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The Sadhana of Buddha Amitabha

NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA SAMBUDDHASSA

In the natural expanse of pristine simplicity
in faith and trust and wonderment, we give ourselves to this suchness;
this seamless mystery of living and dying.

Spacious, loving, with feet solid in the earth,
we nurture the hints at blessedness;
the myriad faces and masks of god

Moving in this flow of compassion and deepening enquiry;
we engage with all beings in ways that support the integrity,
stability and beauty of the entire biotic community.

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Taking Refuge
GURU BUDDHA DHARMA SANGHA NAMO
Repeat three times

Contemplating my teachers and ancestors,
along with my human and non-human companions on this path of life-unfolding,
on behalf of all of us;

I take refuge in the Buddha;
the natural state of complete authenticity and presence.
I take refuge in the Dharma;
the immeasurable flow of awakening.
I take refuge in the Sangha;
the unfolding community of all life.

May I actively cultivate generosity, wholesome relating, patience, skilled effort, a continuity
of caring and enquiry, and profound understanding.
May I and all beings awaken speedily for the sake of everything and everyone.

Reflecting on Bodhicitta
In the timeless presence of Buddha/Mind/Nature-unfolding,
Actively cultivating wisdom and compassion,
For the sake of all living beings,
I am determined to realize and manifest the heart essence of Buddha Amitabha.

Contemplating the True Nature of Being
Opening wide the doors of responsive awareness and heartfelt empathy,
carefully and discerningly examine the environment within and around you.
Breathe with this.
Release into it.

This presently arising miracle of your existence,
this living world, just as it is in all its ripening fullness,
this is the Buddha realm, the pure land, the divine abode of Deva Chen;
a mirror-like dancing of radiance,
a multidimensional weaving of responsive knowing,
a realm of clear discrimination and immeasurable love,
a manifesting of lucid discernment and all-embracing openness.

This vibrant ecology of being and becoming,
of knowing and known,
this living world within and around you,
This is the actual Pure Land of Amitabha.

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OM SVABHAVA SUDDHA SARVA DHARMA SVABHAVA SUDDHO' HAM
(In their true nature, all phenomena are intrinsically pure.)

Yoga of Skilful Fabrication
Within the ever fresh continuity of your own embodied knowing,
appears a precious throne, from which is flowering
a radiant rose-pink lotus.

Resting within the lotus is a magnificent sun-moon cushion.

Seated upon this cushion is the glorious Buddha Amitabha,
red in colour,
with two hands and one face,
legs enfolded in the vajra posture,
and hands in the mudra of meditative equipoise,
holding an alms bowl filled with the nectar of immortality.

The body of Amitabha displays all the major signs and minor marks of a fully enlightened being
and is adorned with the robes of a monastic.

The speech of Amitabha resounds with the sixty qualities of excellence.

The mind of Amitabha displays the wisdom of simultaneously understanding the infinite
diversity and the profound unity, of all that exists.

In essence, Amitabha is the innate bodhi mind;
in expression, the union of clear discernment and boundless lovingkindness.

Sitting ablaze with light,
surrounded by countless Buddhas, bodhisattvas and radiant beings,
gazing with compassion on all sentient beings in every dimension of existence,
Amitabha is the essential heart reality of each guru, yidam, Buddha, bodhisattva and dharma
protector of every lineage and tradition of awakening.

Sevenfold Prayer
Imagine yourself and all beings offering gestures of profound respect to the Buddha Amitabha and all the
surrounding radiant beings. Then recite the seven-fold aspiration prayer of Samantabhadra.

1 Reverencing the Infinite Realm of Awakening
To all the Tathagatas
however they appear in the immeasurable expanse of space and time;
to each and every one of them, with body, speech and mind,
I bow with great sincerity and respect.

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By the power of this prayer of profoundly inclusive activity,
bowing with as many bodies as atoms in the myriad fields of awakening,
in the presence of all the Enlightened Ones, manifest in my mind,
I fully honour and revere the Victorious Ones.

Around each single atom, there are as many Buddhas as atoms
seated in the midst of their countless spiritual sons and daughters
and so I imagine the immeasurable realms of dharma
as filled with myriad radiant beings; victorious in the flow of awakening.

With unending oceans of praises for them all,
with a symphony of wonder, appreciation and heartfelt reverence,
I extol the Tathagata's virtues
and sing hymns to all these Sugatas.

GURU BUDDHA DHARMAKAYA NAMO

2 Releasing into the Vast Flow of Offering
Beautiful flowerings and networks of flowerings,
easeful communication and the balm of healing presence,
canopies of shelter and refuge,
lamps of clear seeing and deep understanding,
and the fragrance of love and wholesome relating,
I offer these to all those abiding in the flow of primordial ever fresh awareness.

With the clothing of harmonious thought forms and the exquisite perfume of devotion,
with activities that beautify the body of manifestation
and a measureless array of wonderfully inspiring qualities,
I make offerings to these beings dwelling in the realm of spontaneous liberation.

