A Example of the Amitābha Cults in Tibet: The Religion and Practice of Amitābha by the Seventh Dalai Lama

There have been two major streams of the Amitabha cults in Tibet. One is exoteric, and is based on the two Sukhavativyuha Sutras. The other is an esoteric sadhanas or sgrub-thabss featuring Amitabha as the main character and deriving from Indian Esoteric Buddhism, especially the tantras after Sarvatathagatatattvasamgraha Some texts are definitely the former, while some are hybrids, not distinguishing the two. As for the exoteric cult, their aim is also definitely declared or understood as becoming buddha for the sake of all sentient beings, not just to be born in the pure land of Amitabha. Hence there are some obvious differences from what is usually meant by Pure land Buddhism in Japan. Formerly, most studies on Tibetan Pure Land Buddhism have just dealt with the exoteric aspects. Thus the esoteric aspects of sadhana texts and the hybrid of the two have received far less attention. For this reason we still do not have a wholistic understanding of the Tibetan Amitabha cults. Hence, we need to summerize the basic nature of the Amitabha cults in Tibet, tracing some points back to Indian Buddhism, and also study the basics of the sadhana texts. In this thesis, we translate and provide detailed annotations to a sadhana called mGon po tshe dpag med par brten pa'i dngos grub sgrub thabs ("The Means of Meditation or Achivement Dependent on the Saviour Amitayus. cf. Toh. No.5853 [5]), by the Dalai Lama VII BIo bzang bskal bzang rgya mtsho (1708-1757) who is also famous as a Buddhist scholar. Like the texts by Jitari C/Jetari, ca. 960-1040) in India, most of the sadhanas have answered worldly desires, for example a desire for a long life, giving them the right place in the Buddhism for all the sentient beings. The sadhanas which focus on specific Buddhas or boddisattivas and develop forms of meditation of their brjas and mudras are often classified as the krrya-tantras. But this sadhana is a concise but highly developed one, beginning with the basic seven-aspects of pTIja, goes far as to the meditations of the two kramas of the anuttra-yoga-tantras. And also in another sadhana by the same author, Ma gcig grub pa'i rgyal mo lugs kyi tshe dpag med la brten nas brtan bzhugs 'bul tshul gyi cho ga bsGrigs sram khregs rdo rje'i srog shing (Toh. No.5853 [9]), the tradition of this meditation is mentioned in the form of prayers to the previous teachers. Hence we provided their names in the appendix