AMITABHA, BUDDHA OF BUDDHAS

AMITABHA THE NUMBER ONE BUDDHA

   “Amitabha Buddha is number one,” Tripitaka Master Hsuan Hua (1918-1995) said. “This is because of the power of His vows. This power is so great that when you recite “Na Mwo E Mi Two Fwo” (the Mandarin rendering of “Namo Amitabha Buddha”, translated as “Homage to Amitabha Buddha”), you can very quickly realize Buddhahood. To become a Buddha, all you need to do is to recite the Buddha’s Name…”

   It is said:

   “Of all the Buddhas of the three periods of time (past, present and future)

               throughout the ten directions (throughout the entire cosmos),

   Amitabha Buddha is foremost.”

   Why? “His awesome virtue is unfathomable,” Master Hua said. “The power of Amitabha’s great awesome virtue is incomparable. No other Buddha can compare with Him.”  (1)

   In the Infinite Life Sutra,  Shakyamuni, the Buddha of recorded history, has said that Amitabha had cultivated as a Bodhisattva (then known as Dharmakara) for innumerable kalpas to acquire His superpower status of supreme omniscient wisdom, boundless great compassion and sublime virtues. Amitabha became a Buddha 10 kalpas (cosmic ages) ago. 

   “In the Infinite Life Sutra, Buddha Shakyamuni was very clear in praising Buddha Amitabha as the most respected, with the brightest of light, the King of all Buddhas,” said Master Chin Kung (born 1927), a leading Pure Land teacher of today.

   “When returning to (one’s original Buddha-nature, the pristine state of Buddhahood) and relying upon a Buddha (for one’s spiritual fulfillment), who would be better than the best?

   “Buddha Shakyamuni did not ask us to return and rely upon himself but rather upon Amitabha Buddha, for he is the ultimate Buddha of all Buddhas…”  (2)

   To quote Patrul Rinpoche, the great 19^th century Tibetan Buddhist teacher:

   “…Seated on the cushion is your glorious root teacher, incomparable treasure of compassion, in essence embodying all the Buddhas of the past, present and future, and in form the Buddha and Protector,  Amitabha. He is red, like a mountain of rubies embraced by a thousand suns…”  (3)

   About 800 years ago, the great Japanese scholar-monk Shinran also regarded Amitabha as the ultimate Buddha. In the nembutsu (reciting or chanting Amitabha’s Name), he said he heard his spiritual life “enfolded, embraced, fulfilled by Amida’s wisdom and compassion.”  (4)

   As seen by Shinran, Amitabha is forever risking His Buddhahood for every living being, having vowed and committed Himself to universal salvation.

   In the light of His 48 great vows, Amitabha’s attainment of perfect enlightenment can also be seen as fundamentally supporting and underwriting His primal vow to save all sentient beings. If He can become a Buddha, He wants to make sure – through acquiring the necessary purifying power over countless eons -- that all other beings can also become Buddhas like Him, by empowering them to realize their innate Buddha-nature. 

   And according to Shinran, all the other beings will also achieve mujobutsu, the ultimate Buddhahood, on par with Amitabha, once they awaken fully to their true potential.

   While in deep mediation, Vasubandhu, the outstanding Indian Patriarch and Bodhisattva of the fourth century in the common era, visualized and saw Amitabha as the Buddha of transcendent Light shining everywhere without hindrance. So he took refuge in Amitabha and aspired to be born in the Pure Land. And he said: “The sacred Name which enlightens living beings is heard throughout the ten directions.”  (5)

INVOKE AMITABHA, AWAKEN BUDDHA-NATURE

   According to the early T’ang Pure Land Patriarch Shan-tao (613-681), one only has to repeat Amitabha’s Name with singleness of mind to be born in the Pure Land. This pre-eminent seventh century Chinese sage has called it the act of right assurance, being in accord with the Buddha’s vow and thus assuring oneself a lotus dwelling-place in the Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

   While in samadhi (deep meditative concentration), Shan-tao also saw Amitabha and perceived this Buddha as the embodiment of immeasurable pure merits.  (6)

    The spiritual significance of the sacred Name is rendered in The Flower Ornament Scripture (The Avatamsaka Sutra) as follows:

   “The reason for suffering in the past

   Over countless eons

   Revolving within birth and death

   Is due to not hearing the Name of Buddha…  (7)

   “Hearing the Name (of) Buddha and developing faith

   Is a monument in the world…” (8)

   “The Name of Buddha Amitabha contains infinite meanings. It is the Name of the universe, so it includes everything,” Master Chin Kung has said. 

