AMITĀBHA (AMITĀYUS). - One of the countless buddhas of Mahāyāna Buddhism, "the Great Vehicle," systematized, several centuries after its first appearance, by the Indian philosopher Nāgārjuna (2nd century A.D.), founder of the Buddhist school Sānyavāda, "the System of the Void" (nihilist).
Mahāyāna differs from primitive Buddhism (6th-3rd centuries B.C.) through a particular evolution and extension of the latter's historical and religious content. It represents in fact a universal means of salvation, inasmuch as it makes possible the attainment of final liberation (nirvāya) not only for monks but for all men, even those living the active life. It further sees in the Buddha Sākyamuni a divine being, endowed with the greatest gentleness and meekness, superior to every other, and in the bodhisattva (literally, "one whose essence is enlightenment") a creature destined for clear-sightedness, that is, to become a buddha, but endowed with such great altruism, through effective compassion toward every sufferer, as to defer for an exceedingly long time the attainment of its own liberation. Such a being is therefore superior to the Arhat of primitive Buddhism, the saint free from every possible passion, who in his last existence is a master of the truths taught by the Buddha and a guide by them to the path of salvation, but no more. For these different characteristics, primitive Buddhism was called Hīnayāna, "the Little Vehicle," by the followers of Mahāyāna.
Mahāyāna Buddhism, in addition to what has been mentioned above, has multiplied, as heavenly reflections (dhyānābuddha, "contemplative buddhas") of the great historical Buddha, numerous buddhas, most exalted beings, great saviors, whose life has reached a state of sanctification through countless centuries. One of these is precisely A., the dhyānābuddha of the present period. Reborn in the West, after millions of years lived in the exercise of the most austere virtues as a bodhisattva, he is endowed with immense (amita) splendor (abha), whence his name Amitābha, just as he is called Amytāyus for the exceedingly long (amita) duration of his life (āyus). His abode, the paradise Sukhāvatī, "the happy land," is, as the Sukhāvatīvyāha, "the particular description of the blessed land," describes it, a cause for men of every physical and moral well-being. Anyone who, having lived in the fullness of goodness, turns his thought to A., is reborn in that happy land.
The cult of the great dhyāna-buddha A. has also passed into modern China, in which Buddhism is the result of the fusion of various Mahayanist sects. There he, called O-Mi-To, has great power over the souls of the dead, whom he frees from their sins and raises to the rank of bodhisattva. In Japan A. is venerated under the name Amida; he constitutes the ideal type of the buddha and occupies in worship a place far higher than that of the historical Gotama-Buddha. In Tibet A. is venerated under the name Od-dpag-med.