Afternote～The Method Of Reciting Amitabha

Now we know that the endless birth and death of reincarnation is excruciatingly tragic, and the swiftest and best way to be free from samsara is to recite Amitabha. But how? A poem from a contemporary laity, Xia Lian Ju, has divulged to us the best method of reciting Amitabha.

      Amitabha teaches me to recite Amitabha,
      Listen attentively to my own recitation while reciting;
      Amitabha, Amitabha…one recitation after the other…
      It turns out that Amitabha is reciting Amitabha.

Our deluded heart is full of scattered thoughts. While chanting, we must focus our attention on this name of Amitabha and pay no attention to our wandering thoughts. By listening attentively to our own recitation, we think of nothing, we just listen to our own voice. When listening clearly and keeping this “pure thought” continuously, we will recover our self-nature little by little — because Amitabha” is the self-nature, the noumenon, the thusness, the true heart, the truth. By reciting the name of Amitabha in remembrance of our own self-nature, along with the inconceivable blessings of Buddha's infinite merits, our self-nature will have no doubt and can be recovered.

       Ultimately, it turns out that Amitabha is reciting Amitabha.
       We have attained the same heart, the same aspirations,
       and the same conducts as Amitabha!
       We Have Returned to The “ORIGIN”!

When we find we cannot hear our own recitations, we must increase our vigilance right away and bring our wandering thoughts back to our recitations by listening to our own recitation of Amitabha!
      
This poem tells us to ignore those wandering thoughts and just concentrate on listening to our own recitations of Amitabha. Before we know it, our mind will be purified and we will infuse into the Buddha's realm. We will have recovered our own Buddha nature, the self-nature!
      
The merits of reciting Amitabha are inconceivable!
      
If you understand the law of cause and effect now, you would believe that

       “Reciting Amitabha” is the cause, and
       “Becoming a Buddha” will be the effect.

Try it! You will be amazed, just like the people in these links:


A Nice Rendition of Amitabha
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6yyEBXaaK8

● A group of Americans get together to chant Amitabha with their simple instruments for hours once a week. So peaceful! So beautiful!
● They were told that Amitabha is the Buddha of the World of Ultimate Bliss. Amitabha has infinite light, infinite life, and infinite merits and wisdom.
● They enjoy chanting Amitabha and contemplate bathing under His light.


Amitabha Buddha in Minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2WwoVN7GPQ&fea-ture=youtu.be

● There are countless Buddhas in the universe.
● Shakyamuni manifested as a Buddha in our world.
● Amitabha is “The King of All Buddhas.” The power of His Vows is the greatest and His wisdom is supreme. He created the Western Land of Bliss on your behalf.
● The login password to His blissful land is Namo Amitabha.


What Is the Meaning of Namo Amitabha?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VzBuItn6XF0

● I entrust my life to the awakened one who has infinite light and infinite life.
● All who recite Amitabha will immediately be protected by His blessings and will, in the end, be reborn into His Pure Land, a place that is free from suffering forever.
● In the Pure Land, all will become Buddhas quickly.


Amitabha in America
http://www.purelandbuddhism.org/ea/45

● Once I started reciting Amitabha, my anxiety vanished without a trace.
● Spirits exist after death. When Peter began reciting Amitabha on their behalf, the ghosts and spirits immediately stopped their pestering.
● Amitabha's compassion and power are beyond the imagination of us mortals.
● Many illnesses are related to karma and vengeful spirits. In such instances, it is very hard to cure the disease without liberating the spirits to eliminate the relevant karmic obstructions.
● Amitabha recitation is a rare and precious treasure. People who are fortunate enough to learn it should cherish the opportunity and recite Amitabha as often as they can.


