Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Forum for discussion of Tibetan Buddhism. Questions specific to one school are best posted in the appropriate sub-forum.
Post Reply
plwk
Posts: 2932
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:41 am

Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by plwk »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tantra_tec ... jrayana%29" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
In the Vajrayāna Buddhism of Tibet and East Asia and following the Nālandā Tradition of India-Tibet-China, there are fifteen major tantric sādhanās:
1. Śūraṅgama Sitātapatrā,
2. Nīlakaṇṭha,
3. Tārā,
4. Mahākāla,
5. Hayagrīva,
6. Amitābha Amitāyus,
7. Bhaiṣajyaguru Akṣobhya,
8. Guhyasamāja,
9. Vajrayoginī Vajravarāhi,
10. Heruka Cakrasaṃvara,
11. Yamāntaka Vajrabhairava,
12. Kālacakra,
13. Hevajra
14. Chod,
15. Vajrapāṇi.
All of these are available in Tibetan form, many are available in Chinese and some are still extant in ancient Sanskrit manuscripts.
Dear Learned Dharma Brethren,
How would one assist someone:
a. who has great affinity with Amitabha Buddha, and has a strong Pure Land practice background but is interested in Vajrayana
b. to find which lineage within Vajrayana that has a consistent focus on this Buddha from the preliminaries right up until the Higher Yoga Tantra stage
c. based on the Wiki quote above, is the bolded one within the lower or higher Tantra practice?

I hope the questions above were clear enough...
:namaste:
User avatar
Josef
Posts: 2611
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:44 pm

Re: Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by Josef »

Amitabha is all over the place in Vajrayana.
You friend might be interested in Phowa. There is an elaborate Amitabha sadhana from the Namcho cycle that Ayang Rinpoche transmits.
These are just a couple of examples. There are many more.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
User avatar
conebeckham
Posts: 5714
Joined: Mon Jun 14, 2010 11:49 pm
Location: Bay Area, CA, USA

Re: Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by conebeckham »

I've never seen this list of 15 before....I wonder who came up with it?

Chod, for example, seems unlike the remainder of this list. And where are Mahamaya, Shri Caturpitha, and BuddhaKapala, certainly historically important "sadhanas?"
དམ་པའི་དོན་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ཆེ་བ་དང་།
རྟོག་གེའི་ཡུལ་མིན་བླ་མའི་བྱིན་རླབས་དང་།
སྐལ་ལྡན་ལས་འཕྲོ་ཅན་གྱིས་རྟོགས་པ་སྟེ།
དེ་ནི་ཤེས་རབ་ལ་ནི་ལོ་རྟོག་སེལ།།


"Absolute Truth is not an object of analytical discourse or great discriminating wisdom,
It is realized through the blessing grace of the Guru and fortunate Karmic potential.
Like this, mistaken ideas of discriminating wisdom are clarified."
- (Kyabje Bokar Rinpoche, from his summary of "The Ocean of Definitive Meaning")
User avatar
Josef
Posts: 2611
Joined: Thu Jan 07, 2010 6:44 pm

Re: Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by Josef »

conebeckham wrote:I've never seen this list of 15 before....I wonder who came up with it?

Chod, for example, seems unlike the remainder of this list. And where are Mahamaya, Shri Caturpitha, and BuddhaKapala, certainly historically important "sadhanas?"
its definitely an odd list.
that whole section of the page is a bit weird.
ah the joys of wiki.
"All phenomena of samsara depend on the mind, so when the essence of mind is purified, samsara is purified. Since the phenomena of nirvana depend on the pristine consciousness of vidyā, because one remains in the immediacy of vidyā, buddhahood arises on its own. All critical points are summarized with those two." - Longchenpa
Jnana
Posts: 1106
Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2010 12:58 pm

Re: Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by Jnana »

plwk wrote:How would one assist someone:

a. who has great affinity with Amitabha Buddha, and has a strong Pure Land practice background but is interested in Vajrayana
b. to find which lineage within Vajrayana that has a consistent focus on this Buddha from the preliminaries right up until the Higher Yoga Tantra stage
As already mentioned, there are many sources for Amitābha practices in the Tibetan Traditions. Here are a few easily accessible ones.

The Nyingma Palyul lineage preserves the Nam Chö terma cycle of Mingyur Dorje and the teachings of Karma Chagme. An abridged version of the Nam Chö Amitābha Sādhana (omitting the self-generation as Amitābha) can be practiced in this lineage without empowerment or completion of other prerequisites (although empowerments and complete preliminaries are certainly encouraged). A copy of the Nam Chö Amitābha Sādhana with both Tibetan text and English translation can be obtained from Palyul Productions. The same Amitābha Sādhana (slightly different arrangement) is offered on Thrangu Rinpoche's Official Website.

There are also two wonderful teachings related to Amitābha and Avalokiteśvara by Karma Chagme which have been translated into English. The first one is a series of eight teaching songs which cover the entire path from preliminaries, which focus on Amitābha, to the generation stage which focuses on Avalokiteśvara self-generation, to pith instructions on the union of chagchen and dzogchen. It has been taught with commentary by Chökyi Nyima Rinpoche, titled Union of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen, and by Khenpo Karthar Rinpoche, titled Quintessence of the Union of Mahāmudrā and Dzokchen.

The second teaching by Karma Chagme is a much longer and more detailed presentation of the same path structure (i.e. preliminaries which focus on Amitābha, generation stage which focuses on Avalokiteśvara self-generation, including an Avalokiteśvara self-generation liturgy which doesn't require empowerment, and complete instructions on the union of chagchen and dzogchen). Most of this text has been translated with a commentary by Gyatrul Rinpoche. It is sold as two separate books: A Spacious Path to Freedom: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Atiyoga (Pt. 1), and Naked Awareness: Practical Instructions on the Union of Mahāmudrā and Dzogchen (Pt. 2). There are also MP3 and DVD recordings of Thrangu Rinpoche teaching on this text by Karma Chagme: Thrangu Rinpoche MP3 and Thrangu Rinpoche DVD.

And finally, there is a lovely long prayer by Karma Chagme called The Aspiration of Sukhāvatī, the Pure Realm of Great Bliss.

Oṃ amideva hrīḥ.

All the best,

Geoff
plwk
Posts: 2932
Joined: Thu Feb 25, 2010 10:41 am

Re: Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by plwk »

:anjali:
Dhondrub
Posts: 210
Joined: Tue Sep 14, 2010 9:05 pm
Location: Germany

Re: Amitabha Buddha & Vajrayana

Post by Dhondrub »

http://www.quietmountain.org/links/teac ... itabha.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Post Reply

Return to “Tibetan Buddhism”