Essence of the Amida Sutra

This is my translation of Ouyi Zhixu's Essence of the Amitābha Sūtra (佛說阿彌陀經要解, Taisho no. 1762). Master Ouyi was a prolific author, writing numerous commentaries and works on diverse topics such as Tiantai, Pure Land, Yogacara, Chan (Zen) and Precepts. Towards the end of his life, he focused on Pure Land practice, and the commentary in this book is a reflection of this. Ouyi's main original Pure Land work is this Essence of the Amitābha Sūtra, which has become one of the most important Pure Land commentaries in modern Chinese Pure Land. Patriarch Yinguang himself recommended it. 

This translation is meant as an improvement over Cleary's older "Mind Seal of the Buddhas" which is incomplete and contains various omissions by the translator. My new translation contains numerous footnotes explaining important topics and also quotations from the sub-commentary, A Convenient Commentary to the Essence of the Amitābha Sūtra, written by Qing dynasty Pure Land Buddhist Bhiksu Da Mo of Honglin temple (阿彌陀經要解便蒙鈔, no. X0430 in CBETA).  In particular, this sub-commentary contains a variant edition of Ouyi's text, with many extra passages. I have restored several of these.