Abhirati

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Abhirati (Sanskrit; "The Joyous") (妙樂世界) is the eastern Buddhafield or Pure Land associated with Akshobhya, one of the Five Dhyani Buddhas, in Mahayana Buddhist traditions. It is described in the Akṣobhya-tathāgatasya-vyūha Sūtra. Though emergent in early Mahāyāna, Abhirati is far less widely known than Sukhāvatī, the Pure Land of Amitabha.

References

• Nattier, Jan. (2000), "The Realm of Aksobhya: A Missing Piece in the History of Pure Land Buddhism", Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies. 23, no. 1 : 71–102.
• Strauch, Ingo. 2010. "More missing pieces of Early Pure Land Buddhism: New evidence for Akṣobhya and Abhirati in an early Mahāyāna sūtra from Gandhāra." Eastern Buddhist (forthcoming).