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無量壽如來

Pronunciations

Basic Meaning: Amitâyus Tathāgata

Senses:

  • Tathāgata of Immeasurable Life. The Buddha occupying the western direction in the center court of the eight-petaled lotus 中臺八葉院 in the Garbhadhātu maṇḍala 胎藏界曼荼羅. Seed syllables: aṃ, saṃ. Secret name 密號: qingjing jin'gang 淸凈金剛. White-red in color 白赤色, his hands are in the *Amitâbha-samādhi-mudra 阿彌陀定印. He wears a thin robe over both shoulders and is seated on a lotus 蓮華. His mudrā is the lotus añjali 蓮華合掌. His mantra 眞言 is namaḥ samantabuddhānāṃ saṃ saḥ svāhā. The Mahāvairocana-sūtra 大日經 (T 848; fasc. 1) describes him as renshengzhe 仁勝者. The Darijing shu 大日經疏 (T 1796; fasc. 4) defines ren 仁 as a Sanskrit transliteration 梵音 of er'er 爾爾. The Dari jing yishi 大日經義釋 (X 438; fasc. 4) gives this as er'ning 爾??. This is Sanskrit jina (victor), hence the term simply means victor. He is victor because he defeats the four Māras 四魔. The Darijing shu states that Amitâyus is the upāya wisdom 方便智 of the Tathāgata. As the realms of beings 衆生界 are infinite, so too are the compassion and upāya of the Buddhas, hence the name 'infinite life'  無量壽. Also associated with Amitâbha-tathāgata 阿彌陀如來 (阿彌陀佛); also written 無量壽佛. 〔大乘無量壽莊嚴經〕

    References:

    Somekawa, Eisuke, Michihiko Komine, Tenyū Koyama, Hisao Takahashi, and Takayuki Hirosawa. 1993. Mandara zuten曼荼羅図典 . Tokyo:  Daihōrinkaku.

    [Jeffrey Kotyk; source(s): Foguang, Monier-William, Ui, Nakamura, DFB, Hirakawa]
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    [Dictionary References]

    Bukkyō jiten (Ui) 1046

    Bukkyōgo daijiten (Nakamura) 1350d

    Ding Fubao {Digital Version}

    Buddhist Chinese-Sanskrit Dictionary (Hirakawa) 0778

    Bukkyō daijiten (Mochizuki) (v.1-6)73a

    Bukkyō daijiten (Oda) 1720-3

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    The rights to textual segments (nodes) of the DDB are owned by the author indicated in the brackets next to each segment. For rights regarding the compilation as a whole, please contact Charles Muller. Please do not reproduce without permission. And please do not copy into Wikipedia without proper citation!

    Entry created: 2008-01-08

    Updated: 2016-04-26