AMIT?BHA

Amit?bha (Sanskrit, limitless light) is one of the socalled celestial or mythic buddhas who inhabit their own buddha-field and intervene as a saving force in our world. According to the Larger Sukh?vat?vy?ha-s?tra, in a previous life Amit?bha was the monk Dharm?kara, who vowed that as part of his mission as a bodhisattva he would purify and adorn a world, transforming it into the most pure and beautiful buddha-field. Once he attained full awakening and accomplished the goals of his vows, Dharm?kara became the Buddha Amit?bha. He now resides in the world he purified, known as Sukhavat? (blissful). From this world he will come to ours, surrounded by many bodhisattvas, to welcome the dead and to lead them to rebirth in his pure buddha-field.

The figure of Amit?bha is not known in the earliest strata of Indian Buddhist literature, but around the beginning of the common era he appears as the Buddha of the West in descriptions of the buddhas of the five directions. The cult of Amit?bha most likely developed as part of the early Mah?y?na practice of invoking and worshiping "all the buddhas" and imagining some of these as inhabiting distant, "purified" worlds, usually associated with one of the cardinal directions. The myth of his vows and pure land may have developed in close proximity to, or in competition with, similar beliefs associated with other buddhas like Ak?obhya (another one of the early buddhas of the five directions, whose eastern pure land is known as Abhirati).

Although Amit?bha shares many of the qualities associated with other buddhas of the Mah?y?na, he is generally linked to the soft radiance of the setting sun, which suffuses, without burning or blinding, all corners of the universe (in East Asia he is also linked to moonlight). The emphasis on his luminous qualities (or those of his halo), which occupies an important role in East Asian iconography, does not displace or contradict the association of Amit?bha with a religion of voice and sound; his grace is secured or confirmed by calling out his name, or, rather, invoking his name with the ritual expression of surrender: "I pay homage to Amit?bha Buddha." Even in texts that emphasize imagery of light, such as the Dazhidu lun (Treatise on the Great Perfection of Wisdom), he is still the epitome of the power of the vow and the holy name.

Amit?bha is represented in dhy?namudr?, perhaps suggesting the five hundred kalpas of meditation that led Dharm?kara to his own enlightenment. An equally characteristic posture is abhayamudr? (mudr? of protection from fear and danger), which normally shows the buddha standing.

In its more generalized forms, however, faith in Amit?bha continues to this day to include a variety of practices and objects of devotion. A common belief, for instance, is the belief that his pure land, Sukh?vat?, is blessed by the presence of the two bodhisattvas Avalokite?vara and Mah?sth?maprapt?. Faith in the saving power of these bodhisattvas, especially Avalokite?vara, was often linked with the invocation of the sacred name of Amit?bha, the recitation of which could bring the bodhisattva Avalokite?vara to the believer's rescue. The overlapping of various beliefs and practices, like the crisscrossing of saviors and sacred images, is perhaps the most common context for the appearance of Amit?bha—it is the case in China, Korea, and Vietnam, and in Japanese Buddhism outside the exclusive Buddhism of the Kamakura reformers.

The perception of Amit?bha as one among many saviors, or the association between faith in him and the wonder-working powers of Avalokite?vara, are common themes throughout Buddhist Asia. It is no accident that the Panchen Lama of Tibet is seen as an incarnation of Amit?bha, whereas his more powerful counterpart in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama, is regarded as the reincarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokite?vara.

See also:Nenbutsu (Chinese, Nianfo; Korean, Y?m-bul); Pure Lands

Bibliography

Foard, James; Michael Solomon; and Richard K. Payne, eds. The Pure Land Tradition: History and Development. Berkeley: Regents of the University of California, 1996.

Gómez, Luis O. "Buddhism as a Religion of Hope: Observations on the 'Logic' of a Doctrine and Its Foundational Myth." Eastern Buddhist New Series 32, no. 1 (Spring 1999/2000): 1–21.

Gómez, Luis O., trans. and ed. The Land of Bliss: The Paradise of the Buddha of Measureless Light: Sanskrit and Chinese Versions of the Sukh?vat?vy?ha S?tras (1996), 3rd printing, corrected edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2000.

Tsukinowa, Kenry?; Ikemoto, J?shin; and Tsumoto, Ry?gaku. "Amita." In Encyclopaedia of Buddhism, Vol. 1, Fasc. 3., ed.G. P. Malalasekera. Colombo, Sri Lanka: Government Press of Ceylon, 1964.

Zürcher, E. "Amit?bha." In The Encyclopedia of Religion, Vol. 1., ed. Mircea Eliade. New York: Macmillan, 1987.

Luis O. GÓmez