The Reality of Amida Buddha

[Dharma Flower]

Shinran Shonin alternated between referring to Amida Buddha as a literal flesh and blood person who attained Buddhahood ten kalpas ago and understanding Amida as the ultimate Buddha, Dharma-body itself, without beginning or end:

Amida, who attained Buddhahood in the infinite past…
http://shinranworks.com/hymns-in-japane ... us-sutras/

It is taught that ten kalpas have now passed
Since Amida attained Buddhahood,
But he seems a Buddha more ancient
Than kalpas countless as particles.
http://shinranworks.com/hymns-in-japane ... ger-sutra/

This is due to the two-truths doctrine of Mahayana Buddhism:

The highest truth (paramarthasatya) is beyond words or description, i.e. beyond the reach of conceptual understanding and yet it was presented by the Buddha Shakyamuni as his teaching so that our conceptual understanding could grasp it. It is in this sense that the teaching is regarded as an ‘expedient means’ (upaya), often likened to a finger pointing to the moon. What is crucial about this metaphor is that the finger and the moon are mutually reflexive. Without the finger, the moon would not be known. Without the moon, there would be no need for the finger pointing to it. The one is involved in the other. The finger and the moon are inseparable. In this sense, the ‘two truths’ may be called the 'twofold truth’.
https://www.urbandharma.org/udnl2/nl031604.html

The Sanskrit original, upaya, means “coming near,” “approaching,” and in extension, “means,” “expedience.” Generally speaking, it has two usages in Buddhism: the method or practice by which a person can attain Buddhahood, and the skillful means which Buddhas use to teach and to guide sentient beings to enlightenment. In Shin Buddhism, compassionate means refers to the manifestation of ultimate reality, which is beyond time and form, in the world of relativities – that is, of the dharma-body as suchness in the realm of birth-and-death – so that it comes into the range of human comprehension and description. Thus, Amida, with Primal Vow, Name, and Land, is dharma-body as compassionate means that, while being one with dharma-body as suchness, makes possible the liberation and enlightenment of all beings.
http://shinranworks.com/glossary/

On the conventional level, Amida is a flesh and blood person who attained enlightenment ten kalpas ago. On the ultimate level, Amida is the reality of enlightenment itself, the Buddha-nature in all things and beings:

Supreme Buddha is formless, and because of being formless is called jinen. Buddha, when appearing with form, is not called supreme nirvana. In order to make it known that supreme Buddha is formless, the name Amida Buddha is expressly used; so I have been taught. Amida Buddha fulfills the purpose of making us know the significance of jinen.
http://shinranworks.com/letters/lamp-fo ... -ages/5-2/

Nirvana is called extinction of passions, the uncreated, peaceful happiness, eternal bliss, true reality, dharma-body, dharma-nature, suchness, oneness, and Buddha-nature. Buddha-nature is none other than Tathagata. This Tathagata pervades the countless worlds; it fills the hearts and minds of the ocean of all beings. Thus, plants, trees, and land all attain Buddhahood.
Since it is with this heart and mind of all sentient beings that they entrust themselves to the Vow of the dharma-body as compassionate means, this shinjin is none other than Buddha-nature.
http://shinranwritings.blogspot.com/p/n ... alone.html

As the ultimate Buddha, Dharma-body itself, Shinran understood Shakyamuni, Avalokitesvara, Mahasthamaprapta, and all other Buddhas and Boddhisattvas as emanations from or manifestations of Amida:

When practicers say Amida’s Name, worship and think on the Buddha, and aspire to be born in the Buddha’s land, the Buddha immediately sends innumerable manifestation-bodies of Buddhas, of Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara, and of Bodhisattva Mahasthamaprapta to protect them.
http://shinranworks.com/the-major-expos ... -practice/

Amida, who attained Buddhahood in the infinite past,
Full of compassion for foolish beings of the five defilements,
Took the form of Sakyamuni Buddha
And appeared in Gaya
http://shinranworks.com/hymns-in-japane ... us-sutras/

The dualistic notion that Amida must either be a literal flesh and blood Buddha from another planet or he’s nothing but a fictional character is alien to the Mahayana tradition that formed Shinran’s worldview. The point isn’t to deny the reality of Amida Buddha, but instead to say that Amida is more than what unenlightened beings can understand or describe.

