Changes

*''Japanese'': 阿弥陀 ''(Amida)''

*''Japanese'': 阿弥陀 ''(Amida)''

The Buddha Amida (Skt: ''Amitabha'') is the Buddha of the Western Paradise, worshipped as the chief deity of [[Jodo-shu|Jôdo-shû]], or "Pure Land" Buddhism.

The Buddha Amida (Skt: ''Amitabha'') is the Buddha of the Western Paradise, worshipped as the chief deity of [[Jodo-shu|Jôdo-shû]], or "Pure Land" Buddhism. Widely worshipped in Japan, Amida is also the most-worshipped incarnation of the Buddha in China.<ref>Gallery labels, Royal Ontario Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/48532400446/in/photostream/]</ref>

Amida, the Buddha of Boundless Light, is said to have many ages ago taken a vow, known as the Original Vow, to compassionately offer salvation to any who meditated upon his name "with single-minded and wholehearted devotion,"<ref>Tsunoda, 185.</ref> rescuing their soul to the Pure Land, also known as the Western Paradise. While meditation on the name of Amida was originally a somewhat more complex and [[Esoteric Buddhism|esoteric]] process, in late [[Heian period]] Japan, it evolved into being a simpler repetition of the name, a recitation known as ''Nenbutsu'' (念仏). Among late Heian period aristocrats, it also became popular to have paintings of Amida near one's sickbed, and even to hold onto golden threads linking one to the painting, so that as one died, one's soul could be pulled by Amida, by those threads, directly into the Pure Land. [[Fujiwara no Michinaga]], who died at the Amida Hall at [[Hojo-ji|Hôjô-ji]] in [[1027]], is said to have passed away in this manner.<ref>Penelope Mason, ''History of Japanese Art'', Second Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall (2005), 141.</ref>

Amida, the Buddha of Boundless Light, is said to have many ages ago taken a vow, known as the Original Vow, to compassionately offer salvation to any who meditated upon his name "with single-minded and wholehearted devotion,"<ref>Tsunoda, 185.</ref> rescuing their soul to the Pure Land, also known as the Western Paradise. While meditation on the name of Amida was originally a somewhat more complex and [[Esoteric Buddhism|esoteric]] process, in late [[Heian period]] Japan, it evolved into being a simpler repetition of the name, a recitation known as ''Nenbutsu'' (念仏). Among late Heian period aristocrats, it also became popular to have paintings of Amida near one's sickbed, and even to hold onto golden threads linking one to the painting, so that as one died, one's soul could be pulled by Amida, by those threads, directly into the Pure Land. [[Fujiwara no Michinaga]], who died at the Amida Hall at [[Hojo-ji|Hôjô-ji]] in [[1027]], is said to have passed away in this manner.<ref>Penelope Mason, ''History of Japanese Art'', Second Edition, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall (2005), 141.</ref>