Download Animated Screensaver Buddhism
If there are good men or good women who hear of Amitabha Buddha, and recite his name singlemindedly and without confusion, for one day or two days or three days or four days or five days or six days or seven days, then when these people are about to die, Amitabha Buddha and all the sages who are with him will appear before them. When these people die, their minds will not fall into delusion, and they will attain rebirth in Amitabha Buddha's Land of Ultimate Bliss.
Amitābha (Sanskrit : Amitābha; Chinese : Āmítuó Fó; Japanese : Amida Butsu; Korean : Amit'a Bul; Vietnamese : A-di-đà Phật;Tibetan : Ö-pa-me) is a celestial buddha described in the scriptures of the Mahāyāna 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, Amitābha possesses infinite merits resulting from good deeds over countless past lives as a bodhisattva named Dharmakāra.
Gautama, was known as the Buddha or "Awakened One." Buddha is also sometimes translated as "The Enlightened One." Often, he is referred to in Buddhism as Shakyamuni Buddha or "The Awakened One of the Shakya Clan."
Gautama Buddha
Buddha came to the world to show the path of righteousness, to destroy the path of error, and to break down sorrow. Buddhism is not agnosticism or atheism. Buddha did not deny God. He only said: "Do not bother about questions like 'Is there God?', 'Do I exist?', 'Is the world real or not?'. Do not waste your time and energy in useless discussions. Become a practical religious man. Purify your heart. Control the mind. Lead a virtuous life. You will attain Nirvana or emancipation or eternal bliss."
Buddha was born on the border of Nepal about 620 B.C. and died about 543 B.C. at Kusinagara in Oudh.
Buddhism was founded by Gautama Sakya Muni, the rebel child of Hinduism. It sprang up directly from Hinduism. Buddha never thought of founding a new religion. He made no new discovery. He was proclaiming only the ancient and pure form of religion which had prevailed among the Hindus.
Quan Yin is one of the most universally beloved of deities in the Buddhist tradition. Also known as Kuan Yin, Quan'Am (Vietnam), Kannon (Japan), and Kanin (Bali), She is the embodiment of compassionate loving kindness. As the Bodhisattva of Compassion, She hears the cries of all beings. Quan Yin enjoys a strong resonance with the Christian Mary Magdalene, and the Tibetan goddess Tara.
Avalokitesvara, or Kuan Yin, is regarded as the "reflex" of Amitabha'a further emanation or embodiment of "maha karuna (great compassion), the quality which Amitabha himself embodies in the highest sense. Many figures of Kuan Yin can be identified by the presence of a small image of Amitabha in her crown. It is believed that as the merciful redemptress Kuan Yin expresses Amitabha's compassion in a more direct and personal way and prayers to her are answered more quickly.
'Avalokita' means one who looks from the beyond at the world.
He was flowing like a river into the world of the beyond. He is called the holy lord and bodhisattva. Again the Sanskrit word has to be remembered. The Sanskrit word is iswara, which is translated as 'holy lord'. 'Iswara' means one who has become absolutely rich from his own riches, whose riches are of his own nature; nobody can take them away, nobody can steal them, they cannot be lost. All the riches that you have can be lost, can be stolen, will be lost -- one day death will come and will take everything away. When somebody has come to that inner diamond that is one's own being, death cannot take it away. Death is irrelevant to it. It cannot be stolen, it cannot be lost. Then one has become iswara, then one has become a holy lord.
Avalokitesvara, the most loved of all Buddhist deities, is the bodhisattva of infinite compassion and mercy. He is also referred to as; Padmapani - Holder of the Lotus, Lokesvara - Lord of the World or Protector of Tibet. Avalokitesvara vowed to listen to the prayers of all human beings in difficulty and to postpone his own Buddhahood until he has assisted every one on earth to achieve nirvana.
The most popular mantra relating to Avalokiteshvara is, "Om Mani Padme Hum".
In Chinese, the name of the Bodhisattva is Gwan Shr Yin, in Sanskrit, Avalokitesvara. "Gwan" means "to regard." What does he regard? Shr, "The World" What does he regard in the world? Yin, "the Sounds." "Gwan" refers to the wisdom which regards or contemplates. "Shr" refers to the realm which is contemplated - the realm of all living beings in the world.
