Amitabha Pins and Buttons

A variation on one of my most popular Buddha images

Amitabha Buddha Tibetan Buddhist Thangka Reproduction. Amitabha on Lotus Throne.

Amitabha - Red Buddha of the West

This is a detail from a large oil painting *Bodhisattva and Lotus* which you can see here: "my website":http://www.buddhist-pics.com/buddha-gallery/lotus-family.html The painting shows a red Bodhisattva sitting at ease and holding a skull and a lotus. He belongs to Amitabha's family. *Amitabha* is the Red Buddha of love and meditation and sits meditating on a throne supported by peacocks. Although ipart of a larger piece the feather is an artwork in its own right. I gave careful attention to the composition in selecting this detail.

Walking to Amitabha 2

The ferocious aspect of the bodhisattva Avalokiteshvara, Mahakala is shown in a flaming aureole, his six hands holding his horrific ritual implements. Attending Mahakala are four yaksha “ministers” in red and blue, and below they ride a bear and a horse and flank the protector goddess Palden Lhamo on her donkey. The celestial Buddha Amitabha presides, flanked by mahasiddhas and Gelugpa patriarchs. Tangkas at this scale often replaced damaged wall paintings.

Torso of Buddha Amida

Western Paradise

Pandarasavini is the embodiment of the discriminating wisdom of the Red Buddha of love and meditation, Amitabha. Her element is fire. Her time of day is sunset. Her discriminating wisdom sees the unique qualities of all things. She holds two lotuses, a blue lotus holding a vajra bell and a red lotus holding the vase of immortality. A form of Amitabha, Amitayus is associated with long life and the vase of immortality.

Siddharta Gautama meditating in the forest

Pandaravasini, white robed female Buddha, personies the Wisdom of Amitabha,. She holds the vajrabell and the vase of healing and sits on the west side of the fivefold mandala.

Amida Buddha Face

Pandaravasini personifies the Wisdom of the Red Buddha of Love, Amitabha. She holds a Vajra Bell and the Vase of Healing.

Rich in symbolism, the peacock appears out of the dark

Amitayus, the Buddha of Eternal Life, is also known as Amitabha, one of the five Cosmic Buddhas of Esoteric Buddhism. He is shown in his paradise, Sukhavati, the Western Pure Land, enthroned beneath a flowering tree festooned with strands of jewels and auspicious symbols. To either side, the sky is filled with throngs of ecstatic demigods who bear offerings and scatter flowers. Seated below are the eight great bodhisattvas, and between them are two large, low tables covered with offerings. To either side are the vast assembled audiences who receive Amitayus’s message. At the bottom, set within a vast panoramic landscape, are courtyards, giant lotus flowers, and pools from which the purified are being reborn.

Buddhist meditation rosary with the torso of the bodhisattva

GreenTara, Bodhisattva of Compassion responds to the cries of the world saving beings and dispelling fear.

In the ritual practices of Tibetan Esoteric Buddhism, it is recognized that if the practitioner relies only on the recitation of Esoteric incantations and observation of mandalas, it is impossible to reach the realm in which one becomes a Buddha, and for this, it is also necessary to practice the five forms of meditation in order to acquire the five types of wisdom. When Sakyamuni completed the ten steps in the practice of becoming a Bodhisattva, he also entered samadhi. The lower half of this thangka depicts him enduring the disciplines entailing suffering (lower right corner), the second his Esoteric practices (lower center) and debating Buddhist concepts, demonstrating the path Sakyamuni had to follow to acquire the five types of wisdom.

This large-scale appliqué depicts the Vajrayana goddess Kurukulla, known as a beautiful bewitcher of men. The four-armed figure’s red skin corresponds to her status as an emanation of the red Amitabha Buddha. Kurukulla is evoked for success with tantric rituals; reciting her mantra allows the practitioner to subdue or bewitch men of all ranks, even kings. Typical of late images of this deity, she shoots a bow with a flower-tipped arrow like the god of love, Kamadeva. As with many ferocious female protectors, she is presented with a headdress of skulls, wearing bone ornaments, and dancing on a pile of corpses. A garland of severed heads frames her body. Below is a group of fierce protectors.