Amitabha, the "Buddha of Infinite Light," personifies the transmutation of passion into all encompassing luminous awareness. Seated in his celestial paradise called Sukhavati, the "realm of bliss," Amitabha rests his hands the gesture of meditation while holding the begging bowl of an ordained Buddhist monk - a symbol of infinite openness and receptivity. In the Kalinga – Bodhi Jataka, the Buddha condemns anthropomorphic representations of his forms as "groundless, conceptual, and conventional" (Avatthukam Manamattakam). In deep meditation or spontaneous states of lucid awareness, body and mind can be directly experienced as dissolving into porous and incandescent bliss, reshaping itself as celestial being. The Buddhist art of Nepal and Tibet illustrates this inner reality, which has remained unchanged for millennia. According to Buddhist art history, the first images of the Buddha were traced from the rays of light reflected from his body. In this Thanka Painting, the anthropomorphic form of the Buddha dissolves back into the rays of light from which it first manifested. This rainbow body represents not only the Buddha's own luminous origins, but the potential within all beings to achieve the same exalted state. From the point of view of Buddhist Tantra, life and death are a seamless continuity. When we free ourselves from outmoded, each one is mirroring aspects of our own deepest nature, which remains inseparable from the Buddhas of past, present, and future. Breath enters the body like a spiraled rainbow, bringing with it the life force of the universe. This vital air, or Prana, feeds the subtle body that dwells within us. In meditation, absorbed in the flow of the breath, we can actually see this divine body. In this Thanka, the Buddha Amitabha illustrates the timeless continuum of enlightened awareness - mind and body liberated into the light of wisdom and compassion.