Amitabha Buddha
Amitabha, Sanskrit word, literally means boundless Light and boundless Life. He is The Buddha in the Land of Ultimate Bliss (Pure land), in which all beings enjoy unbounded Happiness. Amitabha has forty-eight great vows to establish and adorn his Pure land. People also recite or call upon his name by the time of dying will be born in the Land of Ultimate Bliss with the reception by Amitabha. Amitabha is one of the most popular and well-known Buddha in China. Amitabha Buddha (O’mi-tuo Fo): The red western Infinite Light Buddha with discriminating wisdom. One of the Five Transcendent Buddhas and the leader of Esoteric Buddhism. He is also the leader of the Pure Land Sect, but that is but a small part of his duties. Incarnated as Guru Padmasambhava shortly after Shakyamuni Buddha left this world and remained in this world until eighth century of the current era after he had established Buddhism in Tibet. In pictures of Amitabha in the Pure Land Tradition, Great Strength Bodhisattva is often shown standing to the Buddha's right, while Bodhisattva Guan Yin (Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva)-- Amitabha's other constant companion -- stands to his left.
Amitabha is a celestial Buddha described in the scriptures of Mahayana Buddhism. According to these scriptures, Amitabha is a Buddha possessing infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva. He lives in another world, a "Pure Land" (Chinese 净土 jingtu) called Sukhavatī (Sanskrit for "possessing happiness") situated in the uttermost west, beyond the bounds of our own world. By the power of his vows, Amitabha has made it possible for all who call upon him to be Rebirth (Buddhism) reborn into this land, there to undergo instruction by him in the dharma and ultimately become bodhisattvas and Buddhas in their turn (the ultimate goal of Mahayana Buddhism). Amitabha's vows indicate that all who call upon him will, after their deaths, be reborn in the Pure Land regardless of their merit or their religious or worldly status. This openness and acceptance of all kinds of people has made the Pure Land belief one of the major influences in Mahayana Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism seems to have first become popular in northwest India/Pakistan and Afghanistan and spread from there to [[Wikipedia:Central Asia|Central Asia]] and China, and from China to Vietnam, Korea and Japan. Amitabha is also known in Tibet, Mongolia, and other regions where Tibetan Buddhism is practised. In Tibet, Amitabha is considered one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas (together with Akshobhya, Amoghasiddhi, Ratnasambhava, and Vairocana), who is associated with the western direction and the skandha of saṃjña?. As Amitayus, he is also a frequently invoked Buddha in Tibet, especially in practices relating to longevity.
