Amitābha (阿彌陀佛 Ch. Āmítuó fó, 阿弥陀如来 Jp. Amida Nyorai), the Buddha of Limitless Light (無量光佛), also Amitāyus, the Buddha of Limitless Life (無量壽佛), is the primary deity of the Pure Land school of Buddhism which developed and spread in China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan and has grown to become the largest sect in Buddhism. Amitābha is a Buddha who possesses infinite meritorious qualities; who expounds the dharma in his pure paradise (Sukhāvatī) in the West, hence the name Pure Land.

Doctrine

According to tradition Amitabha was in ancient times a king who, having come in contact with the Buddhist teaching, renounced his throne and became a monk with the name of Dharmakāra. He resolved to become a Buddha and in this way to come into possession of a paradise in which all who call his name might be born into a life of unbounded joy. This is the result of his forty-eight vows 四十八願, the most important of which are the eighteenth and nineteenth, in which he promises not to achieve supreme perfect enlightenment until he has saved all sentient beings in his paradise. The basic doctrine concerning Amitabha and his vows can be found in the Amitābha-sūtra and the Infinite Life Sutra.

Iconography

Tang Dynasty Amitabha sculpture. Hidden Stream Temple Cave, Longmen Grottoes, China.

Amitabha can be very difficult to tell apart from Shakyamuni, as both possess all the attributes of a Buddha but have no distinguishing marks. He can, however, often be distinguished by his mudra: Amitabha is often depicted with the meditation mudra (as in the Kamakura statue) or the exposition mudra, while the earth-touching mudra is reserved for Shakyamuni alone.

Amitabha is usually portrayed as having two assistants: Avalokiteśvara (Guan Yin) who appears on his right and Mahāsthāmaprāpta who appears on his left, although the order is reversed in Esoteric Buddhism. He is also one of the five buddhas of the vajradhātu.

Mantras

The Tibetan mantra of Amitabha is 'Om ami dhewa hri'. Various mantras invoking his name are commonly used by modern Amidist schools, particularly 南無阿弥陀佛, read Nàmó Āmítuó fó in Chinese and Namu Amida butsu in Japanese.

See also

• Buddhism in China
• Chan
• Jodo Shinshu
• Longmen Grottoes
• Mahayana
• Neo-Confucianism
• Shaolin