Offerings, incomparable and vast,
continuously arising in the spacious play of my own knowing,
I joyfully offer to all Awakening Ones.
By the power of my faith in wholesome activity
I bow to and pay respects to all these Victorious Ones.

3 Acknowledging One's Own Unwholesome Actions
Whatever unwholesome actions I have done,
driven by compulsions such as desire, hatred, delusion and fear,
whether by body, speech or mind,
each one of these I thoroughly and openly acknowledge.



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4 Rejoicing in All Wholesome Actions
Contemplating the inconceivable merit of the Awakened Ones in the ten directions,
along with the merit of all Bodhisattvas, Pratyekabuddhas, Sravakas,
and all sentient beings, wherever they appear,
in this vast ocean of wholesome activity I rejoice.

5 Entreaty to Turn the Wheel of Dharma
They who illumine all worlds of experience,
solid in their realization of love and awareness, in every situation and circumstance,
protectors of life in all its abundance and mystery, I entreat you to turn
the incomparable wheel of Dharma.

6 Request to Stay
To those who would pass from sorrow,
retreating from active engagement into a nirvana of inner peace,
I fervently pray that for as many eons as there are atoms in all Buddha fields
you continue to inspire and teach in myriads ways
supporting the welfare and happiness of all sentient beings.

7 Sharing the Merit
May any virtue generated through this practice of
reverencing, offering, acknowledging, rejoicing, entreating, and requesting,
support the awakening of wisdom and compassion in all sentient beings.

Breathing Yoga
You are seated in the presence of Buddha Amitabha, surrounded by countless Buddhas,
bodhisattvas and radiant beings. While exhaling, white light exits through the your left nostril
which enters through Amitabha's right nostril and thence descends to, and merges with,
Amitabha's heart. Your mind and that of the Buddha become inseparable. While inhaling, a
white light issues from the heart of the Buddha, leaving through Amitabha's left nostril. It enters
through your right nostril and is absorbed into your heart. Your mind the ocean of knowing
that is you and the Buddha's mind the ocean of knowing that is the Buddha become utterly
one and undivided. This breathing should be repeated a minimum of three times.

As you continue to breathe this way, all the surrounding Buddhas, bodhisattvas and radiant
beings are absorbed into Amitabha. Amitabha is absorbed into you as, simultaneously, you are
absorbed into Amitabha. Thus one enters the samadhi of Buddha Amitabha.

Now, begin to recite the mantra:
OM AMITABHA HRIH SVAHA

An alternative mantra is:
OM AMI DEVA HRIH

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As the mantra resounds throughout your being, immeasurable light and love stream from your
heart, illuminating all living beings, revealing each and every one of them to be unique and
precious embodiments of the body, speech and mind of Buddha Amitabha.
Meditate on this until the experience becomes unshakably clear.

Yoga of Effortless Naturalness
Finally, everything is experienced as the display of clear light; a play of luminous knowing and all
embracing openness. Sunyata beginningless, endless, effortless.

Within this seamless flow of ease and lucidity, this pristine 'just-as-it-is-ness', life ripens as
profound peace, beyond all words and description.
Familiarize yourself with this state until it suffuses all the activities of your life.

Concluding Aspiration
When the time of death befalls, (either one's own death or the death of someone else)
having clearly experienced the living state of Buddha Amitabha
may I and all beings, continue to engage in this pure land of Deva Chen:
this realm of clear discrimination and immeasurable love,
this manifesting of lucid discernment and all-embracing openness,
this mirror-like dancing of radiance,
this multidimensional weaving of responsive knowing,
this unbroken wholeness of sublime understanding and love.

Abiding thus, may all my wholesome aspirations become realized.
May I fulfill every one of them,
bringing benefit to beings for as long as the world exists.

In the blissful flow of realization,
unshakably centered in this vast mandala of suchness,
may I receive a prophecy to Buddhahood
directly from Amitabha the Victorious One.

Blessed with this profound dawning of inner confidence,
through the power of wisdom suffusing the ten directions,
may I too, with myriad emanations,
accomplish vast benefit for the sake of all beings.

If you are doing this sadhana for someone who has died, then recite the following:
Contemplating the inconceivable number of wholesome moments birthed
into the world through the life of _______,
May they continue to flower and increase, inspiring, supporting and beautifying
the lives of uncountable beings to come.


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May _______ and all their families and friends find rest and clear seeing,
in the heart of Dharma.
May the blessings of Amitabha Buddha be realized by everyone everywhere.

Sharing the Merit
May the merit arising from these wholesome activities
Nourish the seeds of bodhi
in all beings, everywhere.

SARVA MANGALAM

























This sadhana was composed by Tarchin Hearn in Triple Gem Hermitage,
at The Wangapeka Study and Retreat Centre, New Zealand, in March 2006.
May these words be a cause of inspiration and happiness for many beings