   In the fulfillment of Amitabha’s 17^th Vow (glorification of the Name), Amitabha is glorified and praised by all the innumerable Buddhas in the ten directions of the universe.

   And, Master Chin Kung has added: “This Name alone contains all of Buddhism as well as all laws throughout the universe. Therefore, to chant this Name is to chant all sutras…”  (9) 

   Sogyal Rinpoche has written: “As you invoke Buddha, your own Buddha-nature is inspired to awaken and blossom as naturally as a flower (such as a sunflower) in sunlight.”  (10)                                                                                   26.11.2001 2255

   In the Surangama Sutra, Shakyamuni Buddha has described the human mind as “the temple of enlightenment” (bodhimandala).

   An ancient gatha (stanza or poem) has got it down:

   There is a Buddha in every mind.

   In the Dharma-ending age

   Among the people there is little faith.

   They look for the Buddha Dharma

   Outside the mind, not knowing

   That every mind is a Buddha.  (11)

   Wei Lang, aka Hui Neng (638-713), the Sixth Ch’an/Zen Patriarch in China, told his disciples in a final address at the Kwok Yen Monastery several hours before he passed away: “Within our mind there is a Buddha, and that Buddha within is the real Buddha. If Buddha is not sought within our mind, where shall we find the real Buddha? Doubt not that Buddha is within your mind, apart from which nothing can exist…”  (12) 

   Hui Neng also advised them: “What you should do is to know your own mind and realize your own Buddha-nature (“the Essence of Mind”)…”     (13)

   To Saicho (766-822), a great scholar-monk and founder of the Tendai school in Japan, Amitabha is an embodiment of the absolute reality and is to be sought in one’s mind. He also encouraged reciting Amitabha’s Name.  (14)

   Master Chu-hung (1535-1615), the Eighth Patriarch of the Lotus school in China, has taught that one’s mind is indeed the Buddha and also that Buddha is one’s mind. This means that it is a fallacy to believe only in Buddhahood in one’s own mind. Through the practice of the nien-fo (reciting or chanting the Buddha’s Name) which presupposes the existence of the Buddha outside the mind, one comes to realize its true nature within.

   :

   The great Chu-hung has also taught that:

Amitabha has a particularly close relationship (affinity) with the people of this world. Even wicked people sometimes call his Name, and those in distress and sorrow involuntarily recite it. That is why one should think only on this Buddha and call his Name. 

The people in the last Dharma age should seek birth in the Pure Land only by uninterrupted mindful recitation of the Name. For all, whether of inferior or superior capacity, single-minded concentration on the Name leads to realization of the true nature of one’s mind.

Through the steadfast mindfulness of the Buddha, one comes to realize that the Pure Land of Tranquil Illumination is nowhere but here, and Amitabha is not outside one’s mind.  (16)

   The New York-based The Van Hien Study Group explains: “The most common Pure Land practice is the recitation of Amitabha Buddha’s Name (Buddha Recitation or Buddha Remembrance). This should be done with utmost faith and a sincere vow to achieve rebirth in the Pure Land.

