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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 September 2014
The recitation of the nembutsu, a plea for salvation in the form of the ejaculatory prayer, “I call on Amida Buddha,” far from being an aberration of Buddhist practice, is an organic development of doctrine and practice based on early Mahāyana thought. With its roots in the work of Nāgārjuna and Vasubandhu, the practice grew from a perception of the Buddha's compassion being such that it would create a provisional paradise within which searchers for enlightenment could dwell, so that, free from the cycle of karma-defilement-suffering in this world, they could more readily attain ultimate enlightenment. The nembutsu is the response of an individual to the compassion of the Buddha, a selfless acceptance of that compassion which allows the individual to be drawn into it, thus being ushered into enlightenment itself. The prayer of the nembutsu is itself a participation in the reality of enlightenment.
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