RABBITS! I get to tend rabbits! duhhhhhhhh dls 4 life

The Buddha used a method similar to Jungian "guided imaging"(http://www.altguide.com/therapy/info/jung.html) to express his teachings in symbolic form, so that it would be easier for people to grasp. This teaching, in which the Buddha-nature was symbolized or personified as Amitabha (Jpn Amida, Chin. Omitafo, 阿彌陀佛)was first presented in the Pratyutpannasamadhi Sutra (佛說般舟三昧經) and is mentioned in other Sutras, like a whole chapter of the Lotus Sutra is about Avalokitesvara (Jpn. Kannon, Chin. Kwan Yin, 觀音菩薩)who represents the compassion that comes with awakening. Most of Buddhism in China, Viet Nan and Tibet use the Pure Land method, and accept this interpretation, as do the Tendai, Shingon and Obaku Zen sects in Japan (the famous raked sand gardens of the Zen temples were designed as models of the descriptions of the Pure Land in the Sutras, as a guide to the meditation of students who were illiterate). But Honen, the founder of the Jodo sect disagreed with the standard interpretation (given by Chih-i, founder of the Chinese T'ien-t'ai school) and instead followed Shan-tao, known as Zendo in Japanese, who held that Amida was a real person, and the Pure Land a real geopgraphical place. Honen's student, Shinran, followed Honen officially, so the sect that followed Shinran, Jodo Shinshu (Shinshu or Shin Buddhism) still disagrees with the rest of Buddhism on this. Most of their members, at least in the USA and Canada, do not seem to subscribe to the literal interpretation. Shinran himself recommended enshrining the written name of Amida, or a picture, or a statue in that order. It sounds like he favored the forms that would be less likely to lead people to thinh of Amida as a person.