Amida is Change

Last night I read the following words of my teacher Rev. Kemmyo T. Sato:

As you know, there is no eternal entity in Buddhism.  Every thing is always changing, interrelated and interdependent.”

This got me to thinking that Shin Buddhists, including myself, sometimes mistakenly conflate the activity of Dharmic nature, that is to say Amida, with the constancy of Dharmic laws or principles.  This then leads us to see Amida precisely as an eternal entity.

Amida … ultimately represents the Dharma of impermanence itself, the powerful force that liberated Shakyamuni. ” – Rev. N. Haneda

… no Buddhist term or concept refers to or represents a fixed entity.  The self, like all else, is impermanent, is in a constant state of flux and flow and not static, fixed or constant as we would like.  The true nature of the Dharma, the true nature of Amida is also impermanence.  So, to come to know the self as it really is, is to come to know the self as one and the same with Amida; this is what is meant by self-reflection (examination) in Amida’s light, a process of examining the nature of the self in light of our understanding of the teaching.”
- Jerry Bolick (Source)

If we ask the question then, “Does Amida change?” perhaps we can say that “Amida is the constancy of change”, or “the unchangeable fact of change”.  And because of change our personal, isolated world of self can be embraced and penetrated by the unhindered Light and revealed as one facet of an infinite life and being.