TIL the Amitabha sutra, or rather, I read a translation of it from Chinese into English. It's one of the three primary sutras of Pure Land Buddhism, a major tradition among Mahayana branches of Buddhism in East Asia. The other main Pure Land sutras are the Infinite Life Sutra, and the Contemplation Sutra.
In this tradition of Buddhism Amitābha Buddha made a vow in a past life before he became a Buddha, and pledged that if he obtained Buddhahood he would receive all sentient beings from different worlds in his Pure Land of Bliss, after they die, should they called on him for help during life. Even saying his name one time, could be enough to summon him, if it was your sincere wish. So the main practice of this form of Buddhism became chanting the name Amitābha Buddha to seek rebirth to the Pure Land. Amita means immeasurable, bha means light, together this means it's the Buddha of Immeasurable Light.
The sutra I read described the Pure Land and included nice, peaceful inspiring illustrations to accompany the text. It talks of a world free from all the sufferings we experience in this life, a place containing fabulously carved pavillions and staircases where Amitābha Buddha can be found. This environment is filled with wondrous music and fragrances, along with a host of exotic animals like cranes, peacocks and even supernatural birds that have quirky details like more than one head. In this wonderland flowers can fall out of the sky, instead of ordinary rain, and jewels grow on the trees like fruit. There are sacred ponds of wisdom that have magical stones in the water, and giant lotuses that come in colors not found anywhere else in nature.
As a Westerner reading it I thought of heaven, but one important difference between the two concepts is that the Pure Land is not meant to be the permanent place where you spend the afterlife, instead it's more like a magical school you visit that prepares you for the journey to Nirvana. If you didn't become enlightened at the time of your death, then you keep getting chances after death, and the Pure Land is an special location where you can continue to work toward enlightenment after you have passed away, with Buddha to show you how. The Pure Land is a way to expedite the process of awakening, rather than undergoing reincarnation countless times before arriving at that state of mind.
The idea is that most people don't fully awaken in one life time, it's a process of self-work that can take many lifetimes, so that's why you are reborn in another life, where you live and die again as a different person or life form, and keep returning until you have become enlightened, and break the connection to this life at last. Because life is never without suffering, the Pure Land is a more appealing place that you can be reborn into to learn if you don't want to stay in the cycle of reincarnation to do it, but haven't evolved to a point where you can go to Nirvana either. It's one pathy of many that leads to the same place.
After reading about the evils that this Dobson fellow has inflicted on innocent children and animals I thought I might find something uplifting to post in this thread to cheer folks up.
