Sukhavati

Here he is recognized by a worshipper and handed a bundle of flowers, which causes him to smile, emitting rays of bright light from his mouth that enshroud his head before dissipating.

The name of the Buddha of the Western Pure Land, Amitabha or Amitabhutsu in Japanese, means limitless light.

A mind purified by meditation or tantric practice and free from defilements is said to be luminous.

Even mere images of the Buddha can be so sacred that they themselves emit miraculous light.

the most conspicuous of these is the buddha amitabha he of infinite light a being of supreme splendour and grace for now the buddhas have become active dispensers of grace at any rate from the standpoint of relative truth each buddha dwells in his paradise amidst a retinue of bodhisattvas of the latter the two highest in rank serve as the ministers of his grace constantly visiting the worlds under his rule in the forms most suitable to their purpose, in order to show their love for suffering mortality by helping them in diverse ways and leading them to paradise.

The paradise of Amitabha is Sukhavati, the happy place, a fairyland which is tenanted by an entirely divine population dwelling in perfect bliss.

Amitabha's chief minister is Avalokitesvara, a bodhisattva who has taken a vow not to enter nirvana until he has led thither all living creatures, and who for this supreme grace is worshipped throughout the north with a corresponding fervor of devotion.

As a last development of this mythology, the Buddhists are associated with taras, or saviour ladies, who under the form of sexual antithesis typify their consort's energy of grace.

Thus, one recites the Prajnaparamita mantra like this, Gade Gade Balagade Balasam Gade Bodhisvaha.

May we be born in the Western Pure Land, have the nine great lotuses as our parents.

When the lotuses open, we'll see the Buddha and awaken to the truth of non-arising, with non-reversing bodhisattvas as our companions.

Namo Amitabha Buddha.

Nagarjuna was notably also a very strong proponent of pure land teaching.

He often argued in favor of pursuing the bodhisattva path in order to achieve rebirth in Amida's pure land of Sukhavati.

He clarified and defined much of the ethical framework around which Mahayana practice is based, and argued that it is most importantly pointed toward achieving rebirth in the pure land.

He wrote extensively in his texts the Ratnavali, also known as the Precious Garland, and the Suruleka, Letter to a Good Friend, on the nature of the six bodhisattva perfections of generosity, moral conduct, patience, vigor, meditation, and wisdom.

[laughs]

When I was ordained, he said, as I think he said to many people, "When we get back to Sukhavati," 'cause we were building ting from Sukhavati on that particular retreat.

I was ordained with Atula and Punya.

Punya's no longer with us, um, in the sense of he's dead.

Um, he said, "Don't...

I'll give you the practice when we get back to Sukhavati and go through it with you," which of course never happened.

So I got the, I got the printed out page from Subuti, who I knew did the practice.

But I thought, "No, he's gonna go through it with me." So eventually, after a couple of years, I think, I got him to go through it line by line with me.

Merry transference.

May we be born in the Western Pure Land, have the nine great lotuses as our parents.

When the lotuses open, we will see the Buddha and awaken to the truth of non-arising with non-regressing Bodhisattvas as our companions.

Namo Amitabha Buddha.

Indeed, the Mahayana texts describing Sukyavati themselves suggest its essentially illusive character: a world of jewel lakes and perfumed airs and magical birds, but a world also in which the voices of winds and waters and singers perpetually preach the unreality of self and the impermanency of all things.

And even the existence of this Western paradise might seem to be denied in other sotoba texts of deeper significance, such as this: "Originally, there is no east or west.

Where, then, can south or north be?" Originally, that is to say, in relation to the Infinite.

The relations and the ideas of the conditioned cease to exist for the unconditioned.

Mary transfer.

May we be born in the Western Pure Land, have the nine great lotuses as our parents.

When the lotuses open, we'll see the Buddha and awaken to the truth of non-arising with non-regressing Bodhisattvas as our companions.

Namo Amitabha Buddha.

Okay, so we've been chanting name for Amituofo.

Amitabha Buddha often sits on the head of Guanyin, i- because her teacher was Amitabha.

So she honor her teacher, and she say, "You recite my name, you should also recite my teacher's name." And she is the principal attendant of Amitabha Buddha in the Western Pure Land of Ultimate Bliss.

So Guanyin is in our world, and also in the Pure Land.

So I did one with Attila, and the other one I led on my own.

So we had one for men and women, and we also had one which I led for men in the Sukhavati community.

And for the rest of the year, the last year I was at the London Buddhist Centre, we worked our way through most of the great... poems that William Bloke wrote.

So we read through The Innocence and Experience, Marriage of Heaven and Hell, Thel, Daughters of Albion, Milton, The Four Zoas.