Amitabha Buddha – Pure Land Meditation
The following meditation had been modified by me to make it a more specific self-healing meditation and to better fit the time we now live in.
- Sit quietly and complete 3-4 deep, calming breaths.
- Pay attention to the quality and density of the light you see outside of your body.
- Do your best to “feel” the presence of this light.
- Become familiar with using the light of the earth, sun, moon, and stars to heal.
- Notice closely the absolute boundlessness and emptiness of the healing light.
- Imagine taking in the full colored light of a rainbow as your breathe in and out.
- Do your best not to worry; be as content as possible with this experience.
- Go into your memory or do this on a clear day/night – see and internalize the healing light in the rising and setting sun, in the full moon, and in all the stars above you.
- Do whatever you must to transform this light energy into pure healing light. Let go of doubt, defensiveness, and resentment. Be one with the healing light.
- Use your imagination to see/feel the light entering all of your sense one by one. Notice! Take it in!
- See, hear, feel, smell and taste the beauty of this ever-healing light. Let it all in!
- Allow in the healing light and sense its unconditional love for you.
- Let it enter your mind, body, soul, heart – your whole and beautiful self.
- Work hard to radically accept the healing light’s gifts to you. Accept it!
- Be with and be the healing light without clinging to it, attaching to it, or seeking it.
- Now breathe fully and smile fully, allowing yourself to be lit-up by the healing light.
- Be one with it in your inner body and mind. Be open!
- Experiment: Let inner darkness represent your deep, personal suffering – then allow tears and feeling of the healing light to “bless you.” Allow, allow, allow!
- Feel the healing light calming and soothing your afflictive emotional states.
- Relax into the light as it penetrates into you and your suffering mind and body.
- With each breath go deeper into your relaxation and appreciation.
- Feel and be the deep tranquility you are experiencing. Thank the healing light!
- Chant: “Om Mani Tabba Be.” Repeat the chant if you wish to do so.
- Now rest in complete healing light and inner contentment. Just be!
- For more information refer to DEMI (2010). Amitabha: The Buddha of Light and Life. See also Atone, J. (2011). The Promise of Amitabha Buddha…
Anthony R. Quintiliani, PhD., LADC
From the Eleanor R. Liebman Center for Secular Meditation in Monkton, Vermont and the Home of The Monkton Sangha
Author of Mindful Happiness
– even from ourselves. We feel something is very wrong in this moment, and we allow separateness to pull us into a frenzied effort to escape pain and suffering. At such times our most deeply hidden negative self-views strengthen and dominate. We will do almost anything to escape the aloneness and self-alienation. Endless impulses to seek what is wrong and forget what is right take over our emotional lives. It is at such times of strong emotional challenge that we need to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha. Tara Brach’s creation of the RAIN process is a huge leap in a sane direction. According to Brach, RAIN helps us overcome tendencies to activate the “second arrow” of suffering; our second arrows are caused by unhelpful thoughts, feelings, emotions, body sensations, and behaviors related to the “first arrow.” The first arrow is the original event or experience that caused our pain and suffering. Often our reactivity to it makes matters worse – we suffer more in our own minds and bodies. Below I will review the RAIN process and make additional comments on its usefulness and versatility in ongoing self-care and emotional self-regulation. The practice of RAIN skills is appropriate for all people – helpers and helpees.
It is called an anchor, an anchor that protects us from the random ups and downs of samsaric life. Equanimity helps us to “see” more clearly, thus enabling us to respond to challenging causes and conditions without reactive emotional dysregulation. Ultimately, being in longer periods of equanimity also frees our minds, hearts, and souls from afflictive emotions and experiences. We may learn to handle pain, blame, and loss in a more balanced manner, and we may learn not to attach too strongly to pleasure, praise, and personal benefits. Yes, it is a strong sign of a mature person in a matter practice; it signifies emotional and spiritual maturity. It is the best “Way.”
position to take on the losses we face, we need to become experts in pursuing mindful Right Action. To do so, we must be regular practitioners of mindfulness – mindfulness in its more structured forms. We must live it! This process includes our own self-care: regular meditation and/or yoga, exercise, healthy diet, healthy sleep, and healthy relationships. With the skills and strengths that come from such a regimen of self-care, we are better prepared to adapt, cope, and respond well to emotionally challenging causes, conditions, and situations. Be strong in your contemplative mindfulness; find and use your personal inner strengths; and, follow your deep values as well as personal aspirations. Remain active in your pursuit of equanimity, emotional stability, resilience, and become a much happier person. Part of this process of renewal is to give generously to others. Try not to forget this fact.
way of life, a way to experience being in all its pleasant, neutral, and unpleasant realities. Their work integrates fully modern clinical psychology and the ancient wisdom of Buddhist psychology. The process echoes The Four Noble Truths: What causes human suffering? Is there a way to end human suffering? What role does mindfulness, especially meditation play in this process? What makes up the path to transformation from suffering to happiness?
that when we die the essence but not the ego lives on into new experiences. Karma and re-birth are givens in this spiritual view. Our tissue and bones, all our atoms and molecules of body-mind decompose. Eventually we return to the earth as elements, carbon dioxide, and water. The mind is purely a biologically (bio-chemical) function of existence, of being in this world. It cannot be permanent, so neither can we. The mind is a n integration and response to experiences coming into us from our sense-doors. And the ego, well that goes away along with the rest of us. The confusion that sometimes exists about being alive in this contemporary world versus living on an another or other form/s is challenging to many people. The Buddha did not deny that we exist in this samsaric world; he placed greater emphasis, however, on our spiritual, moral, and ethical development. On his death-bed he reportedly noted to his followers that everything is transient, so personal attachment to anything (people, places, things, experiences) is not recommended. This is not nihilism, nor is it some form of adverse nothingness. He called to his followers to know their own true self, and to follow the dharma in all life’s experiences. If all things are impermanent, then so is our pain and suffering. And yes, so is our joy and happiness. When unhelpful thoughts and emotions dominate, take refuge in The Buddha, The Dharma, and The Sangha. So what does this imply in day-to-day challenges of living? Below I have noted a few Zen Buddhist practices that may be helpful to you – Buddhist or not.