Who is Amitabha ?
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amitabha
For other uses, see Amit�bha (disambiguation).
Amitabha Buddha pictured in the Ushiku Daibutsu in Japan
AmitÄ�bha (Sanskrit: अमिताà¤, AmitÄ�bhaḥ; Chinese: 阿彌陀佛, Ä€mítuó Fó; Tibetan: འོད་དཔག་མེད་, Ö-pa-me) is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the MahÄ�yÄ�na school of Buddhism. Amitabha is the principal buddha in the Pure Land sect, a branch of Buddhism practiced mainly in East Asia. According to these scriptures, AmitÄ�bha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakara.
According to the Larger Sūtra of Immeasurable Life Amit�bha was, in very ancient times and possibly in another realm, a monk named Dharmak�ra. In some versions of the sūtra, Dharmak�ra is described as a former king who, having come into contact with the Buddhist teachings through the buddha Lokesvararaja, renounced his throne. He then resolved to become a buddha and so to come into possession of a buddhakṣetra ("buddha-field", a world produced by a buddha's merit) possessed of many perfections. These resolutions were expressed in his forty-eight vows, which set out the type of buddha-field Dharmak�ra aspired to create, the conditions under which beings might be born into that world, and what kind of beings they would be when reborn there.
Wikisource has original text related to this article:In the versions of the sutra widely known in China, Vietnam, Korea and Japan, Dharmak�ra's eighteenth vow was that any being in any universe desiring to be born into Amit�bha's Pure Land and calling upon his name even as few as ten times will be guaranteed rebirth there. His nineteenth vow promises that he, together with his bodhisattvas and other blessed Buddhists, will appear before those who call upon him at the moment of death. This openness and acceptance of all kinds of people has made the Pure Land belief one of the major influences in Mah�y�na Buddhism. Pure Land Buddhism seems to have first become popular in northwest India/Pakistan and Afghanistan, from where it spread to Central Asia and China, and from China to Vietnam, Korea and Japan.
The sutra goes on to explain that Amit�bha, after accumulating great merit over countless lives, finally achieved buddhahood and is still alive in his land of Sukh�vatī, whose many virtues and joys are described
