Amitabha Buddha Personal Deity Practice
Start by praying for the root lineage blessing: First empty the mind. Next, visualize the Root Lineage
Guru appearing above your crown and radiating light on everyone present. Chant the Root Lineage
Guru Heart Mantra 7 times. Pray to the Root Lineage Guru to empower you so that the practice will
be auspicious. Visualize your parents, children, relatives, friends, and enemies join you in this practice.
Wake Up Call: Clap twice, then cross hands and snap thumbs and middle fingers.
1. Recite the Purification Mantras and Earth God Mantra
2. Recite the Invocation Mantra
3. Tender the Great Homage with Visualization
4. Mandala Offering
5. Fourfold Refuge
6. Armor Protection
7. Recite the High King Avalokitesvara Sutra
8. Recite the Rebirth Mantra (7 times)
9. Recite the Root Lineage Guru Heart Mantra (108 times)
10. Mudra and Visualization

Mudra (Meditation Mudra or Root Mudra):
Meditation Mudra: Hold both hands below the navel
chakra, with the right hand over the left and palms facing up.
Form a circle with the thumb and index finger of the right
hand, and form another with the thumb and index finger of
the left so that both circles meet.
Root Mudra: Hold both hands in front of the chest and interlace fingers to form a fist.

Extend the two middle fingers to touch and form a circle.
Visualization: First empty the mind.
Chant the Emptiness Mantra:
Om, si-ba-wa, su-da, sa-er-wa, da-er-ma, si-ba-wa, su-do-hang. (3 times)
(1) Above an expanse of ocean is a stretch of clear sunny sky. A moon disc rises from the ocean
into the sky. Inside the moon disc is the red Sanskrit seed syllable “seh,” emitting great red light.
(2) The seed syllable inside the moon disc revolves and transforms into Amitabha. Amitabha
holds a nectar-filled bowl with his Meditation Mudra and looks compassionately at all beings.
(3) Visualize the nectar from the bowl held by Amitabha transform into a
stream of white light which rises up in an arc and comes down to enter
one’s body through the crown chakra. As a result, one’s entire body
becomes crystal clear and purified of all karmic hindrances. (Or, the lotus in Amitabha’s hand emits white light on oneself.)
11. Recite the Amitabha Heart Mantra
Visualization: Hold mala beads in front of the chest and move each bead with the thumb during
chanting. Visualize the left hand transform into a vajra bell and the right hand into a vajra scepter.
The mother bead or emblem transforms into the Many-Jewels Buddha’s Stupa and the four
“divider beads” transform into the Four Heavenly Tutelaries. The tassel transforms into a “lotus
hand” while the string threading through the beads transforms into a circle of inherent white light
of Vajrasattva. During mantra chanting, when a bead is moved, visualize Amitabha appear inside
the bead and come to the forefront.
Mantra: Om, ah-mee-deh-wah-seh. (108 times)
12. Entering Samadhi
(Nine Cycle Breathing, Entering of the Deity into Oneself, Release of Oneself into the Cosmic
Consciousness, Breath Counting)
13. Emerging from Samadhi
Praise Verse:
Homage to Amitabha
Whose majestic, pure vow brings peace and bliss
To all sentient beings in the turbid worlds,
Guiding them to No-birth in His Western Pure Land.
Jing-yuan zhuang-yan an-le li,
Pu-ji zhuo-shi zhu-you-qing;
Si-fang jie-yin zheng wu-sheng,
A-mi-tuo-fo wo jing-li.
14. Recite the Principal Heart Mantras
15. Recite the Buddha’s Name (3 times)
16. Dedication
May all who uphold the name of Amitabha Buddha
Be born together in the Pure Land of His Western Paradise.
Recompense the Fourfold Generosity from above,
And aiding those who suffer in the Three Paths below.
Upon seeing the Buddha,
May I be liberated from the cycle of birth and death,
And may I develop the qualities of Buddhahood,
And thus free all who suffer.
I, ________ (your name), dedicate the merits of this practice to the Root Lineage Guru. May the
Root Lineage Guru always be healthy, remain in samsara, never enter nirvana, and forever turn
the dharma wheel. May everyone be healthy, free of hindrances, strong in cultivation, and may
all circumstances become auspicious.
May all supplications be completely fulfilled.
May all hindrances be removed. Wun!
(For a detailed description of Dedication, refer to page 165 of A Complete and Detailed
Exposition on the True Buddha Tantric Dharma.)
17. Recite the Hundred Syllable Mantra (3 times)
18. Tender the Great Homage with Visualization
19. Recite the Completion Mantra
Om, Bu Lin. (3 times)
Om Mani Padme Hum.
Dismissal: Clap twice, then cross hands and snap thumbs and middle fingers.
End of Practice: May all endeavors be auspicious.
Xiu-fa yuan-man, ru-yi ji-xiang.