In America, an Auspicious Rebirth
http://www.pureland4:42buddhism.org/ea/337

● Huang Xixun was reborn into the Pure Land, even though he had read very few Buddhist books. He practiced Amitabha recitation for only a short time, was not a vegetarian, and did not take refuge in the Three Gems before he died.
● Although he was told by doctors he had only two or three months left to live due to terminal brain cancer, he lived another year by reciting Amitabha.
● He saw that every page of The Amitabha Sutra was full of little images of Amitabha when he was reading the sutra. Later, he dreamt Amitabha came to see him multiple times and said that, He would definitely come to escort him when his time came.
● A bright beam of shifting, multi-colored light suddenly appeared before me (Xixun's wife) and enveloped Xixun's bed. My eyes were closed, but I could see everything clearly. The Buddha light contained pale-pink, light-purple, gold, and light-blue colors. The strongest, most dazzling color was white. This light resembled the sparkle of the highest-quality diamonds. The entire beam of Buddha light was like an intricately woven pattern, ever-changing and multi-colored.


Amitabha Recitation, City of Ten Thousand Buddhas
http://www.cttbusa.org/amitabha_session/amitabha_session.asp

● The three Pure Land sutras are:
   1. The Larger Sutra on Amitabha–The Infinite Life Sutra;
   2. The Smaller Sutra on Amitabha–The Amitabha Sutra; and
   3. The Contemplation of Amitabha Sutra–The Visualization Sutra.
● Countless kalpas ago, Bhikshu Dharmâkara made forty-eight inconceivable vows in front of Lokêśvararāja Buddha. He vowed that His Buddhaland would be the most blissful and pure, and that all who are born there will not regress until realizing Buddhahood. Bhikshu Dharmâkara is now Amitabha.
● The three lower realms of existence and suffering are not found in Amitabha's Pure Land. The Pure Land of Amitabha is filled with wondrous sounds and adornments.
● The Pure Land practice is to make rebirth to The Land of Ultimate Bliss your mind's essential aim. By keeping this thought foremost at all times, in all places, you will find you have renounced your defiled thoughts and obtained pure thought, because the absence of defiled thoughts is pure thought.


Dying to Be Me! Anita Moorjani at TEDxBayArea
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rhcJNJbRJ6U

● I was in a coma. My eyes were closed but I could see everything happening all around my body, not just in the room where my body was, but beyond. I could be everywhere at the same time. It was like wherever I put my awareness, there I was. (The Buddha told us: The consciousness knows no limits, transcends time and space.)
● In this amazing expansive state, I felt like I was in a realm of clarity where I understood everything. I understood that all of us were much greater and more powerful than we realize when we are in our physical body. I also felt that I was connected to everybody. I felt that we all share the same consciousness. (Einstein: Natural and Spiritual, in a Meaningful Unity)
● I didn't want to go back to my sick and dying body. I was a burden to my family, I was suffering. There was no good reason, so I didn't want to go back. But in the next instant, I felt I completely understood — now that I knew what I knew and what caused the cancer, I knew my body would heal very, very quickly if I chose to go back. Within five days, the tumors in my body shrank by 70 percent. After five weeks, I was completely cancer-free and was released from the hospital to go   home. (Buddha Dharma: Our world is manifested by our heart and altered by our consciousness.)
● Imagine you are in a warehouse. If you have only a flashlight, you can only see things which are illuminated by your small light. But if there is a big beam of light, you can see everything; it insinuates that so much more exists than what we believe, so much more exists than what we experience. (The Buddhas have completely recovered self-nature; their beam of light is infinite, so their merits, wisdom, and capabilities are infinite. Our flashlight is small now, but it will become bigger once we work on recovering our self-nature; our fortune and wisdom will also grow accordingly.)
● The beam of this light is your awareness. When you flash your awareness on something, it becomes your reality. There can be something else that is right under your nose, but if your flashlight is not shining on it, you won't even notice it. (Confucianism: The greater one's heart is, the more wisdom and fortune he begets.)
● We will have a different life and world if we change our awareness. (The destiny of individuals and nations as well as the world can be changed!)

Namo Amitabha!

Source Of Information:
《The Scientific Proof Of Causal Reincarnation》, by Dr. Zhong Maosen (Venerable Ding Hong), translated by Mahayana Pureland Team, published by Mahayana Pureland Organization, distributed by: Persatuan Penganut Agama Buddha Amitabha Malaysia, 90 & 92, Jalan Pahang, Gombak, 53000 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.)
*** The information provided above does not contain personal opinion of this blog.