   “Along with this popular form of Pure Land, there is a higher aspect, in which Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light and Life, is equated with our Buddha Nature, infinitely bright and everlasting  (Self-Nature Amitabha, Mind-Only Pure Land). Thus, to recite the Buddha’s Name is to recite the Buddha of our own mind, to return to our own pure mind.”  (17) 

   The pure mind is Buddha; the pure mind is also the Pure Land.                 22.11.2013 03:33  

   As interpreted by Master Chin Kung: “…Our self-nature was originally awakened. So, the Buddha that we rely upon is not to be found outside ourselves but is innate to our self-nature. The Pure Land School teaches “Buddha Amitabha and the Pure Land are already within our self-nature”. Buddha Amitabha, Buddha Shakyamuni and all Buddhas manifest from our self-nature. Therefore, what we rely upon is the Buddha or awakening of our self-nature. From now on we should be awakened and never again be deluded or filled with attachments for if we do so then we have not turned back…”

  Turning back spiritually is to return to our original Buddha-nature and to reclaim it in its pristine clarity and pureness.

   Ven. Dr. Thich Thien-An, a Vietnamese Zen master, has written: “Every living being has within himself the Buddha nature, the principle of enlightenment. To become a Buddha is simply to discover this Buddha nature, always present within, eternally shining…”  (19)

   On the practice of chanting Amitabha Buddha’s Name which purifies and transforms the mind, Thich says: “The Chinese thus chant, “Namu A-mi-to-Fou,” the Japanese, “Namu A-mi-da Butsu” and the Vietnamese, “Namo A-di-da Phat.” They all mean: “I pay homage to Amita Buddha”.”

   And Thich goes on to stress that “the important thing is to chant with one mind, concentrating upon the chanting and excluding all other thoughts from the mind…

  “We practice it until our mind becomes perfectly calm and quiet and Amita Buddha is always with us.

   “We practice it further until we and the Buddha become one, until there is no name to be chanted and no one to chant it.

   “When this happens, this land and the Pure Land become interfused in a perfect harmony beyond the realm of perception and knowledge.

   “Then we change this Samsara into Nirvana, the suffering world into the Blissful Land of the West, this world of impurity into the Pure Land.

   “To experience this reality, one only needs to chant, “Namo Amita Buddha,” in complete sincerity, mindfulness and faith.”  (20)

REDEMPTION FOR THE SINNERS

   For even the greatest of sinners, the Pure Land message is that the vast redemptive power of Amitabha can save them from the depths of the Avici hell. In the Contemplation Sutra, Shakyamuni told Ananda and Queen Vaidehi: “…Because he (a sinner) calls the Buddha’s Name (ten times), with each repetition, the evil karma which he has committed during eighty kotis (800 million) of kalpas of Samsara is extinguished…”   (21)

   Calling on Amitabha with sincerity and faith signals a change of heart and a break with the confused and troubled past.

   According to the Pure Land Patriarch Tao-ch’o (562-645), even a single nien-fo that grows in the mind can destroy all impurities. Quoting from the Garland (Avatamsaka) Sutra which states that the nien-fo can destroy all evil passions and hindrances, he dubbed this mindful practice of reciting the Buddha’s Name as the king of samadhis (meditative concentrations).  (22)

   Another great exponent, Genshin (942-1017) has written in his comprehensive work on the Pure Land (A Collection of Essential Passages Concerning Birth in the Pure Land): “Those with extremely heavy evil karma have no other means (of salvation); by only repeating the Buddhas’s Name, they can attain birth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss.”  (23)

   In a recent article on Pure Land faith and practice, Dr. J. C. Cleary has written that “above all it is the power of Amitabha that makes birth in the Pure Land possible for sinners as well as saints, because Amitabha has vowed to save all who faithfully and single-mindedly invoke His name...”  (24)

UNIVERSAL SALVATION AND ENLIGHTENMENT

   The redemption of sinners is, of course, subsumed in Amitabha’s assurance of Buddhahood for all beings. The essence of the Pure Land faith and practice arises from Amitabha’s commitment to universal salvation.

