Amida Buddha

Union with God is union with love as well. It's really not such a rare thing. One does not have to picture only "mystics" as being filled with love. Seems to me all nurses sacrificing themselves to care for others have such a union.

One does not even need a religion to experience union with god or love. I have transcended my "lower self" a few times and "divine" seems like a good as any word for it. Really it is indescribable. It encompasses within and without at the same time and while nothing changes everything changes.

Another word I like is "shimmering." Everything had a shimmering highly sharp dream quality. But like I say, is is known within and without at same time. There is no word for that. Plus, experience cannot be shared though words. But that does not stop people from trying lol. Actually, the human brain and it's mind is made for conceptual or description based experience sharing.

"Awakening is less a matter of actualization and more a matter of “truing,” of becoming aware of the way things already are." Joan Sutherland, Roshi, founder of the Pacific Zen School

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn

Is this another way to say Amida Buddha?
I found this: When someone calls upon Amitabha Buddha, they are able to be reborn into the Pure Land,
where enlightenment can be obtained much more easily than on Earth.

Like in all Faiths in Pure Land you find traditionalists , the doctrinaire, modernists, demythologizers etc. I think it might have something to do with each of us being unique ()

What you have found is a quite traditional way of calling upon Amida. Amida will indeed come at death to escort you to the Pure Land wherein Buddhahood will be easier to realise

However, read D. T. Suzuki, and Amida is a personification of Reality-as-is, and the Pure Land is here, now when seen with our true mind/heart.

The heart of Pure Land is the nembutsu. Thank you. Acceptance. Such can exist and be true in any mind/heart, no matter their own unique understanding.

Amida Buddha:

Amida Buddha or Amitābha, after doing good deeds over countless lives, finally achieved buddhahood and created a pure land called Sukhāvatī, beyond the bounds of our own world. By the power of his vows, Amida Buddha has made it possible for all who call upon him to be reborn into this land, there to undergo instruction by him in the dharma and ultimately become bodhisattvas and buddhas in their turn, the goal of Mahāyāna Buddhism. From there, these same bodhisattvas and buddhas return to our world to help yet more people while still residing in his land of Sukhāvatī, whose many virtues and joys are described.

Be in two places at the same time? That was actually in the book Journey Of Souls, which was a book based on the hypnotic regression of people to the time between lives. Some described that we can send some energy into a human incarnation yet stay in the astral world with the majority of our energy at the same time. We can also split our energy and be re-born into two people at the same time according to some people's memories.

The description I found on wiki said according to Amitābha doctrine, one can come to paradise, the Pure Land of Amitābha, if they visualize at their death Amitābha in the heaven over their head in the western horizon, think his name as a mantra and leave the body as a soul through the crown chakra.

I'd add that According to the “larger” of the Pure Land sutras, only men may be reborn in Sukhavati; the land of Bliss. But women can be re-born as men and thus gain entry that way. But then later Buddhist writings, particularly in East Asia, demonstrate a popular belief that women may also enter Sukhavati upon death.

Also according to the Pure Land sutra's quote “Having extinguished all evil passions, they are free of those tendencies that cause one to fall into evil realms." So according to pure land, there are also "evil" places one can go after death if one is full of evil

"After death, one goes to a painful or pleasant state of existence. Each receives his karmic consequences, and no one else can take his place. In accordance with different acts of good and evil, people are destined to realms of bliss or suffering. Thus, because of the natural working of karma, there are innumerablekinds of suffering in the three evil realms through which wicked beings must pass, life after life, for many kalpas, with no end in sight. It is indeed difficult for them to gain release, and the pain they must undergo is indescribable." The Pure Land Larger Sutta.

Pure land seems very similar to Christianity to me in some ways. But also very different in other ways.

[Miss Hepburn]

I'm glad I brought this up.

[sky]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

Amida is a personification of Reality-as-is, and the Pure Land is here, now when seen with our true mind/heart.

That's a lovely explanation

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

Pure Land seems very similar to Christianity to me in some ways. But also very different in other ways.

The actual origins of the Pure Land way is lost in time, the subject of much current scholarship. However, it undoubtedly arose within what could be caller a "non-dual" "eastern" context.

This is what sets it apart from most Christian perspectives.

Faith (shinjin) is "salvation". Pure Land is not salvation by faith.

Obviously, living the path is another thing entirely to reading about it.

The nembutsu is its heart. Thank you. Acceptance.

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

Originally Posted by AbodhiSky

Be in two places at the same time?

I must admit that I find it difficult at times just being in one place.... I have not heard of this. Maybe it has to do with Shinran (one of the "fathers" of Pure Land (Jodo Shin Shu) saying that to "go forth" to the Pure Land is to return.

Its that old "non-duality" again....

[The Cobbler's Apprentice]

It is the essence of Mahayana Buddhism:- to truly "go forth" is to return - to this world.

This can be related to "acceptance" leading to true transformation. The "true" will therefore always be acceptance of others, "suffering" with them in a certain sense.

Therefore, never a betrayal of this world for some imagined "other" in the future.

One world at a time, as Thoreau said.

[sky]

Originally Posted by The Cobbler's Apprentice

I must admit that I find it difficult at times just being in one place.

I personally can be in two place's at the same time.
It's about the physical and the mental imo....