap. His pure land, Dewachen, the Land of Great Bliss, came into being in the western reaches of the cosmos. The Sukhāvatīvyūha Sūtras describe it: ground of gold, jeweled trees lining paths of lapis lazuli, lotus ponds where the newly reborn emerge from opening flowers. The air carries the teachings of the dharma in birdsong and the rustling of leaves. No suffering exists there.

Emanations in the World

Amitabha's compassion does not remain in the pure land. It radiates into the world of suffering through emanations. Avalokiteshvara, known in Tibet as Chenrezig, is the foremost: a thousand arms reaching toward suffering beings on Amitabha's behalf. Amitabha's face appears at the crown of Chenrezig's eleven heads, marking the source.

Padmasambhava, the tantric master who subdued Tibet's demons and planted Buddhism in Himalayan soil, is likewise understood as Amitabha's emanation. The Padma bKa' Thang describes his birth from a lotus on a lake, Amitabha's wisdom made wrathful and active for an age that needed force rather than gentleness.

The Transference of Consciousness

Amitabha is most intimately present at the moment of death. The practice of phowa trains practitioners to eject awareness through the crown of the head in the instant of dying, directing it toward Dewachen. Accomplished practitioners develop a small opening or blister at the crown of the skull as a sign of readiness. A stalk of kusha grass inserted into the opening stands upright.

Even for those who have not practiced, a qualified lama performing phowa at the bedside can guide the consciousness toward Amitabha's light. The dying person hears the lama's voice calling Amitabha's name. The visualization is precise: red light streaming from Amitabha's heart, drawing the consciousness upward and westward to Dewachen, where a lotus opens to receive it.