   It is declared in The Flower Ornament Scripture Book 1:

   The Buddha’s boundless wisdom light

   Can destroy the net of ignorance and illusion

   Saving all beings in all worlds…

   Far more than others, the ignorant and the sinful need Amitabha to save them spiritually. One attains spiritual emancipation, breaking free from the karmic gravity of the world of samsara, the moment one is reborn in Amitabha’s Pure Land. And rebirth in this Pure Land can be secured by having faith in Amitabha and reciting/chanting His Name as an act of mindfulness and devotion.

   The Pure Land Patriarch T’an-luan (476-540) has emphasized that ordinary beings full of evil passions should avail themselves of the Other Power to attain salvation  He was the first to use the term of “the Other Power” to describe Amitabha’s infinite and self-renewable spiritual resource to save and enlighten all sentient beings.  (25)

   To Honen (1133-12120, the founder of the Japanese Pure Land school, who found enlightenment in the Name of Amitabha at the age of 43 after more than 30 years of study and practice,  the nembutsu is the supreme practice which can bring salvation to even the most wicked of errant human beings. 

   As insightfully perceived by Shinran, the best-known and boldest of Honen’s leading disciples, and felicitously expressed by two of his present day followers in Hawaii, Shoji Matsumoto and Ruth Tabrah:

   “Amida’s enlightenment is pledged to each of us. This is the reality of the fulfilled vows, the reality of the light that we can no longer ignore. 

   “This light opens us to empathy from and with Amida.

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   “It gives us the courage to face the reality of our impermanence.

   “It enables us to respond to the certainty of Buddhahood which Amida’s vow-fulfilment freely promises each one…  (26)

   “Amida’s wisdom and compassion is always piercing the dark cover of our self-imprisoning ignorance… (27)

   “In the inescapable light of wisdom and compassion, none is helpless. No one is worthless. No one is excluded from the unconditional salvation of vow-powered enlightenment…”  (28)

   Cleary has also written: “Believers put their faith in Amitabha Buhha and recite His Name, confident in the promise He has given to deliver all who invoke His Name. All classes of people, whatever their other characteristics or shortcomings, are guaranteed rebirth in the Pure Land and ultimate salvation, if only they invoke Amitabha’s Name with single-minded concentration and sincere faith...”  (29)

   Amitabha has vowed to attain complete and perfect enlightenment on the condition that it can ensure that all sentient beings will be born in His Pure Land where they will achieve their own spiritual liberation and perfection like Him. Moreover, He has vowed that all will be born in His Pure Land if they entrust themselves to Him, desire to be born there, and call His Name with faith and sincerity (even once or up to ten times).

   Referred to as the Primal Vow, it can be read as Amitabha’s sworn undertaking to assure Buddhahood for all the faithful since He has attained His consummate enlightenment with this all-embracing and altruistic objective in mind.

   Known as bodhicitta, the aspiration for full enlightenment to benefit and save all beings, constitutes the very first vow of all bodhisattvas in Buddhist practice.      

   While a period of about three kalpas of spiritual cultivation is required for a dedicated bodhisattva to become a Buddha, Amitabha (then known as Dharmakara Bodhisattva) practised for innumerable kalpas to develop an inexhaustible power plant of pure karmic energy to fulfill all His vows. 

   The supreme accomplishment is recorded in The Flower Ornament Scripture::

   “Buddha practiced for boundless eons

   Purifying and mastering transcendent vows;

   Therefore He appears throughout the world

   Saving beings forever and ever...”  (30)

   

 Amitabha has become a Buddha on the condition of being able to fulfill His 48 great vows. And His success in achieving the ultimate Buddhahood clearly signifies that He will also succeed in accomplishing universal salvation as well as the enlightenment of all sentient beings. His Pure Land serves as the main platform for His spiritual mission.      

   Amitabha’s boundless great compassion equates and equals universal salvation.

  Amitabha’s Infinite Light of Omniscient Wisdom is forever and ever pledged and dedicated to the enlightenment of every one who has faith in the Buddha of Infinite Light and Infinite Life.

  To quote Master Hsuan Hua:

     “To become a Buddha, all you need to do is to recite the Buddha’s Name…”

         NAMO AMITABHA BUDDHA