Taking refuge in the Buddha is in the Dharma-body, rather than in the physical form:

Enough, Vakkali! What is there to see in this vile body? He who sees Dhamma, Vakkali, sees me; he who sees me sees Dhamma. Truly seeing Dhamma, one sees me; seeing me one sees Dhamma.
http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka ... .wlsh.html

Those new to Pure Land Buddhism often think it’s similar to Abrahamic theism, with it’s sharp dualism separating God from the individual. Yet the Buddha’s last words were to be a light unto yourself, not relying on any external refuge.

While reciting the name of Amida Buddha is, at a conventional level, petitioning a higher being, it is also, on the ultimate level, the practice of awakening to the Amida-nature within oneself, just our Buddha-nature is inseparable (nondual) from Amida's:

kihō ittai
(Jap.). A Japanese Pure Land doctrinal concept that the Buddha Amitābha and the believer who recites the nembutsu are of one substance. This idea accounts for the efficacy of the practice by identifying the very Buddhahood of Amitābha with the assurance of the believer’s rebirth in the Pure Land; without this direct link, the Buddha would not be a Buddha because his vow (that all believers who call upon him would achieve rebirth or else he would not accept Buddhahood) would not be fulfilled, and without the fulfilment of this vow, the believer could not attain rebirth in the Pure Land of Sukhāvatī. This idea originated in the literature of the Jōdo Shū, but later became common in the Jōdo Shinshū and the Jishū as well.
http://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10. ... 3100036415

As the ultimate Buddha, Dharma-body itself, Amida transcends history, and is known in one’s heart as an experiential reality only through the saying of his name:

Though a person may have shinjin, if he or she does not say the Name it is of no avail. And conversely, even though a person fervently say the Name, if that person’s shinjin is shallow he cannot attain birth. Thus, it is the person who both deeply entrusts himself to birth through the nembutsu and undertakes to say the Name who is certain to be born in the true fulfilled land.
http://shinranworks.com/letters/lamp-fo ... ages/12-2/

Just as Amida, as Dharma-body itself, is more than a literal flesh and blood Buddha, the Pure Land is the realm of Nirvana itself, rather than the limited Buddha-field of a limited Buddha:

The land of bliss is the realm of nirvana, the uncreated;
I fear it is hard to be born there by doing sundry good acts according to our diverse conditions.
Hence, the Tathagata selected the essential dharma,
Instructing beings to say Amida’s Name with singleness, again singleness.
http://shinranworks.com/the-major-expos ... -and-land/

Whether we understand Amida as a literal flesh and blood Buddha from ten kalpas ago or as a upaya-expression of Dharma-body itself, the reality of Amida’s boundless wisdom and compassion is the same, leading all beings to enlightenment through the saying of his name, Namu-Amida-Butsu.

The mind of shinjin is the mind that is sincerely entrusting in Amida's Buddha alone for one's future Buddhahood, rather than simply assenting a to a list of propositional beliefs, according to the Western definition of religious faith:

This mind arises from the Vow of birth through the nembutsu. This great Vow is known as “the selected Primal Vow,” “the Vow of the threefold mind of the Primal Vow,” “the Vow of sincere mind and entrusting,” and, further, may be called “the Vow of shinjin, which is Amida’s directing of virtue for our going forth.”
http://shinranworks.com/the-major-expos ... n-shinjin/

None of this is intended to deny that there was once a monk named Dharmakara on a distant planet in a distant time who attained Buddhahood, as told in the Infinite Life Sutra.

Instead, the point is that, according to the writings of Shinran, that would only be one of many manifestations of Amida Buddha, who is, in his real, ultimate nature, the original source of all enlightenment, the formless Dharma-body itself, the light of Nirvana shining in all things and beings, the ultimate, supreme, and primordial Buddha, the Buddha-nature in all things and beings.

[Dharma Flower]

I am happy to offer clarifications and answer any questions about the above post, especially if it's an opportunity for me to further comb the writings of Shinran and use them to provide an answer. As my Sensei would say, "I am happy to share the Dharma, because it gives me the opportunity to better appreciate it myself."