Inner Asia: The Art of Nepal II: Newar Buddhist Art
The image of Amitabha Buddha as arrayed in offerings and new garments
during the Satpujas. Amitabha manifests the Pratyaveksajnana ("transcendental
insight of examination"), knowledge of the Absolute when it appears
as this or that and by examination is discernible to the practitioner in
its true form (as Sunyata, "the state of being without qualities or
conditions"). This is essentially the state of becoming enlightened.
In the paradisal context, Amitabha (or Amitayus as he is also widely known,
and Aparamita which is commonly used in Newar Buddhism) presides over Sukhavati
paradise which is one of the most popular and important of the paradises
in Buddhism having several sectarian movements in East Asia and other generalized
cults in Inner and Trans- Himalayan Asia that postulate rebirth in Sukhavati
as the major (but not final) goal of their soteriology.
