The practice of reciting Amitabha Buddha’s name is the most supreme and virtuous of all practices. Even ordinary beings burdened with heavy karma can attain rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss through practicing it. This is because the practice channels the power of Amitabha’s Primal Vow – the inconceivable Other Power. Even those utterly enslaved by afflictions and possessing the lowest spiritual capacity will, through faith in it, receive Amitabha's welcoming at death. Thus the practice of Amitabha-recitation embodies two extraordinary qualities: supremacy and accessibility.

As to its supremacy: In the deepest understanding of Mahayana Buddhism, Amitabha Buddha’s essential nature and his name exist as inseparably one. No essence exists apart from the name; no name exists apart from the essence. The six-character-name (Namo Amituofo) completely contains the wondrous essence of all virtuous practices. This single act of vocal recitation holds infinite merit in its fullness. 

The power of Amitabha’s Primal Vow fashioned this name for the express purpose of transferring all merit to the practitioner. Through Other Power’s inconceivably skillful means, a single invocation surpasses all other good deeds.

The Contemplation Sutra gives us two moving scenes. In one, at the moment of his death, hellfire closes in on a person who has broken the precepts and committed evil deeds. A spiritual guide proclaims the merit of the name to him, and those all-consuming flames of karma are transformed into a cooling, comforting breeze. In another, someone guilty of the five gravest transgressions and ten evils lies dying. A good friend teaches him to recite “Namo Amitabha Buddha.” He utters just ten recitations, and a golden lotus throne appears, radiating like the brilliant sun, to carry him to the Land of Ultimate Bliss.　

Such is the name’s immeasurable benefit and unsurpassable merit.

As to its accessibility: Whether you walk, stand, sit, or lie down, practising this recitation assures you of Amitabha’s deliverance. Regardless of time, place, or circumstance, invoking the name leads to the rebirth in the Land of Ultimate Bliss. Rebirth depends not on whether our bodies and minds achieve purity, but on Amitabha’s Other Power embracing and guiding us.

(Translated by the Pure Land School Translation Team;
edited by Householder Fojin)